Hello 2018!

Kia ora ki te whanau o te Cathedral Grammar.

What a lovely start to the school year we had last week. A lot of happy faces, known faces, new faces and some relieved faces as pupils were handed back over to school! 

Thank you to the Friends’ Association for starting the week off so well with the cup of tea and coffee. Staff informed me there was a great feel around the school and you facilitated this by providing a welcoming environment. 

This was very important as we welcomed 23 new families and 27 new pupils to our school yesterday. It is wonderful to have you officially as a part of our school community and I sincerely hope last week went very well for both you and your children. Please ensure you get to know your Class Friend, our office team and, of course, your child’s teachers, and do ask questions. It can be daunting starting at a new school, and this is a busy place, so please feel free to ask us about anything. 

I was also pleased to see our existing pupils settle back into routine well and present with a high standard of dress. Our new staff had a very positive week and are looking forward to building meaningful and positive relationships to ensure a strong and cohesive partnership with you, focused on the engagement, progress and achievement for your child. 

Thank you to those who were able to attend the 'Meet the Teacher' evening last week and for the positive feedback about the evening and our staff. It was wonderful to see you and be able to catch up over a drink and share aspects of the key work ahead for our Leadership Team and Board. The catch up/social time in between the Junior School and Prep Schools sessions proved popular, to the point that I have suggested we make it a little longer next year!  For those who were unable to attend last Tuesday evening, I shared the key themes for the development and growth of our school in 2018 and how they relate to our 2018 and 2020 strategic goals. A copy of this is available on GrammarNet.

For those of you who wish to deepen your understanding of our strategic plan, our 10 year aspirations, short term goals and/or ask questions or offer ideas, we will be running discussion based workshops over the next few weeks. These will be scheduled at drop off and pick up times, and possibly an evening session. Hopefully I will have the confirmed dates to you by Monday next week. 

Our fantastic Friends’ Association each year supports our school in a variety of ways. One of these is raising funds to enhance our learning and teaching programmes, environment and opportunities within our school. The Leadership Team compiles a wish list each year for the Friends’ Association to select items to purchase. We wish to provide pupils and parents with an opportunity to contribute ideas which the leadership team will consider prior to compiling the final list. This can be done by putting your ideas into the labelled drop-box in the school office area, or by emailing Tasha Brobyn at -  hassist@cathedralgrammar.school.nz 

This can be done from Friday 9 February through until Friday 23 February. Please keep in mind these items and projects can be up to the value of $20,000 or multiples thereof.

See you all at the Back To School BBQ this Friday. Last year's event was a lot of fun and I'm sure this will be just the same. See details in the Friends’ Association page…tickets are still available at the school office!

Nga mihi

Scott Thelning

Principal