Totara house cultural report 20/February/2014

Totara house has made a great start to this year. With many students getting involved in the cultural aspects of the school. While only being week 3 there have been many students involved already this year. Such as rockband, Music lessons and the house cultural certificate. Last week there were school rockband auditions for drummers, keyboard players, guitar players and bass players. These auditions were very tough with around 100 students trying out for different instruments. In the end only a few could be chosen, and 3 of the 7 students chosen were from our house. Congratulations to Max Henderson from room 17 , Morgan Hatch and Jack Tortoiseshell both from room 19. Well done to these three very talented students. Our house is also well known for getting involved in and around our school  which stands out when it comes to music lessons at school. We have had a amazing turn out of students that are wanting to play instruments this year, ranging for guitar to flute and everything in between. So well done to all students who have decided to get involved and play a instrument this year. In Totara house this year we are also introducing a new award at our house hui's called the Totara house cultural award. This award is presented to a student that has shown great skills in the cultural area of the school. This person does not have to be the best musician in the school but someone who shows commitment and shows that they can improve. This weeks cultural award got to Max Henderson of room 17 for showing what a great and talented musician he is and managing to get into the school cultural newsletter. Well done Max we are all looking forward to see what you can do next. This is the end for now but there will be a new cultural post each week for you to see what is happening in and around our house.

By Jack 

Cybersafety tips

Tuesday 11 February marked International Cybersafety day and these informative tips were published in the Herald. 

Parents who attended the 'Meet the Teacher' evening were keen to read these helpful reminders.

Kids can be pretty observant and will notice things that you do online - be conscious of how you act online based on the guidelines you've set with the kids.

Got teens or soon-to-be-teenagers in the house? Today is Safer Internet Day which means today might be a good time to have that chat about playing it safe online.

Nowadays that's a tough conversation as many parents feel somewhat behind the eight ball when it comes to talking about online safety to tech-savvy teens. Feeling your pain, we've crafted 5 tips to having an effective Internet safety conversation with the kids and making it work.

1. Make sure they understand that Internet safety is important

You wouldn't let your kids go out into town on their own at night, so why would you let them use the web unattended?

It's one thing for parents to understand the importance of Internet safety, but for any real talk to be truly effective, you need buy-in from your kids too. Make sure they understand what the risks are (e.g. stranger danger, online security and so on)

2. A little awareness goes a very long way

There's a huge amount of info on how to best play it safe online. Sites like Google's Family Safety Centre have a huge amount of tips and tricks that are massively useful for concerned parents. These range from guides to using Safe Search settings, through to creating robust and more secure passwords. Knowing some of this stuff can help you as a parent to help your family limit their exposure to the shadier side of the Internet.

3. Set some ground rules

Having educated the family on the risks associated with the Internet, laying down a few basic guidelines is also a good idea. These could consist of rules around social networking sites, through to which apps your teen can or cannot use.

These rules could be: allow parents to access the kids' social networking accounts any time, kids can't use the Internet in their bedroom, kids can't be online after 8:30pm - there's no gold standard, and these are likely to vary considerably from family to family.

4. Set a good example

Kids can be pretty observant and will notice things that you do online - be conscious of how you act online based on the guidelines you've set with the kids. This can range from issues such as using your smartphone at the dinner table or even leaving it unlocked. If you expect your kids to play it safe online, commit to playing it safe too. Set a good example they can follow.

5. Keep on keeping on

If playing it safe online becomes a one-off conversation, chances are that it won't be terribly successful. Because of this, the best thing to do to help your kids stay safer online is to be around when they're using the Internet as much as possible, and if not at least aim to also have regular conversations on how they're going online. Agree to weekly check-ins to make sure playing it safe online isn't just a flash in the pan. It's a great idea to keep the lines of communication open so your kids feel they can talk to you about anything they find disturbing online.

Room 19 in 2014!

Here we are! A collection of 13 girls and 20 boys. ranging from academic awesomeness to superior sporting. We hope to have an awesome year in 2014 and an especially good week at camp!

Introducing.... Room 20

Here we are on on our first day back!  Thirty four people who have come together to share 2014. Two new students joined us - Bayley from Christchurch and Toby from another Year 7 group at a Tauranga School.

Welcome to the 2014 Totara blog. 

Room 17, 18, 19 and 20 are excited to share their thoughts, experiences and work with the community. Please comment on our posts and explore the other pages within our blog. You may find some of the information or links rather helpful.

Thanks,

Totara Team