Considering all the challenges we have faced - including a draining twelve week term in term two - our children have coped and succeeded remarkably well. Our achievement data for the year is encouraging. Some have experienced a small ‘blip’ but overall our children have achieved exceptionally well. That is a team effort to be proud of.

So now it is time to say farewell to 2020 and to look forward to 2021 as a new year of new hope, new expectations, new opportunities and new beginnings.

We have planning already well under way, and will be doing everything we can to make it the best year yet at Western Heights. 

Thank you for sharing your beautiful children with us and for your faith that we will nurture and care for them to achieve the best outcomes for each one. 

Have a wonderful Christmas Holidays. Enjoy the hot weather - safely - and enjoy time with friends and family. Most importantly, be safe wherever you are so we can welcome back your awesome children on February 3, 2021.

We start 2021 on Wednesday 3 February. Friday 5 February is a Teacher Only Day. The benefit of this to our community is Monday 8 February is a holiday due to Mondayised Waiatngi Day. This means families could have a four day weekend if they can make it fit work plans.

Our 2021 year will end on Wednesday 15 December - we have managed to finish on a Wednesday every one of my seven years here. It is a day that works very well with our end-of-year organisation.

On Friday both our Jump Jam teams performed for our Whanau Time Assembly - to their usual, but exceptional, high standard.

They then took their show on the road - to Waitakere Gardens on Sel Peacock Drive. There they put on another two outstanding performances - much to the delight of all the residents.

At the conclusion of their performance both teams were invited to join the residents for a Jump Jam of one of their favourite routines. It was wonderful to see.

Below is a short clip of the visit.

There is nothing wrong with buying insight, this is one way we leverage ourselves. The problem is when we assume the insight of others is our own.

Earning insight requires going below the surface. Most of us want to shy away from the details and complexity. It takes a while. It’s boring. It’s mental work.

Yet it is only by jumping into the complexity that we can really discover simplicity for ourselves.

While the abundant directives, rules, and simplicities offered by others make us feel like we’re getting smarter, it’s nothing more than the illusion of knowledge.

If wisdom was as simple to acquire as reading, we’d all be wealthy and happy. Others help you but they can’t do the work for you. Owning wisdom for oneself requires a discipline the promiscuous consumer of it does not share.

Perhaps an example will help. The other day a plumber came to repair a pipe. He fixed the problem in under 5 minutes. The mechanical motions are easy to replicate. In fact, while it would take me longer, the procedure was so simple if you watched him you’d be able to do it. However, if even one thing were to deviate or change, we’d have a crisis on our hands, whereas the plumber would not. It took years of work to earn the wisdom he brought to solve the problem. Just because we could only see the simplicity he brought to the problem didn’t mean there wasn’t a deep understanding of the complexity behind it. There is no way we could acquire that insight in a few minutes by watching. We’d need to do it over and over for years, experiencing all of the things that could go wrong.

Thinking is something you have to do by yourself - for yourself.

I am sharing this email in full - it is an important read for parents. My mother was the oldest person in NZ to contract Meningococcal Meningitis, and she passed within three days of contracting it. 

Dear Principal, Board of Trustees and Parents

In February of this year, my daughter died of Meningitis, or more specifically, Meningococcal Septicaemia.  Although she was a 19 year student in her second year of study at the University of Canterbury, this disease impacts young people of all ages and kills up to 10 people in New Zealand every year.

The loss of our darling daughter has devastated our family, but it was terribly tragic to discover that we could have protected her if we had known about the vaccination.  Although there is a small cost for the vaccination, for many families it is free.

Your parent community needs to be aware of the availability of the vaccine and the need to vaccinate.  This request is supported by the Royal New Zealand College of GP's who are also trying to increase the rate of vaccination by communications with all New Zealand GP's.

Meningitis is a dangerous bacterial infection that can be life-threatening and deadly in just a few hours.  People who survive meningococcal disease often have serious long-term effects.

The Ministry of Health recommends that young people living in close together in places such as halls of residence be immunised against meningitis.  Please find below a link to the Ministry of Health's brochure regarding meningitis and vaccines available to your child as they perhaps move on with their tertiary education and will be flatting or living in halls of residence.

https://www.healthed.govt.nz/resource/immunise-against-meningococcal-disease

Thank you for reading this message.  Please take action.  You could save the life of one of your children.

Kind regards

Paul Chapman