I received the following email near the end of term one:

Kia ora. I just wanted to share a wee snippet of an interaction with one of your school pupils at the skate park. I was there with my son Nathaniel (he doesn't attend MIS yet) last week and he was watching the children scooting over the edge into the bowl confidently and wishing he had the confidence to do the same. An MIS pupil called Charlie noticed Nathaniel and came over and asked Nate if he needed some help and so kindly talked Nathaniel through it and gave a few demos of how to do it. Charlie was so empowering and supportive in the way that he spoke to Nathaniel and when he fell off his scooter, Charlie was the first person over to help him up and encourage him to keep trying. Myself and Nathaniel really appreciated the support of Charlie and I thought you'd like to know what a wonderful, respectful and kind person he is. Unfortunately I don't know his last name but I hope you might be able to identify him and thank him from us. He's an amazing scooter'er and an awesome young person who even outside of school hours is representing your school in an awesome light.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and perhaps we'll see Charlie around your school next year when Nathaniel enters year 7.

Briar James

This MIS student is Charlie Newman, a year eight boy in Room 4. Thank you for displaying our ADMIRE values so willingly, Charlie.

Our student leaders have been collecting round, plastic bottle tops so that they can create a recycled art piece. Please keep collecting these and sending them into school with your child to give to their class student leader.

National Young Leaders day is an experience that not only inspired me to be brave and strive to achieve my dreams but it also showed me that no matter how many problems come my way, that try to stop me and crush my dreams…

That you just have to keep pushing through, no matter how hard the blows are.

The whole experience at NYLD was fun, loud and most definitely inspiring. All of the five speakers had amazing stories to tell. It showed how they didn’t give up when hardships came their way and from that they pushed through and they achieved their goals and dreams.

My favourite speaker that I will talk about today is Brylee Mills,

She was my favourite speaker from the day, not only for her amazing speech about resilience which was very inspiring, but also because of her experiences with resilience and persistence to become a professional dancer even if the odds were against her with an amputated arm.

Here are some of the important points and events she made that stood out to me:

Even through three major setbacks of:

1. Losing an arm in a crash at the age of 6,

2. Being in a second car crash a few years later and,

3. Breaking her leg before starting her dream Dance Academy,

That resilience is really what helped her through those times,

She talked about how even with a missing arm she continued to dance a few weeks after the accident happened.

She didn’t let anything stop her doing her passion.

Another important point that Brylee made that in her speech is that

‘The first thing people notice about me is not my face or the clothes i’m wearing, but my missing arm’

She spoke out about how from her missing an arm, that she was prone to bullying from people who didn’t even understand her story or circumstances.

She also mentioned after that, that people need to understand that just because she doesn't have an arm, doesn’t mean that she's lesser than us… we all have differences, don't we?

I 100% agree with that because we all have differences and are special in our own ways, such as being better at something than someone else.

We don’t have to be perfect or have to single out the people who have more noticeable differences. That we really should just accept people for who they are.

Or you could say it like a inspiring quote:

‘We were all unique in our own ways and we shouldn’t think less of people just because they have differences to us in some way, and to me that's what we should all be like, accepting differences in others.’

—-------------------------------------

Overall Brylee said she was positive in those bad times because she had a team, friends and family who enabled her and supported her to achieve those big dreams of hers, not letting her back down, despite her circumstances.

I wish to be as resilient, persistent and brave as Brylee was because she achieved her dreams and I want to do that too, even through challenges that may come my way.

…

“The obstacles in your life do not define who you are or who you become” - Brylee Mills, 2022

I think this quote here sums up what I think of Brylee Mills,

She pushed through the hard times, came back every time she was pushed back and was positive through all those challenges.

Thank you for inspiring me to be resilient Brylee Mills.

-Aleah Mitchell 2022

Thank you for the valuable responses on our Whānau Wellbeing Cards. We are using the data from this to help guide us in developing our whole school wellbeing model. Our most popular activity enjoyed by our whānau to support wellbeing is playing games, closely followed by watching TV or movies together and sports. In regards to what whānau believe is important for wellbeing at MIS, relationships and connections were in top place, followed by a safe, secure and supportive environment, and being happy and enjoying school coming in next. It was great to have this feedback and see the wide variety of opinions shared. The findings are presented in the following graphs.

Congratulations to Chris Venter who has won the draw for a $200 voucher for The Screening Room.

Wyatt Malcolm has been a keen hockey player since he was 4 years old. He was keen to follow his dad and older brother as a Goalkeeper. His hard work and dedication to the sport meant Wyatt has been selected to be part of the GoHockey NZ U14 ANZAC Challenge to play against Australia.

There are two boys teams and two girls teams comprising of children selected from as far as Northland through to Otago. They have been having training sessions in Taupo and Auckland on various weekends.

The teams will congregate in the first week of the July holidays and will spend five days fine tuning their skills and then compete in two matches each day with the top New Zealand and Austrailian teams.

MIS are proud of Wyatt's selection and we wish him all the best in the upcoming event. Hopefully a future BlackStick to look out for!

We are always grateful to our local businesses who continue to support our students by sponsoring prizes to acknowledge their positive behaviour. If you know of a business that would like to donate a prize, please contact our school office on 06 3700088.

Clareville Bakery - Shaun Lumukana, Room 9

Kowhai Kitchen - Joseph Keating, Room 7

Masterbowl - Aleah Mitchell, Room 15

Pukaha - Mt Bruce - Alicia Phillips, Room 4

Queen Elizabeth Park Boats - Issac Sinclair, Room 15

Subway - Kymani Reiri-Te Rito, Room 5

Wild Oats Bakery - Casey Goldsmith, Room 18

• Netball exchange at Maidstone Intermediate on Thursday, June 2

(the postponement date is Tuesday, June 7)

• Poly group performing at the Trust House stadium from 6.30 pm

• Queen’s birthday on Monday, June 6 - school closed

• WRISSA boys hockey tournament on Wednesday, June 8

• WRISSA girls hockey tournament on Wednesday, June 9

• Wairarapa Cross Country event at Solway Showgrounds on Tuesday, June 14

• First XV boys rugby v Wainuiomata at Memorial Park at 11.00 am on Wednesday, June 15

• Whakaoriori schools teacher only day on Friday, June 17

- school closed today

• Matariki celebrations at Masterton Intermediate on Thursday morning, June 23 from 7.00 am

• Arts enrichment programme - day tahi on Thursday, June 23

• Matariki national holiday - school closed on Friday, June 24

• Arts enrichment programme - day rua on Wednesday, June 29