Keith Buntting — Oct 20, 2019

A warm welcome to Week 2!

Dear Parents, Whānau, and Caregivers.

NCEA Focus Day:

A reminder that we have our last NCEA Focus Day this Wednesday, 22 October. This is an important day to consolidate the achievement and external examination revision for all Year 11, 12 and 13 students. Thank you to the parents of Year 9 and 10 students for your patience with keeping your students at home on this day to allow us to run this focus day. The library is open for supervised study on Wednesday for any Year 9 and 10 students who need to be at school but a reminder that normal classes will not be running.

Sports Awards Evening:

Congratulations to all of our sports students who have been nominated for awards this year. It has been another very strong year for sports and our Sports Awards Evening that will be held this Thursday, 24th October continues to be one of the celebratory highlights of the year.

As part of the lead up to these awards, it was an absolute privilege to acknowledge two of our outstanding sports teams at the first assembly for Term 4. Congratulations to the Open A Netball Team who were awarded the Active Plus Full Season award, and the Somebody to Love Dance Troupe who were awarded the Selected Event Team of the Year Award award.

Whanau voice survey:

Thank you to everyone who has already contributed to our survey this year. We appreciate your input and continue to make every effort to respond to the suggestions and areas of concern that this survey highlights.

If you have not yet contributed, and would like to, the link to the survey is:

Link to Survey

Thank you for your time,
Rebecca Harvey - Kahui Ako Within-School Leader

Academic Prize Givings

Just an early notification for two of the other celebratory highlights of the year: Our Senior Academic Prize Giving which will start at 7pm on Tuesday 5 November, and our Junior Academic Prize Giving which will be held at 10am on Friday 6 December. We look forward to seeing you there

Head Students for 2020

Congratulations to all the Year 12 students who applied for the position of Head Students in 2020. Interviews took place last week and the panel were very impressed by the depth and dedication of all the applicants. All of these students represented our school values and the attributes of Care, Courage and Commitment with style. The panel had a very challenging responsibility to shortlist six candidates who will speak at a special assembly this week. Voting for the positions will happen at Tutor on Tuesday morning and the Head Students for 2020 will be named at our Senior Academic Prize Giving on the 5th of November.

Property Update

The property situation continues to be a priority for myself and the Board of Trustees. We are reassured that there has been acknowledgement from the Ministry of Education of the urgency of fully responding to the buildings. A strong business case for a full school rebuild is being established and we are very hopeful that this will be approved later this year. Of course, there will still be a lot to happen and if approved, this rebuild will only begin in three to four years time. The tentative plan is that this rebuild will happen on the main field so it will not interrupt the current operation of the school. In the meantime, work is forging ahead to make the current site as comfortable as possible. The second stage of the head pump project is about to begin which will ensure that there is a heat pump in every classroom, as well as four large heat pumps in the hall and a project to upgrade student toilets is also about to begin. At the moment, Wade Construction is also completing work on the roofs and replacing gutters and spouting which will also deal with the leaks.

While there is a long way to go, it is encouraging that our property is being responded to and, all going to plan, it will be immensely exciting when the school is completely rebuilt to modern standards. This is no less than our students and our community deserve!

Labour Day

A reminder that next Monday 28 October is Labour Day and school will be closed for the day. Wishing you all a safe and relaxing long weekend when we get there.

Have a good week everyone.

Warm regards,

Keith

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