He mihi mahana ki a koutou katoa, warm greetings to you all,
I trust you are all still riding high from our victory by the Black Fern’s against England for the World Cup Rugby final last Saturday evening. The culture of the team, cohesion of play, performance of endurance and skill was evident throughout their entire tournament. It has been a long time since I have witnessed this level of unity, pride and passion by our nation. We can all draw on this incredible team spirit, as we all need stamina to build resilience to work through the challenges of today.
It was with deep reluctance that we postponed our AJHS Spring Gala day last Saturday until Saturday 4 March 2023. The deluge of wet weather during the week leading up to our event left our school field in a predicament. No vehicle, let alone a flock of people, would have left it in a reasonable condition for our school week of activities. Thank you for your understanding and we look forward to seeing you on Saturday March 4th.
With 4 weeks of our school year remaining, summer is before us, with a well deserved break for many. Please be intentional about supporting our students to keep motivated and engaged to finish their school programme strong. Our student attendance fluctuates around 75%, so our aim is to sustain continuity to finish our year positively. Please keep guiding your children to be prepared and participate in their school days with purpose. Our parent support is pivotal to student learning.
Recently we have experienced some disappointing student behaviour around defiance towards school expectations and teachers. Our expectations provide clear parameters for students through Years 7-10. This prepares them for a wide range of life contexts. Here is a link to School DOCS (enter the username “ajhs” and password “empower”) if you need to particularly check the uniform, phone, and make-up policies. Without rules of engagement, we would not be meeting our responsibility to equip our students to respect our values and protocols within our school community.
Please remember we have our two final Ministry of Education Accord Teacher Only Days, next Friday 25 November, and Monday 28 November.
On Friday 2nd December school will close at 12.00pm for the PPTA paid union meeting. Buses will run as usual at the end of the day. Non PPTA teachers will be at school to supervise any students who are unable to be collected prior to 3:15.
Ehara taku toa i te toa takitahi, engari he toa takitini.
Success is not the work of one but the work of many.
Take care te whanau.
Cushla Shepherd, Principal / Tumuaki
Albany Junior High School