He mihi mahana ki a koutou katoa, warm greetings to you all

Fortunately, our student and staff attendance remains at a high level, so we continue to celebrate more abundant and positive school days and learning experiences. Please continue to encourage your family to practise health and safety practices and courtesy to ensure everyone feels valued for their choices.

Thank you to all those who attended our Open and Option Evening last Tuesday. It was a wonderful feeling and a great sight to see so many people in our school, learning about our teaching and our unique Junior School model. A tremendous thank you to our students who volunteered for the evening.

Next Wednesday and Thursday afternoon/evening, we have our annual Learning Conferences from 2.00pm - 7pm. Please ensure you book student interviews online to secure your conference time(s). This is an ideal time to meet with teachers and learn about your child’s progress and learning pathway for the remainder of 2022. Our school finishes at 1:25pm on these days, with buses running at their normal time. Students staying at school to wait for buses will be supervised until 3:15pm. We look forward to seeing you.

We have our scheduled ‘Teacher Only Day’ on Wednesday 24 August. This is one of the 8 ‘Accord Days’ provided for New Zealand schools’ to plan for, and begin to incorporate suggested and revised curriculum changes. For this accord day we are exploring and examining our commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi, as the founding document of our country. Thank you for your support.

Although our students’ motivation and engagement with school can wane due to the impact of the pandemic, please continue to expect high standards from them. For example, we expect that all students wear the correct uniform to school to uphold our expectations. When, (for various reasons), a student doesn't have the right pair of shoes, or the school jumper or jacket, please send a signed note with them to school so they can get a uniform pass from their Whanau Leader. When students dress in their school uniform with pride, and speak to others with kindness and manners, this reflects their values and integrity; their Manaaki, which means to cherish, conserve, and sustain oneself and those around you. Let’s keep AJHS pride alive!

Please feel free to contact me with any questions. Have an enjoyable weekend.

Take care whanau.

Cushla Shepherd, Principal / Tumuaki