As the trees around us start to lose their leaves in preparation for some colder winter months, and the mornings are becoming a little crisper, we are all reminded that the year is ticking on by, and all the while our school continues to be a busy, vibrant place!

Kia ora Koutou,

Coming up at the end of May, we have our School Production, “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat” (combined with TBHS). This is a huge team effort, led by our very talented Mrs White. Other staff members who are equally talented are heavily involved in the running of the show also; Mr Chapman is Mrs White’s co-director and “right hand man” and Mr Cameron Lines brings his own theatrical performing experience to the team. Mrs Tracey Lissington has involved her senior Materials students in this process also; they are making many of the costumes for the show. It is great to see our academic curriculum blending with an extra-curricular school event like this. As well as this, our school Librarian, Pip Black has worked tirelessly behind the scenes putting her sewing and creative skills to good use. We are lucky to have staff who are so willing to give their time and energy to enable our students to experience this kind of success. This is shaping up to be a wonderful show. Tickets can be purchased from TGHS office and/or TBHS office. The show runs from Tuesday 28th May through to Friday 31st May. Please note that the show WILL still run on the evening of the proposed teacher strike on Wednesday 29 May.

This year, we are embarking on PB4L training. PB4L stands for Positive Behaviour for Learning. Some of you will be familiar with this framework if your daughter’s Primary School engaged in PB4L. We have a team of 8 staff who are leading this initiative. The PB4L framework supports us as a school to continue to collaborate as effectively as we can and, therefore, provide our students with the best possible service and opportunity to succeed. There is another section about PB4L included further on in this newsletter edition.

On 13th May we had Louisa Wall (Labour MP for Manurewa and NZ representative in Rugby and Netball) and Jo Luxton (Labour list MP based in Rangitata) visit our school. Louisa spoke to the girls of the importance of having a dream and believing in it. She encouraged the girls to question things when they felt that something was not right; to have a voice about things that were important to them. Louisa was inspirational in her messages and she echoed the values that we hold dear here at TGHS. It was a pleasure to host these two women at our school.

Our Open Day was a very positive day and our students, as always, stepped up and did themselves proud in the way that they carried themselves and helped to promote our school in the best possible light. I am always heartened when I see our students taking ownership and having pride in their school.

Our PTA is up and running and we have a wonderful group of approximately 12 parents whose primary motivation is that they just want to help our school to thrive! We had some support on Open Day from them, which was great. A few initiatives are now gaining some momentum within the group. The PTA are supporting a small group of Year 12 students who have commissioned a local Artist to create a Well-being mural for one of our external walls around the school. They are also supporting a “Breakfast Club” initiative that some of our staff have set up. I am looking forward to working more with this group in the future.

You will be aware that the Teacher’s Union, the PPTA, is currently in the midst of some negotiations with the Government over certain work conditions for our teachers. I will keep you informed as much as possible as things unfold in the upcoming weeks with regards to progress (or not) being made on this front.

It is my pleasure to announce that we have appointed Mr Logan Callow as our new Deputy Principal. Logan will join us at the start of Term 3, 2019. He is currently the Deputy Principal at Opihi College. We look forward to welcoming Logan to our TGHS family. I know that he will bring added richness to our school community.

It is the time of year when students and teachers are right in the thick of their programmes of teaching and learning. Tutorials are being offered by our staff regularly during lunch hours and I encourage students who need some clarification, or some one on one extra tuition, to attend these tutorials. Our Academic Conferencing day on June 4th, provides a great opportunity for both parents and students to talk with form teachers and get an accurate feel for the progress that is being made, and what areas might need some fine tuning, so I encourage everyone to please make the effort to come along to these meetings; they really are important conversations.

Keep yourselves warm over these upcoming weeks everyone! Thank you all for your support of our school.

He Waka Eke Noa! - We are all in this together!