Happy New Year and a warm welcome to all of our new staff and students and our returning staff and students. I wish you a wonderful and successful year, and I look forward to working with you all.

Waikato Diocesan School has a tradition of high achievement in NCEA endorsements; last year’s results were no exception.

Please refer to the website's online calendar for other important dates and the most up-to-date information.

A warm Dio welcome to the following new members of staff.

All new Dio whaanau are cordially welcome to join us for our new staff and students Poowhiri and Year 9 Meet the Teachers afternoon followed by the School Association Mix and Mingle. Our Year 9 boarding whaanau are also invited to the Year 9 Boarding dinner.

Our Dio community is invited to be part of an awesome opportunity for whaanau to learn about NCEA and get some tips and tricks from NZQA on how best to support tamaiti to succeed in school. The workshop is one hour long, and the school will provide refreshments following the workshop.

This year we celebrate the ‘D’ in ‘CREDIT’: diligence - kia pukumahi! We will encourage everyone in our community to work carefully and persistently toward their goals; to work consistently and sustainably.

Extra-curricular sports are a big part of life at Dio. Please read the following important information about registering for sports teams as term one commences.

We're proud to partner with School TV - a school well-being resource.

Many school community members have already been accessing and utilising the array of features in our Parent Portal. For those who are still unfamiliar with this interactive tool, the Quick Links control has links to helpful pages such as the daily notices, school calendar, and DioNews.

A timely reminder in this first issue of DioNews regarding the procedures in and around student leave: we have already had requests from parents/caregivers requesting student leave from one day to one or three weeks during the school term for various reasons, important events and occasions.