Great Cross Country for 2011

First and Second down to the wire.

Fitness training really paid off for many of our students today as they ran hard in the annual cross country. If we ca presume that there has been a cross country race every year since the school opened then this was the 135th race. Sounds good.

Many of the features of our sporting events were present:

• the children came ready with a 'can do' attitude and the desire to push for a personal best
• parent/caregiver support was great with lots of cheering
• supportive atmosphere with students cheering schoolmates on
• superbly organised event with well marked out course and clear timetable
• medal ceremony to celebrate the winners coupled with acknowledgement of all students who participated and gave his/her best



Go from start to finish.

• great weather (doesn't always work out this way)

A special thanks to Helen for the hay bales which give the race a real cross country feel. 

Support all the way.

In these times when there are concerns about children's health and fitness we support and challenge our students to increase their fitness through a range of activities.

Thank you to everyone who supported the children today. 

Rugby Fun Day

Year 4, 5 and 6 YMS Rugby Team

Rugby Fun Day really lived up to its name. It wasn't really the fact that we won our three games; it was just so great to see all of the team giving their best. Everyone played hard but fair and the boys all played as a team.

The tricky part of rugby is having the courage to make tackles. Tackling is very important but also a little scary if someone is running towards you very fast. Our tackling efforts were superb.

Our passing was slick and our running was explosive. The fact that everyone in the team knew that they could count on each other meant that progress was made up the field towards the try line very quickly.

Tait with support close behind!

Another important aspect to the games was that we did not play the 'blame game'. When someone on our team made a mistake we fixed it up and carried on.


Thank you to the parents for their support on the day. It was very enjoyable to be part of such a well organised event.

Holidays are fun! Music and Rats.

Devonport

School is fun too but this holiday was great fun because I heard lots of live music in Auckland. I spent the first and last few days of the holidays at school dealing with paperwork.

In between my wife and I travelled to Auckland to see 6 concerts plus the Waiheke Jazz Festival. It was a real indulgence but I love music and there were some wonderful acts to see in Auckland last week. Every concert was a delight and it was great to hear live many performers that I have admired for years.

The Rat Catcher - Molly

As well as the music I will always remember this holiday because of a rat. It is no secret that Mr Tickles from Room 5 and I do not always see eye to eye so I hope he does not take offense at the following recount.

The night before leaving for Auckland I heard the most awful caterwauling and rushed downstairs to discover that our cat had brought a rat into the front room and could not (or was too scared) to catch it again. Try as we might we could not catch the rat so we left the windows open and instructed the cat to sort it out.

I awoke early the next morning and came down to discover that the rat was hiding behind the piano with the cat meowing instructions for the rat to come out. I left them to it and had a snooze on the couch in the living room. I awoke from my snooze to find the cat meowing proudly as it had deposited the stunned rat under my blanket. What a lovely surprise. Rat was quickly set free but cat had the last laugh. Nature in action is a sight to behold.