Buller High School Newsletter
Issue 9, September 2022
From the Principal
As Term 3 winds down, it is time to reflect on a term that has had everything. For senior students, the end of the year is ever closer, and it is time to assess where they are at and where they need to be. I have been impressed by the attention senior students are taking in their achievement and the awareness of what they require for the year to be a success.
Very recently a new board was elected for our school. I and the senior leadership team look forward to working with the new board under newly elected chair Glenn Irving. I also want to acknowledge our staff representative Mrs Miriam Comeskey and our student Louella Prasad. We are lucky to have such a team governing our school.
On Saturday we had the annual Senior School Ball. Lasts year’s was cancelled so our students were excited to be able to dust of their glad rags and groove the night away. I was impressed by the organisation from the ball committee, the leadership from Mr Forsyth and the spirit displayed by those who attended. They looked great, behaved well and had a great time.
At assembly this week, I acknowledged two students who excelled recently. Shayla Pawson demonstrated great leadership at the recent kāhui ako kapa haka practice at the NBS. This involved students from the High School and local primary Schools. We also celebrated Maya Mitchell who demonstrated tremendous kindness to senior students at a time when they were preparing for an external exam. For a junior student to acknowledge and support senior students during a stressful time is a real tribute to her character. It was lovely to be able to finish the assembly with quality musical items, a vocal piece from Mason Taumata and a piano piece from Arryn Duston
It was great for teachers to visit Arahura marae with all the other schools last Monday and listen to local historian Paul Madgwick at the NBS on Wednesday. As we continue to develop our own cultural understanding and knowledge of the local histories of Kawatiri and the West Coast, it was also an opportunity to continue to develop relationships across the schools of Westport. This enables us to be more effective classroom teachers and support our students to learn in a culturally safe environment.
As always, we can do the best for our students when they are in our classrooms. We value your support in getting your children to school each day. If you have any concerns over attendance, please contact the school. Our attendance is recorded on the EDGE portal. You can monitor your child’s attendance using this application. Again, please contact the school if you want to know how to make this possible.
Head Student Profiles
Buller High School Board of Trustees
Back: Daniel Reynolds, Stacey Hazeldine, Glenn Irving, Andrew Basher, Phil Rossiter,
Front: Miriam Comeskey (Staff Rep), Andrea Aitcheson, Louella Prasad (Student Rep)
Message from the Chair
Kia ora,
Firstly, thank you to the school community for giving the incoming Board of Trustees the opportunity to be a part of shaping the way the school is run over the next three years. I’m honoured to be selected to lead the board, and am aware that the work that we have ahead of us has the potential to impact positively on a considerable proportion of our community. I’ve had just a few months of involvement with the school already and have seen that the school is performing well, however there is always room for improvement, and that is where we want to focus our attention over the next three years.
As some of you will know, wandering in the hills is something I love to do. When I’m teaching people about how to find their way in the great outdoors I always tell them that the first rule of navigation is to ALWAYS know where you are – it’s very hard to know where to go when you don’t know where you are in the first place! All of the trustees are new to the board (and feeling a little lost), so our first job is to find out how the school is running from a variety of perspectives. This will enable us to know where we are starting from and enable us to focus on the areas that will further support the education and achievement of your children. In order to do this, we will be running surveys for staff, students and families early in Term 4, and we ask you to please help us by taking the time to give us your perspective on how the school is run. The more people that contribute to this process the better the information will be that we have to work with, so please do take the time to respond when the surveys come out – we’d love to hear from everyone.
I look forward to being part of the life of the school in my time as board chair, and am sure that the next three years will be a time of positive growth for the school as we aim to be the best school that we possibly can be for our rangatahi. A wise person once said “Create the world you want to live in” – we can all play a role in creating a school that we want to be a part of, and I look forward to doing my bit alongside all of you to make that happen.
Nga mihi,
Glenn
Special Olympics Basketball Event 2022
Every year the ORS students look forward to the Special Olympics Events, hosted in Greymouth by the Special Olympics team committee star Paula Windsor. We are fortunate to know Paula from her visits to us at our school during the term and her coaching videos which help us prepare for this event.
This year, 2022 saw Reuben Guthrie take the Player of the Day for Buller High School team, for his shooting and moving speedily up and down the court.
