Each fortnight we come together as a school to enjoy time together as a school family, celebrate learning and build and celebrate the special culture that makes us who we are.

Our overarching theme for this year has been to revisit, review, refine and celebrate the individual components that comprise our school culture, philosophy and way of learning, growing and being.

We have been focusing on one aspect per fortnight, every Monday Morning as a staff, and every second Friday as a full school at Whānau Time.

The Sequence We Are Following Is:

Our Vision - Ā Tātou Tamariki, Ō Tātou Whenua, Ka Ora Te Apōpō

- Our Children, Our Land, For Our Future

Our Mission - Love to Learn to Lead

which we expand to - We Love to Learn,

So We Can Learn to Lead,

So We Can Lead With Love

Our Whakatauki - Toitū te Marae a Tane-Mahuta

Toitū te Marae a Tangaroa

Toitū te Tangata

Flowing through these is the message of HOPE

We focused on three meanings for HOPE that connect to the elements above:

HOPE - Help One Person Everyday

- Help Our Planet Everyday

- Help Our Pacific Everyday

Ā Tātou Tamariki Ō Tātou Whenua Ka Ora te Āpōpō

Our children Our land For our future

Above left is a famous guy called Simon Sinek. Our teachers know about him, and probably most of our parents do too.

He came up with the idea of the Magic Circle - his magic circle teaches us to always start with WHY, then look at HOW and finally at WHAT.

But there is one extra circle at the centre.

That extra circle is WHO - we start with WHO, with people, because, according to the whakatauki, that asks what the most important thing is in the world, People are the most important thing in the world.

Our WHO is people. We need to care about and for other people. Love them as we love ourselves.

Our WHO is also the Land - Papatuanuku - our Mother Earth. We cannot have people without land. Without Mother Earth we cannot live. We must love Papatuanuku as we love our own dear mother - caring about her, caring for her.

Our WHY is - Love to Learn to Lead

WHY - We Love to Learn - WHY - so we can Learn to Lead - WHY - so we can Lead with Love

Next is the HOW - Our How is HOW we go about showing our love for people - Helping One Person Everyday.

Our How is also about …. HOW we go about showing our love for our planet -Helping Our Planet Everyday.

Our How is also …. HOW we go about showing our love for our Pacific - meaning all our waterways - Helping Our Pacific Everyday. That’s what we will look at next Whānau Time.

Our What is WHAT we do - the actions we take every day to show our love for each person and our planet.

The first way to Help is to Be Kind.

Another way to Help is to Give.

There are so many ways to give - and lots of the best ones don’t even cost money.

Another way to Help is to Comfort Someone.

It could be a quiet word, a hug, or just being there beside them.

A great way to Help is to get up and Do A Chore.

Volunteer, do something to help without even being asked.

Another great way to Help is just to Stop To Help and ask, “can I help you with that?”

Notice when someone might need help - but always ask if it’s OK before you jump in and help.

A great way to Help and also to make your own learning stick is to Teach what you know to someone else.

Teach Someone something cool, something new.

And, of course, one of the best and easiest ways to Help is Just Be Nice.

We have a school Whakatauki - a treasured saying that guides us in what to do or how to be. We are all learning this whakatauki, what it means and why it is important.

Our school Whakatauki guides us to make good choices and do good things.

Our whakatauki says

Toitu te Marae a Tane-Mahuta Toitu te Marae a Tangaroa Toitu te Tangata

If the land is well and the sea is well, the people will thrive.

Our theme this year is Turangawaewae - Our Home - and the extra bit at the end of each of my Whānau Time talks this year will look at an aspect of our Home and why it is important.

This is Julia Roberts imagining herself as Nature - reminding us we need Nature and we need to care for Nature in order to survive.

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