Glenavon School is in the headlines again - for all the right reasons.

Five years ago the school was under close government monitoring, with ERO reviews every one to two years. Young principal Phil Toomer, aged just 28 at the time, was tasked with turning the school around and that is exactly what he did. In 2016 the school received an outstanding review resulting in a 4-5 year monitoring status, considered an “exceptional standard”. Never one to take all the credit, Toomer accredited this outcome to the staff, board of trustees, the students and the community.

Now, Glenavon School has recently been announced as a finalist in the 2018 Prime Minister's Education Excellence Awards, in the category of leadership.

Glenavon School set out to restructure the leadership of the school. They were very intentional about cultivating a culture that empowers staff, adjusting systems and school structures to allow staff to be challenged, motivated, and to reach their potential.

Principal Phil Toomer gives an example of how this change in leadership structure achieved the desired outcomes with students:
“We had this project called “Step up the Talk” designed to lift student agency [the level of control, autonomy, and power that a student experiences in regard to their own learning].
“We used to have the classic principal-DP-team leader pyramid. We eliminated the entire middle leadership tier, so we have a principal and DPs now, but also have small autonomous teams who focus on learning. For this project we said to teachers, “Get into teams of three, go into the class and start experimenting and come back and tell us what worked”. We found that by teachers taking the leadership themselves we were able to get through that project far faster and be able to scale results a lot better.
“So that’s an example of us ‘reducing the noise’ and allowing teachers to just get on with it themselves. We find that it’s nice and streamlined, it’s consistent and it means there’s no double up of work, so teachers can just get on with the job of teaching.”

For years there have been a series of unsavoury incidents at Craigavon. From memory, it used to be men jumping out of the trees with items of clothing missing. More recently it was poisoned baits laid for dogs. In the last year there has been dumping, a car burnt out on the Connaught St boundary, and a shooting death in a nearby house. The protestations of a tree trimming “pastor” caught on camera dumping a truckload of mulch was the only light relief. Even the new $500,000+  playground seemed to take the best part of a childhood to complete.

This surely can’t have been what was envisaged by Mrs W.H. Smith in 1929 when she donated the land to the citizens of Auckland to commemorate the visit of Lord Craigavon.

Now a dog attack has been added to the list. Recently Matthew Adair was walking Rex, a one and a half year old Pomeranian dog off leash near the new playground. He heard dogs running in the bush and then a husky came up and sniffed Rex. Then two other dogs arrived. One of the dogs grabbed Rex and swung him from side to side. Matthew felt helpless as his little dog was yelping before the dogs ran off. Matthew picked Rex up and held the gasping dog but just a few short minutes later Rex died.

The owners of the other dogs were shocked. Matthew amazingly holds no animosity towards them and does not want them to suffer the loss of having their dogs put down.

The grief that Matthew and his wife Becky Wong suffered is clear in Becky’s message:
My beloved little angel Rex was taken away from us yesterday 12.5.18 at the Craigavon dog park, west Auckland. I was not there, and my poor husband had to witness our baby getting bitten and shaken to death by an entire female husky (of a pack of 2 and another large dog) that came out of nowhere in the bush. Quickly and violently, it only took a few seconds and he was gone, through no fault of his own.

Our baby Rex was only 2kg and 1.5 years young. We were devastated that he didn't even stand a chance. Blood was everywhere; it stained my husband's jacket, pants, and... our hearts. Rex was taken from us right there and then. It happened too suddenly and what was left was a cool, silent and stiff body. Our poor Rex had so much life in him. He was such a good boy, beautiful inside and out.

I just want to remind everyone that dog attacks can happen any time and anywhere. It's often only a story that's been shared and heard until it happens to you. It is more than enough for it to happen once to your fur baby. There were so many ‘what ifs’ and ‘if onlys’ that have gone through our head. Too many tears have been shed, grieving for Rex. I just hope that if you see this post, you will be reminded to keep a closer eye on your fur babies around off leash areas, to protect your or someone else’s beloved dog.

Since this happened there has been another dog attack at the park. How could this park be made safer and remain as a valuable off leash area for responsible dog ownwers to enjoy with their pets?

Lynfield resident and local practice nurse, Mrs Sue Matthews, took the top prize at the recent Auckland District Health Board Nursing and Midwifery Awards Evening for the category Primary Health Care. The award is given to an exemplary nurse working in primary care who works to improve care across the whole patient journey and takes the lead to improve equity and outcomes.
 
Sue trained as a nurse upon leaving school and has worked as a theatre nurse, a district nurse, an aged care nurse, an accident and emergency nurse and in in the last 18 years has worked as a practice nurse at the Gabriel Medical Practice in Richardson Rd, Mt.Roskill. During this time, she gained her Post Grad Diploma in Nursing, enabling her to gain her diabetes accreditation and in 2016, becoming the first nurse in the Auckland PHO to gain authorisation to prescribe in diabetes health.
 
