Welcome back to Geraldine High School for 2023.

A warm welcome to our new students, families and staff who have joined our Geraldine High School community for this year. I hope that all our families have had a lovely break and that your children, feel well-rested and excited about the upcoming year. Like other Principals, I do hope that we have a year free of the disruptions that impact on both the learning and wellbeing of our students.

We start the year with a large number of Year 7 students (83) and a school roll of 621. We have also had 27 new students spread across Year 8 to 13.

Start of the year

We started the year with our Student Executive Leadership Camp, our Yr13 Leadership day, Peer Support training and the first day for our Yr 7 students to get familiar with the school, teachers, classes before the whole school started.

Last Friday we started the year with our Powhiri and it was lovely to do this in an authentic way. Many of our Yr 7 students are familiar with this from their Primary schools and to have all our new staff part of this is a lovely way to be welcomed into our school community. A highlight for me was the student involvement in both the Kaikaranga [the calling between the Manuhiri and Mana Whenua] and Whaikorero [speaking on behalf of the Mana Whenua]. Our Senior students Maddie Phimister, Piper McCale, Charlotte Marriott and Koefi Brown all did us proud with their respective roles in this.

Geraldine High School’s new Vision and Goals

As many of you will recall from last year, we did a number of surveys and gained responses from you, our school community, on what you value and want to see the school focus on for your child. Over the break, the Board of Trustees and Senior Leadership Team have refined this and we now have a Vision and Strategic goals for the next three years. This will be at the centre of the work we do across the school for this year. I have put these below so that you are familiar with what these are.

Our Vision is ‘to Inspire and Empower’ and this will be mentioned throughout the year as we want all our students to be inspired in their learning and opportunities available and for their skills, knowledge and attitude to empower them to be the best version of themselves.

We have 3 Goals that will enable and grow our students towards this vision which are:

• Goal 1: Inspire and empower individuals to create meaningful connections

• Goal 2: Inspire and empower individuals to foster self-awareness and belief

• Goal 3: Inspire and empower individuals to be motivated to reach their highest potential

In the next newsletter, I will provide more information on these so that you can see what these will do in growing our students' capabilities.

Our school theme for the year is Whāia te iti kahurangi’ - Being your best! which our Student Exec came up with and will be woven along with our school values into what we do each week.

New Staff

We welcome our new staff starting this year and these are below.

• Ms Simone Tulley joins our Senior Leadership team as one of our Assistant Principals. Ms Tulley joins us from TBHS and will have oversight of our Wellbeing Teams and Yr 7 and 8 Year groups.

• Mr Graham Bock and Mr Malcolm Nuttall - we welcome back again this year in fixed term positions in our Maths department.

• Mr Mike Boon joins us from Highfield Primary School in the Homeroom, Music and Drama departments.

• Ms Jenna Cheeseman joins us after completing her training at UC and will be in the Science department.

• Ms Janet Harding has taken up the Sports Coordinator role and will be teaching in the HPE department.

• Ms Sally Houston is our new Pathways Coordinator and will be working with our Pathways Advisor, Ms Penny Munro this year.

• Mr Simon Keeley is taking a DVC class for this year as well as doing relief work.

• Ms Janine Kirkby is our new Social Worker/Whanau Support person for 2 days a week.

• Mr Dan Laird will be doing a 1 day a week programme with a number of students around social interactions this term.

• Ms Melissa Neill joins us from the UC Primary Teaching programme and is in the Homeroom department and teaching Te reo.

• Mrs Debby Van T Hull continues in the office doing finance for Term 1 and 2.

• Mr Kevin Weaver joins us as HOD of Maths position and has come to us from Buller High School.

• Mrs Leila Weaver will be taking some science and maths classes as well as doing relieving.

• Mrs Amanda Wright is our International Coordinator role for Term 1 & 2.

Unfortunately for us, we had two resignations over the Christmas break with Mrs Mary Ludwig-Hilton leaving after 22 years in teacher aiding and Mrs Lizanne Van Heerden taking up a Maths position at TBHS for this year. We thank them for the commitment and passion they have brought to education.

2023 Wellbeing Deans

We have had some changes with our Deans for this year and so please take note of who is the Dean for your child and who to contact at school if you have any queries on the year so far.

• Yr 7 - Ms Michelle Cramond

• Yr 8 - Mrs Trudy Sanders

• Yr 9 - Mrs Kerri Bailey

• Yr 10 - Ms Eliza Williams

• Yr 11 - Mrs Andy Morrison

• Yr 12 - Mrs Katie Martin

• Yr 13 - Mr Cameron Love.

International Programme

This has started with two Japanese students joining us so far and a number of Thai students coming to us in March. We are looking for families that would like to be host parents for these students and experience having a student from another country. It is a wonderful and rewarding experience and if you would like to know more, please contact Mrs Bronwyn Hawkins through the school office or by email -b.hawkins@geraldinehs.school.nz 

NCEA Results

Last year our students did well overall given the disruptions and having to learn from home and different times with NCEA. A special congratulations to our 49 students who gained an overall Merit or Excellence Endorsement which is a wonderful achievement. We will be having our Academic Blues ceremony on later this month for these students and parents are welcome to attend. More details of this will be shared next week.

I look forward to meeting many of you in the events we have coming up with Yr 7 Meet the Teacher afternoon, Athletics Sports, and Our Academic Blues presentation in the coming weeks.

Tena koutou katou,

Mr Simon Coleman