Kauri Whānau Weekly Update: Term 3 Week 7/8

 In this post:

• Speech delivery week
• Keeping Safe Sessions with Year 8 Boys
• Ski day wrap up
• Duathlon wrap up

Speech Delivery Week

Over the past few weeks, the children have been creating their story-telling speeches. In one form or another, they will be sharing their speech this coming week. For most of the children this will take the form of presenting it to their literacy group. Over the weekend, please encourage practise with reading / presenting their speech. On Friday morning, between 9 and 10:30, we will be holding our speech finals in the hall. Parents are most welcome to attend.  

Keeping Safe Sessions with Year 8 Boys

Every year when the Year 8 girls and gender-diverse students are doing self-defense, the boys ask what about us. We see their point. This year, Brad Culver, Megan’s husband has offered his time to take the Year 8 boys for a parallel program on keeping ourselves safe. Keeping ourselves safe falls under the Health curriculum. 

Brad has a background of working with the US and NZ police, a masters in behaviour modification and is a teacher. He has previously volunteered his time in Kauri to teach American Football and Basketball. Brad has designed a program that will cover the following topics.

• Assertive communication and body language
• Standing up to peer pressure
• How body language and tone of voice can affect the outcome of a situation
• What can cause some situations to escalate and how to avoid this
• Being an upstander
• How to deescalate a situation and keep yourself safe

These sessions will be held on Friday afternoons as this works in with Brad’s availability. The first session was very well received by the boys and Brad was really impressed with their engagement.

A huge thank you to Brad for volunteering his time. 

Ski Day Wrap-up

As I mentioned in an earlier brief post, the children had a fabulous day on the slopes of Mt Hutt and we were so impressed with their 'can do' attitudes, support of each other and progress. We were also grateful for the support of the parent group who encouraged, guided and kept the children safe. Thanks to those who have already returned gear that was borrowed from school. If you still have some at home, please return this ASAP.  We have shared a large folder of photos with the children, after discussions on not sharing photos of others on social media or modifying images. Your child will be able to access and share these with you at home.

Duathlon Wrap-up:

On Tuesday, we had a small and enthusiastic group taking part in our school duathlon. They gave of their best and it was awesome to see lots of big smiles on their faces. Those who have qualified for the Canterbury Duathlon will have already received a Hero message about this event. Special congratulations to Torun, James, Alfie and Rose who won their respective events. A group of 30 seniors helped with the running of the event. They did a great job of encouraging competitors and keeping everyone safe on the course.