Our senior prizegiving was live-streamed this year. We saw many students cross the stage to receive prizes. This was a recognition of the hard work and resilience that they have shown over the last year. At each year level, we recognise the students that achieve all-round excellence, and then finally we celebrate the highest school academic award, the T.E. French (our foundation Principal) School Dux. The following were the recipients of those awards:

Year 11 Excellence Award: Isabella Aitchison

Year 12 Excellence Award: Kahu Jones

Year 13 Excellence Award: Megan Green

T.E. French Prize Dux 2021: Amber Forbes-Kean

Amber was awarded 1st place in Chemistry, Physics, Calculus, English, and Media Studies. She has been offered scholarships to attend Otago University (Academic Excellence) and the University of Canterbury (Hiranga and Horomata scholarships). Amber has also been our student representative on the Board of Trustees for the last two years. She is a fantastic student and I am sure we will see amazing things from her in the future.

We also had a very successful Māori and Pasifika Awards celebration, which was again live-streamed to our community. Congratulations to all Māori and Pasifika prizewinners. Our Māori Leadership Award went to Nikau Van Pelt and our Pasifika Leadership Award to Sateki Fifita.

I would also like to congratulate our Head students for 2022. We introduced them to our school at the leavers' assembly and announced the two Head Students who will lead this team throughout 2022. They are:

Head Students: Ataahua Hona, Ty Oldroyd

Deputy Head Students: Annie Saunders, Blake McCurrie, Emma Bubbins, Kahu Jones, Kalese Le Compte, Nikau Van Pelt

I would also like to give a big shout-out to the team from Caltex Kaiapoi who came to school and presented us with $2000 worth of vouchers to be used by our sports teams. We really appreciate the support and, hopefully, our community will return the favour by using Caltex Kaiapoi for all the service station needs.

A final shout to one of our local heroes. Darren Ball is the groundsman for our school and I am sure you will agree that the grounds look really fantastic. What many people don’t know is that Darren is also a volunteer for our local fire station. The other day Darren took off when the school fire alarm sounded and then returned a few minutes later in uniform to protect and serve the students and staff of Kaiapoi High. Way to go Darren, we are all proud of you!

At the end of the year, we are farewelling several of our staff and I have highlighted four here:

· Jill Cassidy has worked at Kaiapoi High for over 33 years. She has decided to retire this year.

· Maree Reynolds is retiring after 22 years at Kaiapoi High running our sports department.

· Elizabeth McMeeken, our Deputy Principal, is also retiring after 18 years.

· Roland Babonnick is retiring after 17 years. Roland is Head of our Technology Faculty.

As you can see, there is over 90 years of connection to our school that we are losing at the end of this year with these four alone. They are going to leave a big hole in our school. I wish them all the best for their retirement and late sleep-ins!

Finally, a quick update on the shift to the traffic light system. The attached diagram explains reasonably well the levels and how they affect schools.

The key points to note for the beginning of next year, if we are still under orange:

· Schools are always open, no matter what the level. If there is a case in school, contact tracing comes to the fore and it is likely that the school will be closed for only a short period of time.

· Face coverings are mandatory on buses. We will need your support with this as there are some students that wear one as they enter the bus but then remove it. Maybe a chat with your children regarding this would be a good idea.

· Face coverings are encouraged, but not mandatory, whilst at school. This changes if we go into red where they then become mandatory for all.

· We can have assemblies and powhiri. The powhiri at the start of the year is normally open to parents. Under orange rules, we can only allow parents if they have a vaccination pass. If we do not follow this then we are only allowed 50 people, and that includes students. This will also be the case for any events we have, including open night and school productions.

· Sport is where there has been the biggest shift. NZ School Sports has made it mandatory for all students to be fully vaccinated. Canterbury School Sports have also followed this stance. This means that our students cannot play any other school in any sport unless they can prove their vaccination status. I know that this will upset a number of families. I have no ability to change this stance. I would suggest getting in touch with NZ Schools Sports or Canterbury Schools Sports if you wish to share your concerns.

I would also like to note that this is the situation we are in at present. The playing field constantly changes, and we saw this with the mandatory requirement to have a register of student vaccinations being overturned recently. Our school will need to have some sort of register so that we can manage involvement in sport and activities outside of school.

Please do also note that whilst there is no requirement for parents and caregivers to show their vaccination status to come into school, we do require you to wear a face mask. We intend to clamp down on this in the new year. Please be kind.

I am very optimistic that we will manage to get through 2022 and even more optimistic that 2023 will see a return to some sort of normality.

I hope that you have a lovely Christmas break with your family.

Mā te aroha ka tutuki

Bruce Kearney

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