27th August

Nga mihi mahana ki a koutou katoa. Warm greetings to you all

On Monday, Stuart Wright from UCANDO will present learning workshops to our Year 11 and Year 13 students. These workshops will focus on topics such as motivation, preparation for assessment and note taking. The programme is designed to motivate students to work to their full potential and become independent learners.

On Monday evening, at 7.30pm, parents are invited to attend a workshop where Stuart will outline the student programme and discuss ways parents can help their child to achieve their best at school.

Next week is Tournament Week. Rugby, Netball, Hockey and Boys Soccer teams will travel to various parts of the South Island to attend tournaments. We thank all those parents who are willing to attend these events and hope they have an enjoyable time. Good luck to all the teams!

Schools are busy and interesting places. Over the last two weeks there has been, for example, a Year 13 Geography trip to Queenstown, Year 12 Physics Flight programme, Mathletics, Year 12 Ski Trip, International Day, Year 13 Biology trip to Portobello and the school Cross Country. There is a difficult balance between providing these exciting opportunities for students and making sure students don’t miss class time in other subjects. Students must be prepared to develop organisational skills to be able to catch up on work missed. We are also aware of the costs to parents and often the parental assistance required on these trips. The school will always endeavour to give parents as much warning as possible over the cost of these trips.

Over the next two weeks we are conducting enrolment interviews for next year’s Year 9 students. This is always a reminder that the year is moving along fast and examinations for Year 10—13 students are not far away.
Have a good week.

John Douglas
Deputy Principal