Tēnā koutou katoa, Mālō e lelei, Welcome

What an amazing term! It has been full of outstanding events and achievements from every level and learning area of the college. We are punching well above our weight in the ‘Bay and beyond’ and being noticed by many both locally and nationally, not just for our talent, but for our sportsmanship, humility and give it a go attitude! I could not be more proud of who we are and who we strive to be. The passion in our College and community is infectious and the commitment from parents and supporters, to our students, rangatahi and College an absolute blessing. Thank you to everyone in our learning community for your contributions, collaboration and community spirit!

As we come to the end of Term 3 and also Semester B, I congratulate all our students and staff on the awesome innovative learning programmes, commitment to student success and dedication to supporting a more personalised approach. This has resulted in students' succeeding with internal assessments. They are now just finishing their last internals and preparing to demonstrate their acquired new knowledge and skills in the external assessments.

We have shifted our college practise exams (Derived Grade Exams) to Week one of Term 4. This is a real change in philosophy and links directly to the idea of readiness for assessment and how we can best prepare students for their next learning steps. Our Year 11, 12 and 13 students' next steps are their external NCEA exams and by using their results from the college Derived Grade Exams they can work with our teachers to identify a learning programme and timetable that personalises their study plan to get the best end results. Make the most of the specific tutorials offered. If you haven’t yet seen these, check your emails to access the link to these that Mr Nicholson has sent out. We will also add the link to the tutorials to our website.

I really enjoyed meeting with parents/ whānau and students during Future Pathway Interviews (FPIs). It is such a great opportunity to just talk about students' learning and how our College can support them to have the life they deserve as confident, connected, successful citizens. During some of the conversations I indicated that there are a few incorrect ‘myths' out there and so I will address one specifically today. It may also be worthwhile referring back to the Question and Answer Document about the Curriculum and Timetable Improvements.

One of the misconceptions I heard from students and parents is that they have less chance of success if they are not doing more than 100 credits. This is incorrect. The relationship between success and effort is the same, we are successful where we invest effort. Previously, with more credits available, students were deciding where they placed their efforts, picking and choosing what they would do. Now they have to demonstrate more commitment to the credits that are available, thus the focus is on quality not quantity. Doing fewer credits also reduces workload for both students and staff and promotes better overall wellbeing.

I encourage you to ask anyone you know who employs staff what they are looking for and I am confident that ‘commitment’ would be up there near the top. All the conversations I am currently having as a Principal with employers demonstrate a shift from qualification to attitude being the most important quality they look for in staff. One employer said to me recently, ‘I can teach skills, I can’t teach attitude.’

Please know that all of the decisions we make at the College are to better support the process of learning so that the product is personal success and preparing students for the chapter that follows school, whether it’s direct employment, polytech, apprenticeship or University.

Our junior students and staff are preparing for Term 4 projects which will be an opportunity to explore project-based learning and to work with different staff and students on a chosen area of interest or activity.

As a final comment, it would be great if everyone continued to help us embed in our students the benefits of ‘being in the right place, at the right time, doing the right thing’.

Good luck to our seniors with exams and Happy Holidays! Monday, 14th October is a teacher only day.  Students in Years 7-10 are expected back on Tuesday, 15th October.  Senior Exams also start on Tuesday 15th October.

Thanks for a fabulous term.

Nāku noa na

Carolyn Pentecost

Principal/ Tumuaki