Tēnā koutou (hello to all of you)

There’s really only one thing to be talking about and that is SHOWQUEST!! A huge congratulations to our team on their hard work, creativity and passion resulting in two key prizes: Best Theme and Third Overall. This is a massive accolade, placing ahead of huge city schools well known for their arts capacity and resources. Every student in the team deserves to feel extremely proud and I want to draw attention to their leaders: students Blakely Bruce-Sheppard, Liam Morris and especially Lily Payton who delivered a powerful speech, including our school values, at the prizegiving; teachers Lilly Dalley, Lottie Tregear and Robyn Cutler who led the whole thing. We mihi to all of you.

Jess Lal in year 11 travelled to Wellington this week to represent us in a student forum developing the revised NZ Curriculum. Her debrief to me showed great insight. This is a huge responsibility and indicates Jess’s growing leadership capacity.

My apologies for confusion about strike days in last week’s Dispatch and thanks to parents for letting us know. The next strike is Thursday 25 May and Year 11 will be hit.

I’ve been out in classes lots this week and one thing I’ve noticed is how patchy our BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) is. Some students acknowledged they had one at home, or it wasn’t charged; some had one but it was broken and they were going to get it fixed ‘some time’. As a parent, I recognise that the costs of supplying and maintaining a proper device for school can be significant (although I’d note that most students have phones that cost twice as much to buy plus plans that cost more than laptop maintenance).. The reality is that we as a school cannot supply laptops for everyone but we could help those in real need on any one day if everyone else brought theirs. A working laptop/Chromebook is an essential tool for modern schooling, with capacity for more than just research and typing - the ability to use one properly is a basic skill before going to the workforce or further education. Not having a proper device slows every class down and adds to a sense of slackness about learning which adds to disengagement: there are other factors but this one could be addressed quickly. Parents/caregivers, please check on the state of your child’s school laptop and ensure it’s good for school. If you have any questions, please check our website https://darfield.school.nz/blended-learning-byod/ and our friendly ICT tech Isaac can help assess your child’s device by asking through your Whānau Teacher.

Our Board has decided to stop taking any new Out Of Zone students other than siblings of current students. This is to honour the intent of zoning, but also to reduce our out of zone student numbers as we are not funded for property for them. With a growing in-zone roll, we will need to build classrooms in the next few years and MoE will not pay for them unless they are for in-zone students.

Mauri ora ki a koutou (best wishes for all of you)

Andy England

Key dates:

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

Thursday 25 May: PPTA strike targeting Year 11 students (Year 11 stay home unless really need to attend)

The Breakfast Menu looks good from Cafe 9TFN