Chinese Language Week, and the Tuvalu Language Week.

 你好

Nǐ hǎo

 

Fakatalofa

Hello to everyone.  This week is both the Chinese Language Week, and the Tuvalu Language Week.  I hope you enjoy the activities online.  We are now in the last week of a very unusual Term 3, and I would like to thank the staff for all the work they are doing to keep an online school environment up and running.  I also want to acknowledge the students who are turning up day after day to the online sessions to extend their learning.  Well done everyone.

Throughout this week the staff will be meeting to plan for Term Four.  Just to show you what an  online staff meeting looks like, it looks like this….

….very different from face to face, but at least everyone is still smiling.

We are desperately hoping Term 4 will start in Level 2  (though Level One would be even better), on Monday 18 October.  School is slightly different at Level 2 with social distancing, strict hygiene standards, and class ventilation procedures.  Masks can be worn but are not mandatory.  We also request that every student brings their own drink bottle to school with them.

You will all be aware that our Prime Minister is seeking to get 90% of Aucklanders vaccinated as soon as possible.  Please note: there is no cost to receiving the Covid vaccine.  The Mt Roskill Healthcare on Stoddard Road, and the Stoddard Road Medical Centre are the two closest places to school to get the vaccine.

Take care everyone.

Hope to see you all face to face very soon.

Mr Nigel Davis

Tumuaki / Principal

Wesley Intermediate School

Amazing Te Reo Maori Language Week Assembly

 Kia ora everyone.  

What an amazing Te Reo Maori Language Week assembly this morning.  Kia ora and thank you to our assembly team for putting this together.  I was very impressed with the amount of Te Reo Maori spoken by our tamariki and staff.  It was also great to see parents and past pupils taking up the opportunity to participate.  It was awesome to have Whaea Mel from the Northern Territory in Australia as our guest speaker, and I appreciate what she shared with us. 

I would also like to commend our students and staff today for the increase in digital and editing skills, even since last week, which enhanced the online assembly. This was truly a Learn, Create, Share event. Ka pai everyone.

We now have some certainty regarding the school holidays. I received the following announcement from the Ministry of Education this morning.

The school holiday dates will remain unchanged. They will start from Saturday 2 October and Term 4 will start on Monday 18 October.
 
The Minister has carefully considered advice on how moving term dates presented challenges that would have had a wider and long-term impact by disrupting curriculum and activity plans already in place for students, whānau and educators.
 
Keeping the holidays as they are will avoid adding stress and anxiety to children and their education and wellbeing.
 
The Minister was also aware that an extended length of Term 4 for Auckland would add to fatigue among your students and staff at the end of a school year.

Next week there is a high possibility that Auckland will move to Level 3. While there is not much change between Levels 3 and 4, it does mean that we are getting closer to returning back into a full school environment at Level 2.

tēnā koa tiaki ia koe

me te atawhai

Mr Nigel Davis (tumuaki)

Maori Language Week begins today

Kia ora everyone.  This week we are celebrating Maori Language Week and I want to encourage everyone to get involved in the activities similar to last week when we celebrated Tongan Language Week.  Once again I am setting a blogging challenge and prizes will be given out to those students who complete three blogs this week based on Maori Language Week activities. As with other language weeks, this week is held to promote our indigenous language and celebrate Maori culture.  Everyone is encouraged to learn some te reo Maori and where possible experience the Maori culture.  Lets see how creative we can be to do this in a Level 4 lockdown situation.

I do want to thank the students, parents, staff and community members who joined us in our special online assembly last Friday where we celebrated Tongan Language Week.  At one time during the assembly we had 62 screens open, with people participating.  I also know that some of those watching online had siblings and parents watching, so in reality we probably had approximately 80 people attend this online event.  A huge thank you to those who actually participated and shared aspect of the Tongan Language Week to us all, plus a huge thank you to the students in the assembly team who put this together.

In closing, as a cancer survivor, I would like to thank Mrs Haioti for her support for the Cancer Society Daffodil Day. Mrs Haioti had the courage to have her hair shaved as a way of encouraging people to support this cause.  If you would like to support her fundraising efforts please contact her via ghaioti@wesleyintermediate.school.nz

tēnā koa tiaki ia koe

me te atawhai

Mr Nigel Davis (tumuaki)

REMEMBERING MS LYNLEY LEILONA.

Today we finish our 3rd week of lockdown. Earlier this week I received the sad news regarding the passing of Ms Lynley Leilona who worked as a teacher aide, sports coach and mentor at Wesley Intermediate School. Lynn was also a well known community member through her work at Mt Roskill Grammar School as a tutor, and she also supported a number of schools in training up their Niuean cultural groups.

I remember Lynn with great fondness and love. She would do anything for any one in need. I vividly remember the time when she 'adopted' one of our students for approximately three months. This student wanted to stay at our school but government agencies wanted him to go and live with extended family in Northland. He was heartbroken to be leaving our school as he really wanted to graduate from our school at the end of the year. Our lovely Lynn took on the government agencies and battled her way through numerous red tape so that he could stay with her for the final three months of his Year 8 year.

