Welcome back to Term Three!

This is an important term for students, particularly those in the senior school. Attention is focused on completing internal NCEA assessments and preparing for the external examinations and portfolio submissions that occur in Term Four. Full subject specific reports will go out for students in Years 11 to 13 in Week Five, in time for the Student Learning Conferences. These are held later the same week, on Thursday 22 August. The purpose of the reports is to clearly indicate what students are needing to do in preparation for the parallel (practice) examinations that begin in Week Eight. These exams are an important gauge for students in terms of their preparedness for the ‘real thing’. They also provide evidence that is used in the event a student is unable to sit the NCEA exams for any reason at the end of the year, so it is important that students prepare well for them. The learning conferences are an opportunity to discuss whether or not the girls are on track and identify if further support is needed. It is also an opportunity to start, or continue, conversations around plans and subject choices for 2020.

This week and next are also extremely important weeks in the life of the school as the enrolment ‘season’ in Dunedin gets into full swing. I have been meeting with students at a number of contributing schools this week, talking with them about factors to consider when making decisions about which secondary school to attend next year. We are very fortunate in Dunedin to have excellent schools and I believe the decision is very much about where students feel they belong, whether their interests and passions are catered for and whether they can practically get to school on a daily basis. At each school visit I have taken students currently in year nine, and usually from the school we are visiting. They have spoken about the school with pride and have been extremely articulate in answering the many questions the prospective students asked of them. I have always maintained that our students are the best marketing strategy we have and they never fail to fill me with pride. An example of this has been the social media marketing campaign that has been run by our Year 13 Digital Technology class. Over the past three weeks they have posted daily a series of images and captions that capture the life, the values and the culture of our school in a genuinely student focused way. Not only have they provided an outstanding service for the school, they have gained NCEA credits and evidence for professional portfolios for themselves.

Next week we will be holding Open Mornings and our Open Night. Thank you in anticipation of the many families who will be making special trips to school with their daughters to allow them to help on Open Night, and thank you to the girls who will represent us.

Over the holidays students have been involved some amazing opportunities. Hayley Everett attended Space Camp in the USA, Rachel Pitts was named in the New Zealand Women’s Under 21 Curling Team which travels to Finland in December, Melissa Bonilla Cassanas represented Dunedin at the Youth Parliament in Wellington where she delivered an address in the parliamentary debating chamber and Sophia Niblock traveled to Melbourne and Vanuatu to participate in the United Nations Youth Pacific Project Event. The national and global reach of our girls is incredible.

Tonight we welcome 30 students and two staff from Yasuda Girls’ High School in Hiroshima, Japan. They are with us for just over two weeks and are being hosted by many wonderful school families. Thank you to all who have opened your homes to these girls, you are providing a wonderfully enriching cultural experience for your host daughter and your whole family.

This weekend we have a large number of girls competing in the regional aerobics competition being hosted at Kavanagh College. These girls have been practicing extremely hard for this competition and I wish them well.