Kia ora te whānau. Well, that was quite a year! With lockdown and the building project so many events affected as a result of both of these things.

I do feel as if the end of the year has been affected quite significantly, but thanks to Te Kura offering an exam venue for the majority of exams and junior students and staff maintaining a really positive approach, we have got there! That said, I do not think anyone will be sorry to see the 2021 year end.

As is always the case, I have quite a bit to update you about as we finish.

Departing staff

In a staff of 150, there is always movement, and this year is no different.

Pam Breek, HOD Maths, is moving to Nelson after 11 years with us.  Andrew Carey, Commerce, is going to be Assistant HOD Social Sciences at Wellington High School, also after 11 years here.  Elriza Claassen, Assistant HOD Maths who joined us in 2019, is going to be HOD Maths at Inglewood High School in Taranaki. Claudine Earley, who has taught part-time in a number of departments since 2012 has finished this year’s contract. Cathy Elder, who joined the Maths department in 2019 is moving to Tereora College in Rarotonga. Chris Green, who has worked in the Commerce department in a number of fixed term roles since 2012 has finished his part-time contract this year. Jolene Herrick, Dean and Commerce Teacher is moving to Waitaki Girls’ High School in Oamaru, after 8 years here. Cameron Hopkinson who joined the Maths department in 2019 is moving home to New Plymouth and a job at Spotswood College. Jane O’Malley, who has taught English Language since 2017, has been appointed Assistant HOD Languages at Wellington East Girls’ College. Finn Stenner who joined the Social Sciences department this year has been appointed to a permanent position at Hutt International Boys’ School. Eryn Street, who joined the Drama department in Term 3 has finished her fixed term contract. Christopher Welch, who has been in a maternity leave position in the Maths department since last last year, is moving to Hornby High School in Christchurch.  And finally, Melissa Young who joined us as Deputy Principal in Term 3 has had a change in her family situation and is moving back to Christchurch

We are so grateful to all of these staff members for their time at WGC and the work they have put in to support their students and colleagues.  We wish them all well as they leave WGC.

I am happy to report that, at this stage, we are fully staffed for next year.

Covid

Thank you to the hundreds of Year 9-12 parents who have already uploaded Covid vaccination status information. It is so helpful to get it now as our Enrolments Manager does have to check every entry before next year, so this is giving her a head start.

As we explained, there will be some activities we already know about that students will not be able to take part in next year if they are not vaccinated.  In all cases this is because the governing body or venue has made this call - the school is not able to overrule this. So far this means the following activities are able to be accessed by fully vaccinated students only:

• All sports run by College Sport Wellington

• Summer and winter tournaments run by NZ School Sports
• Athletic Sports - Newtown Park will only admit fully vaccinated people.  Unvaccinated students will have house activities organised at school which will generate house points
• Year 10 journeys
• The Big Sing

We are expecting a large number of other events to be in a similar position once we get registration information next year.

Please be aware that schools enter the traffic light system on 1 January next year.  We are still working through what that means for us but we are aiming to post something on our website by later this week.

We know that as from next year if the school gets a case of Covid in the staff or student population, the school will be contacting contacts, not the Health authorities.  It looks as if long lockdowns are unlikely, but we may have shorter events depending on the number of people affected, the availability of staff and whether we need to do deep cleans.  With this in mind, we will be having a Working From Home day for all students for one day each term so that we can remind them of how that system works at WGC and get them used to our processes. The Term 1 day is on 22 February.

Property

As you have probably heard, we have a lot going on these holidays. In this newsletter there is an update from the Ministry of Education which gives you the latest information about where things are at and a map that shows the proposed location of the new buildings.

So the site is going to be incredibly busy this summer getting as much done as possible before school returns.  On top of that there is also work starting to completely refurbish the Brook basement toilets; provide better accessibility to the ground floor of Brook for wheelchairs; installation of an alarm system in Tiakiwai; and the relocation of a number of staff offices in preparation of Tower’s demolition.

It’s going to be a very busy summer, but on the upside, at least we can now see some progress!

School closed

Because of all the building work, including a complete power outage for Pipitea and the senior staff’s offices, there will be no staff on site from 20 December until 24 January 2022.  On 25 January we will receive an update and either move back into Pipitea or set up offices in International House until the power is reconnected.

Senior staff sabbaticals

Penny Greenwood and I have been very fortunate to be awarded Ministry of Education sabbaticals next year which are each for 10 school weeks. When I am away, Anna Wilson will be Acting Principal and Maria Moran will be Acting DP for the full 20 weeks.

My leave is from 26 March until 19 June and I will be looking at the new vertical schools in Sydney and Melbourne (fingers crossed) as well as some of the new schools in NZ.  I am also planning on spending some time in schools that have dropped NCEA Level 1 so we can learn from their experiences.  And I am going to spend the first week at Maadi cup helping cook and support our crews - it has been a long held ambition that I have never been able to justify, but next year I will be doing it.

Penny will be away from 20 June until 11 September and her focus is on developing an inclusive tick programme for school - based on the idea of the rainbow tick some organisations use, but broader in scope and less expensive.

Thank you all for your support of your students and WGC throughout 2021.  I hope you all have a restful summer and that 2022 is kind to us all.

Meri kirihimete

Julia Davidson
Principal