Nga mihi nui ki a koutou katoa, nau mai hoki mai ki te tau hou.

Welcome back to the 2024 year. It has been wonderful to see our students return to school ready for learning. We really appreciate the support that you all as whānau and caregivers do to assist us in focussing on the students and their learning whilst they are with us at school.

We have been impressed by the standard of our school uniform, in particular the students feedback about their new uniform pieces. I discussed with the students on their first few days how important it is to present yourself in a positive manner, in particular when we look good we feel good and this not only impacts how we see ourselves but also how others see them.

The ‘phones away for the day’ has already had a positive impact on our school. Students are positively engaging in activities in and around the school and using their break times to connect in person with each other. The buzz of engagement around the school grounds has noticeably improved from the past few years. Again, thank you for your support in this manner.

Our students have settled straight back into their learning lessons and have been engaged in a range of Iwi activities to support our pro social school culture. Upcoming we have our Whānau conferences coming up so please keep an eye out for that information.

I would like to take a moment to acknowledge our Year 12 and 13 students. In the first few days back at school they were undertaking peer support training. We have included peer support training in our iwi curriculum as we know it supports the transition of our younger students in the school. Our senior Year 12 and 13 students worked positively and proactively with our Year 9 students, with some of our seniors signing up to continue the networking programme for the rest of the year. Thank you for being great positive senior role models for our new and younger students.

I hope you have all noticed that our new buildings are progressing nicely. At the moment I am working through a safety plan with our Construction team from CANAM to open up our build site for our local community to come in and have a closer look. I will provide more information over the coming weeks. 

Ngā mihi

Whaea Natasha and the Senior Leadership Team (SLT)