It’s hard to believe we are nearly half way through the term, time flies when you are having fun! We are still operating onsite learning for our students with all staff on board. We have approximately 15% of our students learning from home, with many of these isolating as household contacts. We have a staff member dedicated to sorting and delivering distance learning packs to families who are isolating. For the tamariki and whaanau that have been unwell, we are sending you our aroha, wishing you a speedy recovery and we look forward to seeing you back at school soon. 

On Sunday, we sent 48 Year 7 and 8 students to Camp Tongariro for 5 nights. I have been checking in regularly, mostly because I have “Fear of Missing Out” but it’s been really neat to hear how the students are getting on. 

This camp is unlike any other camp. The objective is to strengthen students' leadership skills, help learners recognise their own potential, develop a sense of self and independence. Each group has an instructor who works closely with the small group and designs activities to suit the students’ needs and provide the right level of challenge. The students are having an absolute blast and coming back to camp each day exhausted. They have been rock climbing on actual rock faces, pushing themselves to walk up Mt Ruapehu, standing proud at the top overlooking the vast views, navigating high ropes, kayaking and working as a team to get all group members across the water. Last night they went on an overnight excursion where groups tramped for hours, explored caves and waterholes, cooked dinner over a campfire and slept overnight in the wilderness inside self -made tents. Camps like these are something we really value because they give students opportunities to practise our Puketaha 6 C’s and Values in a real life context. 

I want to acknowledge the teachers who have attended this camp, Nicky Khoo, Jenna Mateni and Blair Harper. They are spending 5 nights away from their own families and working around the clock, making sure that everything is running smoothly and having to make constant decisions. There is a saying… “teachers make more minute by minute decisions than brain surgeons” and on a school camp, this is even more so. So thank you Jenna, Nicky and Blair for going over and above and making sure that our tamariki are having an amazing experience. We also had a wonderful group of parent helpers so a big thank you to all of you as well. 

Next week we'll be running amended Junior and Senior Swimming Sports events with more information coming out soon. We know how much parents are missing being part of these events and we are working hard to try and make this happen without compromising our RED level Health and Safety Protocols. We will operate these Swimming Sports events in our school bubbles and will avoid ‘visitors’ mixing with our school groups. The advantage of the pool area is we can separate our children into a designated area and if we have no ‘outside visitors’ invited into that area, we are not limited to 25 children. We can then make a new designated area outside the pool and have a 25 people gathering limit, which is where we feel we can invite parents to watch. To keep the visitor numbers low, each year group will have a time slot and we will ask parents to only attend their own childrens’ year group event and then move off site after the event is done. Parents will also be asked to wear masks on school grounds, practise social distancing, avoid mixing with our student bubbles and enter via the Puketaha Community Hall car park. We are asking families to be considerate of others and please do not invite extended family. Ideally, one parent per family will help keep our visitor numbers down. Events under RED level settings have become very complicated and take a lot more planning as you can imagine, so thank you for supporting us with our decisions and we look forward to seeing some of you next week! 

Have an amazing weekend with your whaanau and keep well! 

Ngaa mihi nui

Nyree Olliver

Principal