Here, Principal Nicola Jacobsen shares her thoughts.

Kia ora,

Thursday night’s Arts, Service and Te Ao Māori Awards was a great success and celebration of a wide range of student achievements this year. It was great to see the range of service that students have given to the community and awards for debating, dance, music and visual and performing arts. Well done to all the students, and to the staff for putting on a great event.

As our senior students work towards their final week at school, it is really pleasing to see the pass rates for their internal assessments so far. Years 11-13 students have a 91% pass rate for their internal assessments. Some of our senior students may be close to passing NCEA, or have already passed it, and might be considering not completing their external examinations, or being strategic about which external examinations they choose to complete. My message to all students is to finish the year well. To complete all aspects of the course, which you have spent time, effort and energy learning and putting into practice.

Some timely reminders about uniform: sandals can be worn at school, without socks, and this includes Birkenstocks. The footwear policy is that shoes and sandals need to be black. Skirts and shorts need to be knee-length. There is sunscreen available at the front office, and I would encourage students to be sunsmart - there is a school hat available at the Uniform Shop.

It was great that the first Adventure Race could go ahead on Wednesday. Many thanks to the event organisers, teachers and support staff, parents and landowners who made this possible. It was great to see a number of students, mostly juniors, get an introduction to Adventure Racing.

Toitū te whenua, toitū te tangata.

The land is strong, the people are fulfilled.

Ngā mihi,

Nicola Jacobsen