Our big focus school wide for Term 2 is Respect. We spoke about this with the school at our full school Assembly on Friday. Ms Hunnikin gave messages around this and in particular said as young people, you have a unique opportunity to shape your future by developing positive relationships with your peers, teachers, and others in our community. In order to build respect you can do the following things:

Listening: Pay attention to what others are saying and actively engage in conversations. Listening is an essential skill in developing understanding and empathy towards others.
Showing empathy: Put yourself in someone else's shoes and try to understand their perspective. Empathy is a powerful tool in building relationships and resolving conflicts.
Being inclusive: Embrace diversity and recognize the unique qualities that make each person special. Inclusion means valuing and celebrating differences rather than discriminating against them. Be especially welcoming to our new students - we have had a number of new students start this term. Show them empathy - imagine how hard it is to start a new school and how you would feel - make them feel included.
And finally, what I think is the most important thing we can all do and that is to speak kindly: Choose your words carefully and avoid hurtful or mean language. Respectful communication is about being mindful of how your words can impact others. It is crucial that we remember that our words can either lift people up or tear them down. There is no place here for discrimination - racist, sexist and homophobic language are particularly damaging, which creates an environment that is unwelcoming and unsafe for some students, and sadly I had to talk to a number of students last term about the use of such harmful language. It is not OK.

In all classes we are looking at what does Respect look like in the classroom and in Learning. Alongside this in LA we have the theme of "Taking a Stand" and are looking at how big issues like racism, stereotyping, and bullying affect people and societies and why none of these things are ok and that we must stand up against these things.

At level Assemblies this week we talked about this value and what it means for us moving through Term 2.

The year 9 & 10 students viewed a song about standing up and impacts to start their thinking. They then carried out a walk the line/stand up activity. This saw them all tell each other that none of them think bullying or negative behaviours are OK and that they don't want these in their school. They were part of setting the stake in the ground, where we expect more from everyone and each other, and where we all have to be better to ensure we are all working together - our whole school community also growing the positive culture for everyone.

Morgan Frazier - Hey Bully (Official Lyric Video) Morgan Frazier

(Take a look at the clip we watched)

Respect has two parts:

1) having respect for someone because of how their actions impact others and

2) showing respect by changing your actions to be sure you don't have a negative impact.

Please talk to your child regularly about what Respect looks like in different settings to support us growing good humans for all settings of life.

Waimate High School

Waimate High School Newsletter

Principal's Word - Term 2 Week 2

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Principal's Word - Term 2 Week 2

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