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.

Well, that’s 2018 ‘done and dusted’, and we have much to celebrate as a kura. Whether it be Zoe Evans’ win in the Canterbury Museum photographic competition or Jaedon Wellington’s rising star in the Rugby League world, 'Voices with Soul' winning top choir at the ‘Voices’ festival or Year 7 & 8 Boys' basketball taking out their competition, or a near full auditorium watching the kapahaka groups from Hornby Primary School and Hornby High School performing. We have achieved a lot. There are so many other great achievements it might take several pages just to list them.

We have successfully navigated our way into the first of our new buildings, Te Pai Rewa and Te Pae Tūhura, our beautiful whare Te Manu Taupua, and our new gym space Manu Rere. The buildings have already redefined a lot about how learning happens at our kura, and staff and students are working hard to use these spaces to make learning ever more engaging and effective.

I have inserted a picture that illustrates the namings of our new spaces. The three kahui at the top of the map are those currently under construction.

Over the last four weeks of the term, all of our Year 7 to 10 students have been engaged in our ‘Passion Projects’ for one and a half days per week. The specific projects were determined by asking students what they are passionate about and would like to do, similarly asking staff, and then putting these together into a structure. The result was four weeks of amazing work and learning. The cross curriculum learning and engagement that we saw were amazing. The new spaces allowed students to use the facilities and resources of the new buildings to great effect. The building form allowed learning to happen in ways that have rarely been seen before. The musical theatre, the mathematical thinking in ‘maths crafts’, the sandstone carving and the community impact projects, the outdoor recreation activities and wearable arts, all captured imaginations. And with the cross year group activities, the tuakana teina, the peer to peer tutoring, was beautiful to behold, and powerful beyond measure. This is what success looks like, this is what effective education can look like. This might be what “creative excellence” could look like. These are exciting times to be at Te Huruhuru Ao o Horomaka Hornby High School.

I am grateful to my colleagues, our wonderful staff - teaching and non teaching together - who made so much happen for your rangatahi, your children. We are fortunate indeed to have such passion and such talent amongst our staff.

It was however a term that also concluded with some considerable sadness when our caretaker of over a decade Mr Pete Manson passed away after losing his battle with prostate cancer. Pete was a loving caring man who worked tirelessly for our kura and our rangatahi, and we will miss him dearly.

As we head into the summer break, I’d like to wish every one of you a safe and restful Christmas and summer season regardless of what the season means to you, and we look forward to seeing you back again in 2019. It is worth remembering that learning should not stop even though formal classes have finished. I commend the Summer Learning Journey to you all, and with record enrolment across our cluster, I look forward to seeing so many amazing rangatahi back next year energised, and with the benefit of the opportunities to retain their awesome learning from 2018 into 2019.

Please make sure you follow us on Facebook for the latest and most up to date news https://www.facebook.com/hornbyhighschool/ , and on our website www.hornby.school.nz . You can also follow my thinking on education at Hornby High School, and more generally, on my blog at https://whakataukihewakaekenoa.blogspot.co.nz/

Nga mihi nui

Robin Sutton