Congratulations to our students, staff and parents for working hard to help get our students across the line with NCEA.

Last year was a particularly challenging year after 3 years of online learning and disruptions as well as other community challenges yet we still managed to rise above the National average for NCEA, when many schools in the country were seeing a dip in their achievement rates. Also 100 percent of our Level 2 girls got their Level 2 NCEA. You can read more about the results in the next newsletter. Congratulations to the students who worked hard through these challenges and to the staff who also gave their all.

Our students achieved at or above the national rate and above rates for similar size schools across New Zealand. To add to this our 11, 12 and 13 students from 2022 compared with the rest of the West Coast Schools did well. Our Year 12 and 13 students had the highest overall pass rate and Year 11 students the second highest overall pass rate across the coast, this is a wonderful result for our students and shows the huge amount of effort to achieve so well, supported by parents and staff.

This result is the long term result of 5 years worth of changes in multiple areas across the school to help create an environment that fosters success for our students. Staff give up many hours of their own time to run tutorials, plan programmes to engage the students, track the students progress and follow up with students who need extra support. Students put in lots of hard work in class and extra hours at home or in tutorials to make those gains. Support staff often go the extra mile to help teachers and students so they can focus on the most important aspect of school which is teaching and learning. The parents, whanau and community who support the students at home to achieve and the Board who have worked tirelessly at the top end to ensure the best outcomes for all. This has been a community effort and we thank you all for your support of the students. There is still more work to be done and still many areas to improve on and so we will keep striving to build on each years success.

One of the biggest contributing factors to students succeeding is attendance. Students can't learn the relevant material and pass their assessments if they aren't in class. We have a 95% attendance expectation as a minimum to be eligible to attend or be part of events such as sports teams, the school ball, Koru game etc. The school follows the Ministry of Education guidelines on attendance and absences such as Holidays in term time, truancy, etc.... that count against the students attendance. Additionally if your child is unwell and unable to attend school please let the school office know and genuinely out you your control absence such as illness not not count against a students attendance. Students can also check their attendance with their Whanau teacher at any time, and Parents/Whanau by logging onto the school portal. We thank whanau for their support with this.

Each year we have a large number of new students, on occasion some students may struggle to settle in and this is normal, if as a Parent/Whanau you have any concern or questions at all, please feel free to contact your child's classroom teacher in the first instance, contact the school office if you are unsure and the wonderful office staff will assist you find and talk to the right person. We want each student to feel comfortable at school so they can focus on their chosen pathways and learning.