Mā te huruhuru, ka rere te manu. ‘Feathers enable the bird to fly’

This year I was given the honor of serving the school as one of four head prefects, along with my amazing peers Emmanuel, Juanita and Jorja.

Malo e lelei. Ko hoku hingoa ko Imanuela Faavae. Ki Mu’a fai ha lea, kou uluaki oatu heni ae fakamalo moe fakafetai lahi ki he etau tamai fakahevani, i he tau toe ausia ki he aho mahuiga koeni. Oatu heni ae fakamalo ki he tau Pule ako Mr Sutton pea moe ongo tokoni pule ako ko Mr Goodfellow pea mo Mrs Wheeler. Fakamalo atu ki he tau Dean Ms. McLaren, pehe kihe kau faiako hono kotoa, I ho’o mou tauhi mo tokoni mai kimautolu fanau ako. Fakamalo heni kihe head girl Crystal Edminstin moe tokoni head girl Jorja Woodgate pea mo Juanita Fifita moe kau matapule hono kotoa, o a’u kia moutolu fanau ako hono kotoa.

What a year 2020 has been! When the staff notes were published this time last year, no one had heard of Covid-19, and we would never have dreamed that our world - and the way we operate as a kura - was about to be turned on its head. This column recognises the welcomes, the farewells, and the milestones that take place amongst Hornby High School staff in a busy year, but this year there also has to be acknowledgement of, and congratulations to, all staff who rolled their sleeves up and made 2020 work. It has been a hugely challenging year to be an educator and we thank everyone for their flexibility, their creativity and their resilience in getting our young people through.

On Friday 11 December, we celebrated the success of our Year 9 and 10 students at their prizegiving.

On Thursday 10 December, we celebrated the success of our Year 7 and 8 students at prizegiving.

It is safe to say that things didn't quite go to plan for the Japanese department this year, something which can be said by many in these interesting times.

This year the English department designed, and implemented a personalised, self-directed, connectivist curriculum, which enabled students to become better equipped for the 21st Century and to take more control of their learning. The published executive summary, that was written as part of it, is at the end of the English and Media report.

When people reminisce on their experiences in their own maths class, I often hear one of two things - either they really enjoyed maths or, more commonly I hear that they hated maths and don’t ever want to do it again. This year the we continued with our focus on improving students’ confidence in maths so that we have more people enjoy their time in maths. It can be hard to believe, but when a student enjoys maths, they normally enjoy the challenge that maths provides. So in order for us to improve confidence in maths, we have to teach the joy of the challenge.

What a whirlwind of a year! We had the year planned and then we had to adjust to Covid and the changes that meant for us all. Most of the events that were scheduled for Term 2 were cancelled which was a real shame for our students. We adjusted like everyone else had to do.

Gateway has had another successful year despite some of the set-backs 2020 gave our students and their whānau. Most of our students have met their goals to ensure a great start toward their future.

What a challenging year this has been for everyone, Hornby High School included. Despite Covid-19, Hornby High School continued to be successful in its sporting endeavours.

Arts evening was a lively, colourful performance celebration when NCEA students and the Shakespeare Festival teams shared their achievement of creating rich theatre. This was a wonderful exhibition of whanaungatanga, the relationships of shared experience and working together, in the kindness and respect shown by students backstage, onstage and in the audience as they coped with technical issues, illness and nervousness. Admirable resilience was shown as “the show must go on”.

Forte's contribution to Performance Music at Hornby High School

Two enthusiastic teams led by directors Amy Woermann and Molly Noven set out to create scenes for the University of Otago Sheilah Winn Shakespeare Festival expecting to perform at the end of Term one. Thankfully the festival organisers, facing the uncertainty of covid 19 set up an on-line competition. Directors attended meetings, planning how to keep the energy going online and adapt their pieces for the camera.

“I regard theatre as the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate way a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being.” Oscar Wilde

Despite it being a quiet year for performing opportunities we have still had lots of fun in Voices with Soul. We have continued to rehearse twice a week and have kept a dedicated and committed group for 2020.

It would be fair to say that 2020 has been a real roller coaster of a year, not only for our akonga (students), but for everyone within our wider community.

2020 has not been the year we had planned! Nevertheless, throughout it all, we loved working with our beautiful smiling rangatahi.

In 2020, the ESOL department welcomed new students from Samoa, South Korea, Afghanistan and the Philippines. In ESOL classes this year, students expanded their English learning through studying a range of topics from across the curriculum.

Stars is a 12-month mentoring programme that supports, motivates and positively reinforces Year 9 students during their first year in secondary school.

After having our normal skydiving in Ashburton cancelled in April due to covid and then being told there was no more plane to skydive from, we were feeling very deflated. Then with the prospect of being involved in the first ever helidive in Aotearoa, and landing on the beach in Sumner we were buzzing with excitement.

What a year it has been, but after all the craziness I am finishing the year as a very proud Stars coordinator.

Kia ora koutou katoa. We have had an outstanding year despite the difficulties that have been faced throughout 2020. We are very proud of the resilience shown by you all.

What a year, it’s been described as hanging onto the tail of the tiger, trying to keep up through all the unexpected twists and turns, plus avoid being bitten.

After several cancellations, Hornby High School students and staff were delighted to finally attend their school formal on 6 November 2020 at Pemberton Gardens.

This has certainly been a hectic year for our senior students with many of the 'outside of the classroom' trips being cancelled. For senior classics, this included the disappointing loss of the annual University of Canterbury classics day. However, we were lucky enough to secure a visit to the Teece Museum which holds the largest collection of classic artifacts in the southern hemisphere.

This year the normal National Geography Quiz for year 11 students did not go ahead. However, the University of Christchurch, Christchurch Geography Teachers Association and Geo-Soc decided to go ahead with it’s own competition for the Canterbury region.

On Thursday 20 August 2020 the Level 1 Geography class went on a research trip to 4 different beaches around Christchurch. These beaches were Corsair Bay, Taylors Mistake, Sumner Beach and New Brighton beach.

On Tuesday 18 August the combined level 2 and level 3 geography class went on their long awaited research trip. The Level 3 trip was originally planned for Kaikoura but as we all know many of our plans were altered this year. Instead we all went to Wainui in Akaroa Harbour.

In Term one, we had 3 visiting international students from Komagome, Toshima City, Tokyo, Japan.