Dear parents/caregivers

Welcome back to another academic year and a big welcome to all of our new students and families/whanau. We have 300 new year 9’s joining us this year alongside 70 new students at other year levels and 80 international students. We are very impressed with how our new students have settled into school and look forward to watching their learning progress over the coming months and years. The school certainly feels a lot busier this year!

Unfortunately, with the unexpected influx of new enrolments over the holiday period it does mean that we are running some classes at higher than anticipated numbers. We are working hard to find new staff and solutions to the issues.  However, we ask that students be patient whilst we work through this process. All senior students will be given a new timetable next week. They will need to check this carefully as some students will have minor class changes.

It has been a tough start to the year for many staff and students with the devastating fires we are experiencing across the region. Our thoughts certainly go out to all people affected. We do understand that times such as this can be traumatic for young people. Our counselling services are available should any students show signs of anxiety or stress due to these or any other events. Separate to the fires, several of our staff have also lost loved ones over the holiday period and we heard the news that former staff member Glenis Perry passed away last weekend. Glenis was a real personality in the school for almost over 20 years until her departure three years ago. Our thoughts go out to her family and other staff who have had a difficult start to the year.

The building programme at Nayland College is progressing, with our new Kuaka Café almost fully functional and several spaces in block 2 now being utilised. It will be fully functional for term 2, although the current ban on external machinery is causing some delays. The turf project was completed over the holidays. We also recently unveiled a beautiful new pou in the café area, donated by the Wakatu Incorporation to commemorate 40 years since their first meeting at Nayland College. It is a beautiful piece of art and I would encourage you to view it.

Also during the holidays, we had some amazing student achievements, in particular Sophie Young and Greta Stjade winning the National Secondary Schools Beach Volleyball title. This is an amazing achievement and qualifies them for an international competition later in the year. Read about this achievement and others in this newsletter.

I am looking forward to another exciting year ahead.

Ngā mihi nui

Daniel Wilson
Principal