Kia ora koutou e te whānau o Kōwhai.

We are in the throes of another busy and exciting term where we have seen our ākonga settle into our new, beautiful spaces. The focus for our seniors now turns very much to NCEA and the completion of assessments as we strive towards our goal of attaining 80 credits at each year level. Students will be having conversations with teachers and you at home about how they are tracking in their progress, and we are all looking forward to having these conversations together at our Academic Conferences which are running next Wednesday and Thursday afternoon. This is a great opportunity for ākonga and their whānau and teachers to reflect on how the year is going and make clear any required next steps.

I want to thank our learners and their whānau for the way they are responding to our focus on wearing the correct uniform, or communicating with us about how we can help to ensure our ākonga are warm and dry and wearing our uniform with pride in these winter months. This helps develop our shared sense of school pride in our new buildings.

Earlier this term we were able to get together in a senior assembly for the first time this year and in our beautiful new Te Puna. It was truly lovely to be able to gather and celebrate our 2021 successes, especially the awesome Kōwhai statistic of 100% achievement of Level 2 NCEA! Our Level One results very clearly reflected the fact that if we are attending classes, we are gaining 80 credits, and I implore our current Year 11s to take this as advice. I know all of our Kōwhai students are capable of achieving this goal again in 2022.

I would like to take this opportunity to let you know that I am stepping down from the Kōwhai Senior Dean role at the end of this term, but will work closely with my replacement (yet to be announced) to ensure the transition is smooth. It has been wonderful working with you to make sure we are doing the best for our ākonga. And I will, of course, always be kōwhai at heart!

Ngā mihi nui

Jane Schroeder, Kōwhai Senior Dean schr@linwoodcollege.school.nz