Happy Easter to all of our students and whānau.

Dear parents/caregivers

It is hard to believe that we have only eight school days left until the end of term 1.  It was fantastic seeing so many parents and caregivers at school for our subject interviews earlier in the week.  If you missed this event and have a concern about your child's progress, please do not hesitate to contact the subject teacher.  At the start of next term we will hold our Achievement Conferences, which is another opportunity to connect with the school and set goals together with your child. 

Enrolment Scheme

As you may be aware, the Ministry of Education has directed Nayland College to adopt an enrolment scheme. This scheme will take effect from Friday 2 April. For more information, please read the article in this newsletter. 

Mobile Phones

There is a growing amount of evidence that shows that unlimited access to phones can have a detrimental effect upon learning and social development. Issues that all schools are experiencing include:

• rising levels of social isolation and anxiety, particularly around the use of social media
  
• phone addiction
  
• distraction from learning (games, social media, online media)
  
• conflict between students and other students/teachers over device use
  
• students ‘unable’ to learn without access to music/headphones (the benefits are disputable)

Generally, mobile phones are not to be seen or used during school lessons. Exceptions can be made if students ask the teacher’s permission to use their phone for a learning purpose or the teacher explicitly states that phones are allowed during an activity. For example:

• taking simple notes
  
• setting reminders
  
• video or audio recording and analysis
  
• using apps such as a calculator
  
• taking photos of notes or instructions on whiteboards
  
• checking timetable changes or school-specific notices

Should a student refuse to quietly put their phone away it will be confiscated. If students do not follow these instructions, they will be referred to their dean. If this happens consistently they will be referred to the senior leadership team and high-level consequences are possible. We believe this process encourages positive use of phones for learning purposes and assists with minimising the distraction these devices can cause. We ask that parents assist by not expecting your child to answer messages until break times.

House Activities

I know students have enjoyed the various house activities over the past couple of weeks.  Capture the Flag saw many students out on the field every lunchtime last week and a large number of lucky students found rocks hidden around the school to exchange for chocolate eggs as part of our Easter Egg Hunt this week. 

I wish you all a very happy Easter break.

Ngā mihi nui

Daniel Wilson
Principal