Whaia te iti kahurangi ki te tuohu koe me he maunga teitei, ki nga whetu rawa

Seek the treasure that you value most dearly, if you bow your head, let it be to a lofty mountain, let it be beyond the stars

Nau mai, haere mai and a very warm welcome back to Term 4. It is so wonderful to be back after the holidays, I hope you are all rested and ready to tackle the home stretch. The start of Term 4 reflects the ins and outs of a busy school, we handed over Mr. Eccleton back to Christ’s College to take up his new role, and we welcomed our new tumuaki, Mr. Stradwick and his family into the Cashmere High School community.

Firstly, I would like to congratulate our formal committee for the phenomenal event they put on on Friday 20th September. This was the culmination of hours of preparation, planning and organising, and they certainly delivered a wonderful event for the 700-plus attendees. It was delightful to receive feedback from our external suppliers, many of whom provide services for school formals across the city, on how lovely our students are - of course, we already know that but it was great to hear it again!

Congratulations to Lucy Ellis who has been elected as our new Board of Trustees student representative, and to Vasilisa and Cairo for their COVE awards this term. They both had significant citations that demonstrated each one of our COVE values, inside and outside of the classroom. 

Early in Term 3, I had the pleasure of accompanying Amor Budiyanto (Year 13) and Zahra Husseini (Year 12) to the Emerging Ethnic Leaders breakfast. It was a wonderful celebration and acknowledgement of our leaders and the way they show leadership both inside and outside the school community. Running for the second year, this event was organised by the Ministry of Education, and we had the pleasure of listening to Josiah Tualamali’i, Children’s Commissioner as an inspiring and interesting keynote speaker.

At the start of the year, I put forward the wero to our Year 12 ākonga of ‘hand up, not hand out’. During the application process for leadership positions for 2025, we received overwhelmingly, over 200 applications for the positions on offer, with 77 students volunteering for our Year 8 Testing Day. This cohort is showing great leadership capacity, both as individuals and collectively, and the recent application process has highlighted this in addition to the sheer number of students who are putting themselves forward to continue being role models to our students and within our community.

And lastly,  I’d like to extend a very warm ‘take care and go well’ to those leaving us at the end of the year. The whakatauki above is pertinent for this time of year as we head into appointing leaders for 2025, the final internal assessment stretch, NCEA examinations, and keeping motivation through the examination period. It speaks of perseverance and endurance, and refusing to let obstacles stand in the way of your reaching your goals. When there have been bumps along the way and things are feeling tricky, keep going, put your best foot forward and keep your eyes on the direction you want to head. I wish you all the very best for your upcoming examinations and the summer holidays, have a safe and restful break.

Ngā mihi nui,

Aysha Beer

Head of School | Year 12