Dear Parents and Caregivers, It is with a great deal of sadness that I write my final newsletter as your Principal.

The last few weeks have been a mixture of focusing on making sure our school manages the demands placed on us due to the COVID pandemic, ensuring that our planning and staffing is on order for the new Principal, and attending farewells. When I came into this position at the end of 2011, we were managing the continuing effects of the Canterbury earthquakes, and as I leave, we are managing the continuing effects of the COVID pandemic. In between these major events, we had a rebuild of our school, including our two main teaching blocks, Tāwera and Karetū, Te Kōhiko, our cultural learning centre, and Hiwa e te rangi, our new gymnasium. We have seen an increase in our school roll from 500 students to 1100, and a huge shift in our academic performance, especially with respect to merit and excellence endorsements. Our school has seen a change in our uniform, the growth of the Student Council and the introduction of Polyfest, to sit alongside our outstanding Kapa Haka.

In 2011 our Board of Trustees made a very brave decision to appoint a new Principal that, to be honest, should have never even been shortlisted. At the time I was a Head of Department, with only six weeks experience in a senior leadership position. This caused a great deal of unease for our staff and was not a particularly popular decision within the Assistant/Deputy Principal circles. I really do want to thank the Board of Trustees at the time for having seen something in me and giving me the opportunity to lead this fantastic school. Our Board Chair at the time was Russell Keetley, and he was supported by parent representatives Martin Pinkham, Wayne Richardson and Neville McDonald. Vicki Young was, and still is, our staff representative, and Callum Bell was the student representative, who now holds a position of teaching here at Kaiapoi. I want to thank them all for the confidence and belief they had in me, and I certainly hope that I have repaid their decision.

It has been a real pleasure to be your Principal. There is something special about a community school that you do not see in urban schools. Previous to coming to Kaiapoi, my entire teaching career was in large urban high schools. I began at St Paul's Collegiate in Hamilton, then moved to Burnside High School, Shirley Boys’ High School, Christchurch Boys’ High School and then Cashmere High School, before ending up at Kaiapoi High. Each of these schools had their own culture and beliefs, were unique and similar in many ways, but I can honestly say that none had the same connection to their community as we do here at Kaiapoi. Being a community school places a unique pressure on a school; our successes and issues are right in front of our community. We are often called upon to deal with situations in our community that no urban school has to deal with. However, the benefits far outweigh any costs, and over the last ten years I have had the pleasure of building fantastic relationships with our Primary Schools and Principals, local Police, All Together Kaiapoi, local Ministers of Parliament, and our RSA. These relationships with our community, and our ability to both rely on and support our community, make this school a very special place.

My sole task that was given to me was to make Kaiapoi High School the school of choice for our community. The idea was that if this community was a great place to live, then it should be a great place to educate your child. We had a role to play in that; we had to make sure that we gave our community a valid choice. I believe that we have done that, not by having new shiny buildings or a better uniform; we have achieved that by having an outstanding staff that have always put the interests of the students at the heart of what we have done. I hope that our community can see this. We are one of a handful of schools in New Zealand that have remained fully operational over the last term, most have either rostered home, worked in a hybrid situation, or closed. Remaining open was a challenge, but it was best for our students' wellbeing, and our staff stepped up and went beyond what others were doing. I am so proud of our staff and the clear and relentless focus they have on providing the best opportunities for your children.

I am somewhat infamous for my mantra that ‘school is like a vending machine, you have to put something in to get something out’. In reality, ‘life is like a vending machine’. You only get to truly enjoy it if you are willing to give something yourself, to try something new, to not complain about lack of opportunities, but rather to seek them out. I have only ever wanted our students to be proud of the school they attend, to be proud of the opportunities they have been given. Each year at leavers' assembly I ask our students to say with pride in response to that Canterbury question: "What school did you attend?", that they attended Kaiapoi High School. I now ask on leaving this fantastic school, that our parents and caregivers also do the same. You should be proud of this school, and when friends and neighbours, who choose to chase that elusive dream of a perfect school, ask you how Kaiapoi High is going, tell them that it is going great!

Mā te aroha ka tutuki

Bruce Kearney