On Wednesday 10 March we held our Academic Assembly. For our senior students, this was an opportunity to be congratulated for their NCEA academic achievements of 2020. Merit awards and Excellence badges were presented to girls who achieved either 50 Merit or Excellence credits in 2020 at Level 1 and Level 2. Honours awards were also awarded to the very top academically performing students of 2020 and we also congratulated students who were awarded Scholarship last year and were pleased to welcome back three of these women to our assembly.

This year’s guest speaker was Ms Heni Unwin. Heni graduated Avonside Girls High School in 2008 and has since followed her passion and dream of becoming a marine scientist. She works at Cawthron Institute in Nelson where her main role is to interweave mātauranga māori and science together. Ms Unwin is currently working on her Masters in Environmental Science at the University of Canterbury and she shared her journey with us.

Our Academic Assembly was also an opportunity for our Z Club fundraising efforts to be presented to our chosen charity this year, CanTeen NZ, a charity that works hard to support young people living with cancer. We were proud to welcome Z Club spokesperson and CanTeen representatives to our assembly.

It was also a wonderful opportunity to congratulate students who worked on Patrick Peterson, our penguin sculpture. Patrick was exhibited with penguins from other schools in Tūranga, the city Library, and then later at the Wigram Airforce museum. Patrick will be displayed in the school.

Congratulations to all students involved in our Academic Assembly.