Dear Parents and CaregiversGreetings, tena koutou katoa, talofa lava

This is my penultimate newsletter for 2017 and the first for all  the parents of next year’s intake of 280 Year 9 students, May I  take a moment to welcome the newcomers to the Shirley family and to thank you all for your continued support and belief in our school.

There is much to report, far too much for one simple newsletter, but I will  give you an overview of what has been happening and what is still to happen.

The Rebuilding of Shirley Boys  High School

Many meetings have occurred and are continuing with the Ministry of Education, the Christchurch City Council and with the Avonside Girls High School Board and senior staff. By the end of this year, we will have sorted out our new school.  As you know building is well underway at the moment and we will have gone a long way to working out what the human shape of our school of the future will look like. While a lot of what is occurring is subject to a degree of commercial sensitivity, I can report that the planning so far indicates that things are working out just fine. The willingness of The City Council, The Ministry and Ngai Tahu to work with us to create a brand new school in an area with huge open space and established trees and natural fauna is exciting to say the least. 

Based on all the work done so far,  and of the extended research we have completed, I can make the following observations: Our new school will reflect flexible learning options, ones where traditional teaching is able to co-exist with arrangements that are far more flexible.  Period length will grow, so that small teams of teachers can address the needs of individual students to a greater degree than what is currently possible. It is likely that our curriculum will expand, especially given the proximity of Avonside Girls High School.

Teaching will reflect the latest 21st Century expectations of academic and business leaders:

• 19th Century              21st Century
  
• Discipline                      Critical Thinking
  
• Repetition                     Co-operation
  
• Reading                          Communication, includes   (literacy/numeracy)
  
• Writing                           Connectivity Across all Disciplines
  
• Arithmetic                    Creativity
  
• Punctuality                   Compassion/Caring
  

The aim of the school from now, through to the end of 2018, involves identifying everything we currently do well and which defines us as a school. This allows us to preserve these things in our new school. We are also identifying practice that we no longer feel is relevant for teaching and learning in the 21st century and will eliminate these from the way we do things. Finally, we are identifying new practices that forward 21st century teaching and learning and building these into a Shirley Way that will feature prominently in the new school.

Roll

We are still in discussion with the Ministry on the establishment of a new zone and on maximum roll numbers for the new school. I will keep you informed about this process, but I can confirm with you that The Board of Trustees has discussed the matter and accordingly has agreed to limit our roll to a number slightly more than 1200 students. This is in line with our current 2017 roll, allowing us the economies of scale that maximise resources for students, while keeping us small enough to ensure we avoid the anomie associated with larger institutions.

Examinations

Finally the national examination season is upon us.  All senior students need to be fully into examination mode, with a minimum of two hours' revision a day, six days a week.  Any concerns must be addressed immediately through approaching your sons' teacher or form teacher

Best Wishes

John Laurenson

Headmaster.