Kia ora koutou

This is our final newsletter for the year and gives us a chance to reflect on a year that has been extremely challenging. 

Firstly, I would like to acknowledge the loss of our colleague and teacher, Mr Jarrod O’Sullivan. Mr O’Sullivan passed away at home and these events always have an effect on a community. We pass on all our best wishes and aroha to his family.

It is also an important time of the year as boys in Years 11 to 13 are doing their NCEA examinations. They have a small amount of flexibility this year with the learning recognition credits that have been offered by NZQA due to the disruption caused by Covid-19. Despite this, I urge the boys to prepare well, study hard and strive towards gaining the best possible grade, rather than just getting by.

At our recent Senior Prizegiving I said how incredibly proud I am of the boys and the staff with how well they have managed this year. I think our senior boys have set a good example to the younger boys and I hope they look up to them as role models. A small group of our boys need to change their behaviour around the school. They should look at the example of our boys leaving in Year 13. They are good Shirley Men, and over their time at Shirley Boys’ High School they have demonstrated our values of Belonging, Better Than Before, Character, Respect and Whānau.

I would also like to thank all our staff who have worked tirelessly this year, both at school and at home. Education has been much more difficult this year, but the way our staff have supported the boys with their learning, and helped our community by working hard inside and outside the classroom has been superb. We have several staff to farewell. Some are retiring, some are moving on to new positions. In their own way they have all contributed to our school and we are hugely appreciative of their efforts.

On a personal note I would also like to thank the Board of Trustees for their support, especially the long serving Board Chair Tony Deavoll. Tony has been on the Board since 1996 and has helped steer the school through some troubled times after the earthquakes and been part of our move to the new site. Tony has made a great contribution to Shirley Boys’ High School and we thank him for that. 

Congratulations to Iaean Cranwell who has been elected Board Chair.

Finally, I want to acknowledge the support we have had from our community during the year. For a number of reasons it has been difficult and we have all faced our challenges, and some will have more to face. I hope people get an opportunity to relax and spend time with friends and family over the holiday break.

I wish you all a safe and loving Christmas.

Tim Grocott