I hope everyone managed to spend some time with their children during the school break. The kiwifruit harvest is an extremely busy time of year for a lot of people in our community however I hope you were able to enjoy each other’s company and reflect on what has been a very busy and successful term one. It is certainly great to see our students settling into their work and prioritising their studies as well as being involved in a wide range of activities or representing the school.

Last week we received some excellent news from the former Minister of Education, Hon Hekia Parata. For the last five years Minister Parata has acknowledged schools that have showed significant improvement in their NCEA results. Katikati College has always had very high levels of NCEA success and this is something that we pride ourselves on. We received letters of recognition in 2015 and in 2016 to recognise our continued improved NCEA success. It is always hard to show continual significant improvement however we have once again achieved that. Last week we received our third consecutive letter indicating, once again, year-on-year improved NCEA success rates. This is a fantastic achievement for our community and I certainly want to acknowledge all of the people involved in earning this letter. Our Board of Trustees continue to work hard to govern the school in an effective way and to ensure that we have the environment for our staff and students to succeed. Our hardworking staff continue to reflect on their teaching pedagogy so that they are delivering and interacting with our students to get the best possible outcomes. Our students have also become more and more engaged, especially over the last three years and this is very evident in the anecdotal stories I hear from staff.

Just to put this into context – there are approximately 320 Secondary Schools in New Zealand. This year, 36 letters were sent to schools acknowledging their improved NCEA success. Only 10 schools, of which we are one, have received three letters over the last five years. There is only one school in New Zealand that has received four letters of acknowledgment over the last five years. This really is an achievement for our school and another external recognition of the academic success that our students enjoy at Katikati College. While all of our students have shown an improved success, in particular the work we have done around raising Māori and Pasifika achievement has really come through. This increase in achievement really does benefit all of our community and is something that we can feel particularly proud about.

I want to acknowledge the outstanding success our Pasifika Performance Group achieved in the weekend. Competing in the Pasifika by Nature competition for the first time has been a real historical moment for our school. This group has practised incredibly hard to compete in this event and they did themselves extremely proud in their performance. I want to acknowledge the work that Mrs Helen Willacy and Mrs Vetekina Pekipaki have done in working with our parents and Pasifika community in organising and supporting our students in preparation for this event. Our students have worked extremely hard over the last few months to prepare for this and was a fantastic opportunity for them. More details and photos will be coming up in the next newsletter.

Nga mihi

Mr Neil Harray | Principal