Kia ora whanau Malo e leilei

Welcome back to 2021. As our first week of school for this new year finishes, we can reflect on the tremendous place where our school is at. In mid-January the NCEA results were published and as expected our results were a vast improvement on previous years – our best in the last 5 years to be precise. Our pass rates were on average 16% higher than the previous year and at Level 1 and 2 these pass rates are significantly above the national boys’ average. Along with this 69 of our students received a (Merit or Excellence) course endorsement and this was up over 30% from 2019. There were a number of factors involved in this success and I would like to thank the boys for their much-improved academic focus and their teachers for creating an environment to allow them to succeed.

Yesterday, we welcomed our new staff and students to the school with a fantastic powhiri followed by a formal assembly. We have 95 Year 9’s join us this year which is our second largest intake in the last 5 years and two new staff – Mr Robert Sullivan who joins the English and Languages department and Ms Kay Strathern who assumes the role as Teacher in charge of Art. We also welcomed a number of new boys above Year 9. We have started the year with 409 boys as compared to 386 at the start of 2020.

At our first assembly we recognized the success of 2020 and also celebrated the achievements of a number of our young men who achieved national sporting success last year and they received a NZ Honours badge from the Aoraki Secondary Sports organization – namely Samuel Petrie (Yr 11), Ben O’Sullivan (Yr 11) and Sam Edmondston (Yr 11) for finishing 3rd in the NZ U16 Triathlon; Harry Wilson (Yr 13) and Sen McMaster (Yr 13) were named in NZ Youth Croquet squad and also Ben Brosnan (Yr 13 – 2020), Cameron McFarlane and Jonty Nelson won the NZ Target shooting postal shoot. These awards were presented by Mrs Paula Symes.

Sadly, we were also saying farewell to Mrs Symes who after 10 years as our sports co-ordinator is moving on to join her husband James in real estate. Paula has been so much more than a sports co-ordinator – in fact she has really been “Mrs Sports” here at Boys’ High and literally thousands of boys’ and staff owe her a debt of gratitude for all the opportunities she has provided and supported over the year’s. We wish her all the very best for the future. We are hoping to have a new Director of Sport in place in the very near future. We also farewell Mrs Mary Thoroughgood who had been working as a Teacher Aide in our fantastic Learning Support department. Mary has moved to Nelson to be closer to her family and we wish her all the best and thank her for her great work in Learning support over the past two years. Speaking of learning support, we are thrilled to be recognized as one of only six schools nationally for outstanding results gained in the SPEC (South Pacific Educational Courses). A massive well done to the Learning Support team. Finally, Mr Doug Frogley leaves us as the acting Property Manager for the last 18 months. Doug has been an incredibly hard working who has been a huge asset to the school in his time here. At the same time we welcome back Neil Conway and look forward to Neil continuing where he left off.

If you have been in the school and around the grounds recently you will recognize the amazing job the property team have done over the last two months. I would like to thank a number of parents and students who came to school last Sunday for a ‘working bee’ on the gardens at the front of the school. As has been well publicized the restoration of the creek running through the school grounds is a major focus for 2021 and we look forward to the Rabobank team coming in late March to help with this project. With relation to other property matters over the Holidays – stage 1 of the artificial turf project has been with the asphalt having been laid down and fencing removed. We are hopeful that the turf will be laid for the start of Term 2 at the latest. Renovations are almost complete in the classroom N23 to ‘house’ our Learning Support coordinator Sue Johnston. Our new school boiler is currently in transit from Germany. We hope that will be installed for the start of Term 2 also.

For our start to this year our focus has been very much on building relationships and there have been a lot of team building activities taking place. We are endeavoring to emphasis the House Group system as the key to our pastoral care system as well as building a sense of belonging. With this in mind our annual Swimming sports are taking place today and have been a huge success in terms of participation rates and house ‘spirit’.

Workbooks – there has been some confusion around the purchase of workbooks. Having opted into the Donations scheme this year the purchase of workbooks is now optional. However, as is the case with electronic devices we would ask for your support in purchasing your son the workbooks he requires. To put it simply we just don’t have the resources to offer the courses, field trips, text books, printing, photocopying, course materials etc from the donations scheme alone. If you are unable to purchase the workbooks your son needs please let the school office know and the school will supply those for you. As a school owned resource however, your son will be unable to take these home. Thanks once again for your support.

There have not been too many changes this year but I would like to highlight two. If your son is bringing a vehicle to school, it has to be parked in the ‘central’ carpark adjacent to the swimming pool. With regards to the timetable, Period 5 on a Thursday is now a teaching period and Period 2 on a Friday is now a Rector’s/Well-being assembly.

Can I take this moment to remind parents/whanau to drop boys off or pick them up outside of the school grounds ie on Waitaki Ave, Virgil St, Regina Lane or Thames Highway. Too much traffic coming through the school gates with students on foot at these times is very dangerous. Could we also ask for your support around uniform. Please ensure that your son is wearing the correct uniform to and from school. If you refer to the Student/Parent handbook (page 6) on the website. (Go to the student tab and then click on information). The mobile phone/electronic device policy will continue.

On Monday 15th February, I would like to invite you to the Auditorium at 7pm to meet with me. I would like to outline the school’s expectations, goals and aspirations for 2021. I very much look forward to seeing you there.

He waka eke noa

Floret Waitakia

Darryl Paterson

Rector