Principal’s Notes – May 2026

Let me start off with a question – “What is the sport with the largest number of participants in NZ?” Everyone I’ll bet knows the answer – NETBALL! Indicative of that huge level of participation, I can share with you that this year Springs-Waiōrea has 17 Netball teams playing in the School Sport competition and for the first time EVER we have TWO teams in the Premier A division! The ‘big dogs’, in terms of top Netball schools have a team in the Prems and here we are with TWO!!! Go Springs!

Our second biggest participation sport at Springs? Any guesses? Sure enough – BASKETBALL, with 13 teams. Our beautiful new gym helps explain some of that along with NBA coverage from the US and scholarship opportunities over there.

Our third biggest participation sport is FOOTBALL (soccer), with 7 teams taking to the fields every week. As a school ,we are taking this great opportunity with such huge numbers of students participating to introduce some professional coaching and partnerships with clubs to get the very best out of our teams. This will also establish clear and logical pathways for students in
the local primary and intermediate schools to come to Springs knowing their club associations and professional coaches will have their backs.

This is a long-term project to develop the reputation of Springs on the sports fields as being equal to or better than our traditional competitor schools. Come on down and watch the teams in action.

Our Western Springs Precinct Partner, MOTAT, have asked me to raise with parents who park in the MOTAT 2 driveway to please refrain from doing that for Health and Safety reasons – see the separate feature in this Newsletter for details.

I understand the challenges of after school pick ups and the convenience of this road but point out that this is marked with yellow no-parking markings as well. We do want to be good precinct partners and ask that you respect the wishes of MOTAT’s management team by doing the right thing and parking elsewhere at school pick up time at either end of the school day.

Ngā mihi,

Ivan Davis
Principal