Welcome back to the final term of 2023.  Spring is in the air and the children have returned to school full of energy and good cheer.  One of the highlights of this term is the Shakespeare Play, which you are all welcome to attend with your children and friends and family.  Ticket purchase information will be available soon.

In our Assembly this morning, we were entertained by Year 8 who have been studying the election last term with Mrs Roscoe in Geography.  The presentation took the form of a Q & A where the students answered questions ranging from:

What is a democracy? and How many seats are there in the New Zealand parliament? to What’s a party? and What are some of the major parties’ policies that the children might be interested in?  Two answers to the last question were, the Labour Party wants to ban sugary drinks in schools and the National Party wants to ban mobile phones in schools; neither of which will make any difference at Ficino because the students don’t use phones at School and we don’t serve fizzy drinks.

The second half of the Assembly was devoted to the upcoming clash between the All Blacks and Ireland in the quarter final of the Rugby World Cup.  The Year 8’s demonstrated a scrum and the various positions on the field were explained.  It was surprising how few of our students have any knowledge of our national sport.  They are hopefully somewhat more informed now.  Go the ABs for Sunday morning!