Kia ora everyone, I hope you're having a wonderful Term 2 so far, and are working efficiently and trying your best in everything you do! It is so awesome to see everyone getting involved in our school events this term with the beginning of House Singing and Friendship Fridays and the more regular chapels and assemblies.

Greetings to all our families. Currently, the whole school is focused on the upcoming House Singing competition. This is a rare and special opportunity for every student to share her musical talents while being warmly connected by House spirit and pride. The music elements of this event are all student-led, so we do hope that all students get behind their House Leaders and their teams of helpers to learn the songs and show their wairua Kura.

Disability Awareness Every year in June, the Anglican Church celebrates Disability Awareness. It is an opportunity to recognise the extraordinary lives that disabled people live. In addition, it gives us the chance to advocate for kindness, equity and respect. That makes the language we use important.

Our Mission: To achieve excellence in sport and physical activities at all levels within a caring and rewarding atmosphere.

Teamwork made the dream work for our Dio 1st X1 Football team, who were victorious over the All Saints staff team, 3 goals to 1. Thank you to the staff who put their Achilles on the line all to raise funds and awareness for Ukrainian refugees.

National Volunteer Week Te Wiki Tūao ā-Motu honours the collective energies and mana of volunteers. Thank you to all our hardworking volunteers - School Association, volunteer coaches and managers, and parent camp helpers. We appreciate you 🙏

Term Two: 2 May - 8 July / Term Three: 25 July - 30 September / Term Four: 17 October - 13 December

The Dio Association is excited to begin the Stock Scheme Programme again. This is a wonderful way for our farming community to contribute to fundraising projects for the school. In the past, this Scheme has had a huge influence in getting major projects such as the netball and football field upgrade completed, along with the hockey turf and the installation of our wonderful sculptures around the school.

Earlier this term we recorded our largest outbreak of COVID. At that time around 8% of our students were COVID positive at once. If you convert that to a national scale that would be equivalent to 400,000 cases. As a result, we made the difficult decision to go online for two days and reintroduce masks. While we appreciate the challenges that masks present, we are delighted to report that our current positive cases have dropped to zero. We want to express our considerable thanks to all students and staff for their commitment to keeping one another safe. We also wish to acknowledge all those families who have lost loved ones to COVID and COVID-related illness - may the souls of the faithful departed rest in peace and rise in glory. Aroha nui ki a koutou, COVID Response Team

The school community says farewell and thank you to the following staff members.

Our student leaders recently spent the day in Rototua at the GRIP Leadership conference. Grip Leadership is an independent organisation that trains and develops leaders with a special focus on school students.

They've done it again! Dio's Bel Suono, directed by Mrs Maria Colvin, has won the Excel Cup for the top overall choir at the Waikato/BOP Big Sing. Dio has won the top choir award five out of the six most recent competitions! Tauranga Girls, Rotorua Boys and Bel Suono got the three Very Highly Commended awards. Dio's Cantiamo Choir were awarded a Highly Commended award after singing an original piece composed by accompanist, Mrs Angela Smith. Thank you to our flute accompanist, Isabelle Stiles. We are so very proud of you all!

Unfortunately, the mental health of young people has been significantly impacted by the pandemic. As many families settle back into pre-COVID routines, there seems to be a pervasive sense of optimism about what lies ahead.

We're delighted to announce the 4th annual Youth Photo Award winner of the 2022 Alex Mao Prize, is Dio student, Sophie Hansen (Year 10), with her gritty portrait of her Dad's working hands welding a new object in his shed titled Create Something New. "My poppa asked me to take a photo of him welding but I'm not much of a people photographer at all, I prefer animals, so when he asked me this I interpreted it as me taking a photo of the sparks flying and the machine. It wasn't until later when I showed him this photo that he said "did you get any of me?" and I suddenly realised I was supposed to be taking photos with him in it!" Sophie has won $1200 cash - plus a print of her winning photo donated by PCL Imaging.

We are very excited to be relaunching our Exchange programme with Downe House School for Girls, United Kingdom. Our exchange partnership dates back to 2016, with Downe House being one of our most popular exchange destinations.

“Ka mahuta a Matariki i te pae, ka mahuta ō tatou tūmanako ki te tau” When Matariki rises above the horizon, our aspirations rise to the year ahead. Our school celebrated the start of Matariki at an assembly led by our Amokura and her Mana Wahine, and our kapa haka group. Matariki refers to “Ngā Mata o te Ariki Tāwhirimātea” (The eyes of the God Tāwhirimātea). Matariki is significant for us all as it represents the start of the Māori New Year and is a time to reflect on the past year, celebrate the present, and plan for the year ahead.

To support the progress New Zealanders are making together to defeat breast cancer we held a Pink Ribbon Breakfast on Friday 27 May. Although the breakfast did have a fundraising element, the main intention was to inform our young waahine of the importance of recognising this disease and to acknowledge their role in taking responsibility for their health. We encouraged the students to talk to their mothers, grandmothers, aunties and friends and encourage regular health checks, as early detection will reduce health risks. Thanks to the catering team for the delicious pancakes with all the treats, even pink candy floss!