I spoke to a parent at cricket a couple of weeks ago and he remarked on all the teacher-only days that have occurred this year. That has probably been an irritation for many parents but these were days agreed to by the ministry to help us with preparation for a new NCEA to be implemented […]
We are more than halfway through the final term for the year. Some of our seniors have left us already and some are involved in NCEA examinations. Traditionally when our seniors leave we have run a senior prizegiving for our years 11 to 13 which is normally quite a long affair but a chance to […]
Tēnā koutou katoa, I would to take this opportunity to introduce the new board members who took their positions at the meeting on Monday 22 August. As we had 5 members of the school community put their names forward, there was no need to have an election and they were able to take up the […]
Last year at this time I mentioned how tired staff and students were and the need for the break. This year I really want to pay tribute to our staff who have been consistently going above and beyond to keep things running at school as normally as possible. There has been a great, extra burden […]
I attended a Principal’s conference in Queenstown earlier this week. There were strong themes of decolonising and re-indigenising our curriculum with Professor Mere Berryman’s keynote presenting a powerful examination and, at times horrific history, of education in New Zealand. In approaching this, Professor Berryman quoted Moana Jackson who said that “… to understand how to […]
Kia ora koutou This has been a challenging term. I know I have said this before and every time I write that down or say it, something else comes along and we have to make alternate plans to meet the new challenge. I want to thank all of the students for the way that they […]
At this time of year we are normally looking backwards, at our work last year, and looking forwards, making plans for the rest of the year based on the data we have collected from last year. Mark Twain famously said: “there are lies, damned lies and statistics” and I’m conscious of this whenever I collect […]
This year has brought challenges. I have detailed these in previous messages. I expect there are more in store in relation to COVID next year when we are living with it in our community. It is hard to know what that will look like but it will affect attendance at school for teachers and students […]
At this time of year we would normally have a range of celebrations as our seniors and, in particular, our departing year 13 class move into exam mode. These events haven’t been possible, in their normal form, because the Ministry of Education sent advice to schools at the end of September which was a shift […]
In his end of term Principal’s message, Dominic pays tribute to friend and colleague, Mike Neville.
