Kia ora parents, caregivers and whānau

It is lovely to see 1255 happy students back at school and to watch their faces smiling as they arrived in on the first few days and greeted friends and staff. Everyone has settled in and the place is again filled with laughter, learning and people!

Thank you to all parents and caregivers for your wonderful support through lockdown. The focus this week has been to settle everyone back in, let the students have an opportunity to discuss their experience through the last seven weeks and seamlessly continue with their learning. We should not see the online experience as a deficit – there has been very valuable feedback from the students about what works well for them, what they appreciated about online learning life, what did not work for them and what they would like to see transferred back into learning here at school. Similarly, staff learned many new techniques, rapidly digitally upskilled and have listened to student feedback. The whole experience will launch teaching and learning forward here at school and help us bring the new vision for the school to life so that our students are receiving an education fit for the future needs of the world they inhabit.

An example of the work students can initiate completely unaided is the video in this newsletter from the head students of Christchurch Secondary Schools. Young people have immense digital capability, optimism, enjoyment of collaboration and conscience for making the world a better place. They are the hope for the planet.

It was a pleasure to be at our academic awards ceremony for our Year 12 students this week. We had to do it a little differently with no parents or wider audience but our high achievers were able to celebrate with their peers and be acknowledged. Every student in that auditorium has a talent to be nurtured. What is important is that we as a school provide an incubator for all those diverse talents to grow. I used a Golda Meir quote in talking in the ceremony. Golda Meir (a Prime Minister of Israel and only the third woman in the world at that time to achieve that role) said:

“Trust yourself. Create the kind of self you will be happy to live with all your life. Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement.”

So often we ask our young people “What do you want to do?”. Rather we should be asking them first “Who do you want to be?”

Ngā mihi nui

Christine O’Neill