Kia ora koutou

I’m very excited for our Coast to Coast team today and tomorrow. Jared Macdonald will run from Serpentine Beach, followed by Oscar Stevenson biking then Isla McPherson mountain running to Klondyke Corner. Tomorrow, they’ll set out early and bike / kayak (Jared) / bike to New Brighton. This is a huge event for teenagers, in terms of mental and physical fitness, and I wish them very well. Oscar Lochore will also compete the Mountain Run event and we wish him every success.

The great majority of students have settled into the new term and new year really well. I’ve enjoyed catching up with many and noticing how they’ve matured over summer. We’re really fortunate to have so many well grounded young people in our school. A few students have genuinely struggled with the transition back to a busy school - some have conditions that make it difficult for them to adapt to changes. It’s great when students help them to settle and guide them to behave in socially “normal” ways in a positive way - this is a message that can be discussed at home as well. Our value of “Kotahitanga, unite our community” reminds us we all have a role to play in making our school a great place to be.

We’ve had a few questions about BYOD (Bring Your Own Device). DHS has been a BYOD school since about 2016 and has a well-established system linked here. We do struggle with some students not bringing proper devices (Chromebooks or laptops) and then asking to use phones: phones may do some things well but are not as effective and create significant other distractions. The use of technology has some key advantages for learning, is really useful for learning from home, and we’re careful about when it’s not the right tool as well. When students don’t have suitable devices, they are disadvantaged and teachers struggle. As a school, we are not funded to supply devices and the ones we do have to lend out live a hard life! Please check in with your child that they are bringing their proper device to school and talk to your child’s Whānau teacher if you are struggling to supply one yourself - we do have spread payment options via our supplier. If we can get everyone who can to bring the right device we will be a much stronger learning environment and have greater resilience in case of learning from home (let’s hope we don’t need to do that again but we need to be prepared).

I’m really looking forward to Whānau Conferences on 20 Feb and hope to see you all there.

Ngā manaakitanga

Andy England

Dates:

Monday 20 February: Whānau- Teacher conferences. This is a new event to hear from you about your child’s strengths and your aspirations for their education. We’re only asking for one meeting with your child’s Whānau Teacher, for ten minutes, and face to face is ideal so you can also see the school. We’ll have some workshops on for parents/whānau about aspects of parenting and of course we’ll have refreshments available.

Bookings are currently open til Friday 17.

schoolinterviews.co.nz Booking reference n3rex

Thursday 3.30 - 4.30pm at Darfield High School