Kia ora tātou

It has been a very busy Term 4. There is a commonly held belief that schools wind down in Term 4, which I can tell you is a long way from reality. While the Year 11, 12 and 13 students left at the beginning of November to go on study leave, life at Shirley Boys’ High School is very busy. We have had prizegivings and farewells to Year 13 students; the NCEA examinations; all the Year 10 classes have been on camps at Purau; we have had two Staff Only Days to work on the NCEA changes which are being implemented; along with sports tournaments. While it has been busy, it is fantastic to see all these opportunities for the boys, as well as their usual learning.

We had a fantastic beginning of the term with a number of celebrations, including the Senior Prizegiving. This was an excellent event and the quality of the young men leaving our school makes me very proud. We acknowledged our graduating Year 13 class; our Head Boy Kururangi Wetini gave one of the best Head Boy speeches I have heard in my career; and we celebrated the success of the Dux of the school, Thomas Hopgood who has won six tertiary scholarships for 2023 valued at over $30,000. We also announced our Head Boy for 2023, Felix Hunt and he will be ably assisted by Reuben Brown and Liam Collins as Associate Head Boys. Congratulations to all of the prize winners.

We recently had some disappointing media attention about an incident that occurred a number of weeks ago. This was a very unpleasant incident that was dealt with by the school. Schools are bound by the Privacy Act, and therefore we are not able to tell the public who is involved in these incidents or what the consequences are, and in this vacuum the media interpret information in the way that they want. This is made worse when they put stories on social media which leads to a variety of reactions from people with no context of the events. My response to this is that Shirley Boys’ High School is a well-run school and is safe. If whānau have any issues they would like to raise, then I invite them to contact me.

As we work towards the final days of school for 2022, I want to acknowledge all of the people who make Shirley Boys’ High School special. I am pleased with how the new Board has started their term and I look forward to their continuing work in 2023. I continue to be amazed how hard our staff work and to those who are leaving at the end of 2022, I wish them well. A special mention must go to Mr Shaun Taylor who has been a Science teacher at Shirley Boys’ High School since 1999. He has been a good teacher who has related to the boys well. Mr Taylor can walk away from Shirley Boys’ in a few weeks feeling very happy and content about his contribution.

Finally, to our students and whānau, I thank you for your ongoing contribution to Shirley Boys’ High School. Our boys are lucky to be at a good school, but we are also fortunate to have students who commit to their learning and make a contribution outside the classroom. I hope you have enjoyed your year and I would like to wish all our families and whānau a very Merry Christmas and a happy and safe New Year.

Ngā mihi

Tim Grocott