20 minute read
Takapuna Grammar
Year 12 International Baccalaureate student Hailey Chen was recently shortlisted for the prestigious Global Essay Competition at the University of Oxford.
Hailey chose the question, Should ‘innocent until proven guilty’ apply not only to courts of law, but also to public censure?. We congratulate Hailey on her efforts and achievements and are excited to support and watch her succeed on her academic journey.
Hailey Chen.
Girls Premier Squash Team win Silver Medal at NZSS national team event
TGS Girl’s Premier Team competed in the New Zealand Secondary
Schools competition last month. The girls (all juniors) put in some fantastic performances gaining some great experience for a very young TGS team who finished second with a silver medal in their first ever NZSS tournament.
Well done to Justine Pausch, who stepped up to be our #1, who made the Junior Selection Team for 2021.
Congratulations Justine, Saara, Sarah, Heather, Nina and Coach Manu.
TGS Basketball on the up
TGS Basketball program went from just over 100 students (13 teams, 10 male and 3 female) to 160 plus students (20 teams, 13 male and 7 female) in one year. With this growth, the program has seen a lot of success this year. In the North Harbour Basketball competition, the program had six teams make the finals in their respective grades. Three of those teams were invited to the Greater Auckland Championships, and our Senior A Girls made it all the way to the finals where they will have a shot at promotion into the Senior A Grade next season.
Congratulations to Nonoka Ohta for being selected as a finalist in the West Auckland Performing Arts Competition!
Spring brings new beginnings
Sonia Thursby.
We are nearing the end of winter, meaning some new beginnings on the horizon with the coming of spring! There is so much happening at Yes and I.Lead that the next few months look to be action-packed leading into the end of the year.
I.Lead took to Wellington to present our song, “Movin’ On Up”, at the Involve Youth Workers Conference 2021. It was awesome to reconnect with old contacts, but even better to meet new faces! We were stoked to receive so much support for the song and for I.Lead, with some even coming to our stall afterwards to inquire about how they can be more “involved” (no pun intended).
And with the I.Lead Conference coming up on 14th and 15th September, there is no better time to jump on the I.Lead band-wagon! There are still spaces for registrations and expressions of interest to join the conference. This time around, we will be working on specific recommendations set out by the first conference back in 2019. This will hopefully set out clear outcomes and inform the mahi we will be undertaking over the next two years as members of I.Lead.
And while all this is happening in Wellington, we are still smashing it on the home front back in North Shore, Auckland. I.Lead represenatitives continue to do good work on the ground, delivering another batch of Disability Awareness talks to our future educators training at AUT North Shore.
And finally, we have a challenge for our I.Lead familly across the country. We are looking for a name for our new song; one that represents the ideals of resilience, recovery and man, as portrayed in our song. We are also looking for some professionals who specialise in videography to help us bring this song to life as part of an official music video! For any ideas or tips, and to stay updated on the latest in Yes and I.Lead news, follow our social media or contact us: ilead@yesdisability.org.nz
Spring – are you looking for a wedding venue?
Are you planning your wedding and looking for a wedding venue? Then the St Leonard’s chapel and gorgeous gardens are available to hire.
There are still a few spots left for this summer so please contact Justine on 022 1211 477 or email weddings@wilsonhometrust.org.nz to book a viewing or for more information.
This month the team are going to be busy out and about from Northland to the Bay of Plenty as well as attending the Disability Connect Transition Expo at the Auckland Netball Centre on 8th September. We are looking forward to connecting with both our new and regular families.
We offer quarterly information sessions on site, and the next session is scheduled for Tuesday 21st September. If you would like to find out more about the Wilson Home Trust and attend this session, then please contact Felicity at FelicityHendricks@wilsonhometrust.org.nz or call 09 488 0126.
Thanks again to our amazing knitters and crocheters; the beanies and blankets are still being distributed to our families across the region.
If you would like to know more about the Wilson Home Trust and the work we do, please check out our website www.wilsonhometrust.org.nz or facebook page https://www.facebook.com/wilsonhometrust1/
By Sonia Thursby, CEO, Shore Junction
Shore Junction is a home to many
Sonia Thursby.
The question was simple but the answer was loaded. “What keeps you all coming back to Shore Junction week after week?” asked Youth Development Manager, Josh. “Oh, that’s easy”, one of our youth members Sammy began. “It’s because we feel like we belong at SJ”.
Sammy is a Year 13 student who was born and raised in Glenfield on the North Shore. Sammy is a leader at school, he is highly passionate about sound and audio engineering, writing and performing music, and when he grows up wants to be a youth worker in an organisation like Shore Junction. Sammy is Tongan.
