Kia ora whanau A busy and successful Term 2, with a range of cultural, academic and sporting events and successes, has put a shine on the wet and overcast weather we have experienced.

Staff Update

This term we welcomed back Ms Nadene Brouwer, Social Sciences, from maternity leave; Ms Jenny Braithwaite who returned earlier than planned to Visual Arts as Ms Mallory Swadel left us last term; Mrs Sophie Kamariera as Qualifications and Assessment Manager while Ms Jenny Lowes is on maternity leave; and Mrs Kim Scott to a part-time position as ESOL Teacher Aide. We also welcomed Ms Lindy Choo as a permanent, full-time assistant teacher of Science and Physics; Mr Jacob Dalley as a full-time Mathematics replacement for Ms Francine Nijdam who is on maternity leave until the end of Term 2 2019; and Mrs Emma Summers, part-time teacher of Music and Drama while Mr Gavin Hurley is on leave. At the start of Term 3 Ms Jayne Crawford joins our teaching staff as a full-time, permanent, assistant teacher of Technology; and we welcome back Ms Sarah Maguire, Social Sciences, from maternity leave. At the end of Term 2 we bid farewell from the Learning Centre to Mrs Katy Brazier and Mrs Kerry Murphy, Learning Assistants, and Miss Michelle Ryan, Correspondence Supervisor; and to Mr Paul Hogan, Technology teacher, who is on leave in Term 3.

Congratulations to Richard Barnett

Mr Richard Barnett, Associate Principal, has been appointed as Principal of Pukekohe High School, a co-educational school of 1800 students, in Auckland Region’s second largest urban area behind Auckland itself. Richard thoroughly deserves this new role and we congratulate him on his appointment. Sadly, this means he will leave us at the end of Term 2.

A special staff function on Thursday 5 July acknowledged Richards’s significant contribution to our school over the last 12 years. He held the role of Head of Faculty Social Sciences for six years; was the Divisional Principal of South Division (Te Puna Tonga) for 4 ½ years; and has been Associate Principal for the last two years. Richard has worked closely with me and is a pivotal member of our school, especially in the areas of curriculum leadership, development of information technology, and teaching and learning. We thank Richard for his significant contribution. He is a selfless person and an effective leader. His commitment and dedication to the students, staff, and the school, is outstanding. He is respected by all for his consistently high standards, his honesty, and the care and support he willingly provides. After 12 years at BHS, we will miss him.

Replacing Mr Barnett, we are pleased to announce that Ms Andrea Griffen, currently Deputy Principal at Ashburton College, has been appointed as Associate Principal from the beginning of Term 3. Andrea will be welcomed with a powhiri on Monday 6 August; and we look forward to her joining the staff.

Tootoot Update

We are pleased to be the first New Zealand school using Tootoot, as this app supports the work of our Pastoral Team and the Year 13 Speak Up group. Tootoot was introduced to students via email at the end of Term 1 and has been promoted in form classes and at assemblies. Students received their tootoot account and username for the app via email, so they can report any of their worries or concerns directly to our school's counselling team.

Students can now download the tootoot app for iPhones, iPads and Android cellphones. We encourage students to use this app as, the more we know, the more we can assist.

Review of BHS Values

A sub-committee of staff, parents and students put a bi-cultural lens on the values and produced a summary poster. Thanks especially to Hana O’Regan, parent of BHS and General Manager, Oranga for Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu, for leading us through the process.

We base our school culture on a vision of personal excellence and caring for others. Our key values of Manaakitanga - being respectful, Mana - having pride, and Rangatiratanga - striving to excel guides the way that students and staff act, feel and think about themselves and about others. A new poster highlighting our revised values is displayed in all classrooms. The BHS Values Team consists of Karen Hunt, Deb Jarrett, Sally-Ann Goodman and me. We aim to embed the Burnside values and ethos - our culture of learning - through a consistent approach and response to student behaviour; and our values are regularly promoted through assemblies by the Values Prefects.

