I would like to congratulate Mrs Vanessa Moodie who has recently been appointed to the position of Deputy Principal at Katikati College.  

Mrs Moodie was appointed by the Board of Trustees after an extensive and demanding selection process. We were quite astounded by the number of applicants from New Zealand and overseas for this position and are extremely humbled by the quality of applicants that applied. Mrs Moodie will continue the great work that she has been doing throughout the school as well as taking on additional responsibilities as she settles into her new position.

Congratulations to Pawan Kumar who has been elected as Student Representative for the Board of Trustees. Pawan certainly did very well and once again we had an outstanding group of students who put themselves forward as candidates. The school is very lucky to have such a strong cohort of students who look to take on leadership roles within the school.

This is a very busy week for the school. Our seniors are undertaking their derived grade examinations which serve two purposes. The first is an indication of how they are doing for their external examinations that will take place in November and the second is to provide evidence for these examinations if a student is ill or cannot attend for any reason. There is a very strict and thorough process that needs to be undertaken and the more evidence that the school can have to support a student if they find themselves in the unfortunate position of having to apply for a ‘derived grade’, the better. I am pleased to hear that most of our senior students are taking these exams seriously and trying to maximise their study time.

Our Year 10 students are away at Finlay Park for the annual Year 10 camp. I would like to thank Simon Quin for his time and effort in ensuring a successful camp has been organised and also the many parents and family members who have supported their child in this experience. For many years Katikati College has been highly regarded for our Year 10 camps and this is an essential part of students developing new skills as they move towards the senior school. I would also like to thank and acknowledge the staff and parents that have given up their personal time to attend camp.

We welcome back all our AIMS Games competitors this week. Last week saw a large number of our Year 7 & 8 students competing in the annual AIMS Games. A truly massive event, this provides a tremendous opportunity for our athletes to compete with schools across New Zealand. This year the school was placed 11th on the medal table, a feat never achieved before. Special recognition must go to: Daniel Nicholson – Gold in Cross Country; Sean Nicholson – Silver in Cross Country; Cross Country team - Gold; Girls Squash Team - Bronze; 8A Netball B Grade - 3rd. 

In addition to these successes, many other teams did exceedingly well and we are very proud of all they achieved. Certainly our reputation as a school that develops very promising athletes is increasing and these results have once again shown that we ‘punch above our weight’ given the size of our school. Full details of our AIMS successes are detailed in the body of our newsletter.

As you receive this newsletter the Paid Union Meeting that was attended by our staff today will have taken place. I would like to thank you for your patience and understanding regarding this because it has been an important meeting for our profession. The changes that have been proposed could significantly change the funding model for our schools. While it has always been a struggle to adequately fund state education, these proposed changes would certainly place extra pressure on an already insufficient funding stream from the Government.

As we look forward to our 50th Reunion a great deal has certainly happened. At the time of writing we have over 500 registrations and we are looking forward to a fun weekend during Labour Weekend in just a few weeks time. The organising committee has done an extensive amount of work over the past 18 months in preparation for the Reunion and we are looking forward to seeing some familiar faces as we prepare for the finer details. If there are people who are still wishing to attend, there is a possibility of taking some last minute registrations and we will see if we can accommodate those, but they must be submitted urgently.

Finally, I would like to wish everyone the very best for the coming holiday break. Our seniors most certainly need to focus on completing their NCEA internals and preparing themselves fully for the NCEA external examinations in November.

Nāku noa

Mr N Harray | Principal