I hope this final newsletter for 2023 finds you all well.

We have been in the Christmas spirit in boarding with Christmas decorations spreading Christmas cheer and attendance at Christmas events. We attended the Annual Christmas Carol Service lead by our Reverend Stephen Black on Sunday 3 December. It was wonderful to see the chapel full with students, whaanau and friends in celebration of the true meaning of Christmas.

For 2024 I have chosen our boarding theme based on the whakataukī ‘Ehara taku toa i te toa takitahi, he toa takitini’. This translates to ‘My strength is not as an individual but as a collective’.

In week 1 of term four, 2023, we had boarding-specific student leadership training facilitated by two representatives from Burn Bright, an organisation that specialises in delivering student leadership and well-being programmes. This special programme was part of building leadership across our boarding houses, whether the students who participated were selected as part of the boarding council or not.

House parents on duty during the weekend organised a range of activities for our boarders that stayed in weekends term four.