When Josh asked Sammy to elaborate on what he meant by “we belong at SJ”, Sammy opened up once more. “As a Tongan who grew up in a big family, my Dad worked really hard just to put food on our table. We aren’t a rich family but everyone who finds out we live on the North Shore always assumes we have lots of money. So, we usually miss out on opportunities just because of where we live. It's like just because we live on the Shore people assume we have lots of money. But we don’t. Being Tongan and having a big family means we have to miss out on doing fun stuff sometimes just because we can’t afford it. But when I’m here it doesn’t matter that I’m Tongan and don’t have a rich family or don’t have a production studio at home. I come to Shore Junction and I feel like no matter who you are, or which culture you are, you’re allowed to be here. You’re allowed to try things. You are allowed to work on the things you love. It’s special because no matter who you are, you belong here. We all do.”
That is what Shore Junction exists to be; a safe place for young people to grow and develop in their passions. A place where money is not a barrier to get to your dreams. It’s a place that acknowledges that even though you’re from the Shore, everyone needs a place to be seen and valued. We are a space where all young people, no matter their economic or ethnic background, belong. All young people belong here. Always. Just like Sammy.
Authenticity
Being your true self
Dave Scott
I often speak to students and parents about authenticity and how a vital aim of a Middle School education at Kristin is to develop our students in ways that allow them to be their authentic selves.
To do this, they must learn many things: speaking opinions honestly in healthy and constructive ways, making decisions that align with their values and beliefs, pursuing their passions, listening to their inner voice guiding them forward and finally allowing themselves to be vulnerable and open-hearted. Perhaps the most important of these is to learn how to be vulnerable and open-hearted. I believe in leadership by example and that by demonstrating vulnerability to students, they will learn and understand the power of this trait.
Last term, I firmly grasped the vulnerability nettle by performing a traditional Morris Dance along with several colleagues at Kristin's International Peace Night as part of our International Week. I think the students appreciated seeing their teachers join them and participate in this event, and it helped to remove the mask that all of us can sometimes wear.
I think that society sometimes tells us that we need to wear a mask, act a certain way, and say certain things to be accepted. So, a question I often ask students is, are you wearing a mask? Are you just playing a role to fit in or impress others?
As adults, most of us have gone through times like this. Instead of behaving genuinely, we tell people what we think they want to hear and act in ways that go against our true nature. The problem is that living and working like this is limiting and holds us back from reaching our true potential. Instead, we should strive to live and work authentically, to permit ourselves to be ourselves. That way, we can choose our life course and not be tied to others’ expectations. I love this quote from Roy T. Bennett: "You were born to stand out; stop trying to fit in."
What this says to me is, in simple terms, that authenticity means being true to your personality, values, and spirit, regardless of the pressure you're under to act otherwise. If you're honest with yourself and with others, and you take responsibility for your mistakes, then your values, ideals, and actions align. The result is, you come across as genuine, and you're willing to accept the consequences of being true to what you consider to be right.
At Kristin, we believe that for our students living an authentic life is infinitely more rewarding than hiding your true self. When you live authentically, you don't have to worry about what you said (or didn't say), how you acted, or whether you did the right thing. Living authentically means you can trust yourself and your motivations implicitly.
In short, you can be your true self.
Do you have this pest plant in your backyard?
SEPTEMBER PEST PLANT OF THE MONTH: English Ivy
Pest plants, such as ivy and moth plant, are invading Auckland’s North Shore – your gardens and your nearby bush reserves. Controlling them when they are small is easy and cheap. If they are left to grow, they can spread across your property onto your neighbours’ gardens and to nearby reserves.
Auckland Council has recently introduced new rules that require people in some areas to remove some pest plants from their property, in order to protect our native biodiversity.
English ivy is a fast-growing, creeping vine with hairless, dark green or green/white leaves. Roots and stems can reach up to 30 metres, strangling host trees, smothering the forest understory and preventing native forest regeneration. Ivy is spread by birds dispersing the seeds as well as by dumping of garden waste, as it can regrow from stems.
If you notice english ivy on your property, take action as soon as possible: • Report the weed using the EcoTrack.nz app. • Dig out small infestations, trying to remove all parts of the root system – ivy can regrow from stem fragments that are left in the ground. • Hand release off native trees where possible. Make a cut at the base of the stem and apply a thin film of Met Gel to the cut stem – can be purchased from most garden centres and hardware stores. • Large vines can be left on the tree after applying Met Gel to both ends of the cut stem. • For large infestations and ground cover, spray the leaves with 0.5 g/L metsulfuron with glyphosate (15 ml/L) plus 2 ml/L penetrant.
