Nau mai te ki te wāhanga tuatahi - welcome to Term 1! Manawatū College has had a fantastic start to 2023 and it has been great to welcome our students back to school and reconnect with normal learning routines.

Our start-of-year programme looked slightly different this year, beginning with a staggered induction week for students (with a day dedicated to each individual year level across the week) and finishing with a pōwhiri for our new Year 9 students on the Friday. 

The induction programme focused on re-establishing positive relationships with students and staff, as well as the normal start of ‘administration’ such as subject confirmation and finalising student timetables. Following this, we had an ‘Orientation Week’, which was a hybrid programme that consisted of timetabled lessons, balanced with other whole school activities including our annual tabloid sports and Year 9 camp. 

 A number of these activities had a learning focus that was centred around developing literacy and numeracy skills, as part of our preparation for NCEA changes set to take place in 2024. Orientation Week was a great experience for all and the purpose was to build strong relationships, set a tone of high expectations through our school values, and lay the foundation for a positive school culture; all of which was achieved beyond what we had hoped for.

In late January this year, we received our confirmed NCEA results for 2022, and we are proud to say our senior students across the board did exceptionally well, despite the ongoing disruption that all schools faced with COVID-19. Comparing the 2021 NCEA results from the previous year, in 2022 we had a 23% increase in the pass rate for NCEA Level 1, a 20% increase for NCEA Level 3, and exceeded the national and decile average achievement rates across NCEA Levels 1, 2 and 3. We are very proud of our students and these results reflect their hard work, which was made possible by the support of our staff and their whānau throughout the year. We anticipate far less disruption to learning this year with COVID-19, and look forward to seeing how we can build on those results further in 2023.

Finally, we would like to take this opportunity to remind our community that the Manawatū College Educational Trust has its Annual General Meeting set to take place on Tuesday 21st March, 7.30pm at the college, which is a public meeting that you are all warmly welcome to attend. The Trust has supported Manawatū College with funding in excess of $131,000 over the years, all of which has directly benefited students at our school. If you are interested in becoming a member of the Trust, please attend the Annual General Meeting, or alternatively, make contact with our college office. 

Matt Fraser

Tumuaki