This is going to be a most challenging and exciting year for the two of us. 

Our Year 9 parents are invited to attend an information evening on Wednesday 1 March at 7:00pm in the School Hall. 

Congratulations to our Rowers for their efforts at the NZ Championships last week, held at Lake Ruataniwha, near Twizel. 

In 2017 we will be introducing a regular Fortnightly Report starting at the end of Week 4 (Friday 24 February). Students at all levels will receive a grade for each subject, which is not based on academic performance, but on a student’s attitude and application to their studies.

Friday 4 February was the first day of a 10 week student led programme under the guidance of Blair Minton, Injury Prevention Specialist from ACC.

Staff changes and new staff for 2017.

Mā te wawata ka rere te whāinga. We welcome especially our new Māori families to attend our first whanau hui of 2017.

Due to the increase in tennis teams, we urgently require help driving students to their venues on a Wednesday.

I am floating the idea of turning the school garden into a Community Garden, where members of our community can come and work together to share in the food that is grown. 

The 1st XI qualified for the 1st XI Cricket Cup Tournament by winning the Preliminary Tournament held at Hospital Corner, Hagley Park by beating Cashmere High School, Middleton Grange, Hillmorton High School and St Thomas’s College in the final.

From the 14th to the 28th of January, I flew up to Auckland to attend the 27th National Rotary Science Forum, along with 167 other students from all over the country. 

Every Summer Top Dog Theatre hosts a season of Summer Shakespeare at Mona Vale. This summer, the play of choice was “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”.

Ms Blackwell took her Second Semester Year 10 Art students by bus to the Christchurch CBD to visit Art works and Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu.

As part of Riccarton High Schools 2016 Gifted and Talented Programme, a special week of activities was organised and aimed at the particular strengths of some of our students. 

Five students from Riccarton all made their down to Otago University, during the school holidays, to take part in Hands-On, an Otago University initiative that supports and shows interested students what researchers do, why they do these things and to encourage the students to consider further study as a step in their career pathway.

Last year, Daniel Wei (12CS) qualified for the Australian-New Zealand Brain Bee finals. He travelled to Hobart in December to compete.

Riccarton High School was given the opportunity to take part in a competition to design a logo, which would be displayed on the premises of local cafes and restaurants, to promote smoke-free outdoor spaces.

Kohanga Ako students are excited to be back to school and have made an enthusiastic start to the year. 

The school has a clear set of evacuation procedures to follow in the event of an emergency e.g. fire or earthquake. These are practised at least once a term.

As usual, a busy start to 2017! Riccarton High School welcomed 22 new students this term from Thailand, Japan, China and Chile.

The 2017 school year has begun and our Year Nines have completed their orientation programme, had a full week of timetable and begun summer sports.

Congratulations to all our students for their great sporting achievements:

Outdoor Education is an integral part of the junior school programme, and it fits within the Health and Physical Education area of the NZ Curriculum. It is a compulsory part of our school programme.

Cando cards can now be ordered at the School Office. Final day for ordering a card is Friday 3 March.

Thanks to the $8,834 raised by our 2016 Year 9 and 10 students through their work day, we were able to purchase 11 new picnic tables. 

Congratulations to the following students who attained Scholarships in the 2016 examination round.

From 2017 onwards, the annual school magazine (Peerswick), which comes out at the end of each year, will be free to all our Year 9s and Years 13s.