We have come to the end of a long Term 3 for staff and students but what a term it has been. I want to take a moment to thank all our staff for their resilience, commitment, good humour and care for our young people and towards each other.

It feels a long time since the beginning of term when teachers and students were unwell and wore masks for all learning.  Again, I thank students and families for supporting learning from home days and staff for taking each other's classes. It has been wonderful to be able to see assemblies, tournament week, music concerts, drama and dance performances, pou events all take place as we came out of Covid restrictions. The pou lip-sync event on the last Friday of term was a fitting way to bring this term to a close - the energy, fun and camaraderie that are so important for our young people was so evident in this event. 

This term saw the election of our new Board of Trustees including new staff and student representatives. The Board held a Community Connect night for families. This term we also started to welcome Year 8s onto our site. Full derived grade school exams for seniors were held as well as pilot Numeracy and PISA testing. Families, students and staff were surveyed on make-up, hair, nails and jewellry which led to changes in this area. We also listened to the contribution of families, students and staff around the Junior semesters and are confident about the direction of curriculum in our Junior school. Our students had the opportunity to contribute to a survey around sexual harassment and we are proud of the senior students who initiated this discussion. We will be reporting on this to our community in Term 4. 

Looking forward into Term 4 one focus will be ensuring all our senior students achieve their NCEA goals and a programme is being put in place to support them. We are excited to be able to hold prizegiving and Year 13 graduation at the end of the year for students and their families. Meanwhile senior students need to focus on the external examinations and doing their best at these through November. Junior students have settled into their second semester courses. Summer sport sign ups have started happening, and I encourage our Juniors to get involved. 

As we are able to return to full school life, I urge parents and caregivers to check the school calendar on Kamar for details of events and end of year activities. Please note that there are two NCEA accord staff only days set by the Ministry which Avonside are taking on Nov 10th and Nov 14th.  These surround the Canterbury Show day to make a long weekend for Whānau. 

Have a safe and happy holiday break.