We want to thank Annie Evans for being our trusted bus driver and personal coach on the day and for her great organisation skills, making sure the paperwork allows us to go.
We were extremely glad to see Allendale and Papanui from Christchurch, Westland, and Grey High from the West Coast the same as us and Waimea College from Nelson all joined in for an exciting day of drills and games.
Buller High joined Grey High team and came 4th overall for the day.
The Special Olympics Committee from Greymouth organised and ran a free sausage sizzle for us at the end of the first session and again after the final games.
This is the best event on our calendar for the year and we are so happy that we were allowed to go at last, with COVID restrictions from the last couple of years making it too dangerous.
Thanks to everyone, parents, siblings, staff, and students for doing your part to make this such a wonderful event.
Cherye Middleton ORS teacher BHS
Where are they now? by Gavin Haussmann
I have now been teaching drama and music at BHS for 16 years and have to admit that time has gone quickly. I am very fortunate to work alongside Rona Halsall in our music department. Last term I was preparing a presentation for the Board of Trustees and wanted to know what some of my students had done with their love for the Performing Arts. I decided to contact 17 students and they all replied with their current status.
I have decided to make a feature of their replies and in the coming newsletters, each student will be highlighted.
This newsletter features graduate of 2016 Daniel Dove
Daniel graduated NASDA with a Bachelors of Performing Arts, with a specialisation in musical theatre!
He has since gone on to be an entertainment host on a cruise ship, work in advertising for online companies and teaching drama to primary school children.
Barista Training
Barista training for our senior baristas with Megan from Underground Coffee.
Sara, Sam, Indi, Louella, and Bianca spent two hours honing their barista skills with the barista trainer from Underground Coffee in Christchurch.
The students will be our main barista trainers next year so we had Megan come over and visit and teach them essential skills which they can use in the future individually and teach all of our baristas here at our school.
Sara Sirikulsupakon, Sam Manning, Indi Angel, Louella Prasad, Megan (Underground Coffee),
Bianca Annear
Conservation Fair and Planting Day
I got the pleasure to volunteer at the Conservation Fair and Planting Day on Saturday, September 10th. Alongside our fellow SVA members, Madison Shaw, Leelawadee Mayer, Eloise Brown, and Tui Marama. The event officially began at 10 a.m. and ended at 3 p.m., during which time we planted 300 trees.
Each of us was partnered with an adult to assist at different stations such as the gaming station, art station, and information station.
by Sara Sirikulsupakon BHS SVA student ambassador
Breakfast Club
Sharon Mason and Jamie Cleine attended the Breakfast Club at Buller High School on Tuesday morning. They donated spaghetti for the classic BHS Brekkie Club toasties and spent the morning socialising with the students and staff, helping volunteer by making sandwiches for the free school lunches and designing lunch bags for the toasties and packed lunches.
The Breakfast Club is back in action and it's great to see students enjoying the food and company in a safe and friendly environment. Student volunteers run the club. Of course, breakfast wouldn't be complete without a barista made coffee to top it off.
Both Sharon and Jamie made the most of this opportunity during their visit.
Indi Angel, Bianca Annear, Sharon Mason, Jamie Cleine, Grace Poynter, Sam Manning,
Kayla Craddock
Student Services Corner
How to work and move through emotions
Step One: Notice and Acknowledge emotions.
Stepping back from the situation. Noticing and having an awareness of the emotion.
Step Two: Accurately interpret and label emotions
Each emotion is offering you some information, telling you what you need. There is more than happy, sad, angry. Try and be specific, this will help to understand the emotion better and understand what you might need.
Step Three: Have some tools for handling emotions
This is particularly important when in distress because your brain is set up to bypass the problem-solving section. Instead, taking a quick guess and acts on impulse.
Below are some examples, try and have these ready or prepared, so the brain does not have to think.
Have a warm drink
Music
Slow breathing
Write down your thoughts
Talk to someone
Move your body
Smell a scent like lavender
In Summary
Allowing emotions to be and don’t block them out. Acknowledging, labelling, and sitting with an uncomfortable feeling is hard. Letting yourself know that the moment will pass, and it is a temporary experience “Ride the wave until it comes down”