Dear parents

Thank you to all parents who attended our first round of Achievement Conferences. These conferences are an excellent opportunity for you to meet with your child’s House Tutor, discuss learning, progress and attendance to date and to set learning goals for the remainder of the year. If you have not yet booked in there is one more opportunity next Friday. 

As you may be aware the issue of school bullying in New Zealand schools has come into the spotlight again this week. Unfortunately, when dealing with teenagers there are always going to be issues that arise from time to time, particularly in the age of social media. Sometimes these issues can hit the headlines, which I certainly experienced in my previous school. I would like to assure our parents that Nayland College has a culture that promotes a safe and inclusive environment. We also have extremely good student support systems for when things do go wrong. These systems and processes, alongside our commitment to a safe and supportive school culture, were recognised this week by the Education Review Office, who have chosen our school as a best practice example for student wellbeing in an upcoming study.

Many parents will be aware of the issues surrounding the use of social media by teenagers, particularly in relation to online bullying and to exploit the sexual vulnerability of young people. Unfortunately, schools are increasingly dealing with the fallout from misguided social media use. In particular, students often don’t realise that once an image or video is shared online (including in ‘self-destruct’ applications such as Snapchat), that it can never be erased. Parents and caregivers can help by openly discussing these issues at home and being aware of your child’s social media use. I saw an article recently encouraging parents to learn ‘sexting terms’ that teenagers may be using. Please see this article in this newsletter for further information.

Finally, I would like to welcome the 130 students and staff from Tawa College who will be joining us at the start of next week. The Tawa sports exchange is always a highlight of the school calendar and I look forward to watching some exciting sport across a range of codes. Thank you also to all the families that have agreed to host students. The exchange would not be possible without your support.

Nga mihi nui

Daniel Wilson