Kia ora koutou katoa

Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou

We are now in the full swing of school and I would like to thank Jayne Wheeler and Dr Michael Hunter who have spent so long on our timetable. It is such a difficult thing to do and we do our utmost best to accommodate as many of our students' needs as possible. Thanks Jayne and Michael. I really appreciate it.

  West Coast Trades Academy

This week I have the pleasure of attending our West Coast Trades Academy opening and below is a section of my speech:

One of the reasons I love being principal at Grey High and the lead principal for the West Coast Trades academy is that we offer amazing opportunities to give everyone the opportunity to find success, whatever that looks like to them and their whānau.

These opportunities are not available at all schools across the country. We on the Coast are special! I talk to lots of principals and they are always amazed by what I tell them. I don't know any other Trades Academy where they work with so many providers - TPP, Whenua Iti, Papa Taio - I hope I’ve not missed anyone off. We do this, as I said, because we want as many rangatahi as possible across the whole coast to try many different pathways to find success.

We are also trailblazers when we started up a trades pathway for our supported learning students and this is something that I am very, very proud of. Everyone deserves fantastic opportunities, not just some!

Some of you have driven for hours and already stayed overnight - that is a massive commitment and you should be congratulated for this! You might only live a block away and walk, but all of you - please take these opportunities and really enjoy them. You may find out it is not really for you, but all of these opportunities help you on your career pathway. This pathway may not be in a straight line but all over the place but as long as you’re moving forward you are doing well.

Finally, I am so excited for all of you to do some hands-on learning in an area you are interested in and I’m very keen to see lots of you again at the Trades prize giving at the end of the year and celebrate with you your successes.  

Tama High School (Tokyo, Japan)

https://www.metro.ed.jp/tama-h/our_school/message.html

We are very excited that the principal of Tama High School is joining us to sign a Sister School agreement with Tama High School. Below is an extract from my speech which explains what we are doing in more detail!

I am really pleased to welcome Principal Kamimura from Tama High School (Tokyo, Japan) to Greymouth High School.

It is our pleasure to sign a Sister School agreement with Tama High School who also turned 100 years old in 2023 and has lots of other areas in common with us at Grey High. Reading Tama High School’s website they talk about “realising a career path that each person can agree with” which to me aligns with our goal of creating many different learning and career pathways at school. For example, Nga Here Kahikatea, MSA, Trades, Active Learners, Turuki among others. Tama High School also provides internships which appear similar to our Gateway and work experience programmes and promote forest conservation activities as do we here. Everyone has a device as we do and we both offer lots of different activities for students to enjoy!

But also, looking at Tama High School’s website there is a massive amount for us to learn as well. I am looking forward to finding out more about them as an “academic ability improvement research school” and how they are complying with the new Japanese curriculum guidelines.

But we are here to sign a Sister School agreement and in this agreement we will:

Firstly, work together in the spirit of cooperation, friendship, and enterprise. We will do this by fostering peace and tolerance between the students and staff of both of our schools and nations.

We can have short term or long term exchanges of students. Tama High School students and staff can visit Greymouth High School and we can visit Tama High School. When we visit each other students will be assured of a framework of care, support, counselling, and teaching at the highest professional levels.

Both Greymouth High School and Tama High School agree to develop a continuing communication program involving staff and students through correspondence and visits for the mutual benefit of the two institutions.

Finally, we ultimately want to have a greater understanding of the cultures, social customs and societies of both countries.

Thank you so much for contacting us and initiating this agreement

Samantha Mortimer

Principal Greymouth High School

Tumuaki Kura tuarua o Māwhera