Tena koutou,

Last week was a very busy and active last week (and it continues this week with the school athletic sports days.) Swimming sports provided two wonderful days of qualifying and finals during last week and as has been the tradition, there was very supportive and loud House Spirit to encourage all participants to push themselves in the various events.

We had a number of longstanding records broken across the age groups and an obviously talented group of competitive swimmers in our community (more details in the next newsletter on the results). A highlight on the finals day was the staff vs student relay which is always a competitive event and had most of the school watching. The students won narrowly and I believe the staff involved already have a training programme in place to rectify this for 2019!

As we look to this week, I always enjoy the athletic sports as it is such a positive day where we see all students competing and giving their best efforts to the events. Like swimming, many of our students are out of their comfort zone, but this is so important that they are in this position as they discover that it is an experience they need to have many times in preparation for the varied challenges and situations that they will find beyond school.

Our school vision is to:

Provide learning that is relevant for all students, through a focus on relationships and the development of life skills, to develop lifelong learners who successfully contribute, participate and interact with others.

This is the aim that we have for our students while they are at Geraldine High School and from the teaching side, this means providing a wide range of opportunities and contexts for every student that is challenging and is at times out of their comfort area. In doing this we open new doors of engagement and interest that may give them a pathway for success in whatever form this is after finishing school.

The swimming and athletic sports are a good example, for many it is not a natural thing for them to throw a shot put or take part in a swimming relay but with doing this they realise they can do it, they can get over their fear or uncertainty through the experience and they grow as individuals. I invite you to our Athletics Finals Day on Wednesday to see and be part of the opportunities that you son or daughter is taking part in.

Students News

As part of our school vision as mentioned earlier is to celebrate our students successes across all aspects of their lives and so it would assist us if you can share these things by email to my PA, Mrs Barb Gregan or give the office a call.

Thank you Mrs Cynthia Stephens!

It was sad news to have Mrs Stephens decide to finish her role as Assistant Caretaker and Gardener which saw her last day on Friday. She has been the person behind the amazing environment that we work in and is always commented on by visitors to the school. Mrs Stephens is passionate about the gardens and school environment and that has meant that these are always being improved and added to.

Not only has she had this position but she has also been our Arts Coordinator, Correspondence Liaison and Teacher Aide over the last sixteen years. She is a strong advocate for Geraldine High School and this has meant she gives everything to tasks she has been given as well as developing new initiatives such as the Chalk Art competition.

Mrs Stephens will be a huge loss to our school but we thank her for her tireless work and wish her the very best in her future endeavours. Thank you Mrs Stephens.

Relay for Life

Two weeks away we have the Cancer Society Relay for Life being held in Geraldine at the Rugby Club. Cancer is a health issue that affects so many of us both directly and indirectly so it is wonderful to hear of so many of our students and staff taking part in this. We have a mufti day on Friday 9th March that is to give a donation to this cause so please encourage your child to recognise and understand why we are doing this and to support this day.

COL - Community of Learning

As many of you will be aware, over the last 2-3 years our education community of ECE’s, Primary schools, ARA and ourselves have been regularly meeting and working towards a shared COL (Community of Learning) where we work together across all year levels on targeted goals to raise the level of achievement for all our students. We are very close to finalising the goals and targets we have set ourselves as well as looking at the roles available for our teachers across the group to enable these targets to be reached. It is a very exciting time as we have already been doing many shared events, professional development etc ourselves but we now will have time and funding to enable greater progress as a community. More updates will follow in upcoming weeks.

I hope to see many of you here on Wednesday for our Athletic Sports.

Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā tātou katoa

Mt Hutt Open Day