From the Principal - Term 3 Week 8
Kia ora koutou
There are many great student stories this week, from our E-Sports students and peer helpers creating a fantastic event for our primary schools, to Jade McKay ensuring that two younger students who’d clashed heads came to the office to get checked; our student leaders’ speeches and the activities they ran with year 7 students fill me with confidence. But one, Brenna Rudman addressing the NZ Principals Federation conference, was a rare and amazing privilege to watch. Brenna’s kōrero, her speech, was about her experiences as a Māori student - some negative ones and what she would like to see as positive experiences. It was challenging and inspiring. Brenna showed courage and delivered her speech flawlessly to an audience of around 800 principals from around the country. We received so many compliments and requests to use the video of her speech that it was a bit overwhelming. A link to Brenna’s kōrero is here.
Next week is Koru Games for 170 of our year 7 and 8 students and 20 year 12 student coaches. This is an amazing opportunity to mix with peers from across the South Island and represent their school with pride. Buses will run 10 minutes earlier on the mornings of Wednesday and Thursday as a result.
Parent and Staff Trustee results for our Board are now out. On behalf of our school community, I would like to say “ngā mihi nui” to all trustees who are leaving us:
Anna Lee, staff trustee
Alex Whyte, parent trustee
Peter Westaway, parent trustee
Sue Robinson, parent trustee and for many years Chairperson of our Board. Sue’s tenure covered some challenging times and the energy she invested in our school was phenomenal. Sue is truly committed to DHS and has worked extremely hard at all times, including ensuring a smooth handover.
Thanks, too, to candidates who did not get voted on but took the important step of standing for election. We appreciate your gesture.
Congratulations to our new Board or parent trustees:
Keith Tallentire
Natalie Peters
Brad Sutton
Jo Lochore
Mel Bleach
And staff trustee Shawn Gough.
Student elections will be held shortly. I am confident that our Board has a complementary range of skills and qualities that will offer great governance. I look forward to working with them all.
We will be changing our uniform! Our uniform review committee was made up of representatives of parents, students, staff and Board, with the decision made by the full Board. Details will be in a separate article but key points are:
Two years of being able to wear both ‘old’ and new uniform to save parents immediate spend
Blazers and ties to be retained as they are but to become fully optional (must be worn when representing school and can be hired for this)
A hoodie replaces the current wool jersey (and other school hoodies)
A school jacket will become part of uniform
Year 13s will be in uniform (from 2024) - this is to reduce clothing competition and expense, to ‘tidy’ our image, and to support our students when they meet with year 13s from other schools who are almost always in uniform (year 13s in uniform is what most schools now do)
Our current uniform will be available at clearance prices from The Warehouse Rolleston and online until the end of November. There will then be a short break before it will be available from Mainland Uniforms Wairakei Road (and online) at full price. The uniform clearance is a great chance to cheaply buy uniform that can be worn for the next two years so we encourage you to take this offer up.
Mauri ora,
Andy England