Kia ora koutou katoa

It was great to see many students there talking about their learning and their next steps. As the new principal, I enjoyed meeting many of you, and thank you for the positive feedback about the direction we are taking as a school. 

One initiative we will be starting is fortnightly reporting to parents, caregivers and whanau. These will be most useful if you let us know what you want regularly reported to you. This might be attendance, attitude and effort, behaviour expectations met, and student engagement and participation. We would appreciate you taking a few minutes to share what sorts of things would be meaningful and useful for you. https://forms.office.com/r/M3J2J9wYiC

Excitement is ramping up for our John Paul II Feast Day on Wednesday 18 May. Please join us at St Patrick’s church from 9am for our Feast Day mass, and the celebration of Confirmation for two staff and six students. The rest of the day is being capably run by our student leadership team, including Shave for a Cure, with special guest star Mayor Tanya Gibson to shave some heads! Your donation is appreciated. 

Students are to come to school in their uniforms for Mass, then change at school into their pink shirts to begin the Feast Day activities.

Attendance has dropped off from Term One with many students (and support staff) isolating because of Covid-19. We pray for everyone to make a swift recovery and thank all those with winter colds and ills for staying home. Mask use is still high, and there is no doubt that this is continuing to stop the spread of the virus within our school. Thanks everyone for not being like the people in the graphic above!

Next Friday 20 May, our staff are participating in the regional NCEA Accord Day. They will be working with colleagues across subject areas in the various schools. 

 School will be closed for instruction, so we hope you all enjoy the long weekend.

Ngā mihi nui

Renée Hutchinson

Tumuaki Principal