A NOTE FROM THE PRINCIPAL

I’m a parent, and I freely admit that for most of my children’s lives, I’ve only just felt one step ahead (and sometimes one step behind) in how to grow them into independent, confident, and resilient adults. Parenting is the hardest job of all at times!

There have been times when things seemed easy and times when they were very, very hard! I always think that parenting doesn’t necessarily get easier as children grow, it’s just a different kind of hard. I can remember times when I have tried to smooth the path ahead or problem-solved FOR my children. Whilst it was a quick fix, it didn’t teach them anything except that they needed me to solve things for them, and that in some contexts, they were powerless to move themselves forward.

But I do think about how different my childhood was from theirs. Years ago, with my sibling, we often disappeared out the door to play and didn’t get back until dinnertime. We built tree huts, dug holes, set a couple of things on fire (with magnifying glasses), and got dirty, tired, and scratched. If we hurt ourselves, we got a plaster, stuck it on, and disappeared out the door again. On occasion, we needed our parents to help, but it wasn’t often. While I can look back fondly on these memories, I also acknowledge that, as children, our resilience and coping skills were mostly top-notch. So, how do we empower our children today with the same skills whilst bringing them up in a completely different world?

Dr Meghan Walls, a pediatric psychologist writes, “As parents and caregivers, it is not our job to solve a child’s problems for them. Instead, our job is to provide kids with the support they need and help them develop their own problem-solving tools. Like most parents, I want to alleviate our children’s suffering by doing whatever I can. We hate to see our children worry and struggle. With the best of intentions, we think we are being helpful by trying to solve our kids’ problems for them. Taking this path often leads to our kids feeling more worried the next time something difficult happens. In fact, by solving our children’s problems for them, we interfere with our children’s ability to develop the effective coping mechanisms needed to deal with these challenges.”

One fantastic strategy for children today is to empower them to have a “growth mindset”. Dr Carol Dweck’s work is research-based and involves the development of children’s mindset to believe that they can get better at something by dedication of time, effort, and energy. Working on one’s flaws, and the process—not the outcome—are the most important components. With time and practice, people with a growth mindset believe they can achieve what they want. Part of our role as parents and teachers is to praise children’s efforts and progress, not their fixed ability to be intelligent/clever/smart. Along with learning and effort comes failure (and its accompanying uncomfortable emotions) but with a growth mindset, children also learn to deal with stress, anxiety, and disappointment. A growth mindset can also help develop resilience, which is key for our children to head into an unknown future!

No one is expecting our children to survive everything on their own, however, as teachers (and as parents), we can take steps to develop our children into resilient and confident adults by empowering them to cope with small, age-appropriate personal and learning-based challenges. I think our school values are part of what helps us to guide our students. These dispositions are the ones that will help our children fulfil their potential and become useful, compassionate, capable, and action-focused members of society. But we need to teach these, and give opportunities to our children to experience situations where they can practice these; it won’t happen on its own.

Congratulations to all of our parents – you are amazing people doing a job that didn’t come with a “how-to” manual!

WHAT’S COMING UP?

WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING?

Outdoor Education Trips
In weeks 8 and 9 last term, we had the Outdoor Education classes doing their bush trips. The Year 11’s were up in the bush along Inland Road for two days navigating with a map and compass, cooking on fires, sleeping in shelters they made and doing bush survival skills. It was a great trip and the highlight was the warm weather and epic food. The year 12/13’s headed up the Kowhai River to the Hut area, focussing on river crossing, navigation and bush survival skills. The highlight of this was challenging the students to make fires in the damp conditions, Harrsion Ogden ended up having the best fire! In Term 3 the focus is on Mountain Biking and Rock Climbing.

Cross Country
Last week we had the annual cross country. While it was a small field that ran the event they were a very competitive and focused group. Congratulations to all who took part.

Junior Netball SISS
In the first week of the holidays, the 9/10 netballers headed to Ōtautahi, Christchurch for the Junior South Island Secondary Schools netball tournament. While the team unfortunately missed out on their goal of top 8 in the first couple of days, their spirits weren’t dampened; the the full force of the Kaikōura Contingent behind them, the girls really came together to make the most of the court time and opportunity whilst having so much fun while doing so. The girls (and coaches!) were very excited to have the chance to meet and get photos with ex-Silver Fern, Irene van Dyk and watch various netball games over the 4 days. During downtime, activities such as Ten Pin Bowling, Laser Tag and Secret Santa were enjoyed, and the final night was celebrated with their nearest and dearest, sharing in a whānau barbecue. Co-captain, Sacha, summed up the trip with; “Junior SISS 2024 was hands down the best tournament I’ve been on. All the girls contributed and put in 100% effort in every game. Along with that, the team spirit was amazing, and it was so cool to be a part of it. The improvement from each player was outstanding. Overall, it was an awesome trip full of memories we will never forget.” A massive thank you to the management team, family, friends and community for all your support.

Ski Trip
Watch this space – the elves are working behind the scenes to organise a Year 7-10 Ski trip. More information will come out soon but if you are keen to be parent help please make sure you have done the Police vetting form for school (available at the office).

Representative Honours
Congratulations to:

• Robin Reid, Oliver Pettit, Jack Schroder, Bailee Herbert and Isla Heger in being awarded spots in the U13 Marlborough Hockey Representative Boys and Girls teams!
• Jacob Ford for being selected for the North Canterbury U16 rugby representative tea