Sue loves nursing and is regularly praised by her colleagues and patients for her considerable nursing knowledge, her total care and empathetic involvement in their lives and follow-up.
 

Calling all musicians

Blockhouse Bay musician and teacher Basant Madhur invites local musicians – both amateur and professional - to join him in creating a community orchestra. The orchestra will fuse the musical traditions of Western and Indian classical music and bring together the diverse musical backgrounds of West Aucklanders. The idea is to learn together, sharing and celebrating the endless possibilities of music.

Basant Madhur is trained in Indian classical music, an art form based on structured improvisation. It uses a framework of melody and rhythm to create a space for improvisation and creativity to occur within. From simple rules, complex and endlessly changing music emerges. The music can be played on any instrument. Basant and the musicians of the Sargam School of Music will teach the orchestra members the basic principles of Indian classical music, leading them on a musical adventure of discovery, exchange and collaboration.

The idea for the community orchestra was inspired by the London Philharmonia’s 2016 initiative Universal Notes, a highly successful cross-cultural collaboration between British and Indian musicians. Search for “Universal Notes” on YouTube to see more.

The orchestra will hold its first rehearsal on Sunday 8 July at 5:30 pm at the Blockhouse Bay Community Centre. Rehearsals will take place on Sunday and Thursday evenings in July and August, culminating in a public performance in late August.

To find out more and register your interest visit www.artswhau.org.nz/orchestra

Upgrades for courtyard and carpark
Council has confirmed that our carpark and frontage upgrades will be completed before the end of July. Once our upgrade to the front courtyard has been completed local artist Pippa Fay will be working with us to add some colour and culture to this space with some beautiful murals.

Kids’ pottery classes
Kids, get creative and have fun with this hands-on pottery class. You will also learn how to make your own modelling tools out of household items. Register now for Term 3. Tuesdays 3.30 – 4.30pm at the Blockhouse Bay Community Centre. 8 lessons for $60. Ph 626-4980 for bookings.

Annie’s Update
ACC along with North Harbour Sport are investigating the high number of "falls" across Auckland’s fitness centres in the +65-age demographic. To assist in the decrease of this I have made it my goal to eliminate that statistic in my Blockhouse Bay Community Centre seniors exercise classes. Accordingly, ACC has accredited my +65 exercise classes as safe exercise practice for seniors. All classes I teach are fun and interactive, gentle yet challenging, but only to your own limits. Accredited classes are:
Mon: Senior X-Fit
Wed: Active Achievers
Fri: Low Impact Aerobics
For more info contact Annie on 027 284 894 or the centre office on 626 4980.
Nga mihi kia koutou
Annie, Fitness Instructor

Adults Art Classes
Term 3 will also see the Community Centre offering Adults Art Classes. Please contact the Centre for more information 626 4980.

Wondering how to beat boredom in the July school holidays? Come time travelling with the Church of the Saviour holiday programme. Our time lab is all set to travel from the beginning of the earth right into the future, stopping off at places of interest along the way.

If you’ve ever wanted to know what games they played in Roman times, then now is your chance, or help create a time capsule to tell the future about the past! The programme runs from Monday 9th -13th July, 9am-12.30pm and the grand finale is a special session on Sunday 15th July at 11am.

We are blasting off through time and space in search of fun, games, craft activities, stories and more. If your 5-11 year old is interested, bookings open 9am on Monday 18 June. We also have a training program for older kids wanting to be young leaders - registrations open at the same time.

Please contact claire@cots.org.nz for more details or download the registration form from www.cots.org.nz.

The inaugural Glenavon Island Night was held last month at Glenavon School and was attended by around 70 enthusiastic local residents who enjoyed a welcome break from regular family duties and the chance to hang out with other locals at this special adults-only shindig.

The Danger Island Band had folk shimmying island-style all night, while the Te Au Moana Dance Troup offered a chance to kick back and be entertained by their exciting island dance floor show.

Chief organisers Te Pano, who is on the Glenavon Community Trust and is also the caretaker at Glenavon School, and Shalema from Community Waitakere were thrilled with how the evening turned out, enjoying the participation from the community and seeing the fun that was being held by all.

Te Pano’s wife Tapana prepared delicious Rarotongan donuts and chicken drumsticks for the crowd, while Blockhouse Bay Baptist volunteers whipped up island-style potato salad and rice with chop suey.

Glenavon Island Night was made possible by the collaboration of many partners and community members, including Glenavon Community Trust, Community Waitakere, Blockhouse Bay Baptist Church, Glenavon School and the Whau Local Board. Organisers hope that this inaugural event will become an annual event.