Five weeks into the role as Principal and I would like to thank the staff, students and community for the welcome received. As with any new role, it takes time to get up and running and the support I have received from the teaching team here has been outstanding.

The last week has certainly been a busy one with CAIMS games on Monday and Tuesday resulting in tournament wins in rugby, boys football and girls football. I would like to thank all the staff involved in making this event happen and Tim Evers for his efforts with Heaton entering the largest amount of teams in the competition.

Another success was the huge effort in Band Quest led by Janiene Hill and Sam Colvin. To say the night was a success was an understatement with awards across the board.

Congratulations to:-

1st Place and entering the national final -Stage Fright - Yr 7 band Charlie Rm16, Oscar Rm12, Emerson Rm11, Sam Rm15 and Ryo Rm12

Best Guitarist - Max Rm15

Best Vocalists - Sam Rm15, Emerson Rm11, Ayshanie Rm5 and Zahra Rm18

Best Musicianship - Ryo Rm12

Best Bass Player- Luci Rm5

Best Original song - Hexagons - Mathew Rm5, Luci Rm5, Evie Rm18, Irene Rm5, Archie Rm5 and Maddie Rm18

Huge thanks to our tutor, Matt Hall, for all his hard work with this.

Then we come to Cantamaths on Wednesday night. What a superb effort from both teams with our Year 7 team missing out on first place by mere seconds in a tiebreaker and our Year 8 team running neck and neck with the top teams right to the end.

Our rebuild is now well underway with steel framing going up in the last two days on our first block of 9 classrooms. The expected finish date for this first stage is sometime in January so there is a small chance we will be in to start in 2023. The building company, Southbase, have indicated that they will arrange a time for the community to come and look around the site once the framing and steel is up so watch this space for a date and time.

We also look forward to welcoming our new elected Board later this term. It was encouraging to see the level of interest and that we needed to go to election. I look forward to seeing the results when they are released early in September.

I understand there may be some interest in developing the friends of the school (parent fundraising) group. I am currently working on getting together a clear constitution for the group for Board approval and then anticipate having a meeting early in Term 4 to gauge interest.

This week we also had the first meeting of our Student Council. This group, consisting of our Head Students and Heads of each kaupeka, will be a way for student ideas and any concerns they may have to be expressed to our school leadership team and, where appropriate, directly to the Board of Trustees.

I do operate an open-door policy for parents and caregivers, however it is always best to call ahead so I can be sure to be available. I look forward to meeting many of you at our upcoming new build walkthrough.

And finally: As the winter sports season comes to an end I would like to thank all the coaches, managers and club officials that make such a difference to our young people both within school and outside. Youth sport works on goodwill from passionate people, and the contribution they make to our tamariki and society cannot be underestimated. Thanks to you all.

Nga mihi nui

James Griggs, Principal