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Principal's Message
Kia ora ngaa whaanau o Cambridge East kura
As the term draws to a close and before we head away on holiday, we need to take the time to stop and reflect on what has been another positive term of learning here at Cambridge East School. Term 3 is often known as one of the busiest but often a very productive term of the year, and this Term has been no different. I continue to be impressed by not only our staff's commitment but also that of our students and whaanau (families) commitment to ensure success. It is certainly a partnership focused on what is best for our learners!
It didn’t take long to get back into the swing of things and school routine after 6 months away at the beginning of the year. Some of the things I have personally enjoyed have been;
The Cross Country, with this year's event even more special as we celebrated being at Koo Utu, a place with such a connection to the Kiingitanga movement. On this historical day we not only celebrated the tangi of Tuheitia and also the crowning of his daughter, Ngawai Hono I Te Po, as the new Kuini (Queen), but all our learners present took part in the annual school Cross Country event, with a majority of learners crossing the finish line. While I appreciate it's not everyone’s favourite event, I applaud those who showed the school motto of “Always my Best”. Two special mentions on the day went to Sam Wood and Isla Lawrance who both tripped up at the start of their races, with Sam getting up and continuing on to finish in the top 5 and Isla brushing herself off and competing in the next race. Top effort, determination and grit shown by these two learners, and I admire their efforts!
Another highlight was the annual tree-planting event at Mangaroa, where hundreds of seedlings were planted. The speech finals are always another event I look forward to being part of, seeing our top (often our most confident speakers) taking to the stage and entertaining us with some well-researched speeches. Another event which took place during school time, which is soon becoming an annual event, was our Waiata Showcase on Friday afternoon to finish off Te Wiki o Te Reo Maaori. Each of our centres, including our little people in Timatanga, got up and shared their beautiful signing skills, along with more and more actions becoming part of the event. Top effort team.
On Thursday last week, we had representatives from Mana Whenua come and visit our Kura (school) where they shared in the different key concepts that our learners have been unpacking as part of this Term’s Inquiry. The big idea for this term came from the Maaori Proverb, Titiro whakamuri, haere whakamua, which translates to “I walk backwards into the future, with my eyes fixed on the my past” - we wanted to unpack our early Maaori History as a foundational and continuous history of Aotearoa New Zealand. While our history, like many countries, is chequered, we need to learn from our past to ensure we don’t repeat the wrongs of our history.
Another set of visitors we had to our kura (school) this term was the Curriculum Insights and Progress team from the National Monitoring Study. It was so rewarding when they took the time to come over and provide us with some feedback about our learners. They commented about how impressed they were with our Year 6 learners and the interactions they had with them but were then completely blown away by our Year 3 learners, who were able to link their mathematics to real-life examples, our learners spoke about the impact of the moon on tides and articulated about their learning. Their parting comment was while they aren’t allowed to tell us how well our students had achieved, they wanted to share that whatever we are doing in our setting is working, and we should keep it up but also bottle and sell to other schools. It is something special.
It is humbling to receive such rewarding feedback from an outside agency, which highlights how hard our staff work to bring to life our Learning Ethos and approach to learning. A big well done to our team!
We are glad that the end of Term 3 normally draws an end to the winter germs and hopefully we will be experiencing some warmer weather moving forward. The reason I mention this is due to the mayhem that can often be parking outside the school grounds, especially in the afternoon pick-ups. Staff are often put in the position of asking people to move their vehicles after parking on yellow lines (it is illegal to park on the yellow lines and over driveways), which obstructs the Road Patrol team from being able to safely see down the road when manning the crossing. While it is a busy time, please be patient. If you have older students, think about making a meeting point on one of our connecting streets and either walking to your child/ren or getting them to walk to you.
The Term holidays is also a great time to get the bikes and scooters out and build confidence with your child/ren. During the holidays would be a great time to establish a walking, biking or scootering route to and from school. It would be great to have more students using these modes of transport to and from school in the summer months.
Wishing you all a restful Term 3 break. I look forward to seeing our learners back in Term 4 ready to go!
Ngaa mihi nui
Hamish Fenemor
Principal
Hamish Fenemor
Principal
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