Life in The Fast Lane!

The day started with an 8.00am meeting with Phil the architect to go over the refurbished Tech Block and look at plans for the revamped Science Lab and English Resource Room. Had to cancel my physio appointment which is not a big concern as I have been going for quite a few months and I still feel like a broken down old man. The bonus was Phil shouted me a coffee and Jack from the Hot Bread Shop invited me to a party! Had a great meeting with Lynda and wahine number 1 discussing the enormous success we have had in reducing drug offending this year. Our particular programme of Lynda's group counselling based on Smashed n Stoned, the contract and the random drug testing has had great results; the most important being the atmosphere of honesty that now exists which has led to several students self-referring. Only 29 students infringed this year compared with 45 in 2003, 39 in 2004 and 72 in 2005. The most profound impact has been on the reduction of repeat offending down to 2 from 15 in 2003, 7 in 2004 and 13 in 2005!

Headboy from 2002, Jed, dropped in at the end of the day and caught up with me. He has just completed his 4th year at medical school and has offered to talk to our students and/or support any student thinking of studying health sciences.

Had a great meeting with the two wahines and Hone after school for 90 minutes reviewing the way in which we have used restorative principles to manage classroom behaviour issues and the fine tuning of the procedures for 2007. It has been an exhilirating journey, but we've left some passengers behind: some never got on the train and some have tried to jump off as we slowed on some of the bends!

I've just got back in from the Tuesday night cycle time trial that is held in town which now has 96 registrations. 47 brave souls took on the howling gale tonight. Not sure of my time but I think I did quite well. Started with Roger who didn't drop me until Hospital Hill (after letting me lead most of the way!!). Really suffered from oxygen debt at the end. Lots of groaning, dry retching and ripped-raw throat! Wahine no. 2 cried off tonight and biked to Maraenui instead, and Kurt and Scott whimped out because they had been cycling with kids today as part of Outdoor Ed.

Looking forward to tomorrow as I am hosting visitors from 2 other schools who want to look at some of our interesting programmes. I always like skiting!!