Kia Ora Parents and Friends of Katikati College,

I am very pleased to announce that once again we have gained a number of scholarships from the 2016 academic year. Nicholas Wagstaff gained an Outstanding Scholarship in Design. The Outstanding Scholarship is awarded to the top 10 scholars in New Zealand and is something that Nicholas can be extremely proud of. Two other students gained scholarships last year. They are Ethan Morse in Drama and Caleb Ibbotson in Physics. These students have worked particularly hard and are talented in their respective areas of study and they have also been well supported by our staff. Once again, it is a good indication that our students at Katikati College can attain the highest levels of qualifications within New Zealand.

Some of you in the community will remember former student Toby Hendy. Toby was our Proxime Accesit (Runner-up to Dux) in 2012 and was certainly a high performing student. In 2011 she was one of two students from New Zealand to attend the International Space Camp in the USA and went on to receive a number of scholarships while attending the University of Canterbury. Toby has gone on to further success and was recently awarded a Westpac Future Leaders Scholarship worth $120,000. She is about to embark on her PhD which is focusing the effects of air pressure on plant biology. More information about her award can be found here: https://www.eureka.org.nz/news/2017/2/2/eureka-alumni-named-among-22-westpac-future-leaders-for-2017  

In the coming weeks there are whole school events to which I invite you to come along and be part of. Wednesday is the first day of the Swimming Sports Festival and it commences with our championship events. Thursday and Friday are fun event days and we encourage participation and House involvement. The following week, on Tuesday 28 February, is our Athletic Sports. It would be great to see you come along and support your students as they participate in these days.

Hopefully your son/daughter had the opportunity to tour the ‘play your part day’ that was held last week. This is a good opportunity for students to see what activities they can get involved in outside of their academic studies. Interestingly, there were a number of groups there that also support students in their academic pursuits which is great to see.

For the last few weeks our ARC focus has been around ‘students acting as bystanders’. The aim of this is to try and support those who witness any form of bullying within the school and help them make good decisions around what is acceptable and what is not acceptable at our school. Staff have introduced this idea to our students and are supporting them through this. It is important to recognise and minimise bullying as much as we can. If you have any concerns please contact the school to discuss further.

Thank you to those parents who have provided very valuable feedback in regards to the uniform. I have compiled this very clear information as part of our tendering process for prospective suppliers. This will happen over the next few months and we will endeavour to inform you of the outcome as negotiations progress.

Pedestrian Crossing: It is important to remember the difference between a ‘controlled’ and ‘uncontrolled’ pedestrian crossing. With large numbers of students using the pedestrian crossing from both Katikati Primary School and Katikati College during peak times, morning and afternoon, I want to clarify how the crossing is controlled. When the road patrollers from the Primary School have established themselves at the crossing, the pedestrian crossing then becomes a ‘controlled crossing’. This means the traffic flow is dictated by the ‘lollipop barriers’ that go out and control the pedestrians crossing. During school hours when the road patrollers are not on duty, this crossing then becomes an ‘uncontrolled pedestrian crossing’. This means that normal rules around pedestrian crossings come into play. Could I please encourage all of our motorists to follow the directions of the road patrollers during the ‘controlled crossing time zones’.

Nga mihi

Mr Neil Harray | Principal