Kia ora koutou. Welcome back to the last newsletter of Term 2. The cold, wet weather is upon us, but the holidays are nearly here!

Only a couple of weeks ago we had the Year 10 Camps, up at the Boyle River Outdoor Education Centre near Lewis Pass. The Mōhua students definitely had the wetter of the two weeks, but I was very impressed at the resilience shown by the students. They continued to head outside with their groups with very few complaints, and it was great to see the amount of smiling, laughter, and fun being had while doing it. We had some great staff with us on camp, and as always the camp instructors were amazing and inspired the students to give it their all and get involved. I can’t wait for next year! I have included a few photos from the camp.

There are a couple of events coming up soon that you should be aware of. Firstly, I will be doing academic interviews with all of the Year 11 and 12 Mōhua students. These are 15 minutes long, and are centred around their academic progress towards NCEA, and any related goals they may have. The Year 11 students in particular may have questions about how NCEA works, so hopefully I will be able to answer those as well. These interviews will begin in the last week of Term, and continue into Term 3. We are over half way through the academic year, so the senior students should know where their credits are coming from and be working towards their goals.

The second event is the Next Steps Camp, a leadership focused camp for Year 12 students, in week 3 of next term. It is aimed around helping develop skills for our future school leaders and other skills that are important in workplaces and other settings. We run it every year, and it is always heaps of fun. The students will receive more information about this camp shortly.

Lastly, a reminder about attendance. School starts at 8:30am every day, so we expect students to be here at that time. The Wānanga teachers, Form teachers, and I, have been monitoring attendance closely, and will be following up on students who continue to arrive at school late. Please support us by reinforcing this at home. There is a strong link between attendance and academic progress, and we all want your children to be achieving their very best.

If you have any questions or comments, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Ngā mihi nui.

Phil Daines

Years 10 - 12 Mōhua Kāhui Dean

(03) 349 5396 ext. 923

da@hornby.school.nz