Kia ora e te whānau, welcome back to another year, and an especially warm welcome to the parents, caregivers and whānau of students new to the college.

We’ve had a positive start to the year, helped by being able to do all the things that we couldn’t last year because of COVID – Year 9 powhiri, assemblies etc. It certainly makes a difference in helping out students to settle back into school after the summer break.

Of course, the rhythm and routine were disrupted by our need to return to a reduced timetable of 4 periods per day to manage the coverage of classes over the last 5 weeks. Staff have returned to school (they weren’t on holiday!) and we are appointing new teachers. Covering classes will continue to be an issue, and although we have increased the number of relievers, we still have the PPTA relief ban in place, so the use of teachers to cover classes will be limited. We will see how we go over the next 4 weeks, but I cannot rule out rostering home of senior levels if we foresee pressure points. We will keep you well informed.

We will be returning to the normal 5-day timetable from Monday 13 March. Thank you for your patience and understanding over the last 5 weeks. I would imagine that our Year 9’s will find the new-normal day of 5 periods to be quite tiring!

Congratulations to our senior students for their excellent 2022 NCEA results. Although our students continue to do well in NCEA Level 1 (83% pass rate) and Level 2 (81% pass rate), the impact of 3 years of COVID disruptions is starting to show – not just for this college, but nationally. Further information in the Pānui / Newsletter.

Ngā mihi nui

Judith Taylor

Principal