Dear parents and caregivers

Welcome back

Welcome again to all staff, parents and children, old and new to the college. As we head into the second term, everyone should be feeling confident about their start to the school and the exciting learning adventure that awaits them as each progresses through the year.

Year of review

The Board and SLT are committed to strengthening the school and improving outcomes for our learners. For that reason, we have set quite a number of high level strategic reviews or leadership inquiries throughout the coming year. Many of these reviews will result in some changes to how we deliver community expectations. One key inquiry involves our shared vision and values. This particular focus will provide some certainty in relation to our identity - who we are, what is important to us and how we will act. This piece of work will address any gaps we have with regard to community expectations. Included in this newsletter is a copy of the 2023 Annual Plan which contains all of the strategic review/inquiries.

NCEA results 2022

My special congratulations to all our students who achieved success in last year's NCEA examinations. Congratulation especially to Maddison Brokenshire who achieved the ‘top scholar’ in NZ for Media studies. She will be presented with her award by the Minister of Education at a scholars function in Wellington.

It is fair to say, based on our current NCEA results that we still have some work to do to fully engage some of our students when comparing ourselves with comparative schools and data across NZ. I am confident that we are up to the challenge and have made a very good start to improving some of these gaps. 

On a much more favourable note I also share our NCEA excellence endorsement data which shows that as a school we achieve equal to and in some case better than national averages for L1-L3 endorsements. We indeed have some very bright young people in our kura.

Attendance

Everyday matters! An emerging outcome from our review of student engagement has shown that poor attendance is a significant barrier to student achievement at Pāpāmoa. We are currently finalising a comprehensive plan to remedy this concerning trend and will share with our community as soon as it is finalised. In short, and based on historical data, where a student misses an average of 3 days of school per fortnight their chances of success will drop by 50% in any major summative assessment. More information to come but we stress the importance of regular attendance.

Student roll and leadership

We currently have 1715 students on our roll (year 7 -13) for the year. Each year we grow by about 100 students. Our biggest cohort is in Year 9 with 283 students. Our roll is anticipated to grow to 2200 within the next 5 years.

We recently appointed our full team of student leaders at Pāpāmoa College. I am extremely impressed with the caliber of students appointed and am confident they will serve the school well. Responsible for supporting our Head students, Cameron Douglas, Ariana Taute, Olivia Tilby Adams and Riko Davis are our waka and kaihautu leaders. Their leadership will focus on 4 key areas of the school being, community/environment, arts, culture and sport. Their names and profiles are included in this newsletter.

Appointment of new Deputy Principals

I am pleased to advise that our board has appointed two exceptionally gifted senior leaders. We warmly welcome Mr Nick Leask and Mr Ben Orsmbsy to their new roles as deputy principals. Mr Leask was previously Curriculum Leader of PE and Health at Pāpāmoa, while Mr Orsmby has come to us from Tauranga Boys College where he held pastoral responsibility. They will work alongside the current SLT team of myself, Mr Durie, Ms Tinning, Mr McEvoy and Ms Townsend.

Summer Sports Tournament

This year as a result of increased sports participation we entered a number of teams into a summer sports tournament across the country. The results are published in this newsletter but it is encouraging considering the value sport plays in building a healthy culture to have a well organized and comprehensive sporting programme at the school. This year we had Volleyball, Water Polo, and Futsal teams involved in tournaments. Their results are included in the newsletter.

Kahui ako / Community of Learning

I am very pleased to have joined a school that values inter-school collaboration. Last year we formed a kahui ako with a number of other school in the Pāpāmoa region. Last week we had the official launch of our community initiative. Partnering with local iwi, Nga Potiki it is a unique opportunity to collaborate professionally with other teachers and school leaders in our community. This change in our education system will benefit all students from Y1 through to Y13 as they move through their educational journey. Teaching and learning best practice will be shared amongst all teachers and schools in the cluster so transitions are smooth and learning pathways more coherent. Schools and Boards will work much more closely together to identify common barriers to achievement and to ultimately lift achievement for all across our region. The school clusters we are working with are: Golden Sand School, Pāpāmoa Primary, Te Manawa ō Pāpāmoa School, Te Akau ki Pāpāmoa

Regards

I L Ropati  
Principal