Star Board Term One Week Eight

Principal's Message

Kia Ora Koutou

Alluding to the famous phrase (but removing negative associations of the remark), supposedly attributed to Marie Antoinette, who said “Let them eat Cake”, imagine me with an amazing bouffant white hairdo saying ‘Let your kids be bored’.

It does not take much googling to find screeds of references to this being said by many a young person, “I’m soooooooooooo bored. What can I doooooooo?”. When we hear this, what is common is that as adults, we are programmed to jump in, rescue, and respond to our young ones. However, by doing so, we may just be robbing them of so many great opportunities.

Letting them be bored is also compelling them to problem solve. Even in a classroom we do them no favours if we jump in and solve the problems for them. It is about leaving them alone to find solutions. I am not bemoaning technology and the timesaving it has created but has it been at the expense of the working-out process? and failing something is not life ending rather it can be positively life altering – creating potential moments of self-discovery.

Boredom means you are present. The number of times we put a screen in the mix to stimulate can mean things happening in the real world get missed.

Let’s think about how boredom is an opportunity for the young person to be the decision makers in structuring how their time can be used. Of course, structuring their time is a part of what we do in schools and therefore has an important part to play in their development but we are meant to be growing them to be independent and to make good choices.

If we want our youth to be creative and curious we need to nurture that, and sometimes letting them explore “boredom” can be the avenue for growth.

Are we as adults doing too much for our young ones?

We all want the youth in our lives to thrive and survive, whether they are our own offspring or the offspring we educate. But in my experience, we do them no favours if we do for them or do everything, we can to cushion the fall.

A Healthline article wrote’ In our attempts to help our children, to guide them, and advocate for them, we can sometimes overstep our bounds and do too much. There’s a fine line, after all, between raising kids who know they can rely on us and rearing children who are overly dependent.’ It went on to say ‘The road to helplessness is paved with good intentions. So, before you call your young one’s teacher to make an excuse for a missed assignment or vacuum up a big pile of kinetic sand left behind on the floor, or button up a child’s cardigan in a hurry, think twice and evaluate the situation.

Can your young one do these things themself? Moreover, should they do these things without your interference? Take a deep breath and a step back — and see what happens. You might be surprised at the outcome. Either way, remember that you are doing what you need to do to raise a thoughtful, independent, and confident young person.’

Allow your young ones to fail, do not expect perfection, understand that school sport is not necessarily going to be the precursor to being an All Black or Silver Fern, give them jobs to do and make them clean after themselves ( believe me we can tell the ones who do not), stop feeling guilty, and know that putting things in place so they will not have to go through pain is not helpful if your hope is that they will be able to manage their emotions later in life.

Attendance

St Matthew's Collegiate has procedures to record and monitor attendance, and to identify and follow up concerns. We share attendance expectations with students and their parents/caregivers, and staff are responsible for reminding students of these expectations. Attendance is recorded at each lesson using KAMAR.

We record attendance accurately and ensure the information is available in emergency situations to ensure all students are accounted for. We monitor absence patterns using our student management system, and parents/caregivers are notified of any concerns.

Classroom teachers, learning support staff, and office staff work together to ensure attendance is recorded correctly. Relievers, itinerant teachers, and specialist teachers provide attendance information as necessary to the relevant teacher, or directly to the school office.

Students are recorded as present or absent using set attendance codes. An absence may be justified (e.g. for medical reasons) or unjustified (e.g. for an unapproved holiday or other unsatisfactory reason) and is marked as such in our attendance register.

The school office receives attendance information from classroom teachers and/or relievers, itinerant, or specialist teachers, and is responsible for checking and updating attendance information (e.g. due to students arriving late or going home early). Office staff follow up absences, monitor for changes or trends in student attendance, and coordinate with relevant staff as needed.

Staff are encouraged to report any attendance concerns to the principal.

Students not meeting the threshold for regular attendance may be referred to Attendance services.

If there is a justified reason for absence (e.g. due to illness, a funeral or tangihanga, or other approved reason at the discretion of the school), the principal may allow a student to be absent from school for up to five days (Education and Training Act 2020, s 45). In the case of planned absences, requests must be made to the principal at least one week before the planned event. The principal has discretion to approve or deny requests, based on criteria including:

• the benefit to education for the student (including qualifications and experience of course providers as relevant)
• the length of time away from regular school programmes that the activity will require.

If a student does not arrive at school or goes missing during the day (including from an EOTC event), we check there are no errors in how attendance information was recorded or updated. If necessary, we follow our Missing student procedure.

Easter

For over 65 years now Easter Tuesday has been a school holiday for ākonga who go to state and state integrated schools in NZ. By law schools must be closed on Good Friday and Easter Monday as they are public holidays, and Easter Tuesday which is a school holiday.

When Easter falls in April this school holiday often goes unnoticed by parents. This is because where possible the Ministry tries to align the start of the April school holidays with Easter.

Remember, by law under 14-year-olds must be adequately supervised.

Early learning services and independent schools do not have to close on Easter Tuesday so check with them about their opening status.

This is my message this week. As a final note I hope you have managed to purchase a ticket for the Kitchen Tours and More for this Sunday.

Have a safe weekend.

Ngā Mihi

Kiri

Boarding Note

The importance of signing in and out of boarding was highlighted on Wednesday evening when the fire alarms went off in Main House. Boarders are required to assemble on the sculpture lawn and sit in their year groups in alphabetical order when the alarms sound. Then boarding staff take the role, which is based on the information in Orah. If a student is signed out for sport, that will show they are not present “in the house” and therefore are accounted for. However, if boarders do not sign in or out, this safety procedure is compromised. Please remind your daughter of the importance of signing in and out of boarding as in an emergency this information is vital.

After the girls returned to Main House, we had a belated St Patrick’s Day dinner and quiz night. It was great to see so many dressed in green and enjoying the opportunity to mix with the other year groups. In the photo below Mille, Poppy, Olivia and Lily can be seen sitting at their quiz table. Many thanks to our Tutor Robyn for her help setting up for this event.

The final photo is of Katelyn and Harper two of our Year 9 boarders who decided to switch uniforms one afternoon while in boarding. Looking good girls!

Please note that boarding houses will close Thursday at 5pm for the Easter break and will reopen on Tuesday at 5pm.

Enjoy the weekend.

Jo

Athletics NZ National Championship

Our St Matthew's girls performed really well at the Athletics National Championship at Newtown Park, Wellington last weekend as you can see from the results below.

Ava Edge -

• 400m: 11th
• 800m: 9th
• 4 x 100m relay: 4th (missed bronze by 0.09s)
• 4 x 400m relay: 4th

Clara Andrew

• High jump: 6th (new PB of 1.52m)

Anzelle Gouws

• 100m: 11th
• 200m: 11th (new PB of 27.25s)
• 80m hurdles: 16th
• 4 x 100m relay: 4th (missed bronze by 0.09s)
• 4 x 400m relay: 4th

Recent old girl Allie Domanski

• Triple jump: bronze medal
• Long jump: 4th (new PB of 5.03m)
• 100m: 11th
• 4 x 100m relay: 4th