From the Principal's Desk

Mr Scott Thelning —

Dear parent

Welcome to our first Grammar Notes for Term II. It was lovely to see you at the Founders Day Service on Sunday, and thank you for the positive feedback. It was wonderful to hear all of our choirs and the choristers sing, and the pupils who delivered the readings and led us in prayer did it superbly. I need to get onto organising the cake for our 137th birthday on Wednesday 16 May!

It has been lovely to welcome three new staff members to our school community this term. Mrs Shelley Haworth is teaching 7B, Mr Justus Frank is teaching Prep School PE and maths and Mrs Tina Cartwright has joined our learning support team. All three have made a positive impact since arriving and I look forward to their many and varied contributions to our school. Thank you for the positive feedback I have received about them too.

We have our second Open Day for the year next Tuesday, 15 May. Spread the word! Scholarship applications for 2019 close on Monday 28 May. Guests can of course visit anytime throughout the day, but we are now encouraging everyone to come at 9:30am to be welcomed by myself, our Head Girl and Head Boy, Nicole Vance and James Lange, and Isabel Marsh and Joshua Padyachee from Y3. We also have the choristers singing and the string ensemble playing. Wondering where we advertise? For this Open Day it is as follows:

  • Metropol magazine.
  • This week - the Star and five local newspapers that covers the city, North Canterbury, Selwyn and Banks Peninsula. Distribution of 149 000.
  • This week - 48 15-second radio adverts.
  • Elmwood, Ilam, Fendalton and Waimairi Schools' newsletters.
  • Facebook.
  • 15 signs around the city.

As you will see further in this edition our Garden Club is back up and running and it is great to see an increasing number of 'green thumbs' willing to be a part of this. Keep an eye on the evolving planter boxes outside the library. It has also been great to see a group of senior pupils put their hand up to try a new sport - water polo! We think this may be the first water polo team that CGS has had, and they got off to a rollicking start winning their first game 12 - 0.  If anyone else in Y7&8 is keen, please contact Mr Bertie - bertiel@cathedralgrammar.school.nz

 A big thank you goes to Moe Gath and Isaac Aitken, students at Christ's College, for coaching this team. 

A part of the decision we made with sport this year centres on providing your child / children with opportunities to engage in a wider variety of sport, in addition to the four traditional winter codes during Terms II&III. It is important that children do engage in sport, and a variety of sports, and we are pleased we are now providing more options for more pupils more often.

This too aligns with the key drivers of our strategy - to focus on every child every day as we prepare them for their life ahead based on a philosophy of nurturing, knowing and growing. At our school, we value their heart as much as their head and we place them at the centre of our decision making and actions. Some other recent initiatives reflect this vision:

  • Switching Junior School lunch to align with the rest of the school so we can be a whole school at break times.
  • Switching Friday Chapel time from the sleepy tired time of 3.00pm to the ready to go time of 8.40am. 
  • Creating non-championship races at Cross-country.
  • Providing a more structured, warm (literally!) and settled start to the school day for the Boys' School through stopping 'Line Up' each morning.
  • Providing a wider variety of sporting options, focussing on and providing for all pupils during sport time at school, providing elite sports pupils the opportunity  to engage in high quality teams and coaching on Saturdays and providing families with options for their physical activity on Saturdays through ceasing compulsory Saturday sport.
  • Prep school assemblies will be led by pupils and therefore be more pupil friendly, engaging and interesting.

Another decision we have recently made that aligns with our 'heart vs head' philosophy is that during 'assessment week' this term, Years 4 and 5 pupils will not be sitting formal exams. This decision has been led by our Curriculum Development Team and ratified by the Leadership Team. These pupils will be engaged in a variety of other widely regarded forms of formative and summative assessment which will provide their teachers and you with meaningful and relevant information about their progress and achievement. Yes, they will still do the PATs at the start of the year, they will still do asttle tests, they will still do in class quizzes and content tests. Just not the traditional CGS exams set down for 'assessment week'. Status quo will remain for Yr 6-8 pupils.

May signifies the first of our key milestones in our strategic plan. We are planning sessions for you to attend to come and hear about our progress and next steps, deepen your understanding about this and the overall strategy, and provide feedback. It is important to us that we gather an insight into your level of understanding and alignment so that our next set of goals will ensure we achieve what needs to be achieved to ensure we have a strongly connected school community who is clear about the where, the why and the how.

Check out the science photos and videos in this edition!

Have a wonderful fortnight.

Scott Thelning