Star Board Term One Week Nine

Principal's Message

Kia Ora Koutou Whanau

Did your mum ever say to you, “ fall down seven, standup eight”? Mine did. Struggles are required in order to survive in life. If you have to stand up for you, or anything, you have to know what falling down is like. This year (in fact every year in every school this happens) - I have watched students make some interesting calls and ultimately falling victim to the circumstances of those calls. But the transformation that has come as a result of those falls has compelled them to learn from the fall. They have used the hands that have reached out to give a hand up, and then used their own strengths so as to go forward to stand tall and to make some life changes - a living example for ‘being your best self’.

Let us be absolutely clear that nothing was ever created without a few fails along the way. If that was the case then whoever created the line “ if at first you don’t succeed; try, try, try again” was an idiot. What failing does is allow you to do the mahi again but with the wisdom of knowing what went wrong last time. Life takes mahi - and lots of it, but it is worth it.

Thank you

Thank you for accommodating the Strike Day.

Weather preparedness

One of Shakespeare’s sonnets starts:

“ Shall I compare thee to a Summer’s Day?”

– as rhetorical as that line is I think Shakespeare would get, if he were here and was posed that question, a “sorry what?”. Right now, and in our recent past, summer is barely recognisable. However it has created a new norm and that is to ensure we have a coat handy, and warm undergarments. So here’s the line again with my poetic licence:

“ Shall I come to school prepared for all weather’s and a Summer’s day?”

That would get a solid ‘yes’ and a reminder to be prepared. We have a black school jacket available. The stipulation for the jacket is that it is all black with no other colours or embellishments - in other words PLAIN. What the jacket also has to be, is longer than the blazer- because the school blazer is required to be worn to and from school.

If they are wearing a jacket, we want the blazer to not hang beneath the jacket’s hemline. Basically the black jacket is worn over the blazer; not instead of the blazer. A few of our flock are attempting to be fashion designers and wear their black jackets without the blazer. They are pulling the draw cords on their jackets so it looks more like a bomber jacket. But here’s the thing - the uniform is already designed, so they need to wear it the way it was designed to be worn - Correctly.

If you can help by noting these with your childern as they exit the house that would be stunning.

We will be in our winter uniform from Term two.

As always have a safe weekend

Ngā Mihi

Kiri

Around School

Boarding Note

Many thanks to Miss McCoy and a small group of boarders who helped plan and prepare our Rock n Roll themed dinner last night. It was a great opportunity to invite the school prefects for a meal and a music quiz.

On Wednesday we had a small group of boarders who chose to stay in for the day. With the wintery weather outside, the seniors used the day to catch up on schoolwork while the younger girls enjoyed some time by the fires in the common room, a short trip to town and game of hide and seek in Main House. A big thank you to Don in the kitchen who really went the extra mile making the pizza bases from scratch the day before.

Next week we look forward to our end of term dinner on Wednesday night where we share a special meal together, thank our boarding leaders and announce the recipients of our Boarding Value Awards.

Enjoy the weekend

Jo

Kotahitanga

There was a great vibe around school yesterday afternoon during Kotahitanga, with our Year 7 - 11 students participating in Easter arts and crafts, while our Year 12 - 13 were lucky to listen to Catherine Reid (Lawyer) and Nicholas Bunny and Maraea-Jula Dudson (NZ Police).

A big thank you to all our presenters that take the time out of their busy schedules to do this, including Cath Becker (Wairarapa Skin Clinic), Jennifer Martin and Nicole Sim-Lala (Accountants) and Danielle Burkhart (Hebe). All of our students have gained a huge amount from your visits.