Principal's Message...

Kia Ora Koutou

Week one term three is behind us. The significance of this term is that it is the ‘business end’ of the school year. What does that mean? The business end of a broom is the part that sweeps or does the main work- so in terms of school this is a significant term for getting knowledge and content honed.

Timetable Changes

With the departure of Kit Sherman-Ball we will be making wholesale changes to the timetable to ensure the classes he taught have fulltime teachers in front of them. Immediately the biggest issue for the students will be the timetable they had memorised will need to be re-memorised.

Digital Footprints

For your awareness I spoke with candour to the students about Digital Footprints at Wednesday’s Assembly. My focus was that taking intimate photos of themselves and posting them was unwise. Sending these photos to others they ‘trusted’ was also unwise. I then gave them the direction that if they have retained any photos of this nature then the wise decision was to delete them.

Ironically, I searched the net to find really useful tips and information to share with you so those ‘at-home’ dialogues about this topic have useful prompts.

“A digital footprint is the trail left by the things one does online-our social media activity, our browsing history, what we subscribe to online, our photo galleries and videos we have uploaded — in fact, anything on the Internet with our name on it. Today’s students appear to put their names on things online, so their footprints can be reasonably wide.

It is fortunate that most of the major sources of personal information can be tweaked so we share only certain things with the general public. There are also tools available to manage the parts of our digital footprints about which we are probably unaware.

For students having grown up in a social/digital environment, helping them see where and how they are vulnerable is critical. A useful step, and I am sure we have all done this, is to google ourselves. Seeing the breadth of information about oneself that exists online could be a good spur to action.

With one’s digital footprints it is important that the footprints we leave are good ones. Using privacy settings is a great step to keeping your accounts on a ‘short leash’. Removing accounts that one is not using is a great idea. If you do not want the world to know, then do not overshare usernames, aliases, last names, full-names-as-usernames, pictures, addresses, and other important information; but also their moods and boyfriends and girlfriends. Use a password keeper. As I said before Google yourself, you may be surprised what you find. It can be useful to have a secondary email address if you are signing up to things. At least skim the terms and conditions when you do ‘accept’ those terms and conditions. Always know that sending is like publishing–forever.

Understand that searches are social and how you use the internet is used by sites to determine its marketing. It is also useful to know that there are search engines that can be utilised which sometimes make clearer efforts to protect users’ browsing privacy.

And a final cautionary note- sharing passwords or giving your email address to someone else for their use- Don’t. (Source: www.teachthought.com).

Reverend Lesley

I take this opportunity now to make another significant announcement and that is the retirement of Reverend Lesley Mouat. Lesley has given 17 years of service to St Matthew’s as Chaplain, Counsellor, and teacher of Religious Instruction.

I cannot forget that along that journey she has managed and coached our Cycling teams giving them her wealth of experience in this sport, a sport which has seen her securing regional and national accolades.

Lesley’s health now needs to be her priority. A serious accident in 2019 has seen Lesley continuing in her role here but not with the verve she once had. With my and the Boards of Trustees and Proprietors support Lesley will take time to put her first. Lesley will make her exit at the end of week five this term. We thank her for her loyal service for the many flocks she has tended over the years.

We will work with the parish to provide chaplaincy and teaching whilst we advertise for a replacement for Reverend Lesley.

Have a great weekend, put the Addams Family in your diary (which is on stage next week at St Matthew’s), and be safe.

Ngā Mihi

Kiri

Around School This Week

Year 10 Social

A huge thank you to our Year 11 Leaders (SMOLs) who organised a social for the Year 10 students from both sites. Thank you also to the staff who attended.