Term 1 2024

Avonside Girls’ High School Te Kura Kohine Ōtākaro – A community where ākonga are empowered and nurtured to thrive.

Our vision statement above comes from consultation with our students and community. The first goal to achieve in this for us is establishing a wairua in which all students belong in their identity. That was certainly encapsulated in the start of the school year and Term 1.

2024 at Avonside Girls’ High School Te Kura Kohine Ōtākaro has started with a strong sense of school wairua and energy. This has been led by our amazing staff and Year 13 students from day 1. The year began with our Year 13 leaders out on a three-day camp experience to bond and develop their leadership skills and goals. It was an incredible experience for these students who demonstrated courage (kia maia), manaakitanga, determination (kia manawanui) and leadership. They came back to school with strong energy and welcomed the new Year 9s into the school. This term the Year 13 peer support leaders continue to work with our Year 9s to support them at the start of secondary school experience. Our staff led a mihi whakatau to welcome new staff and we were proud of Quentin Smitheran, a teacher, who led the whaikorero.

Year 9 students had 3 days at Avonside to get to know the school and settle in. We had lots of fun including the traditional newspaper dress competition in which students had to create outfits from newspapers that reflected their house, women leaders and school values. There were some incredibly creative costumes that encompassed our school mauri. Following on from that we held our house tabloid sports. Everyone dressed up in house colours and had heaps of fun.

This term we have also held our swimming sports and athletics’ day. These were great days and enjoyed by all – lots of participation and competition. Summer sport has also got off to a great start with students competing in touch, tennis, indoor netball, volleyball, cricket, softball, ki o rahi and rowing. Winter sport trials are currently on and we are excited to have more sign ups, teams and groups participating in sport. Our Music department is also thriving with bigger numbers in orchestra, choir and bands. Kapa Haka is now 40 strong and our polyfest Pasifika group consists of 78 students – they perform at Canterbury Polyfest in Hagley Park. Both groups sound amazing, and we are very proud of this development in the arts and cultural groups in our school.

At the end of Term we celebrated summer tournament sport successes, including NZ representation in orienteering (Phoebe Hunt) and speed skating (Issy Stock). We also congratulated Milly Perry on gaining a place in the NZ School’s Symphony Orchestra. Our staff were busy too with Mrs Wall selected for the NZ Masters Hockey team and Whaea Isla’s poetry book “Talia” shortlisted for the NZ Ockham Book awards.

At the heart of what we do we want our students to succeed academically, and we would like to congratulate all our 2023 students on their NCEA results. We celebrate this in our academic assembly. With over 70% pass rate at Level 1 and Level 3 and 75% pass rate at Level 2 our students are achieving well. We would like to congratulate our staff and students on the growth in endorsements and we were excited to hear about our students who gained scholarships. 7 scholarships were gained by 5 students with Zoe Langley gaining an Outstanding Scholarship in Technology.

Congratulations to all students for their positive attitude and upholding of the school values. Have a great holiday break and come back refreshed for the next term.