Kia ora koutou,

Yesterday we enjoyed our Senior Athletics Day and the weather was perfect for the event. Puketaha has some strong athletes who thrive on the competitive aspect of this event. Motivated individuals could be seen practising during lunch breaks on top of being fully engaged in their physical education lessons. To balance the event to help cater for our diverse range of athletes, teachers facilitated discussions with students around setting personal goals for the day and focusing on themselves and their efforts. After the event, students reflect on this and can gain a sense of achievement, regardless of the outcome of each event, helping to promote a positive attitude towards being physically active. Adding to the fun element of the day was the parents/ teachers/ students relay. Usually, the Year 8 students win this relay, but this year the ‘teachers’ team took the win, very closely followed by the parent team. To be fair to the Year 8’s, they had done a lot of running before this relay so the adults had an advantage there. 

Thank you to all the whaanau supporters who attended and to our amazing P.T.A. who ran a successful sausage sizzle and baking stall, adding to the overall success of the day. 

Relating to motivation, recently I had a meeting with a Mathematics Professional Learning Facilitator, Janette Davison, and I gave her an impromptu tour of each learning environment. She was quite blown away by the motivation and engagement of our learners across the school. She emailed me later that night to say...

“I have been to a great deal of schools and I must say I don't think I have ever seen such an on-task, independent, self-managing group of students ever!!!  To go into every space and see that consistency is such a recommendation to fabulous teaching staff and management.”

This was nice feedback to hear, as we often focussed on ‘what we can do better’, so sometimes it’s nice to stop and smell the roses.  

Our team reflected on some key factors that support student engagement and a passion for learning:

• Students having a sense of belonging to their school  
• Students self- belief is promoted
• Strong teacher-student relationships where students feel like their teachers know them well and they can go to them for support. 
• Having learner agency (the power to act) where students have choices, and opportunities to self-direct their learning and see the purpose behind what they are doing.
• Learners who can see for themselves their progress in their learning. Having opportunities to self-evaluate and reflect.
• Positive parental involvement in learning and the school.
• Being exposed to a range of different learning experiences, both enriching the wider curriculum as well as interwoven into the core curriculum areas. 

The numerous school events also help with the general love of learning. Tomorrow is another example of this with our Junior Athletics day, the Year 3- 6 Touch tournament and our Year 6’s are off to the Rose Gardens, which is linked to their current Science unit. 

Thanks again to all our whaanau for your continued support of our events and for being so actively involved in your child’s schooling.

Have a lovely weekend,

Nyree Olliver