Kia ora Koutou Katoa

Welcome back to Term Four! The next four weeks will fly by for our senior students (only 14 school days remaining!), most especially our Year 13 students who are so close to the end of their secondary education. It will be a time of mixed emotions – relief, joy, sadness, and excitement – and for some anticlimactic - that their secondary school journey is coming to an end. It is important that we all continue to support our students in the lead up to, and through to the end of their exams. There is much planned in these next weeks for them, and we will keep you informed of these events though emails and the newsletter. It is important that over their last remaining weeks, all seniors are in school, learning, revising, reviewing and making the best possible preparations for their exams which start on the 6th of November. Senior reports will be shared with parents at the end of week 3.

This week we held our first student election in the lead up to Saturday’s general election. This gave students an experience of what it’s like to vote, closely mimicking a real voting venue and staffing. This followed on from learning that has been happening in Social Sciences courses at all year levels. The results are fascinating with a strong lean to the right though it seems another party on the ballot (and not studied in class!) took the second highest number of votes. You can find out more about it in this newsletter. Special thanks to our Learning Area Leader Social Sciences, Corinne Coulthard, and the election manager Ciaran Thow, for running such a professional and important process. I encourage everyone eligible to get out and vote this weekend, we have a few Year 13 students old enough to vote for the first time in the New Zealand elections this year.

A New Zealand Defence Force member was our guest careers speaker on Wednesday. All students had the opportunity to hear about trades, careers, and other interesting options that the Defence Force has to offer.

Team and group photos were taken on Wednesday by Stuart Nimmo. It made for a busy day, but we know the resulting photos will be an excellent record for students of their participation, contribution, and success in different sporting, team, and group endeavors. Thanks to Madeleine Castle, Leah Smith, and Sports Coordinator Jasmine Dodemaide for their hard work organising students, team uniforms, blazers and ties!

A big thank you to the students, parents, and staff who attended the options evening last night. One of the many changes in education is the nationwide roll out of the new NCEA standards at level one next year. Teachers have been working extremely hard to make sense of and redevelop all Year 11 courses in response to the significant curriculum changes by the Ministry of Education and the significant review of NCEA assessment by the NZ Qualifications Authority. If you have any questions about courses or course content, please don't hesitate to contact the Learning Area Leaders for details. All staff contact details can be found on the website here. There is a significant shift away from over-assessment to broad learning as the priority. The introduction of the numeracy and literacy co-requisites also means a shift in our junior programmes to ensure all students are making better progress in the essential skills of literacy and numeracy. All information about the NCEA changes can be found here.

As part of teacher planning for next year’s courses, teachers will be seeking feedback from students about their experiences of teaching and learning in their classes. Students will complete a standard survey for each class over the coming few weeks. It’s important to us that we design courses and learning experiences that meet all students’ needs and keep them academically challenged – never an easy task but one we constantly aspire to!

Next week is another eventful week:

• On Monday the Mayor's Taskforce for Jobs team will have a pop-up stall in the hall in break one, any students looking for employment, part-time or afterschool work can go visit them to get help and find out what’s available.

• Monday (Year 11) and Tuesday (Year 12 and 13) DCAT Exams are on next week (Digital Technologies Common Assessment Tasks).
• The Junior Futsal tournament in Harihari is on Thursday, we have girls and boys teams going.
• Retreats are happening at the St John’s Ambulance rooms on Thursday (Year 9 and 10 students) and Friday (Year 11 and 12 students) next week. The Catholic N.E.T.S Youth team will be leading the students in a range of activities for each full day. Students don’t need to wear uniform and will need to bring their lunch with them on the day. See further explanation in this newsletter.
• The Science Roadshow is on Friday at Grey High, our junior students will visit.
• From Friday until Sunday the Year 11 Geography class will travel to Kaikoura to study the impact of earthquakes.

Have restful weekends everyone and keep those people suffering in the worn-torn places in the world in your prayers.

Senior Leadership Team