Fast and Furious, that is generally how Term 4 plays out for our senior school.
With 3.5 weeks of this term before they are granted study leave in preparation for NCEA, the term quickly passes by and at pace. Please encourage your daughter to keep up her attendance, hand in all internals and to attend tutorials which are being offered in most learning areas again this term. The next few weeks can be that crucial difference to realising what your daughter is capable of on the NCEA front. For junior students, there is plenty of learning still to take place before junior assessments take place.

Arts Celebration
It was a pleasure to be a part of the ‘Arts’ celebrations last week. Despite the challenges that the global pandemic threw at us all, there were many opportunities to celebrate the amazing talents of our students engaged in the breadth of the arts. Deputy Head Girl of Arts, Shenazzar Sta. Lucia has completed a marvellous year having given so generously of her time and talent not only to TGC but to the Arts community of Tauranga. Congratulations to our Prefects and all of the girls and my colleagues for their support of the Arts in 2020.

Service is key to formal leadership at TGC
As each cohort moves up a year in 2021, let this be a timely reminder of the service expectations at TGC. Giving your time, talents and efforts without financial reward ensures that kindness and helpfulness are key and a necessary requirement for any student wishing to gain a formal leadership role at TGC. Each year, students must have completed approximately 30 hours of service in Year 12 to win a formal role in Year 13. Helping at your marae, volunteering by tutoring, mentoring, umpiring or coaching are just some of the examples of service to others. Get into the habit of giving back now and find out for yourself just how rewarding this can be. Thank you to all of those amazing girls at TGC who do this already!

COVID-19 update
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

NZQA says Exams will take place under Alert Levels 1-3
This is great news for our NCEA students. The social distancing requirements may mean we require more rooms and invigilators to supervise students sitting examinations but we have time to put this in place. No exams can take place if there is a suspected COVID-19 case in our school or if we are under Alert Level 4.

Employment opportunities
With a growing school role and increased enrolments, TGC is advertising a number of teaching and learning positions. This is exciting as the calibre of applicants has been of a very high standard and we have been spoilt for choice. I look forward to introducing the new teachers and support staff with you in the new year.

Vertical whānau Groupings
An enthusiastic team of students and teachers are busy putting the vertical whānau groups together for 2021. We still anticipate informing students of their new whānau group before school closes later in December.

Our Facebook page
Make sure you ‘like’ our FB page as there have been many amazing stories and celebrations that we have shared since the term began. The page is also used for updates and any changes that need communicating outside of our newsletter.

Tara Kanji

Tumuaki | Principal