Greetings Tena mihi tatou katoa

Next week we will celebrate academic achievement at our Academic Blues evening held at the Toitu Otago Settlers Museum. This promises, as always, to be a wonderful occasion. It is great to acknowledge the hard work of students as well as thanking parents for their active support as we strive for excellence. Congratulations to all recipients of academic awards and to our top scholars.

To recap our global pass rates and results from 2018:

Level 1 NCEA 88.7% with 35% achieving Excellence Endorsement, Level 2 NCEA 87.9% pass rate with 28% at Excellence, Level 3 NCEA 74.5% with 25% achieving excellence endorsement.

It is important to remember that any success we have as a school is defined by who we are. Our Core Values of Respect, Service, Justice and Truth have to be lived out daily. Sometimes that is a hard ask but we have to continue to strive lest our values become convenient slogans on a wall without meaning. By and large our students do rise to this challenge brilliantly and I commented yesterday at assembly on how well they have begun this year.

This week I wrote a comment on the NZ School's Taskforce review on education and schooling in NZ which appeared in the ODT. You may wish to check it out: https://shar.es/amv6N1

As always we continue to keep in our prayers those who are struggling with many challenges at this time including sickness and loss. May the good Lord keep us vigilant and open our eyes to ways we can support others in a real and positive way.