He mihi mahana ki a koutou katoa, warm greetings to all.

Over the last few weeks we have been supporting our senior students to finalise their internal assessments before departing us on study leave. The staff and students have worked really hard to get themselves in very good positions before the externals to gain their NCEA certifications.

Last week our prizegiving evening signaled the end of the year for our Year 12 and 13 students, and today signaled the last day for our Year 11s. I congratulate all of our award recipients who gained awards throughout the last few weeks at our Merit prize giving and our final prize giving events. The list of recipients will be posted on Facebook so that you all as whānau can see what our students have attained this year.

I wish all of our senior students the best of luck as they prepare for the external examinations and then look forward to a well deserved summer holiday. To our graduands, our Year 13 students who will not return to Kamo High School after the break, we wish you well in your future endeavors and remind you once again that you will always hold a place in our whānau here at Kamo High. I look forward to seeing you at our leavers dinner this evening to receive your leaving certificate.

The junior students have also had a taste of what is to come in the next few years with many sitting the CAA (common assessment activity) examinations. The CAA examinations support a student in gaining their literacy (reading and writing) and numeracy, both of which are a co-requisite to the NCEA certification from next year. Basically, if you do not get literacy and numeracy you can not attain NCEA.

We believe it is important for our junior students to recognise and prepare for their NCEA journey and we know that giving them opportunities to challenge themselves in their learning will help them to succeed in their senior years.

In the upcoming weeks we have further challenges in learning for our junior students so that they are continuing to learn in various ways right until the last day of school.

Ngā mihi

Whaea Natasha and the SLT