Principal's Panui - 5 April 2024

Kia ora te whanau ō te Kōtuku

The Journey of the Kōtuku

This week I started an 8-week programme that I am delivering to our Year 9 cohort as part of our Kōtuku ka Tōhea programme.  

The purpose is to provide some foundation for them to learn to not compare themselves to the best others can be, but only to the best they can be.

You all start as wee kotukus that sit in the back seat of the car and need lots of advice and guidance and someone always watching over you. You are largely dependent on others for where you go and what you do. Over time you become more independent, more resilient, and responsible with the capacity for making good decisions. 

By the end of Year 13 you will/should have picked up as many pebbles (opportunities) as possible and turned some of them into diamonds. This requires work, the person on top of the mountain did not fall there, they climbed, putting one foot in front of the other. 

My hope is that you will have invested wisely in your biggest asset, your human capital and learned that excellence is not a single act but a series of habits that you have developed. These habits of mind create the foundation for happiness and success. 

They take time to develop, you need to broaden the range of experiences that have challenged you to create depth and breadth. You will have learned we are what we repeatedly do; Excellence is not an act but a series of habits.

We must start from where our feet are now and seek to be better today than you were yesterday, today and every day. Sometimes it might also be about getting up from where you tripped or fell over.

Whether this is your first year as a fledgling kotuku or you are further through your journey. This article is a reminder - are you striving to be better today than you were yesterday and operating with a can-do growth mindset?

Do you operate above or below the line?

By the end of Year 13 you should all be more independent or interdependent rather than just purely dependent on everyone else. You should have challenged yourself and learned what works for you. Interdependence is built on having developed strong relationships with others, built on trust and built over time through hard work  success and failure. We can develop a growth mindset, we can build character, but we also reveal character with how we respond to setbacks. 

At the conclusion of your Kotuku journey - Good to go and going good.

Our attitude creates the person.
Na te whakaaro
Ka ora te tangata
As we think so shall we become.

Public transport fares are changing for under 25’s from Wednesday 01 May 

We would like to remind you that fares for travel on AT buses, trains and ferries are changing for under 25 year olds from Wednesday 01 May 2024. As this is a change which will affect your students, we encourage you to share the below message on your own communication channels. Please feel free to include the attached web tile/s in your messaging to students, parents and caregivers.   

Free travel for 5 to 12 year olds and half-price travel for 13 to 24 year olds on AT bus, train and ferry services will end on 30 April 2024, in line with the government’s decision to withdraw funding for these concessions.  

This means that from Wednesday 1 May: 

• 5 to 12 year olds will no longer travel for free on weekdays and will instead pay a child concession (at least 40% off adult fares). They will continue to travel for free on weekends. The child concession will apply to anyone aged 5 to 15, who has a registered AT HOP card with their correct date of birth.   
• 13 to 15 year olds will stop receiving the half-price child fares discount and instead switch to paying full child fares (at least 40% off an adult fare during weekdays, and free travel on weekends) from 1 May. The child concession will apply to anyone aged 5 to 15, who has a registered AT HOP card with their correct date of birth.   
• 16 to 19 year olds with a secondary student concession will stop receiving the half-price secondary fares discount and instead switch to paying full secondary fares (at least 40% off an adult fare). Students aged 16-19 should apply for the secondary student concession to ensure they are paying the cheapest fare possible. 

More information about the discounts and what you may need to do next can be found at AT.govt.nz/farechanges.

Studio Show 9 & 10 April

The Performing Arts Department  is putting on a Studio Show next week.

This is a 1hr Dance Show by our Year 10 to 13 Dance students performing and in some cases doing their own choreography.

• Times  : Tuesday 9th & Wednesday  and 10th April 
• Time : 7pm
• Venue: School Hall
• Tickets at :  https://www.trybooking.com/nz/RNO
  Price $10.00

Tickets do sell out for Studio Shows so book quickly if you are interested. 

Upcoming Events:

Next week is the last week of term 1. School finishes Friday at 3.10pm
29 April, Term 2 begins.
07 & 08 May Year 9 Mindfulness Trip
09 May - Parent/Student/Teacher Conferences
20 - 24 May STARS Camp for Year 9
03 June - King's Birthday
28 June - Matariki (School Closed)
04 July - School Ball - and last day of Term 2
05 July - School Closed

Kia Kaha

Gary Moore