An Outstanding Education - this is the new purpose or vision for our kura.

A core focus of our new strategic plan is high levels of attendance and achievement by our students, for example, Year 11, 12 and 13 NCEA results at or above our Equity Index Band, all students leaving with at least NCEA Level 2 and 80% of students attending regularly.  Another goal is enhancing the communication with our school community.  The Strategic Plan will be shared soon with our whānau. 

A key government focus is regular attendance. Our attendance rate is currently at 92% compared to 90% at this time last year. Our new system of tracking lateness sees students who are late to school on a lunchtime rubbish detention. This is dramatically reducing the number of lates and is contributing to stronger attendance.    

The wait for our Athletics Day was worth it. The mix of colour, interhouse rivalry, fun and competition creates an amazing atmosphere. Our students were superb and they made the most of the day.  Tara-puta followed up their swimming success taking out the inter-house competition and three records were broken: Ajay Colmore U16 Boys Shot put, McKenna Gardiner U14 Girls 400m and Nevaeh Reddy O16 800m. Ngā mihi and thank you to our PE department for coordinating two great house events so early in the year and well done to our students for really stepping up and getting involved. 

Thank you whānau for the great turnout to our Meet the Teacher evening in Week 3.  The purpose is to build a strong sense of belonging and whanaungatanga that sets students up for success.  In the coming weeks we have our Goal Setting afternoon and information evenings for NCEA and for the Common Assessment Activities for Reading, Writing and Numeracy. 

Our team of thirty athletes excelled at the Wanaka Challenge recently with top three placings for teams and individuals. Congratulations to Becky Meyer, 2nd Year 8 Girls and Jessi Cook 3rd, U14 Girls and to the Year 8 Girls team of Stella Hodkinson, Quinn Lindsay, Bella Hore and Year 8 Boys Team of Freddie Earl, Brynn Sutherland, Lucah Coates who both finished 1st.

Glendhu Bay is the base for our Year 10 Camp this week. Camping with friends, cooking tasty kai together, the lake activities, walking around Rocky Mountain and the “Survivor Day challenges always make this a memorable EOTC week. I will join the camp for the walk around Rocky Mountain on Wednesday and am looking forward to the wander and the kōrero with students and staff.  Our Year 7 EOTC week will be based at our Watersport Centre in McNulty Inlet the week later. 

We have strong respect from students for wearing our uniform correctly and with pride. There are graphics displaying the correct combinations on our school website and The Outfitters website.  A reminder that Year 9 to 13 students wearing the new or old kilt are to wear the white blouse and white socks. Students wearing the blue skirt, skort or short in Year 7 to 10 are to wear the grey polo and grey socks. 

Anticipation is building for Monday 10 March which is the expected handover day for our new Art and Technology block. There will be a morning karakia and kai for staff so that we can move freely through the spaces and start setting classrooms up for learning. The transition out of C Block will take around a week and we aim to be delivering learning soon after this. The C Block rooms will be refurbished and available later in Term 2. An official opening will take place in Term 2. 

Mason Stretch

Tumuaki - Principal