Kia ora koutou. Talofa. Kia Orana. Malo e lelei. Bula. Fakaalofa atu. Namaste. Kumusta. Haere mai ki Te Kura Huruhuru Ao o Horomaka. Warm greetings to the Hornby High School community.

Welcome back to Te Huruhuru Ao o Horomaka Hornby High School for 2018, and a very warm welcome to all of our new students, whānau and staff. I enjoyed meeting so many new students and whānau from our Year 7 cohort at our Year 7 barbeque, and it was fantastic to hear so many parents commenting on how happy and relaxed their children were in their first weeks at Hornby High School.

There will be plenty on offer this term, with some exciting summer sport opportunities, our athletics sports day, and the prospect of a musical production in the offing. Let’s remember of course that academic achievement is central to what we do, and my walkthroughs of classes over the first two weeks of the term have revealed classes that are calm and settled, focussed, and making a good start to their learning programmes. This is perhaps the most important thing we ought to be able to say about classes at Hornby High School.

There are many changes in the wind. We began the year with twelve new staff joining us to fill a range of new positions arising mostly from our growing roll. We began the year with a roll of just short of 690, the largest roll the school has seen since the 1980s. Expect details soon on the final shape of the school’s enrolment scheme designed to manage our growth to match our rebuilt facilities.

Work is progressing on the first stage of our rebuild with practical completion scheduled for 4 June, and we are on schedule to hold our blessing of these first new buildings at the start of term 3, on 23rd July. Watch for details of this very important event.

Important work will take place this year to review our reporting formats, and our curriculum/timetable structures. Our work over the past two years (based on external research evidence as well as our own experiences) has confirmed our view that we can improve student engagement and learning by looking at each of these issues in different ways. Expect us to seek your opinions on a number of questions while this work proceeds.

We also begin a series of policy reviews, on a number of which we will be seeking your feedback. The first, ‘Home Learning’, will take place this term.

We have shifted our whanaungatanga focus to look more at student and staff wellbeing during this year, and our Board of Trustees is keen to connect more effectively with you all as time goes by on these and other issues.

NCEA results showed a pleasing improvement for our senior students when compared with 2016, and the data also continues to show acceleration of learning for our Year 7 and 8 students (by acceleration we mean that students made more than one year’s academic progress in one year). This is consistent with the data from across the country that is gathered to show the impact of our Manaiakalani pedagogy ‘Learn Create Share’, and the use of digital devices (Chromebooks). Thanks so much to every whānau that has chosen to make the substantial investment in a Chromebook for your tamariki. Apart from your time and your aroha, this is perhaps the most important investment you can make in your children.

The education of our children is often likened to a three legged stool (whānau, school, child): provided all three legs are present there is stability, we have a stable foundation from which to learn and grow.

There might be a physical fence along our boundary, but for the sake of the education and progress of your tamariki imagine that fence isn’t there. Come in to the kura, it is YOUR kura. Don’t accept that often heard teenage request (or is that a demand?) to stay away. Be present with your tamariki as they grow and learn.

Waiho i te toipoto, kaua i te toiroa
Let us keep close together not far apart

Nga mihi nui

Robin Sutton

Principal