Dear Parents and Caregivers

Greetings, tena koutou katoa, talofa lava

We are fast approaching the end of the year, after returning to school for term four.  The senior students  only have three weeks before they depart for their NCEA examinations.  They especially will need your continued support for this demanding period of their school life. One thing I would be very grateful for, is your vigilance as far as getting your son to his exams on the right day and time.  In all honesty,  in the 23 years I have been Headmaster, not many years go by without at least one boy turning up in the afternoon, for an exam which was held in the morning!  In such a situation, absolutely nothing can be done for him.

Important dates to note:  Thursday 31st October  is the last day last day for Year 13 with their presence at Senior Prizegiving.  The last day for Year 11 and year 12 students is Wednesday 6th November.

Next Year’s Year 9 intake of 280 pupils are being orientated so they enter the school in 2020 ready to embark on a journey that will see them emerge at the end of 2024 having made their mark as academic scholars, cultural icons, sporting heroes, Senior Prefects but most of all as Shirley Men.

Now, a reminder about co-location.  We are currently still engaged in dialogue with Avonside Girls’ about what this will look like in 2020, but it probably is worthwhile to remind everyone that we had a “timetabling co-location” situation between Marian College and Shirley Boys  in the pre-earthquake years. This meant our timetables were linked to allow senior students at Year 12 and 13 to have some joint classes. There were various manifestations of this arrangement.  For example in Languages we often had a joint class at Year 12 taught by a teacher in one school and a joint class at Year 13, taught by a teacher in the other school.  In other areas we had spill-over numbers of students topping-up classes in the other school.  If for the sake of argument, we had 26  Year 13 Physics students needing a class, 20 could stay in one school with the balance of six students going to the other school.
Arrangements such as these ensure a good use of resources.

However, everyone needs to keep in mind the following non-negotiable things.

• Our name will not change.
• Each school will continue to operate as a separate entity with its own unique ethos.
• Shirley teachers will be employed by Shirley Boys’ High School, which will retain its own Board of Trustees.
• There will be a change in some faces, but we will maintain “The Shirley Way” for our whanau, great relationships between staff and students, and a culture woven around BTB and The Shirley Man.

On the student front, Winter Tournament week has been and gone with (as usual) teams featuring in Basketball, Rugby, Football, Ice Hockey, Climbing and Hockey.

The results were as follows:

Rugby Under 15 -  6th place South Island Tournament

Rock Climbing  - 1st  South Island 

Senior Football  -  1st Division 2, Nationals

Senior Basketball -  4th South Island Tournament (qualifying for Nationals where they finished  21st in New Zealand.

Senior B Basketball -  6th Southern Cup

Junior Basketball -  11th South Island Tournament

Weightlifting -  1 x Gold (Jake Beaumont) 1 x Silver (Jack Wilkes) and 1x Bronze (Uzair Qamar)

Ice Hockey -  2nd South Island Tournament

Mountain Biking -  3rd South Island

In conclusion may I wish you well for the remainder of Term 4, 2019, there are still plenty of things to deal with before we reach the end of a most demanding year, but as always we are well placed to round the year off successfully.

Regards and best wishes

John