Rotorua Lakes High School “Mauria te pono - Keep steadfastly to the truth”
NEWSLETTER ISSUE No. 8 – 13 MARCH 2020
CHALKBOARD From the Principal – P 1 - 2 News – P. 2 - 3 Sport – P. 3 Careers/Gateway - P. 4 Notice Board – P. 5 Contact Us – P. 6 Our Sponsors – P. 6
Kia ora Koutou, It seems like only yesterday that I was writing last week’s newsletter with the week going so quickly. For much of the week many our of year 10’s were out on Camp at Lake Okatina. To my frustration I was unable to get out there to see the fantastic activities they were involved in. It is definitely in my 2001 calendar for next year. I have enjoyed hearing feedback and a quote from one staff member “fantastic time, very well behaved students who showed fantastic support of one another. Miss Kairaoi (Year 10 Dean) runs a tight ship! Kitchen staff, Ms Kelly was a real trouper”. It was great to hear that our students showed both individual and collective school pride by performing the school haka to the staff at the end of camp. On Thursday evening we held a Hui with a number of our parents to develop a collective perspective about how we can tackle some of the less positive issues we face as a school. Every school in the country faces such issues, the success in dealing with them relies on a coherent message shown by all elements of our school community. We welcomed the positive korero and sharing of ideas. Thanks to all the parents who attended this event. I look forward to gathering further community voice as the year progresses. Obviously, everyone is aware of the, now classified, pandemic of CoronaVirus. I have deliberately not spent significant time focusing on messages about this as I feel that it has been the subject of continual media and social interaction. The school is following specific advice and guidelines out lined by the Ministry of Education and we will inform you if here are any developments. Suffice to say: Please note the advice to wash hands thoroughly with warm water and soap and if your child is unwell please keep them at home. We are very fortunate to have a school nurse who can deal with a multitude of medically related issues with our students. Even without this latest concern she is inundated with demands on her time. Please support her and us by reducing these demands, and, if at all possible keeping students who are under the weather out of the school environment. If a student presents at the start of the day ill, there is an expectation that they are sent home. In other positives for the week we have had students attending the Top Art exhibition. This is a great opportunity for them to see top level art from peers around the country. This year’s exhibition was combined with a selection of excellence level local schools’ folios which complimented the national exemplars and gave the student encouragement, excitement and innovate new ideas to carry forward for their own journey through folios this year. 1