Pink Shirt Day

We had a great day supporting Pink Shirt Day at school today. So many children and parents were wearing pink to show that bullying is not something we accept as part of life.

The statistics on bullying are terrifying. Bullying is leading to long term mental health and self harming problems amongst our vulnerable tamariki and rangatahi.

Bullying is relentless. It is not as simple as name calling or excluding children from a game. It is long term, prolonged and relentless. It is usually aimed at children who are a little different from the run of the mill, and the very differences that make us special and unique become cruel separation.

Bullying is  not something children can stand up to. They need the trusted grown ups in their lives to love them unconditionally and to protect them. Research shows that the most effective protection against bullying is to make sure that what we think about our children, matters more than what their peers think. Online bullying and the vicious attacks by keyboard warriors against others, has become a world wide pattern of behaviour. You can help to protect your children from bullies by:

• monitoring and limiting their online time
• spending time with your children
• checking out who they are playing with and where they are playing
• making sure that your opinion matters more than that of social media and friends
• saying "no" when you feel that something just isn't right for your child

Please let us know if there is something we can do to help if a problem does arise.

Fono hui fantastic fun

 Each term we take the time to connect with Māori and Pasifika whanau. We all have obligations under Te Tiriti o Waitangi an we need to ensure that all of our children are included and are having their needs addressed as best as we can. 

The kai is always delicious.

We had so much fun singing and playing games together. It is a chance for whanau to connect with others and to share their hopes and dreams for their tamariki.

I am so mindful of how much time our kaiako and kaiawhina freely give to after hours events at school. It did feel like we hadn't left last night by the time we cleaned up and came back to school for an 8am meeting. It was lovely last night when we had a quick debrief and  everyone spontaneously applauded each other.

 We had a staff meeting before the fono/hui and we did some more learning around te reo Māori and Pasifika languages and tikanga. Some of the teachers shared their experiences of being Māori or Pasifika in their school years and even as teachers. I was genuinely shocked at how recent, and prevalent some of the racist attitudes are being expressed. One teacher said that even now, people she meets, find it hard to believe that she is a real teacher, actually teaching children, because she is Māori. Another young Māori teacher said that her school found her name too hard to pronounce so they ignored it.  We have a long way to go in terms of equity and equality. 

We are always looking for ways to improve what we teach and how we teach it so that all of our tamariki feel loved and accepted for who they are. This is so much about partnership and working alongside all of our whanau.