*Senior Reports * Chromebook Settings *Upcoming Events

Senior Reports – Available on the KAMAR Portal

Now that the Senior Assessment Week has passed, teachers are currently completing senior reports. We will not post the reports home as we have in the past. All reports will be placed on the KAMAR parent portal and can be viewed, downloaded and printed from there. All families will receive a letter explaining how to access the KAMAR Portal which will include the required password. Of course the school can provide a printed copy on request by contacting the office. The KAMAR Portal can also be used to check attendance, NCEA credits, personal details and much more. This should be a regular place to check for all parents.

Start with the End in Mind – Option Choice for 2018

Students in Years 9-12 are currently choosing their courses for 2018. The course booklet has been emailed to all students and families. Choosing a course is not a random process of ‘do what you like’. It is important that students choose the right subjects to support their chosen career pathway. Before making their final selections students work through a process that starts with them deciding a career or vocational pathway. Mrs Toohey and the deans have been working with all students and hopefully you have been having important discussions at home too. Please contact your student’s dean if you wish to discuss subject selections for 2018. We welcome your questions and insights.

Academic Interviews

Senior students are currently having academic interviews with their dean. This includes discussing plans and selecting subjects for next year. Year 13s will be discussing life beyond school with Mrs Toohey; Year 12s will decide whether they are returning to Year 13 or whether their career pathway leads them to further training, a course or job beyond school. Of course, we expect all Year 11s to be returning to Year 12 in 2018.

Chromebook Settings

Hardly a day goes by but a dean is contacted by a parent to comment or complain about a student accessing distracting sites like Facebook on their chromebook during the school day. We have carefully reviewed our internet and chromebook settings. School owned chromebooks are set so that they will only work on the school network which has very strong restrictions. However family owned chromebooks are set so that a student can also access their own accounts either at school or at home. Ultimately students have to learn to be responsible and respectful cyber citizens, but some take longer than others to gain this maturity.

If your student is struggling to use their chromebook responsibly at school (or at home) we can adjust the settings on individual chromebooks so that they can only be used on the Hornby High School domain both at school and at home. With this setting the chromebook can only access safe educational sites that are used at school. This setting can last a long time or as short a time as is required. If this sounds useful please contact your child’s dean.

Sign out or Stay on??

Seniors may start exam leave or sign out of school on Tuesday 7th November but only if they have completed their NCEA internal course. Our expectation is that if students have assessments to complete in order to gain credits needed for NCEA success then we expect them to stay on at school until this work is done – however long it takes. Some students already have enough credits for NCEA, but most still have work to do. Now is the time to get stuck in.

Upcoming Events

Tuesday 19 September Koru Games for Yrs7&8 begin

Thursday 21 September Evening of Drama and Music

Monday 25 September Senior reports available on the portal this week

Friday 29 September Final Day of term 3

Monday 16 October First day of Term 4