From the tumuaki | principal 2023 term 1 week 9

Tēnā tātou (hello to all of us)

Thanks for all of your support as parents and whānau recently. On the day of the PPTA strike, we had 6 students onsite and two full classes away to Ōnuku marae for their Social Studies fieldtrip. We have had many responses already to our survey about phone use (130+ in the first hour which is a record!)

I ask for your continued support to reduce bullying, violence and discrimination of all sorts. Whenever these issues are raised, I scrutinise what we are doing to help to eliminate them - school should be a safe place for everyone. What is clear is that we do not teach or promote bullying, violence or discrimination…so where do those things come from?

I’m not blaming homes but I am asking you all to scrutinise your homes as much as we scrutinise ourselves: do you know what influences your child at this time, what messages do you give and how clear is your child about your expectations? 

So far, we have identified that we do need further staff training to improve our ability to respond effectively, that we need taught time on these issues and more graphical reminders of our values/expectations around the school. We expect to conclude our cellphone review early next term.

School has felt more settled and positive this week, even with the strike day and the cold snap. Well done to our Dragon Boaters on last weekend’s successes. Well done to Isaac Pokaihau-Rogers in Year 10 who stepped in to do my role as kaikōrero (main speaker for us) at the pōwhiri at Ōnuku marae, and to Ariā Barnes who stayed for both groups to ensure we had support for our waiata (song).

Noho ora mai (stay well)

Andy England

Key dates:

See https://darfield.school.nz/calendar/

Thursday 6 April: last day of term 1

Monday 24 April: staff only day (school closed for instruction for staff learning)

Tuesday 25 April: ANZAC day

Wednesday 26 April: first day of term 2 for students