Prize giving 2018

My speech to end the year 💛

Thank you all for joining with us today to celebrate our children, our school and our community.  And there is much to be celebrated.  As a school we never stop striving for success, to give our children the most wonderful school experience they can have and along the way, to help them to be successful.

But what is success…

Many would say if we are talking about education that success is achieving academically at the highest level possible.  Leaving school with qualifications that allow you to get the best jobs, that earn you a lot of money and allow you to live comfortably. 

While those things may be nice, I want to challenge this notion of success.

We strive for success here at Kaurihohore, but for us, this has very different measures.

Success is the ability to be kind, and in the act of being kind, finding happiness within ourselves and with others.

Success is having a deep understanding and appreciation for ourselves, our strengths, our weaknesses, the things that make us tick.  The understanding that we can always improve with effort.

Success is the appreciation of hard work and the reward of doing it for ourselves.

Success is using our strengths to work for the good of others, in turn, making our world better.

Success is cherishing the hard times, the challenges, the mistakes because it is from these things that we all grow.

Success is developing the dispositions that allow us to make a positive impact on our world and the people around us, because ultimately, that is what life should be about.

As a school it is our hope that we can allow children to develop this definition of success, because in attending to character, we naturally take academic progress along for the ride.  

Thank you to all that have helped us in our endeavours this year, to all of you that have supported your children to see success in the simplest of ways.  

To our parent support group who have worked hard in the background to allow us the tools to best help this success and to our fantastic Board of Trustees who have  have helped to shape a strategic plan that embodies this notion of success.  Who  have allowed myself and my staff to continue to put the fun of childhood and the importance of wellbeing back at the centre of everything that we do.

To the children who strive to be the best person they can be each and every day, thank you.  

Finally to my team, without you, this school would not be what it is, my job would not be so rewarding.  Our work is important, and despite the challenges it sometimes brings, please understand that you are the most vital ingredient or our success.  

Today we get to capture the essence of our whakataukī in a song, written by our children.  To be able to adopt our whakataukī through song is truly special.

Mā te huruhuru

ka rere te manu

Adorn this bird with feathers to enable it to fly.

Here are a selection of photos from yesterday, to say I am proud to lead such a fabulous school, just doesn't cut it.  These children are special, our staff our special, our place is special.  I am an incredibly lucky person to be lead such an incredible school.  I wish everyone an absolutely wonderful Summer break.  To those families leaving us for good, we will miss you, please do not be strangers.