Principal’s Notes – November 2024

The press has recently featured an article referencing lateness at an intermediate school. The Principal at that school was concerned that 10% (85) of the children at his school had signed in late on a single day in the previous week.

For Springs, that 10% would be 185 students signing in late in the morning – not the reality for us, but on some days we are getting pretty close to that.

I say regularly, to students and parents, that “we start later than any other high school on the planet but still kids are late!” Worryingly, the most frequent reason given is “slept-in”. Again our message to our kids is along the lines of: “when you are working and turn up late for your job what is your employer going to do?” And I think we all know the answer to that.

The frustration for teachers and other students in class having lessons interrupted or instructions having to be repeated for late arrivals is frankly unfair! There is also a distinction between ‘one-off’ lateness and those who are consistently late, and here, we are appealing to families to address this with their children – we have some specific advice below.

Dan Ford, a clinical psychologist, explains that the best way for parents to help young people to get to school on time is to make sure they get up at the same time every morning – even on the weekend. He notes that waking time is a lot more important than the time they go to sleep. Getting out into daylight as soon as possible and getting around 16 hours of daytime activity are seen as being crucial. Dan compares sleep to hunger. Just like working up an appetite by being active during daytime hours – physical activity and waking at the same time each day prepares the body for sleep. Young people aged 13 to 18 (high school students) need 8 hours to 10 hours sleep per night, so for a 7.00am wake-up they should be asleep by 10.00pm.

Parents, please ensure your children are up and at ‘em ready to be here on site at 8.50am keen and ready for the first lesson of the day at 9:00am.

Ngā mihi,

Ivan Davis
Principal