Welcome back to a new term and special warm greetings to the new students and whanau who have recently joined us. 

It was great to see so many of you at our Student Led Conferences yesterday afternoon/evening.  One of our strategic goals at GEIS is the promotion of 'Powerful Connections' and these conferences are certainly an excellent example of the home and school partnership in action.   It was wonderful to see students so confidently sharing and explaining their learning journey and achievements with their whanau.  There were lots of smiles all round. Students having ownership and agency over their learning is exciting and empowering and I know there were many very proud teachers enjoying this process last night.  All our students had prepared for these conferences so, if you were unable to attend yesterday, you might like to have your child share their learning story with you at home.

Powerful connections also extend outside of our community and this week we have welcomed a large group of students and teachers from the Gueongsang-namdo area in Korea.  Our International Student Ambassadors and class buddies have enjoyed showing our visitors around over the last couple of days and we look forward to building strong relationships with them over the next few weeks.  A special thank you to those school families who are providing home-stays for the group.  We also look forward to soon welcoming students from Sawara Junior High, our sister school in Fukuoka, Japan.

Finally, I would like to wish all the very best to the Spartans, our third and final sports camp team for this year, who are off to Matamata on Monday.  Hoping for good skills and good weather!

Ngā mihi nui

Maree Stavert