You don’t live in a world all on your own, your brothers are here too. - Albert Schweitzer

As a school the ultimate test of our worth is how welcome our most vulnerable student feels. This also applies to our society at large. The warmth of our welcome will be reflected in the engagement and behaviour we receive from those who are vulnerable. People make society and I commend the boys, staff and wider school community for their response to the events of March 15.

The high opportunity and high-risk era that we live in can encourage an individualistic, hierarchal and elitist world view and to that end it is important that we celebrate acts of community. I recently learnt of a junior student who has been saving half of his lunch every day to share with a homeless person he encounters on his commute to school and I am heartened by this underlying compassion. The actions of our Maadi Cup Rowing Eight in taping the Rainbow Colours to their oars to show support for a crew member were also powerful and highly significant for the school. The rowers set a challenge and standard for the school about courage and leadership and not being prepared to walk past offensive behaviour. As a school and wider community, we need to walk the walk and realise that with our advantages at Christchurch Boys’ High School comes responsibility.

Tomorrow’s Schools Independent Task Force

The Board of Trustees has made a submission to the Tomorrow’s Schools Independent Task Force and you can read this here.

The Board is supportive of recommendations which:

(a) ensure a system that promotes equity and excellence and ensures that every learner achieves educational success;

(b) enables schools to be reflective of the communities they represent and draw on the rich diversity of those communities;

(c) can demonstrate a direct link between the recommendation and the desired outcome by reference to evidence;

(d) prioritise and support better resourcing for learning and teacher development within our schools.

There are several observations made within the report which are admirable but lacking in detail. The Board, in the absence of clear evidence of specific outcomes, is not able to support recommendations which will bring about structural transformation in schooling and create significant and disruptive change without proven positive outcomes for learning. Specifically, recommendations which:

(e) are implemented without rigorous analysis, clear consultation and valuation prior to implementation;

(f) do not involve all sectors of the community having a voice;

(g) see a major redistribution of existing resources from those schools and students that are currently achieving or performing to their potential;

(h) focus on a transfer of control and loss of independence and flexibility rather than focusing on supporting schools to achieve the desired outcomes

(i) compromise the special character of schools.

The Board share the goals of the Taskforce in ensuring that every child in New Zealand receives the best quality education and were accordingly surprised that the scope of the Taskforce’s work excluded independent schools which while small in number do have an impact on the cultural capital of the state sector. The exclusion of independent schools appears to undermine the stated purpose of ensuring our community becomes more socially cohesive. The Board also pointed out New Zealand has a relatively small independent sector due to the special character of New Zealand’s state schools.

The Board has also included with its submission their statement on the importance of retaining single sex boy’s education.

Board of Trustee Elections

The elections for the Board of Trustees happen early next term. The process for these elections is outlined below.

By Friday 10th May Nomination forms will be posted to all persons on the school’s caregiver roll

Friday 24th May NOMINATIONS CLOSE – 24th May at noon. An election will then be held if the number of nominations exceed vacancies. Christchurch Boys’ High School has five vacancies

Wednesday 29th May Voting papers will be sent by post to all on the school caregiver roll.

Friday 7th June Voting closes at 12 noon

Thursday 13th June Votes are counted, and results advised

Friday 14th June New Board takes office

Tuesday 18th June First meeting of new Board

We look forward to all of our parents and caregivers being involved in the process

Straven Block

The new Straven Block will open at the beginning of Term Two. This new teaching block allows for the demolition of the Caldwell Block and construction to begin on the new Caddick and Caldwell Blocks you can find walk-through videos for these blocks here. The boys and staff who have been through the Straven Block are very excited about this facility.

Gold Scholars and classroom tone

Several students were recently recognised at assembly as Gold Scholars for attaining 90 or more excellence credits in NCEA. The boys received their award from our retiring Board Secretary Anne Johnstone who has served the school for 29 years and who has been made an honorary life member by the Old Boys Association.

The Gold Scholars were. Elliot Croft, Noah Kelly – Foleni, Lucas Larraman, Letiu Patelise, Hunter Lilley, Hugo Marshall, James Paget, Oliver Persson, Harry Reece, Callum Simpson, Joshua Thiele, Max Young, Jack Barton, Cameron Bates, Daniel Chong, Oscar Cunningham, Isaac Dann, Sami Elmadani, Jilun Hung, Rapheal Jung, Michael Jung, Jay McGililivray, Oliver Milne, Jacob Smith, Max Zhang.

The tone around school and our classrooms is one of calm and fun. It is a pleasure to walk around school and see the engagement between staff and students.

Cultural Highlights

· The Monitors have led two excellent assemblies this term which have included the entire school singing Sweet Caroline and Take Me Home Country Roads.

· Our Pasifika performance group are superb. These boys add a lot of heart to School and we have appreciated their assembly performances. The boys performed to our Pacific Island Community at their Fia Fia night and will be part of Polyfest on May 4.

· Two students, Daniel Chong and James Paget, have been selected as part of the National Secondary Schools Orchestra.

· We have enthusiastic groups of boys participating in our Tech Crew, Theatre Sports and Film and Media Groups and a small but growing Drama Troup who will have their first performance a part of the Big Night In at the end of Term Two.

Snapshot of sporting success in Term One

There have been several significant achievements in Term One and I highlight some of these below.

· The 1st XI Cricket defeating Christs College by an innings and 157 runs. MacKenzie Smith scored 158* in this victory

· The CBHS Colts Cricket side finishing 1st equal at the NZCT Tournament

· The success of our wider rowing squad winning the Maadi Cup, Springbok Shield, Star Trophy and six other gold medals and two bronze. Tim Heritage won five individual medals and Scott Shackleton four. Coach Logan Keys was recognised as the top secondary school coach in New Zealand.

· Our Tennis side performing well at their national tournament and being recognised as the 8th strongest squad in New Zealand.

· Our Handball Team also came 8th at Nationals

· A number of our cyclists performed strongly in Le Race

· Brandon Thornley is the South Island Secondary Schools Mountain Bike Champion

· Our Touch Team coming 2nd in the South Island with seven of the squad away in South Africa. Josh Burgess’ leadership of this young group was very impressive. Josh is in the NZ U18 Touch Squad and Max Hughes is in the U20 Squad.

· The CBHS Athletics team winning 8 Gold, 7 Silver and 7 Bronze at the South Island Secondary Schools Athletics Championships.

· Jack Rodgers, Asher Pettengall Brand and Eli Leifi broke Athletics records at Sports Day

· Our swimming champions were Ollie Salt, Zac Knowles, Henry Allot and Joel Nicholls. Joel and Zac broke two records each at our swimming sports. Zac Knowles is currently ranked 3rd nationally for his age group.

· Our Ultimate Frisbee team winning the South Island Secondary Schools Title

· A senior rugby squad has participated in a tournament in Dubai and South Africa

Easter and ANZAC Day

I do wish the entire school community the very best for a restful Easter break. I look forward to seeing many of you at the School and Old Boys Anzac Service at 10:00 am in the School Hall on Anzac Day.

We are looking forward to Term Two and the continuation of the hard work and support for each other.

He waka eke noa

Altiora Peto

Nic Hill

Headmaster