A note from Rachel Skelton

Week 9 2020

It has been another busy few weeks for our learners with many events happening.

With Covid 19 putting paid to many of our sporting fixtures it was with a huge amount of pleasure that our Netball girls were still able to compete during this time. It was a very proud moment for our school that our Junior Girls Netball finished first in the Combined Grade. Congratulations to the whole team but also to Brianna Labudde and Olivia Kempton for their coaching of this team.

Our Senior A Netball also performed very well over the Tournament Week. The girls finished up at 5th place on the ladder. Well done to AJ Rush who was named most improved player for our team and Brianna Labudde who was named MVP. Big thanks to Denise Keno and Nic Kempton for all your coaching and support of the girls. We could not do many of the things we are able to do at our college without the tireless support of many amazing parents.

I have had a couple of concerns raised over the past couple of weeks related to road safety. I will speak about this at our virtual assembly this week but I ask that parents also reiterate at home safe practices with road crossing particularly at the new intersection of Springston Rolleston and Lowes Road.

We look forward to next week and our Exhibition Evening and Activation Night. It promises to be a fantastic evening with market day stalls, A Kahui Ako Wide Activate event, the announcement of our Senior Learner Leaders for 2021 and a display of some of the amazing learning from our different learning areas. Friday 25th September is a Teachers Only Day and our focus will be threefold

- upskilling staff on a new version of Kamar our student management system

- a chance to hone in on pedagogy and practices with the help of an external consultant

- a review of our curriculum and courses.

Teacher only days are important to ensure that we keep up to date with educational changes and allow time for review and refinement of systems to make things better for learners. Over the next three years NCEA is undergoing a review and we will be required to engage in 8 teacher only days specifically focussed on this topic. The first of these is 19th November 2020. There will also be an additional Teacher Only Day in term 4 after the Senior Learners break for exams.

Our Senior Learners are working hard to complete the year well and to strive for the highest possible level of achievement in their courses. Sometimes the last push can be the hardest and we encourage all of our learners to seize the opportunities afforded to them and to speak to their class teachers and Ako or Advisory coaches about any worries or concerns they may have. The teachers want to help each and every learner strive for their personal best. Over the next few weeks (next week and early term 4) learners will be making their subject selections through School Point. The Yr 12 Learners have already completed this. Information will come home for parents around this process. We will look to have an evening early in Term 4 for parents of learners moving from Yr 10 to Yr 11 in terms of what NCEA learning will look like. This is particularly useful for those parents with their first child moving into NCEA. Our first Rolleston College School Formal will be held on Saturday 26th September barring any further Covid 19 announcements. This is a very exciting first and we thank the learners in the formal committee and Ms Swift, Ms Johnson and Ms Ralph for all their hard work on this event.

Enjoy the last week and following that, a safe and restful holiday.

Rachel Skelton

Principal