Kia ora koutou katoa

The beginning of the 2023 school year began with our Pōwhiri to formally welcome both the new students and staff to Queen’s High School. It was exciting to watch over 150 new students enter the hall for the first time. With the help of the Year 13 Peer Support Leaders and the Year 9 Form Teachers, the Year 9 Students have settled quickly into their classroom routines for learning and are already embracing the wider life of the school. To the parents and whānau of all our new students, I welcome you to our Queen’s community and I look forward to meeting you over the year.

Congratulations to all our 2023 Prefects and Associates. Head Girl, Martha McAuley, and Deputy Head Girl, Annalise MacDonell, presented our remaining prefects with their badges and our house leaders with their certificates in our Leadership Assembly today. A photo of our 2023 Prefects is pictured above. The 2023 House Leaders are pictured below.

Preliminary NCEA examination results show that our students have again achieved impressive results in their NCEA qualifications for 2022, with all levels achieving above the national average. Our preliminary achievement data shows Level 1 – 81%, Level 2 – 90%, Level 3 – 83% and University Entrance - 67%. Of the students who gained Level 1, 2 or 3, over half have gained their NCEA certificates endorsed with an Excellence or a Merit endorsement. Congratulations to all these students.

In our assembly to start the year, I talked of the Queen's High School Mission empowering young women and what this means.  I explained that this is our why, our purpose and this drives all that we do here.

I went on to say to the students, this means that we will challenge you to pursue your personal excellence through a range of academic, sporting, cultural and service pursuits; empowering you to make the most of the opportunities life has to offer. That our wish is you will be independent young women who have a passion for learning, and that you will be in a position to determine your own future. And alongside this, you will be a valuable part of the community you live in.

For this to happen though, each of us has a part to play. For this to happen being connected and engaged in school is essential. This can happen in multiple ways, some possibilities are: be involved in performance group or a sports team, be on the school council, participate in the whole school events like the sports day which is in two weeks, attend school every day, volunteer your service and help others by coaching or tutoring and most importantly, alongside all of these is to get involved in your learning – ask questions, work with a range of people, read books and articles that are suggested, watch clips around the topic. I spoke about everyone needing to know how to learn, the world we live in is continually changing and to keep up we all need to be able to learn new things. 

Our focus continues to be on success for all students, knowing that each students success will look different. We will continue to share the activities and successes of the girls’ over the year and we appreciate your support for all their endeavours. I look forward to another exciting year ahead.

Barbara Agnew

Principal