Always wear appropriate Personal Protection Equipment and read the manufacturer’s label for guidelines and recommendations. • Follow up in three months to reapply herbicide and ensure all regrowth has died. • Talk to your neighbours and encourage them to take action too! • Dispose of any seeds, roots and stem fragments in your rubbish bin to go to landfill, securely tied inside a plastic bag - to stop it spreading to other areas. • Stop pest plants invading again by replanting with non-pest plants (preferably native plants) once regrowth is no longer a problem. • Talk to your neighbours and encourage them to take action too! • For more information and guides on weed control, visit restorehb.org. nz/resources-pest-plants/ • Download the Forest and Bird weed control guide at bit.ly/ forestandbirdweedguide
There are several environmental networks across Auckland’s North Shore that support communities to recognise, report and remove pest plants and restore our native wildlife.
East Coast Bays and Hibiscus Coast
Restore Hibiscus & Bays, info@restorehb.org.nz restorehb.org.nz/resources-pest-plants/ Facebook.com/RestoreHB
Kaipātiki
Pest Free Kaipātiki (PFK), enquiries@pestfreekaipatiki.org.nz pestfreekaipatiki.org.nz/pest-plant-resources Facebook.com/pestfreekaipatiki/
Takapuna
Pupuke Birdsong Project, enviro@takapunatrust.org.nz Facebook.com/pupukebirdsongproject
Devonport Peninsula
Restoring Takarunga Hauraki, pestfreedevonport@gmail.com Facebook.com/restoringtakarungahauraki/
Upper Harbour
Upper Harbour Ecology Network (UHEN) upperharbourecology@gmail.com Facebook.com/UpperHarbourEcologyNetwork
For advice on a chemical-free approach
Kaipātiki Project, community@kaipatiki.org.nz kaipatiki.org.nz, Facebook.com/kaipatikiproject
This Pest Plant of the Month feature is a collaborative initiative between Restore Hibiscus & Bays, Pest Free Kaipātiki Restoration Society, Pupuke Birdsong Project, Restoring Takarunga Hauraki, the Upper Harbour Ecological Network and Kaipātiki Project. Building on Te Ao Māori principles of kaitiakitanga and whanaungatanga, these environmental networks bring our communities together to foster guardianship, care and respect towards our whenua, natural world and indigenous wildlife.
News from Sandra Jacobs
By Bronwyn Bound, Healthy Harold is on the move! Sandra Jacobs. Sunnynook Community Centre Manager Greetings from Sunnynook Bronwyn Bound. New Zealand’s healthiest giraffe is on the move! He is dusting off his running shoes to participate in this year’s North Shore Community CentreMarathon. Our favourite giraffe will participate in the 11km event to raise $10,000 for Life Education Trust North Shore. Well what a strange month August turned out to be. The
Harold will stretch out his long legs in support of Life Education Lockdown of course meant that the doors of the Community which delivers the Healthy Harold programme to 14,000 children Centre closed and were locked up tight. each year across our North Shore community. That’s over 28,000 We missed our groups and of course the children at the Early sessions taught by Harold and the team covering a wide range Learning Centre. When you work at a busy Community Centre like of topics, including food, nutrition, biology, relationships and Sunnynook you are always connecting with people and no two days communities, identity and resilience, and substances. are the same. During lockdown I continued to assist the Community whenever possible with shopping and prescription pickups, I attended lots of zoom meetings and managed to catch up on some admin.
Every dollar raised will support the Life Education vision to inspire tamariki and rangatahi to make positive choices. Our goal is to support the health and wellbeing of young people by engaging children's imaginations and providing them with memorable learning experiences.
Donations for Harold and the Life Education North Shore Trust would be greatly appreciated!
A Give-a-little page has been set up for Harold; all donations will assist us in keeping Healthy Harold in our schools. https://givealittle.co.nz/fundraiser/running-for-harold
Contact us: secretary@lifeeducationnorthshore.nz Visit: www.lifeeducationnorthshore.nz
We are hopeful that we will be running our October Holiday Programme in the school holidays and our staff are so amazing that they had already confirmed most activities by the time lockdown happened.
On a personal note I just want to say that I once again immensely enjoyed my walks on Pupuke Golf Course with our (almost) 2 year old puppy Django. Django is missing his ‘Pets & Pats’ family which he attends on Mondays and was a bit confused as to why ‘Mummy’ was home all the time, but loved having 6 adults in the house to entertain him.
Looking forward to reopening the Centre whenever it is safe to do so. In the meantime stay safe and remember during Lockdowns we are only an email away. All the best, Bronwyn Bound, Centre Manager
Check out www.sunnynookcomcentre.co.nz where you will find more information about the classes that are being run at the Centre. Email: office@sunnynookcomcentre.co.nz for more information or phone (09) 410 4902.
