Tena koutou,

Last week we had our Senior Prizegiving and this is a special event in the school year as we acknowledge the achievements of our senior students in the academic field. It was also a special event this year to acknowledge the staff who are leaving and particularly the six who have given considerable time to Geraldine High School: Mrs Shirley Lindroos (42 years); Mr Peter McCaskill (39 years); Mr Richard Ramsay (29 years); Mr Mark Romans (28 years); Mrs Doreen Callow (12 years); and Mr Simon Keeley (8 years).

Year 8 Camp

This week I went out to Raincliff Camp where the Year 8 students were having a 2 day camp involving kayaking, river crossing, judo, confidence course & ABL games, stretcher making and many other interesting activities. It was lovely to see so many parents attend the dinner and concert as well as being present for the leavers certificate presented as our Year 8 students finish their primary schooling ready for High School in 2018.

It is wonderful to see camps for our Year 7 and 8 along with our Year 9 one so that our students get to experience both the outdoors as a learning environment and the dynamics of challenging each other and working as groups in these environments. My thanks to Mrs Rachael Linklater, Ms Eliza Williams and Mr Kit Silcock for the organisation of this camp and the parents who gave up their time to be there - Mr Mike Rate, Mr Mike Hende, Mrs Anita Body, Mrs Chris Goad, Mrs Tracey Herbert, Miss CJ McMillan, Mrs Vanessa Stone, Mrs Helen Davidson and Mrs Jan Finlayson.

Mind Lab

Last week we had three of our staff who completed a post grad course, the Postgraduate Certificate in Applied Practice (Digital Collaborative Learning) programme, which is currently the most taken teacher course in the country due to the need to adapt our teaching for our students future. These staff - Mrs Kerri Doy, Ms Maria Heitkonig and Ms Amy Ross have been involved in weekly tutorials of 4 hours along with a large number of hours of their own time to pass this course. Congratulations and we look forward to seeing the knowledge and practice gained from this utilised in our teaching practice next year.

New Assistant Principal

With Ms Adele Quinn taking up the role of HOD Science in 2018 we have had an opportunity for one of our staff to move up to the Senior Leadership team for the next 2 years. We are pleased to have Ms Maria Heitkonig accept this position and will bring a wide range of skills and knowledge including areas such as timetable, pastoral, GATE and literacy.

Exams

We have had Year 10 exams for our students this week in the Hall which is an introduction to how NCEA exams run for the following year. It is a time where these students learn to revise and study along with learning how to interpret exam questions which are all valuable skills to have for life.

NCEA exams started yesterday throughout the country and we hope that for our senior students, having the practice exams recently along with revision in their subjects classes over the last few weeks will hold them in good stead for these exams over the coming weeks.

Student Exec for 2018

At our Senior Prizegiving, we announced our Student Exec team for 2018. The process for selecting these students has been thorough with student profiles, voting from staff and students and shortlisting to interviews. My thanks to Ms Adele Quinn and Ms Eliza Williams for the work in this process which was difficult given the large number of students putting their name forward for these important roles in the leadership and running of our school.

The Student Exec team for 2018 is:

Head Girl - Jasmine Wells

Head Boy - Felix Finlayson-Hood

Deputy Head Girl - Maisie Fisher

Deputy Head Boy - Josh Keen

Student Rep on the BOT - Alex Counsell

Acland House Leader - Amanda Sherriff

Cox House Leader - Monique Gilbert-Keen

McDonald House Leader - Quinn O’Halloran

Tripp House Leader - Kasie Jopp

Cultural Leader - Aria Cressy

Sports Leaders - Jack Johnstone and Bridget Guerin

Rangitahi Leaders - Jessie Bird and Mikayla Binney

I would like to publicly thank all of this years Student Exec and all of the Year 13 group for the strong inclusive and supportive leadership that they have demonstrated throughout this year.

Student Successes

Along with the well deserved award winners at our recent Prizegiving, we have had students who have gained success across a range of fields.

Felix Finlayson-Hood and Alex Counsell have been accepted into the Otago University Advanced Science School in 2018. This involves attendance at 2 holiday week long programmes and weekly on-line discussion forums.

Ethan Savage has returned from an online competition game called Paladins Champions of the Realm. This competition is one with prizemoney and Ethan and his team Amigo5 placed 4th in the online qualifier, being the underdog team and knocking out 4th seed, Team Empire 2-1. This placing qualified Ethan and the team for the Oceania regional finals at Pax Australia in Melbourne which was a great experience even though they were unplaced.

Julian Patrick gained national recognition by gaining the Highly recommended award in the automotive sector of Gateway. Only three awards were offered nationwide, Gateway Student of the Year and two Highly Commended Gateway Students.

BYOD display from Harvey Norman

As we look to the end of the year and parents may be looking at stationary for next year, we have Harvey Norman putting on a display of devices that will work well in our school environment and offer options in purchasing a device on the following dates and times.

Tuesday 14th November at 12noon
Tuesday 21st November at 5.30pm - 6.30pm

We hope that you take advantage of this opportunity to ask questions of the Harvey Norman team around the devices that they offer. We also have Officemax providing some other options around devices which will be in the electronic list shared with you in early December.

Tena koutou, Tena koutou, tena tartoe katoa.

Greetings, Greetings, Greetings to us all.

Merit Awards