Buildings update:

Aurora Performing Arts Centre: Due to the complexity of this work, plus unforeseen compliance issues with new fire regulations and smoke extraction controls, work has been delayed. Fortunately we have had full access to the Aurora Centre and Green Room since 14 May. We are pleased to be able to hold our regular weekly divisional assemblies and other school/community events again. Work will continue on the exterior of the building through until November.

The repair and refurbishment of the Hunter and Cross Gymnasiums will start during the July holiday break. The first stage is the work on the Hunter gymnasium. The project on both gymnasiums is due to be completed in time for the start of 2019 school year.

Our Education Brief was approved by the Ministry of Education on Wednesday 8 May (refer executive summary and the full document). Thank you to Richard Barnett and Suzanne Baldwin who led the Education Brief Team consisting of Darryn Findlay, Deb Matheson, Murray Paull, Vanessa Sandes (Staff representatives) and Charles Breurkes and Brent Crammond (Board representatives). A job well done! The Education Brief forms the basis of the Master Planning process, and enables the extensive planning, design work, and management of building projects to address earthquake damage, weather tightness issues, and to upgrade and modernise our learning spaces. We hope this planning will commence in Term 3.

NCEA Review:

The review of NCEA, our national secondary schooling qualification, announced by the Minister of Education, has a public consultation process continuing until 16 September. The government wants to hear from students, staff, whanau and all stakeholders about their experiences with NCEA – the challenges, successes, and what we can do better in the future. I believe it is a timely review and is needed.

It is important we address some of the unexpected outcomes of NCEA, particularly over-assessment, and student and staff workloads. We want to take NCEA from being a good qualification, to strengthen it, and make it a great one. Therefore, it is vital that as many young people, parents, whānau, teachers, schools, kura, employers, and members of the community as possible take part in the discussion. We have a unique opportunity to have our say, with debate already in the media, on Facebook, Twitter and other social media channels, in classrooms and staffrooms, at work and around the dinner table at night.

The Government are looking for discussion on six big opportunities or ideas, as well as seeking new, additional, or alternative ideas. There are many ways you can have your say. You can share your thoughts on social media or complete a quick online survey. I encourage you to attend the Christchurch Public Workshop being held here at Burnside High School, in the Staffroom, on Wednesday 25 July, 7-9.30 pm. Registration is required for catering purposes. To register https://e.core-ed.org/registration/nceahaveyoursaychch18#/912/4/start

This will be an interactive, café-style workshop, open to everyone, and part of a series occurring across New Zealand. Please come along to explore the Big Opportunities for NCEA and have your say on its future. Otherwise, if you have lots to say, a detailed submission might be the best way to share your views. You can either upload your own document, or fill in the online form. Please go to either conversation.education.govt.nz/ncea to find out more about the Big Opportunities and access the surveys, or join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Neighbourly:

#NCEAHaveYourSay

#NCEAReview

#EdConvo1

Year 12 Formal

The Year 12 Hollywood Formal on Saturday 16 June was a great success. Approximately 430 students and partners attended, as well as 20 staff. This was a wonderful occasion and I was extremely proud of the students. There was a general air of energy, fun, friendship and sense of occasion, with everyone presenting themselves in style. The Year 12 Divisional Prefects and Mrs Carol Veatupu, Divisional Head Dean for North Division, are to be congratulated for an evening that was a success in every way. I left the formal confident that our students can conduct themselves appropriately, which reflects positively on them, our school, and our parent community.

Co-curricular Life

I enjoyed attending many musical and sporting co-curricular activities this term and the school has won a number of local and regional competitions and enjoyed success at national level events. Highlights include:

The very successful Compass Wars interdivisional competition. This in-house event replaced Stage Challenge (the national competition cancelled this year), and was designed to give our students the opportunity to be in a large performance ensemble. The senior leaders chosen in 2017 to lead Stage Challenge were allocated to the four divisions, with senior students running each group.

