Kia ora, e te whānau

It has been a strange term. I know we’d all have preferred the students to be at school every day, but we’ve had to deal with the situation we had in front of us. The union and the government should hear about the outcome of arbitration by the end of the third week of term, so we’ll all know a bit more then about where to next. In the meantime thank you all for your patience and pragmatism.

A few key messages as we end the term:

1. Congratulations to all our groups and teams that have had such great success in the last few weeks - ShowQuest winning their event; Kapahaka performing superbly at regionals last week; Ngā Korimako qualifying for the Finale of the Big Sing; the Gold Junior Underwater hockey team winning their regional champs and the Senior team coming 2nd; the Cross country teams winning 4 gold and one silver medal in the their events at nationals. These were all amazing results that have come about through long hours and plenty of hard work on the part of everyone involved and we’re really proud of all of you.

2. Parent interviews will take place for Yr 11-13 in Week 2. These will happen on Monday 24 and Wednesday 26 July. Yr 9-10 interviews will take place in Week 4 - Tuesday 8 and Thursday 10 August.

All interviews will be on line from 3.30 - 6 BUT if staff have non contacts in the afternoon they may choose to start a bit earlier and finish earlier. More information will come to you by email about how to make your bookings.

We always recommend students to be in these meetings as well as parents.

1. The 2024 Subject selection event will take place on Thursday 3 August from 4.30-6. It is an in person only event. This gives students and whānau a chance to talk to HODs about subjects for next year. For Yr 10s and their whānau, there will also be two sessions to help you as you construct your programme for next year and to answer any questions about the changes we are making as we move away from NCEA Level 1.

2. We will be changing our mobile phone rules next term. We’re just waiting on some gear to arrive and once it does I will send everyone a video explaining what we’re going to be doing and how this will work. Providing the deliveries happen in the first week of term, it shouldn’t take long to set things up.

I hope everyone gets a break over the holidays. There has been a lot more sickness in the last fortnight (probably not helped by our lack of heating for 2 weeks) so this should give everyone a chance to recover and refresh for the incredibly busy life we lead in Term 3.

Ngā manaakitanga

Julia Davidson