Principal's Comment
Tēnā koutou katoa, Mālō e lelei
As Term 3 comes to a close and I reflect back on what we have managed to squeeze in, I cannot help feeling a strong sense of pride for our College and our students. There is an affirming feeling of how lucky I am to be the Principal of such an inspirational learning community, working with dedicated and passionate staff and students.
Staffing Updates
At the end of this term we farewell Mrs Vanessa Moodie, our Deputy Principal of the Junior School. She is leaving to take up an opportunity to train as an educational psychologist. This is an area of education she is passionate about. We wish her all the very best and thank her for her 13 years service to our College. We invite you to join our farewell assembly for Mrs Moodie on Wednesday, September 26, at 8:45am to acknowledge all she has done for the College and our students.
Student Engagement & Success
Firstly, congratulations to all our students and teams who participated in the Winter Tournament and AIMS Games over the last few weeks. We have such talented sports people and most importantly they demonstrate good sportsmanship. Thank you to our Sports Coordinator, Juliet Dunlop-Fraser, for all she does to enable our students to have the opportunities they do. She also provides fabulous written accounts to the Katikati Advertiser about our sports teams and our students and keeps the community well informed about what is happening at the College. We also wish to acknowledge the support, skills and commitment that our staff and parents/whānau provide as coaches and managers. Thank you for all that you do.
- Secondary School Winter Tournament. Our students have done exceptionally well, achieving great results in netball, hockey, basketball, football and rugby.
- AIMs Games. Our Year 7 & 8 students participated in the recent AIMS Games, representing our College well.
- Winter Sports. The season ended with some amazing results. Basketball Boys A and Juniors BOP were title winners, the Rugby First XV took second place in Second Division, the Football First IX made Premier Grade in WaiBOP, to name a just few. More results are in specific articles in this newletter.
- Pasifika Fiefia Evening. This annual event was a night of celebration, colour, and togetherness! It really was an incredible evening, well supported by the community and demonstrating exceptional talent and inclusion.
- Open Evening for our new 2019 Year 7 and 9 students. We had an awesome turnout of future students, their parents and whānau and a fabulous showcasing of the College by our staff and students. A special thanks to PTA for the yummy BBQ.
- Debating. Our Year 10 team are undefeated and now go to tournament in October where they will debate for a final placement.
- Junior Speech Competition. Our junior orators provided plenty of entertainment and were much admired. Congratulations to our Year 7 winner Poppy Carpenter and our Year 8 winners Meg Harray and Eddie Brown.
- Bandquest. A Year 8 band ‘Audioquake’ played in this year’s Bandquest and did very well. Flynn Cranston was awarded ‘Best Individual Musicianship’ from the 100 musicians who took part.
- Student exchange. Year 12 student Kieva Dunlop has been successful in gaining a place as an exchange student to experience life in Canada for three months. We look forward to her sharing her experiences and adventures with us.
- Squash. Congratulations to Glenn and Katie Templeton for their outstanding performance at the Secondary School Squash Tournament in Australia recently. They were part of the New Zealand Representative Secondary Schools team.
Board of Trustees Student Election
Congratulations to all our BOT student nominees. This year we had an outstanding field of seven students putting their hand up to represent students on the Board of Trustees. The elected Board of Trustees Representative for 2019 is Liona Vailea. Congratulations Liona.
Community Connections
Suffrage 125 Katikati
Katikati College students and staff supported this community event, attending the Suffrage 125 Katikati Parade. Jazmine Mitchell-Rakete then presented a very moving speech giving a Māori female's perspective on suffrage. We are incredibly proud of the contribution our girls made. This was a valuable experience for all involved and a wonderful way to connect with our community. Thank you to all those who made the day such a success.
Te Runanga O Ngai Tamawhariua Partnership
Katikati College and Te Runanga O Ngai Tamawhariua (TRON) have formed a partnership to better provide social services to our College students. Our hope is to further create a safe learning environment where all students are encouraged to aspire to achieving positive education, health and social outcomes, resulting in strong individuals who can connect with their whānau, hapu, iwi and community.
This means that we will have a Social Worker on site Monday and Tuesday and a Youth Worker on Wednesdays.
Patuki Manawa, Katikati Community Library Opening
Our students performed at the Katikati Community Library Opening on August 21. They were an absolute pleasure to watch. Congratulations to all those who worked hard to ensure this community resource became a reality. We look forward to working together to support the growth and development of our students’ love of literacy.
Bay of Plenty Branch of Tree Crops Association Donation to Innovative Horticulture
The Association has generously donated $6000 to our Innovative Horticulture Programme. This is half of the surplus made from the annual tree sale our staff and students supported in July. Thank you for this wonderful support!
Community Suggestion Box
A reminder that there is a ‘Community Suggestion Box’ available on our Website for our school community to have their say and communicate their ideas and feedback to the College. These comments will be addressed each month through the Principal’s Comment of each newsletter.
Thank you to all those people who have shared their opinions and ideas with us so we can improve our College and what we are doing for our students.
In and Around the College
NCEA Derived Grade School Exams
School exams began this week for our senior students and run until Friday September 21. The grades students gain in these exams are what would be used as evidence if they were sick on the official NCEA exam day. This year we are not using our teachers to supervise exams, instead we have a team of wonderful Rotary Members supervising the exams so that our staff can work on designing the exciting new semester courses we will be offering in 2019. Thank you to Rotary and all our reader-writer volunteers.
Uniform Update
Following the Uniform Review the decision has been made to continue with the current uniform in 2019. This is due to the remaining stock levels that the College is required to pay for. No more uniform will be ordered in 2019 and the Uniform Shop will resize remaining stock if they run out of smaller sizes.
The uniform replacement objective will remain, namely replacing the current school uniform with a transition to black pants, skirt and shorts, new shirt and polo, a warmer jacket and a senior Blazer, beginning in 2020. This is a more cost effective option and provides more time to implement the transition effectively.
In 2019 however, we will offer students Katikati College caps and beanies, as well as a lavalava/ tupene option for our Pasifika students. We will also be adjusting some of the other uniform expectations to allow for more consistent application. These expectations will be constructed with the student leadership team and shared towards the end of the year.
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Lastly I look ahead to Week 10, which will be an exciting time for our Year 10, 11 and 12 students. They will be participating in Future Pathway Interviews (FPI) to help them plan their programme of learning for 2019. Future Pathways Interviews are on Monday September 24. These have all been booked with parents and initial feedback is that they are well received by our families. Students will use a specific planning template to support their programme design and plan for future course choices, career connections and opportunities.
Before we know it the holidays will be here and I hope you all get to enjoy some time out before Term 4 begins. Take time to relax and enjoy the beautiful blue skies we are seeing more of, appreciate your family and friends and reflect on how you want to ‘Make your MARK’ in Term 4. A reminder, there will be a Teacher Only Day on Monday October 15. We look forward to seeing all our students back on Tuesday October 16.
Nāku noa na
Carolyn Pentecost
Principal
Katikati College
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