Tēnā koutou katoa

Have your say about what you want our college to be like

We now have a Community Suggestion Box where you can make comments or suggestions about the College. You can find the link on the front page of our website, as well as here:  https://goo.gl/forms/uhsApq4jvpMAG2Yp1

Staffing Updates

We have appointed two new members to our Senior Leadership Team for 2018. Congratulations to Mr Simon Finnimore and Mr Simon Quin on their appointments. Both Simons are well known to our school community and will add to our existing Senior Leadership Team to work with our staff, students and school community as we move into the next stage of school improvement.

Staff leaving at the end of 2017 are:  Mrs Bobbette Tanner, who takes up a position at Katikati Primary School; Mrs Jenny Willoughby and Mr Lloyd Smith who are retiring at the end of the year and Mr Iain Wallace, who is taking a year's leave in 2018. We wish Iain all the best on his travels back home to Scotland and look forward to his return in 2019.

We have two staff members moving on to more challenging roles at other schools. Mr Alistair Simpson will be taking up a position at Tauranga Boys’ College, leading the Digital Technologies Department, and Mrs Hayley George will be taking up a position at Bethlehem College as their new Head of English.

I would also like to acknowledge the contributions made to our College in 2017 by a number of part time and fixed term teachers: Ms Steph Duncan, Mrs Sarah Quilty, Ms Nicky Geary, Mrs Jenny Carter, Ms Roisin Warner, Mr Leigh Hicks and Mr Stan Foster. We wish you all the best in 2018. We are pleased to retain Mrs Helen Willacy and Mrs Vetekina Pekipaki for another year in our Language and Literacy Faculty.

In 2018 we will have several new staff joining us. We are excited to welcome Mrs Shelley Walker from Waihi College into our Maths Faculty and Mrs Anja Angell-Donaldson into our Arts Faculty.  Welcome back to Mr Arno Potgieter, who joins our Maths Faculty. We still have a number of appointments to make and the successful applicants will be confirmed in my end of year open letter to the community.

An exciting new position has been created for 2018 to support our continued development of innovative learning programmes in horticulture. The Innovative Hort Manager will oversee the development of a proposed new Innovative Horticulture course of study, which will bring together achievement standards from a number of curriculum areas including:

• Science - Horticulture, Biology, Biotechnology, Earth (Soil) Science

• Business Studies - Economics, Finance, Marketing

• Technology - Digital Technology, Robotics, Design Process

• Environmental Sustainability

• Gateway and STAR courses

This Innovative Horticulture course will not be available until 2019, however teachers will be working together to develop a modular approach to the course, which will provide academic pathways as well as practical applications. We look forward to forming partnerships with many horticulture industries and community businesses. This position will be advertised in the next few weeks. If you are interested in becoming a partner in the initiative or learning more about the position and proposed course please contact me at principal@katikaticollege.school.nz.

Student Engagement and Success

Since the last newsletter I have had the opportunity to join our Year 10s on camp at Finlay Park, Karapiro, where there was much learning and delight at experiencing all the outdoor activities. This included many sports, such as kayaking and rock climbing as well as challenges like problem solving, team building and individual pursuits. I would like to acknowledge the work of our staff, particularly Mr Simon Quin, for organising the camp, and thank the parents who generously gave up their time to come on the camp. Without these people our students would not have such wonderful opportunities.

I was fortunate to join our Pourua class for a day in Gisborne. They spent a week at the Mana Kuratahi National Primary School Kapahaka Competitions 2017 as spectators, with the intention of being active participants in 2018. I would like to acknowledge the work that was done by whaea Tamara Cook, matua Linden Morris, whaea Aroha Koria and the whānau who supported them. I was privileged to take the group to two of the schools at which I have previously taught. Gisborne Boys’ High school gave our students a powerful pōwhiri welcome and Te Karaka Area School shared its uniqueness and diverse teaching strategies with us. We all came away with many ideas and ways to better support our Māori learners at Katikati College.

We have appointed our Student Leadership Team for 2018. They are Pawan Kumar (BOT Student Representative), Roelien Du Plessis (Head Girl), Cameron Hankins (Head Boy), Alison Kindley (Deputy Head Girl) and Jake Hannah (Deputy Head Boy). They are pictured below. I would like to congratulate them all on their appointments, as well as acknowledge what an incredibly strong field of applicants we had this year. There were so many willing students capable of leading our school that it made the decision very challenging.

Out and about at Katikati College

There have been many examples of authentic and contextual learning this term, with many of our staff planning exciting opportunities to engage our students. These include the Electric car expo arranged by Mr Hamish Carr. Mrs Robin Cameron organised the Boomerang Bags evening and Mr Peter Besley master-minded our ‘Cans for Good’ mufti day, in which our students doubled the number of cans we were able to donate to the Salvation Army compared with 2016.

On Friday November 17 Katikati College hosted our new Year 7 and 9 students for 2018. This transition day allows our new students to begin their orientation to Katikati College, including meeting their teachers and head students for 2018. The day was a fabulous success with over 120 students exploring our College and participating in a range of activities put on by our faculties and staff. I would like to acknowledge and thank our Head of Year 7 and 8 Faculty, Mr Simon Finnimore and our Year 7 and 8 Dean Mrs Lindsay Deane-Freeman for organising and overseeing the day, as well as all our fabulous staff and the work they do to make our new students feel so welcome. Lastly, our new Student Leadership Team had their first day of demonstrating leadership in their new roles. They did a wonderful job, working with the Year 6 and 8 students and it was a real privilege to watch the tuakana-teina relationship begin to emerge. It made me very proud of our school community and excited about what 2018 has in store for us.

Acknowledgements and Thanks

Senior Prizegiving was a wonderful evening of celebrations and acknowledgements of student success. Thank you to all the families and whānau who joined us to affirm the achievements of our students.

I would also like to thank our community sponsors for their generous prize donations and attendance, as well as our team at the College who worked tirelessly to pull the evening together.

Last but not least, thanks to our Year 13 Dean, Ms Kathryn O'Sullivan, for all her fantastic work with our Year 13 students this year . She will be the Dean for our Year 9 students in 2018.

Ngā mihi nui

Carolyn Pentecost | Principal