Kia ora Parents, Caregivers and whānau

Welcome to this first UHC Newsletter of 2022 – it’s certainly been a unique start to the year!

It’s a pleasure to welcome our students back to the College, and to welcome those students and their families/whānau who are new to the college, and especially our Year 9 students. We hope the first few weeks have gone well, and we look forward to watching you grow and flourish at UHC.

We have had huge growth in student numbers this year, with the roll now over 1050 students, and close to 280 Year 9 students. Welcoming them all to school is a key part to a successful and smooth start to the year, so it was hugely disappointing not to have the Year level Assemblies and the Year 9 Powhiri – we are planning to have an event for our Year 9’s and whānau when things settle down!

It’s been great to see the academic success of our students in the 2021 NCEA results. Despite all the difficulties of the last few years – the arson of 2019 and two years of lockdown - our students continue to excel in their learning. 90% of our Year 11 students gained NCEA Level 1 last year, and the excellent results of students at all 3 NCEA Levels were above the national average for similar schools (all decile 4-7 schools) – we are one of only 3 co-ed schools in the Wellington region to achieve at this level.

Despite COVID restrictions, students are still getting involved in activities around the school, and in greater numbers too. I can’t emphasise enough how important it is for students to be engaged with school in ways other than just the classroom. Playing a sport, being involved in a cultural activity, joining in with House activities, or building on fledgling leadership skills developed pre-College, means connections are made with others and with the school. I encourage parents and caregivers to be involved too – your presence and support is an important factor in ensuring your child’s positive and long engagement with the college.

Finally, thank you for your support, understanding and kind thoughts as we work through these challenging COVID times with fewer staff, student absences and the disruptions to teaching and learning. We will eventually get through this and back to normal, and we know from experience that our students are pretty resilient at dealing with the unexpected.

We look forward to another exciting year.

Judith Taylor

Principal