The dust is settling on another busy term. Senior students are starting to realise that they may have less than 20 periods left in each of their subjects before they go on NCEA Examination leave.

Contributed by Acting Rector: Mr Ross Stevenson

Time for me to sign off. This being my last newsletter. It’s a strange feeling really. An odd sensation.

The future of NCEA has been announced. It comes from 2018 consultation when the ‘Great Opportunities’ were circulated about New Zealand for comment. Compared to what was being proposed then, we’re left with much less change than anticipated or, in many quarters, wanted. Common sense may have prevailed. The NCEA ‘Change Package’ shows reassertion of academic rigour and excellence, alongside better preparation for vocational success; however the devil is, as always, in the detail. We’ll watch this space.

To my generation, the need to protect and preserve the environment was something we understood, something we respected, but also, perhaps, something often seen as an ‘optional extra’ and not really a mainstream focus or pressing concern. When we look at this current generation it’s very different.

Our first term comes to an end with Easter just around the corner. All our boys now know more and can do more than when we started back in early February. Learning has been grasped. Challenges have been met. And personal growth has occurred. Some boys have excelled in and out of the school to make their mark early. Some boys have put in a sound, solid effort. Others are gradually getting to where they should be but will have to commit more, to be part of wider year level progress.

H.L. Mencken wrote: "A home is not a mere transient shelter: its essence lies in the personalities of the people who live in it."(1) The design features of a house don't make it a home, the people who occupy it do. A big new home for 36 senior boys was proudly opened last Friday at Thomas House.

2019 brings new ventures, and new students and staff with talent to burn! These first few weeks are not only the time to settle back into the habits and routines for success, but for boys to clarify what their personal excellence should entail in 2019.

The Year 13 Leavers’ Dinner last Tuesday night was a fine send off for the young men there; a final step in departure from TBHS after 5 years’ learning and growing. It was a gathering with fellowship, reflection, affirmation, and the opportunity for parents and staff to enjoy what has passed and to consider with excitement what will be, for the class of 2014. It was a pleasure to be in the company of so many fine young men.

Quiet pride. Lots of it was seen at our three achievement ceremonies held since late September. Crossing the stage in the Arts Awards, Winter Sports Awards, and Senior Prizegiving, boys carried themselves with pride and showed respect for each ceremony and the school. Those who didn’t receive an award, but committed to self - improvement all the same, are rightly proud of how far they’ve come in 2018 too. We look forward to Junior Prizegiving later this term when we honour our last group that have stepped up to know more, do more, and be more at TBHS in 2018.

We all have strengths and weaknesses. In schooling, ‘strength-based education’ focuses on strengths. Applying a bulk of our attention to expanding strengths over trying to weed out all weaknesses. It’s better to emphasise strength development over trying to eradicate all faults and flaws; to focus on what youngsters are doing right before focusing on what they’re doing wrong; on strengths before shortcomings. Is this correct? I believe so.

Congratulations to all the boys in the stand for the First XV Waitaki match last Wednesday.

We enter the new term with new staff, new students, and a new inter-school. Term 3 also brings opportunities to find new success as work in and out of the classroom culminates. It’s the Term when effort invested in the previous two really makes its presence felt.

NCEA is being overhauled. The Ministry of Education is contemplating the future of NCEA right now to an extent not seen since its launch in the early 2000s. Fundamentals are being questioned and are up for change. A national process to determine what should stay and what should go, and how our qualifications can work to help and reward young people is happening.

There is something unique that services our ability to learn, memorise, and make logical decisions and choices, that fuels our creativity, recalibrates our emotional state, and restocks our immunity to help us fight malignancy, prevent infection and ward off numerous illnesses; something that also reforms the body’s metabolic state, regulates our appetite, and supports our cardio-vascular systems – not to mention physical recovery after sporting performance. That ‘something’ is legal, free, and available to us all. It is sleep. And deep sleep is instrumental in the healthy development of teenagers.

Sometimes things are over–complicated in Education. Important priorities or concepts can get buried beneath Education jargon or junk. At TBHS we try to keep it straightforward but effective. We are, put simply, here to help each boy to know more, do more, and be more. We’re here to challenge and support so boys learn, grow, and flourish. We do our bit so they can do theirs well.

‘Progress lies not in enhancing what is, but in advancing toward what will be.’ We’ve definitely advanced toward ‘what will be’ in Term 1. BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) use has expanded, including a Year 9 ‘BYOD Blitz’ two weeks ago, to enhance and modernise our teaching and learning. Please continue to encourage your son to bring in a laptop, tablet, or similar device beyond a smart phone, for daily lesson use.

Congratulations to Riley Taylor and Cathal Guiney for their selection to the 2018 Prefect team. We’re sure they will serve our students and school to the best of their ability. As we applaud Riley and Cathal we are conscious of all the other boys who lead or show important leadership qualities elsewhere in the school.

Welcome to 2018 at TBHS. We’ve made a good start. The boys have settled back in well. New learning is in progress. The school is alive again with the energy and optimism our young men bring. Co-curricular activity is mounting. And the call has gone out to commit, find new strengths, excel, and to ‘stand up and stand out’ this year.

We wish every success to all our young men completing their Timaru Boys’ career in 2017. Take the best of TBHS with you into the world beyond the gate. Be prepared to find your own way ahead.

Congratulations to Ryan Greenslade for being appointed Head Boy for 2018. We know Ryan will do his utmost to honour the position and to discharge its duties effectively in support of students, staff and our wider community. Ryan is joined by Mac Edwards and Tyler Sparks, each as Deputy Head Boy, and James Watt, our newly appointed House Captain.