The Big Band (for the 6th time) and Senior Combo 1 won the national title (and another 9 awards) at the NZ School of Music Jazz Festival. They had earlier won 10 awards at the Manawatu Jazz Festival. Our four choirs competing in the Choral Foundation Regional Big Sing received a total of 10 awards. Bel Canto and Senior Chorale qualified for the national Big Sing competition in August. Two Burnside trios made the final of the Southern Regional Chamber Music Contest with our RAQS trio (Claudia Crosland, Hijiri Yamamoto and Lixin Zhang) coming first and qualifying for National Finals.

Congratulations to Maggie Carrol and Liza Khorozova who came first and second at the Ara Culinary Contest. They both now form a team to travel to Auckland Nationals later in the year.

Our team won the Pasifika Bizninja Challenge Trophy for the first time. Congratulations to Irene Tugaga, Ofa Puleiku, Wesley Fifita and Rosebud Fifita.

Our four speakers at the Regional Manu Korero Speech Contest performed admirably with Manuhaea Maramu O'Regan placing 3rd with her junior Māori speech.

Our team of mathematicians won the annual Year 11 Calculator Competition which has become a regular feature for us.

In addition in the sporting arena a good number of individual students have represented NZ or won NZ titles at various events around the country. Our roll of honour so far this year includes:

▪ Michelle Tapp and Rallen Lazo - NZ U17 Korfball

▪ Sam Coldicott – NZ U19 Korfball

▪ Darius Porter –tbc

▪ Dan Jefferies, Sang Yong Park and Alex Zhou –NZ U18 Table Tennis

▪ Jiayi Zhou - NZ U15 and U18 Table Tennis

▪ Sami Donnell - NZ Junior Track Cycling

▪ Hiroki Miya and Juliana Hung – NZ Junior Golf

▪ Annie Wardle - 1st U18 C2 Mixed; 2nd U18 Women’s Extreme Boater-Cross event; 3rd in U18 Women’s K1 at the National Canoe Slalom championships.

Despite the wet weather bringing many cancellations, at the halfway point of the Winter Sports Competition many individuals and teams have featured prominently in table tennis, girls and boys hockey, football, rugby and badminton. Congratulations to all students and staff who have been involved in these and other activities; and all the best to those involved in local, South Island and New Zealand competitions next term.

Ashburton Winter Sports Exchange

Burnside travelled to Ashburton on 19 June, with just 12 teams from each school competing in seven sports due to wet sports grounds being out of action. With 7 Ashburton wins to Burnside’s 5, the trophy is now in Ashburton … until next time! Thank you to our sports coordinators, Tracy Taylor and Theresa Smith, for their superb organisation. Thank you to all the sports coaches and managers involved with these teams.

2019 enrolments start

The 2019 enrolment round commenced with Open Evening on 15 May. This was a most successful evening with the Aurora Centre full for each of three sessions. As always, it was our student tour guides who did us proud, speaking of their school in a confident, articulate and positive way. The high level of interest in these tours reinforces that Burnside is a successful, sought after school with a fine reputation in both the local and wider Christchurch Community.

Reports

Thank you to the many parents who took the opportunity to talk with your sons’ and daughters’ teachers at the recent Year 11-13 Parent Teacher Conferences, following circulation of the senior reports. Your interest and input does make a difference and students should now have a clear focus for the rest of the academic year. At the end of Term 2, Year 9 and 10 students will receive their usual Fortnightly Grades and Year 9 students will also receive a report for their Semester One options. On Friday 3 August all Junior School Fortnightly Grades will include an academic progress summary for each subject.

Staff and students now welcome the two week holiday break - having passed the shortest day, the break is a good time to recharge the batteries, recover from colds and flu, and just get well. Take care.

Phil Holstein

Principal

Our School Whakatauki -Whaia te iti kahurangi, ki te tuohu koe me he maunga teitei, ko Aoraki anake

Pursue excellence, and if you are to ever bow - let it only be to a lofty mountain, Aoraki.