Pricing models
– time for a review?
Many business schools and business books refer to the importance of the 4 Ps (Product, Place, Price, and Promotion) as the key components to a solid marketing approach.
It seems that there is more and more transparency on price comparison via the Internet, social media, and indeed direct TV advertising comparisons, with the 30 Seconds vs Wet & Forget pricing example one that comes to mind. We are seeing businesses face growing costs for compliance with legislation, staffing pressure and subsequent wage increases with labour shortages and unemployment rates at all-time lows, freight costs increasing on the back of global logistics issues, delays in material supplies, and material costs increasing.
I imagine a number of us are dealing with constant price increases with many industries facing several supplier price increases this year alone. Now is therefore the perfect time to review your prices and how you set them. Reviewing pricing is a discussion that often comes up, but how well do you actually do this? Have costs changed, but not been passed on? Have sales decreased, but staffing levels are constant? Is the stock being accurately accounted for? Are jobs being priced correctly? All these elements create an environment that is putting pressure on our margins. A strategy of reducing or discounting prices to increase volumes, and as a result increase profits, is generally doomed to fail. To discount our prices and reduce our margins even further seems like a race to the bottom, yet that is what we are doing in droves.
However, what we often see is a haphazard approach to pricing. This is typically due to the approach used to react to slow sales, which in most cases is to instantly blame the pricing of your product or service, and as a result offer a discount. The price is too high, and no one is buying it, so let’s discount the price, and everyone will come racing in. If this is your strategy, then applied inappropriately this may devastate profits.
In this current environment, being brave enough to increase prices to ensure that you can maintain your profit margins is critical to the financial sustainability of your business. If you only have a certain amount of resources or capacity to sell, then why would you discount? Secondly why would you then sell this to just anyone? Simple supply and demand economics would suggest and support that you should consider focussing on your target market, price accordingly, and therefore, if you face excess demand for your offering, utilising a higher price will likely eliminate those customers who don’t truly value what you offer.
Pricing is often the fastest and most effective way to increase profits. On average, a 1% price increase, assuming volumes remain the same, would deliver approximately a 6% to 8% increase on operating profit. This impact to profit is typically 50% greater than a strategy of reducing variable costs by 1% and three times greater than a 1% increase in volume. However, to do this effectively you need to know you price elasticity.
Price elasticity of demand for your goods or service is used to determine how a change in price affects customer buying habits and demand. If your customers will still purchase a product or service from you despite a price increase, that product or service is considered inelastic. On the other hand, elastic products or services suffer from pricing fluctuations meaning that customers are more likely to stop buying from you if you put your price up.
You can calculate price elasticity using the formula:
% Change in Quantity ÷ % Change in Price = Price Elasticity of Demand
Mike Atkinson.
The way to calculate price elasticity is to divide the change in demand by the change in price. This will tell you the level of elasticity for your product or service. That is: • A value of one means that your product or service elasticity is linked meaning that changes in your price reflect an equal change in supply or demand. • A value of >1 means that your product or service is elastic and changes in your price will cause a greater than proportional change in supply or demand. That is, a change in price upwards could result in a loss of customers as they will buy from someone else. • A value of <1 means that your product or service is inelastic and changes in your price will result in a smaller change in the supply or demand for your product. This means that if you increase your price, you customers will still continue to purchase from you.
The concept of price elasticity helps you understand whether your product or service is sensitive to price fluctuations. Ideally, you want your product to be inelastic so that customer demand remains stable even if prices do fluctuate up.
If you have an elastic product, then you should be cautious about raising prices since a price increase will greatly impact purchases from your customers. If, on the other hand, you have a price inelastic product, then you can adjust your prices with less caution since you know that the change will have a smaller impact on supply and demand.
To build on this concept is a second model linking the importance of value, cost and quality. It’s important to remember that Value = to the customer, Cost = to the business. Below are a handful of questions to test how well you apply this in your business: • How do you ascertain value to your customers? • What is your value proposition? Can you capture the essence of the value you add to your products or services? • How can the quality you deliver be packaged as valuable to customers? • How do you price your offer? • Can you have all three components happening in unison? • Which one is most important? How would you prioritise them?
Thinking about everything that goes into setting your pricing can make your head spin: competitors, material costs, customer demands, staffing requirements, logistics and freight, industry needs, profit margins… the list goes on. That said, you don’t have to master all of these factors at once. Start with what you need, and this will help you pinpoint the right kind of pricing strategy to use.
Remember, though, pricing is like the black arts and is a constantly changing process. It’s highly unlikely that you’ll set the right price straight away and in fact it might take a couple of tries. However, if there has ever been a time to review and adjust your pricing, it’s now.
