Kia ora koutou

Our school value of whakamana/resilience is certainly being tested as the winter continues to hurl wet weather at us and as we once again navigate the covid landscape. I would like to thank our immediate and wider school community (students, staff and parents/whānau) for their ongoing cheerfulness and support during this time. We are back in masks in the indoor setting and I thank everyone for their cooperation with this.

Given the challenges faced by schools around the country regarding finding enough relieving staff, I would like to thank the small but very loyal group of teachers who work as relievers for us and often step in for longer stints when required. Margaret Horne helped us out in term 2 while we waited for our new Commerce teacher, Louise Wucherpfennig, who has now been able to join us. I’d also like to acknowledge Floyd Huxtable who is helping us out in the Science and Social Science department and Maree Roberts who is helping us out in the Music department. This is allowing us to be fully staffed which in these times is immensely helpful to our learning programmes.

As you are aware, we have recently changed our uniform provider. New Zealand Uniforms are our new provider and they operate a shop on Tremaine Avenue. Unfortunately, there is a process in being able to stock up with our uniform which is taking some time and we apologise for this. It is a temporary situation but if you are experiencing difficulties in sourcing uniform items please let us know so we can assist you.

I have been out and about with other senior staff, visiting contributing schools with our “Roadshow’. It has been an absolute pleasure to meet students and staff in contributing schools and also take our Pasifika Gospel Choir and Hip Hop Dance group as well as our year 9 speakers and Executive Prefects on these visits. I continue to be very proud of our students and staff in terms of the wide array of opportunities we offer and the skill and passion our students bring. We will again have this on display at our Open Afternoon/Open Evening on Tuesday 9 August. Bookings can be made online for a guided tour and our students continue to be great ambassadors for our school. Do come along if you have a Year 8 student and remember our online enrolment process opened on Monday 25 July and closes on Monday 5th September for all prospective 2023 Year 9 enrolments.

Despite the challenges, our students continue to find different ways to shine and you’ll find lots of examples of that in this update. Do enjoy reading it and keep warm and dry!

Ngā mihi nui,

Tracy Walker

Principal