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.

We always get to this time of the year and ask ourselves where the year has gone. Staff and senior students are in ‘completion and revision’ mode, with art, technology and DVC folios being submitted, final re-assessments being written and marked, and practice exams running in many classes. It speaks volumes for our students that we now celebrate our second Year 11 student (Crystal Edminstin) to attain Level 1 NCEA, endorsed with Excellence, before even entering the examination room. The first Year 11 student to do so was Jorja Woodgate. Crystal also deserves our congratulations for her recent election as student representative on the Board of Trustees for the next year. These two girls are shining examples of our school values: Commitment, Achievement, Resilience, Respect.

Senior students go on examination leave in a couple of weeks time. There will be some students who have few if any external examinations, but there will also be those who have quite a few. Please support your daughters and sons in their work. They need to be focussed, and to study and practise extensively now in order to get across the mark with their external examinations. These are important. If studying at home is difficult (we really do know how busy households can be, and how difficult it can be to focus), then encourage them to come along and work in our learning commons area. There is always plenty of support available.

Year seven to ten classes have an exciting and challenging time ahead of them this term as we run ‘passion projects’ with them as a means of grabbing their engagement and embedding learning in more ‘real world’ contexts. These ‘passion projects’ are a natural ‘next step’ after our trials with project based learning over the past two years. They also represent a new development of the Arts kete that has run for Year seven and eight students in term 4. They will spend a total of one and a half days per week on their projects over the last four weeks of the term. Each project will have a range of aspects of the curriculum embedded in it, but these connections will be shaped around students’ passions.

We are in the process of writing our annual plan for 2019, and I hope to put the initial thinking from the Board, and the staff, out to you all for comment within a week of so. Planning may not be your thing, but if you have an opinion we’ll want to hear it. Our biggest question is whether or not we reflect your aspirations for your children.

The PPTA is organising a Paid Union Meeting for Friday 9 November. This will mean an early finish to classes on that day. We will post information on the school Facebook page.

Mā te huruhuru, ka rere te manu

Feathers enable the bird to fly

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 new 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/

And remember that we are all only a phone call away if you have any concerns.

Nga mihi nui

Robin Sutton