Boys' School Junior School Parents' Morning

With so much disruption earlier in the school year from the Covid-19 lockdown, the traditional mid-year opportunities to invite our parents to school – Mothers’ Day Morning Tea and the Father and Son Breakfasts - were sadly shelved. However, to make up for this, each Syndicate has been assigned a Monday morning to invite their parents to join the boys for Chapel, followed by activities in the classroom. The Junior School were first to play hosts!

There was definitely an air of excitement as our youngest boys welcomed their parents to join them at school yesterday morning! Monday morning traditionally starts with a Chapel Service, opened on this occasion with a piano piece by Year 3 student, Gavin Chen. Fellow Year 3 student, Fred O’Brien had the honour of welcoming the parents and explaining that the theme of the service was ‘What do you want to be?’ Year 2 student, Remy Jardine introduced this week’s Value as Perseverance, and students from Years 1-3, Austin Chen, Amos Tenenbaum, Rohan and Patryk Bhamidipaty, Christian Smidt and Aaron Zhao each had a part to play either reading the Bible or leading the School in prayer. Despite barely being able to peek over the lectern, they all spoke with great confidence!

Picking up on the theme, ‘Who do you want to be,’ Reverend Reuben Hardie told the boys this wasn’t just about choosing a future career but determining the sort of person they will become. Quoting Kurt Hahn, the father of Outward Bound, he said, ‘There’s more in you than you think!’

And we learned there was more to some of the boys’ teachers! Rev Hardie listed a variety of jobs staff had held prior to becoming teachers. These ranged from a wild life guide in the Kruger National Park (Mrs Miles), to a baker (Mr Sunde), an archaeologist (Miss Dalziel), fireman (Rev Hardie) …and who would have guessed that Principal, Mr Peter Cassie did a stint as a clown during his student days!

Following Chapel, it was all hands on deck in the Junior School for an hour of shared activities. The Years 0-1 boys created life-size personas of their future selves with mums and dads joining in the cutting out and gluing – it looks like New Zealand won’t be short of police and firemen any time soon! Year 2 made paper pottles to plant sun flower seeds and made bracelets with ‘ultra violet’ beads that change colour in the sunlight. Year 3 introduced their parents to their current studies about Antarctica, with a focus on penguins. The boys loved having their parents at school!

With the approach of interval, the parents were invited to join staff for morning tea in the Hall, hosted by the Parents and Friends. Mr Cassie told them it had been a real pleasure to be able to welcome them back on to campus and is now looking forward to seeing our Middle School parents ‘get busy’ next Monday, followed by the Senior School parents the week after.

Our parents play a huge part in the life of our school, and we are always thankful for their support. We hope they enjoyed their morning as much as the boys did!

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