A huge success at Open Night

Attendance at our Open Night was HUGE!   We had over 650 in attendance this year. Tauranga Girls’ College strives to be the school of choice for girls and in saying so, we are changing our systems and processes so that we can realise our aspiration. Thank you for attending and if you haven't already, please complete the feedback survey (takes 2 minutes) on our website.

Strengthening our Vertical system - Vote TODAY as everyone will be in a new house in 2021
As mentioned in our last newsletter (changes to our house and vertical structure) we are adding a 5th house to our School Spirit House system at TGC. Voting has now opened for the eight awesome submissions that were received last Friday. As the submitters have new and innovative house ideas it is important that everyone has their say. All submissions are displayed in the hall foyer and the voting form asking for your 1st and 2nd choice was emailed to all students and staff on Friday 14 August (closes Fri 21 August). All staff and students will be allocated to a new house in 2021 as only one of the submissions keeps aspects of the current system and even then is different to the existing one.

Vertical whānau class in 2021
Whānau time occurs twice a week, from 10.40am - 11.00am each Monday and Friday. TGC has had same age groupings (e.g. a whānau class with only Year 10’s) which clearly doesn’t reflect the world of work, sport and your own family! In 2021 along with new houses, students will be in a vertical whānau class with Year 9-13 students. I shared this in the last newsletter. Year 9-12 students were informed at an assembly this week. Please note, this does not impact on or change extension, high achievers or learning supported classes. Students in Year 9 and 10 will continue to do their main subjects together as they do at present.

Whānau time is an important pastoral time of the day and along with spreading the load of the mentoring, school values and well being conversations across the entire school, (e.g.currently if we want to have an NCEA Level one and 1:1 conversations, Year 11 whānau teachers do this and with 25 students each) in 2021, all whānau teachers will have e.g. 5 Year 11 students in their whānau class which makes mentoring/Te Ara ako/well being time for them more meaningful and manageable ensuring no student is missed.  As parents/ caregivers, you will still contact one whānau teacher and Dean/DP. There will still be co-hort assemblies as meeting as a Year 13 group for scholarship or tertiary information etc will continue to be important. Currently our house structure is vertical and now our whānau time will align with this. Students will be asked to nominate a student they may wish to be in the same whānau class as we move to reconstruct this for next year. Siblings will be in the same house but not whānau class, reflecting more realistically their journey beyond school. Those with siblings at TBC will be familiar with the vertical whānau time system.

I,  along with other staff including DP’s and Deans, will be meeting students on Friday this week and then again next week to answer any of their questions related to this change.

Changes due to the COVID Alert Level 2
Under Alert Level 2 we are impacted by gathering sizes and this is why some sporting codes have had to change their plans. Winter Tournament is still an uncertainty. Whilst in school, we are exempt from the same gathering size rules, we will no longer be having full school assemblies to ensure we can have some social distancing.

What remains important at all times is for everyone to:

• Stay home if unwell
• Take a COVID test if you have COVID like symptoms
• Wash hands/sanitize regularly
• Cough/sneeze into your elbow
• When not at school, keep up with your contact tracing by scanning using the COVID QR code
• Be kind and be remote ready should alert levels change

Formal Leadership roles for 2021
Applications for Head Girl, six Deputy roles and Prefects opened on Friday 31 July. Leadership at TGC is underpinned by service and by being community minded. Girls are expected to have completed 40 hours of service when applying for positions and have contributed to house spirit, supported extra curricular activities and upheld the values of the College. Amendments to the application process have been made based on feedback from the current leadership team. In keeping with a new tradition our Head Girl, (Hannah Rose) will be on the interview panel for the top seven positions.

Year 13 School Ball
This was rescheduled from the April COVID lockdown to Saturday 26 September. If Alert Level two remains, we will not be able to have a school ball this year and as disappointing this will be, the health and well being of everyone in a very changing Pandemic environment is paramount.

Long weekend soon
Don’t forget our usual mid term break takes place soon. There will be no school on Monday 7 September.

Tara Kanji
Tumuaki/Principal