We have turned into the home straight. The race is on and the finish line is in sight for seniors. 

In Assembly recently, five International students shared stories from their home life and home countries, and talked about their New Zealand ambitions, to a captivated audience. 

The Timaru Boys’ character reflects that of South Canterbury itself. Elements from home and other social networks come into school each day with our boys and parents. This can be seen in the perspectives held about 'life after school' and where a TBHS education should lead its boys.

Our term is almost ‘all over bar the shouting’ (or singing in the case of inter - house competition this Friday). We have covered a lot of ground these last 10 weeks and seen the boys excel in different situations and settings (all shared on Facebook and in our newsletters).

One of the toughest things you can attempt is to try to encapsulate something as intricate, organic, and evolving as a school, in a single message. To embody what it is all about, what it is for, without reducing it so much that meaning is lost.

We've been evaluated by the Education Review Office (ERO) as having ‘a positive and inclusive culture’ with values ‘well known by the students and actively taught and promoted’; where the curriculum ‘contributes strongly to what the school wants for boys, in line with its mission statement’; where boys ‘achieve well in NCEA’. And ‘boys who need additional support with aspects of their learning are very well provided for’, and those ‘with advanced capabilities value the increased opportunities they have to extend and enrich their learning’[1].

The seasons are shifting as the shadows get longer, and we finish Term 1 with productive starts across the curriculum, and winter’s activities now beckoning the boys.

There’s a saying around the All Black camp: ‘If you’re not growing anywhere, you’re not going anywhere.’[1] 

It’s all 'on' again! The gates are open. Lessons are well underway. Friendships and acquaintances are renewed. And our wider co-curricular activity is gathering steam. We welcome boys and families new to Timaru Boys' and those of you returning for another year. The full vitality and diversity of TBHS is back.

Have a Happy Christmas and New Year with family and friends. We wish you all a wonderful summer as you rest and refresh. It’s a time to get into the things you’ve been keen to enjoy but had to put on the ‘back burner’ due to commitments at home or work. Our hope is that you not only have a break but that it feels as if it’s been a break.

Our finales are here. The ‘season of ceremonies’ to applaud and award the boys has started.

In order to succeed we need perseverance.

Much has happened since the last newsletter. We enjoyed the success of Olympic Shotputter and Old Boy, Tom Walsh, played a fantastic Waitaki Exchange, and danced the night away at the Senior Ball!

A new term brings new arrivals.

Tony Little, recently retired Headmaster of Eton College, said that over the centuries the fundamental values and aims of schooling were ‘development of character, conscience and clean living, with intellectual precision for those who could cope with it'[1]. 

Our next Board has been elected. This resets it for a new and expansive period of good service and governance on behalf of our community. We are grateful to all of the parents who stood for election, and those who cast votes to select our Parent Trustees. 

Attitude

We finish Term 1 with our traditional Anzac Service on Friday 15 April at 2pm. Please join us in Hogben Hall if you can make it. All the boys will process through the Memorial Library at the end, to respectfully place their poppy before one of our 3 commemorative wreaths. The guest speaker for 2016 will be Lieutenant-Colonel Eugene Whakahoehoe - Old Boy and current Commanding Officer of Burnham Military Camp.

Our Year 11 ‘White Shirt Induction’ has now had its fourth session in as many weeks. A new initiative, it is intended to support boys arriving in the senior school; to help them grasp the nature and norms of becoming a senior with our best advice.

There is an old Irish saying: ‘Tús maith leath na hoibre’ – ‘A good start is half the work’[1]. This implies that while often challenging, a good start contributes greatly to ultimate success.

Since our previous Newsletter, Jesse Drake has been awarded Dux and Alex Duthie Proxime Accessit for 2015 at Senior Prizegiving; two marvellous accomplishments. 

Three weeks into the final term and it’s ‘all on’.

It was a delight to interview Year 8 day boys and their families last week, in preparation for entry to the school next year. Some fantastic young men are on the way and already adopting our school culture enthusiastically.

Moving through the midpoint of this term two big events have passed: the Ball and Waitaki Exchange. Each event has, in its own right, been a ‘celebration of youth’.

We embrace a new term of learning and achievement. Boys across the school are again ‘making a go of it’. 

Down at School Park on Saturday morning, our Under-14 rugby players were converging in readiness for their games. With each arriving player came a growing focus of purpose, one that could not only be seen but felt. 

Our 2015 Arts festival is here. The Arts’ staff and tutors have worked hard to provide a fantastic array of Visual and Performing Arts experiences this week. The boys will delve into engaging artistic activities; to experiment, and to develop talents currently dormant or undiscovered. 

We started Term Two with the solemnity of our traditional ANZAC Service on 24 April; made all the more touching by commemoration of the 16 Old Boys who died in the Gallipoli Campaign 100 years ago. 

‘Time and tide wait for no man’ according to the old proverb from Chaucer’s England. As far as Term 1 is concerned this has certainly been the case. We have moved through a rich array of activities in the last 10 weeks, with time marching on rapidly. 

‘A Timaru Boys’ High School young man will be aspirational, respectful and a positive contributor to his community, with an inquiring and independent mind.’ 

A warm welcome to you all and your sons as we restart learning and achievement at Timaru Boys’ High School for 2015. I hope your summer with family and friends was a special time, and that a great year awaits you.