Hero photograph
2020 Head students
 

Principal's Comment

Carolyn Pentecost —

Tēnā koutou katoa, Mālō e lelei,

We were all very grateful to return to Alert Level One on June 9 and we could say that although we are not completely back to normal, we are now enjoying the benefits of unlimited gathering numbers, which have allowed us to recommence whole school assemblies, school trips, activities, sports and enjoy more social opportunities. Congratulations everyone. It has been fantastic to observe our students continue to keep calm and make the most of the learning opportunities they have.

Tomorrow we will have our School Cross Country at Moore Park at 1.00 p.m. and we welcome all parents and whānau. Do join us and cheer our students on. Following that we go into two weeks of school holidays. Because we continue to have staff and student well being as our key focus we will not be setting any work for students over this two week period. We encourage everyone to make the most of this time to reconnect and recharge after a unique and challenging term.

Please remember to keep your child at home if they are sick. Learning will be able to be continued no matter how long students have to be away. All classes have a Google Classroom that work can be accessed from to ensure students stay connected to their learning. If we were to return to Alert Level 3 or 4, we are confident this would be a relatively seamless transition with minimum disruption to learning.

In addition, it was great to learn of NZQA changes for 2020. These reduce some of the stress for our senior students to catch up on learning time lost or interrupted. For a good summary of these changes please refer to this document https://bit.ly/2XvSIZL

Connecting with our Learning Community

We continue to develop more collaborative partnerships with our contributing primary schools and we have formed strong positive partnerships as the Technology providers for Omokoroa Number 1, Omokoroa Point and Whakamarama schools. These students come to our College on Thursdays for Science and Technology lessons. We also have enjoyed hosting parents and students from Matahui School this week to showcase our College and all we have to offer.

Celebrating Matariki

This year we have had to reschedule our Matariki Awards. We are currently looking at a date towards the end of Term 3 or early Term 4. Unfortunately this will fall outside of Matariki, (the Māori New Year), however we still wish to acknowledge the achievements and success of our Māori students. We still wish to celebrate Matariki and will have a whole school assembly in the first week back Term 3. We welcome all whānau and friends to join us at 1.00 p.m. on Thursday July 23.

Congratulations to Whaea Ngareta Timutimu

Congratulations to Whaea Ngareta Timutimu for being appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for a lifetime of contributions to Māori and Education. Katikati College has been privileged to work with Ngareta over the past few years on a number of projects. She has been a passionate supporter of Katikati rangatahi success and Māori achievement. Ngareta currently sits on our Katikati College Pou Arahi Roopu (Iwi Advisory Committee) alongside representatives from our three marae, our BOT, Poumatua and Principal.

We also would like to congratulate and acknowledge George Burt being appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, back in the New Year. George has been associated with the College in a number of roles and is an advocate for our local Māori students and their success.

We feel very honoured to have such talented and committed individuals working with us.

Innovative Horticulture at Katikati College

Our Innovative Hort programme provides real opportunities for our students and learning community. We continue to explore ways to raise funds for our purpose built facility, which with 80 students taking Innovative Hort we now need rather urgently. Please help us to become the Horticulture and Innovation Education Leaders in New Zealand by donating to this project. Students have community related career pathways and the College continues to build strong collaborative community focused relationships. https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/innovative-horticulture-is-the-future or email kkhort_trust@katikaticollege.school.nz.

Making Learning Queries

We strongly encourage our whānau, parents and caregivers to work in partnership with our College to support the learning of our students. A flow chart is available to show where Learning Queries should be directed https://goo.gl/K3mvWR. We believe that when these conversations happen between parents and teachers, student engagement and achievement is significantly improved.

In addition, an information sheet about who to go to when parents/whānau have questions about their child’s learning has been produced and shared. Information for all our parents wanting to make Learning Queries is available using this link https://goo.gl/fMvD9L and for our whānau/parents with students in our Whānau Pūmanawa class more information is available using this link https://goo.gl/o8HGEj and for our AIGA and Pasifika students https://goo.gl/hKTkLY.

Katikati College and the Board of Trustees are committed to ensuring that all queries and concerns are dealt with promptly, openly and without prejudice, so that the issue can be addressed effectively and in accordance with the principles of natural justice. If you wish to make a formal complaint please refer to the Concerns & Complaints Procedures Following this please complete the Formal Complaints Form and send to principal@katikaticollege.school.nz or drop a hard copy into the School Office

Community Suggestions

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.

Recent suggestions or queries made by the community have included:

  • Request to be a cell phone free school

  • Feedback about reports and reporting time frames

  • Thank you for start of year, new uniform and communication

  • Thanks for Covid-19 leadership, communication and learning (several)

  • 100% attendance practices and hard copy versus electronic communication

  • Concerns and queries re senior students and NCEA

  • Positive comments supporting our newsletter and new uniform

  • Request for improvement in College website

We welcome any feedback from our community to support self-improvement.

Looking forward to Term Three

There are so many exciting events and activities to look forward to in Term 3, so we have strongly recommended to all our students and staff to have a good break over the holidays in order that everyone comes back re-energised and ready for the action-packed term. Some of the things to look forward to in Term 3 include:

  • The Katikati College School Ball,  September 12

  • Culture Week Term 3 Week 10

  • Parent Teacher Interviews - August 5

  • Future Pathway Interviews - September 18

  • A new Katikati College website by the end of the term

Have a safe and restful break, enjoying friends, family and the simple pleasure of connecting with others; something we had to go without during the last school holidays.

Nāku noa, na

Carolyn Pentecost

TUMUAKI/ PRINCIPAL