Lynn had a huge heart, and even though she had been through so much following a very serious car crash that left her with all types of health issues, she cared more for others than herself.

In recent years she moved to Australia to be with her grand children, whom she loved dearly. She would ring me 3 -4 times every year to see how things were progressing in the Wesley area. This was her home and she missed it dearly. Approximately ten weeks ago she rang me to say 'Good bye' as the cancer that she had fought for so long had returned, and even though she was a fighter, I believe she knew her time was coming to an end.

I consider it a real honour to have known her. She blessed so many of us in so many ways, and she will be missed by many in the community.

Our thoughts, prayers and condolences go to her family. God bless you Lynn. Gone but not forgotten.

Photo: Lynn and Mr & Mrs Haioti celebrating our Niuean Language Week

Week 2 Lockdown, August,2021

Hi everyone

What a week we have had.  During this week I have managed to visit classes and have seen a number of you on the screen. It was great to attend the Room 8 Online Talent Quest this morning.  Congratulations to Bella who was 1st place and who kept on singing with her beautiful voice, even though she had some challenges with the song. It reminded me of pressing through even when things go wrong.  Congratulations to Lucy & Samisoni (2nd equal) who both entertained us with their singing. 

Behind the scenes, a lot has been going on with certain staff dropping off chromebooks, and some staff going into school to start making and giving out Education Packs.  More information will come out soon in regard to this.

A huge thank you to Peter & Lionel and their team working from Wesley Primary School getting food parcels out to different families. Thanks everyone involved with this venture. It is much appreciated.

I want to congratulate Gammado, Yohanness, Levi & Haiti for putting up at least four blogs since the start of lockdown. The reason we encourage blogging is because research shows that blogging increases student achievement, which is why the Summer Learning Journey was established a few years ago. My challenge to all the students is to start or continue with blogging. Prizes for doing this will be given out once we return to school.

On a final note, I was impressed with the challenge set by Mrs Walliss in regard to cooking. I have to admit that I have not cooked anything, (apart from toast and simple meals), for a long time.  So here is my Teriyaki Beef meal I cooked for my family.  In regards to Learn, Create, Share it ticks all three boxes. I learnt to cook. I created the meal, and then I shared it with my family.

Mr Nigel Davis

Principal:  Wesley Intermediate School

Meeting William Pike

This week I had the privilege of meeting Mr William Pike. In 2007 William Pike had walked to the crater lake at the top of Mt Ruapehu and was spending a night in the Dome Shelter. During that night, Mt Ruapehu erupted with rocks and water being blown out of the crater. As William said, “what goes up must come down”, and within seconds rocks were smashing their way into the Dome Shelter. William had one leg crushed and had to have it amputated. He spent nine months in hospital and then made the conscious decision that this set back would not stop him from achieving his dreams. He learnt to walk with an artificial leg, and has continued with his adventures. He has even gone on to climb mountains in Antarctica. In 2010 he set up the William Pike Challenge Programme, which is now in 99 schools. This year is our first year that Wesley Intermediate School have been part of the Programme, with seven students opting in. Their challenge is to complete different outdoor activities, or try new things, and to do volunteer their time to work in the community. As I listened to William speak I was reminded of the two years I spent fighting cancer, (which apart from God’s grace I would not have survived). After this personal battle I was told, I would not be able to do certain things. Like William, I enjoy the outdoors and the mountains in New Zealand and challenged myself to get fit and walk the Routeburn and Kepler Tracks in the South Island, which I have managed to do in recent years.

Term One Highlights

What a fantastic term we have had. A particular highlight for me was the visit from John Pritiken, (a guest speaker from USA). John has done a number of things in his life, including setting Guinness World Records, and his photo is actually in one of the books that come out annually. He showed us how he could break a softball bat, and roll up a frying pan. While we all enjoyed this part of his talk, he also spoke about the severe bullying he had experienced while at school in USA. We were all shocked at what he went through, and his message was very clear… bullying should not be tolerated at all. I was pleased to hear him talk about showing respect for self and others, and he affirmed the PB4L behaviour programme we have in our school. His talk was one of the most emotive and uplifting messages I have ever heard.

The year started off with the Ako Hiko Cluster Wananga where teachers from all of the Ako Hko Schools meet in our school and heard about the history of the Ako Hiko Cluster, and where we are heading into the future. The whole ethos around the cluster was to combat the equity issue low decile schools in our area were facing in our area. We wanted what was best for our students, and wanted them to be at the ‘leading edge’ of education initiatives in New Zealand. All of the schools in the Ako Hiko Cluster share the same pedagogy of “Learn, Create, Share”, and even teachers planning is shared with parents. Students work is on the Learning Log and can be shared with staff, other students, and parents. One area we are working on as a Cluster is the ‘summer drop off’ where students tend to forget about school over the summer period and their academic marks drop backwards by 4 - 6 months. As a cluster we have introduced the Summer Learning Journey programme which is based around blogging. Students who complete this programme start the new year at the same academic level, (or higher in some cases), as where they finished at the previous year… and do not slip backwards over the Christmas Holidays.