Welcome to the start of the 2017 academic school year. I trust you had a wonderful break with your family and that your students are ready and motivated to start the year. This is a brief newsletter to get the year underway. A more detailed newsletter will be published on Wednesday 22nd February.

2017 brings a significant amount of change for the school. I would like to welcome our 14 new staff and I am excited by the skills and talents that they will bring to the College this year. We are very fortunate that we attract high quality candidates to our school and our ongoing reputation ensures that we attract the best possible teachers to our community. As you get to know these teachers I’m sure you will enjoy working alongside them in supporting our students.

Our initial NCEA results from 2016 have been fantastic. While these are yet to be confirmed, our initial results have some very positive trends developing. Our Level One NCEA has been the highest since records started in 2002. Our percentage of Māori students enjoying success has increased significantly as well as boys' overall success. More detailed analysis of these results will be forthcoming in the next newsletter.

As I indicated towards the end of last year, our uniform contract is up for renewal midway through this year. While some people have provided feedback for me, I ask that you please complete this quick survey so that we can gather information to provide our prospective suppliers. Please follow the link:  https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/KKCUniform

We have had a number of building projects occur during the school holidays. I would like to thank our property staff and contractors for their ongoing work throughout the holidays and for making themselves available so that these projects could be completed as quickly as possible. We will shortly be opening the refurbished A Block Toilets. The main problem was how to deal with the flat roof that was causing leaks throughout parts of A Block. This has now been addressed and the refurbished toilets are certainly looking bright and more modern. As many of you will have seen, our Technology Block has been demolished and we are awaiting the start of the build for our Metal and Woodwork teaching spaces. This is an exciting project for the school and something that we are looking forward to. There have also been a number of alterations to existing classrooms to enhance the learning environments.

Coming up very shortly are the Swimming Sports followed by the Athletics Sports towards the end of February. Please bear in mind that you are most welcome to attend and support your students on these days.

Nga mihi

Neil Harray | Principal