In many ways this is both an exciting time of the year as we celebrate the achievements of our students across the year in our various prizegiving's and award evenings, but it also comes with a tinge of sadness as we begin the process of farewelling our leavers. Recently, we held our Sports Awards Assembly and Māori Success Evening (Pō Whakanui), both being fabulous celebrations of a wide range of achievements. We look forward to further celebration with the Senior Prizegiving this Thursday evening, 02 November.

Last week, along with other Riccarton High School staff, I spent a very pleasant evening with our Year 13 leavers as we held our Leaver’s Dinner at the Showgate, Riccarton Raceway. The last 5 years with this cohort have gone by very quickly; a period of time that has not been without its challenges particularly with the interruptions caused by COVID-19. What I saw last week however, was a year level that has grown into a fine group of young adults. I thank those parents who now end their journey with us for their support during this time and now we will look forward to hearing about the amazing things that these young people will achieve in the future.

We are now of course reaching the business end of the year with our senior students. At the time of writing my comments, students have 4 more days of formal classes before the NCEA period starts on Monday 6 November. Parents of our senior students would have received a separate communication referring to the fact that due to the interruptions earlier this year caused by nationwide industrial action, we have made the decision to continue timetabled classes between Monday 06 November and Wednesday 15 November. The purpose of these classes will be to provide the opportunity for students to complete internal assessments in particular subjects and be supported in class with exam preparation. Our senior students are strongly encouraged to make the most of these opportunities when they do not have a scheduled exam.

Good luck to all of our senior students as they finish off their remaining assessments and prepare for the external exams.

Ngā mihi nui

Neil Haywood