From the Principal: Term 4 Week 5

Kia ora tātou | hello to us all

Parents/whānau, our parents association (PTSA) needs your help. With only a few loyal people at the core, we’re at risk of losing this valuable connection with our community and valuable way to support our school. We need just a few more key players; ideally someone with financial skills, someone with social media/marketing skills and someone who’s just great at connecting people. Schools are not funded fully to do our work and the PTSA can really help to make the school environment you want for your kids: it is also a good way for us to hear from parents and for you to connect with other parents. It doesn’t have to be a big commitment to make a big difference. Becky Stewart would love to hear from anyone who could help beckystewart070@gmail.com

We held an evening to celebrate our wonderful volunteers this week. Reader-writers, sports and arts volunteers, they all make a massive difference to our school. I enjoyed hearing their ideas and perspectives. We’re very fortunate to have such committed people enhancing the lives of our students.

There are a lot of tired and tense people in our school community at the moment, leading to some undesirable behaviours, but still I love the way that the average DHS student has such great manners and ways of just getting on with things nicely. Walking around school at break times, there are always friendly students keen to chat and share amazing things they’re doing in their lives.

Kia kaha | stay strong,

Andy England

Dates this term

• Whānau Hui (Māori): Fri 18 Nov 5.30pm Kākāpōtahi

• Staff only day: 25 Nov

• Paid Union Meeting: 29 Nov classes start 11.30 (buses normal times)

• Senior prizegiving: 1 Dec

• Junior prizegivings and last day of term: 9 Dec