RJHS Newsletter - Term 1, Issue 2

KORERO FROM MEL

Kia ora e te whānau, 

I’d like to express a huge congratulations to all students who attended and participated in the 2025 Athletics Day on Monday. The atmosphere was fantastic, and we had a number of records broken. 

We have now settled into Semester 1 with Learning Modules and Flight Times started. This part of the timetable covers subject learning areas from the New Zealand Curriculum. Students also still spend 45 minutes each morning, as well as 3 learning blocks per week, in Learning Advisory. 

Our Learning Advisory Curriculum has a number of important functions in developing our students into successful learners. As well as having that one key person (Learning Advisor) to connect with at the start of each day, Learning Advisory activities help to develop a student’s sense of identity and belonging in the school. They learn important curriculum topics each term such as Health, Digital Citizenship, Social & Emotional Learning and Careers & Pathways. Our structured and targeted Numeracy and Literacy programmes also occur in the Learning Advisory programme. Our approaches to these critical learning areas have seen us have significant success in our Year 10 students sitting the NCEA Co-requisite Common Assessment Activities, well above national averages. 

Because of the importance of this part of our curriculum, as well as the development of good habits, it is essential that students are punctual to school every day. That means being in class and ready to start the day at 8:45am (9:30am on Wednesday). A number of students are arriving at school on or after 8:45am (and 9:30am) and this sets them behind right from the start of the day, and impacts on their learning, most specifically in the Numeracy programme. 

We would appreciate your support in getting students to school at least 5-10 minutes before the school day actually starts so that they have time to get to their Hapū space and get themselves set up for their day of learning.