Avonside Girls' High School — May 7, 2020

On 11 March we held our Academic Colours Assembly to celebrate the achievement of our students in NCEA in 2019 by presenting merit certificates to those who had achieved NCEA endorsed with Merit and to present colours badges to those achieving NCEA endorsed with Excellence. Those students who had achieved a whole qualification (that is, at least 80 credits at Excellence level) were awarded academic honours badges.

Guest speaker at the assembly was former student, Maree Palmer, Dux of Avonside in 2015. Maree has just completed a Bachelor of Software Engineering with Honours at UC and is employed as a software developer locally. Maree shared her experiences since leaving high school, explaining how the direction she thought she would follow had changed and how she had discovered something she loved and was good at. She encouraged girls to keep developing their skills, as they would be valuable beyond school, and to keep an open mind – to never say never, as you just might find that you end up doing and enjoying something that you had earlier dismissed! 

It was fabulous to see so many girls’ efforts with learning able to be recognised. As we applaud the NCEA achievements of 2019, we look forward to supporting girls achieving personal excellence in their studies in 2020.