Highlights from the Principal's Desk - Term 3 Week 2
A busy Friday here at school with a mixture of STEAM activities happening across the school. The weather has been kind to us this week and we have spent a considerable amount of playtime outside - which is nice considering we are still in the Winter months.
FUNDRAISING:
A big thank you to our families for the funds raised through the Whittakers Chocolate fundraising. We have 2 x FitBit watches up for grabs and will do a lucky dip draw for all students who sold their chocolates. All funds raised go towards Adventure Week and Camp costs.
CROSS COUNTRY & FUN RUN EVENTS:
Students have been busy training for our upcoming Cross Country and Fun Run events happening on the 17th August (see earlier post about this). Both events have a distance and time requirement to them. Students must participate in one OR the other OR both. Cross Country participants who qualify will go through to our COPS Cross Country event at Waitomo on the 24th August. Please come down and cheer your kids on if you can.
Contrary to what students have been saying, they ARE TRAINING for both of these events through PE class sessions during the week as well as offering a lunchtime running club for those students who want extra training. This is optional and only takes up 10 mins of their lunchtime. The main focus is on endurance and perseverance and this can be done in a number of ways. Training at home has also been encouraged. There are a number of reason for running these events this way including increased motivation to participate, inclusion for all students, healthy sportsmanship, running skills, promoting a positive sense of wellbeing and increased fitness. I have available a Physical Education NZ position paper on the benefits of creating an inclusive event this way so if you would like me to email you a copy please let me know. At the start of next week we will be creating the fun run obstacles on our field so students can get familiar with the different obstacles. We will need parent helpers on the day so please let your child's teacher know if you can help out.
BOARD OF TRUSTEES UPDATE:
Congratulations
With that said, it has been an absolute pleasure working with the outgoing board Rob Fitzgerald, Nicki Raffills and Jeff Greenaway and we wish to thank you and wish you all the best in whatever the future holds for you moving forward.
BUILDING WORKS:
We have the finish line in sight. Some minor finishing details to be done and then we are finished!
ARTWORKS AROUND THE SCHOOL:
A lot of people have noticed our colourful pencils out the front of the school. These will hold our school values in both Te Reo Māori and English and we are just waiting on paint, vinyl and fine weather so they can be finished! We also have our large MAIHIIHI hand-painted letters that need to be waterproofed and dried before we can display them outside - we are just waiting on a dry covered space and good weather so we can get these out on display.
That's it from me for another week,
Ma te wa,
Vanessa.