Kia ora, e te whānau

Term One has been busy! It was good to feel as if we were almost in pre Covid days, with so many trips and events happening. I know that can be disruptive at times, but there is so much more to school than what happens in the classroom - and often these other events are the things students (and staff) will remember for decades to come.

Last week was Summer tournament week and our teams did so well:

• The senior Floorball team won nationals for the second year in a row

• The Volleyball team won their division

• The rowers won 1 Gold medal in the Under 17 pair - Emma Bagrie & Jess Sutherland; a bronze in the Under 18 pair - Zola Kemp & Liv Mazey and another bronze in the U18 coxed four - Emma, Zola, Liv & Jess, coxed by Emily Mora and the Futsal and cricket teams all had good tournaments, but unfortunately Cricket was rained out so will have to play their semis and finals in Term 4

• And then on Sunday our top debating team won the regional champs, beating Scots in the final.

Thanks to all the students taking part and all the parents and coaches who have been involved this season.

Staffing update

This week we are farewelling Sally Kendall, who has worked in both Learning Support and then our Guidance team for the last 7 years and Nicola McPhee, our Arts coordinator. It has been a pleasure to work with each of them and we wish them well as they both head off to spend more time with family. We are close to confirming a replacement for Sally, but have yet to find an Arts Coordinator - there’s an ad in this newsletter incase you are interested (or know someone who might be!) .

Lu Chen, Asst HOD Maths, is going home to China for a term and we are delighted to welcome back Sonja Stauble from Canada to take her classes.

Teacher only days

The Ministry of Education have given schools two days this year for curriculum development as the huge raft of changes come at us ready for implementation starting next year. The first day has to be taken in the first two weeks of Term 2, so ours will be on Friday 5 May, along with a number of other Wellington schools. We’ve just heard that the second will be in November but we have yet to finalise that date.

We will also have most of the school Working from home on 15 June as that is our Open day and we can’t accommodate the hundreds of visitors to the school as well as all the students while we are working in a building/demolition site. Yrs 9, 10 and 12 will be at school; Ys 11 and 13 will be at home.

Proposed ongoing industrial action

Unfortunately as we end the term, there is no light at the end of the tunnel with regard to the teachers’ contract negotiations. That means we are facing more disruption until it is resolved. We will let you know as soon as anything is confirmed (we have to be given 3 days’ notice), but we have warned there is likely to be nationwide rostering home of different years levels on Tuesdays and Thursdays from week 2 and regional strike days in Week 3. There is also a ban on meetings after 4.30pm from the start of Term 2 and the relief ban continues. Obviously our hope is that the contract will be settled and this action won’t be needed, but I need to make you aware of it as a worst case scenario.

The relief ban will mean that if we don’t have enough relievers available on a given day, we won’t be able to cover some classes or we may need to send a year level home so that the staff who would have taught them can cover other classes.

The 4.30 deadline for meetings will mean that things like Parent interviews need to be finished by then, but fortunately we already have that planned.

We’ll just take it week by week and email you as we know more.

As we head into the holidays, I’d like to wish everyone Ramadan Murbarak, Happy Easter and a restful Anzac day. We look forward to seeing everyone back on 26 April.

Ngā manaakitanga

Julia Davidson