“What a great start to the year” is the refrain I hear from colleagues absolutely buzzing about the first few school weeks of 2025. From the moving welcoming pōwhiri, the outstanding efforts of our Year 13 leaders in the Tuakana Teina (peer support) programme, to the festive, carnival-like atmosphere of the Athletics Day (1214 students entered), the New Students & Whānau BBQ, the excitement of teaching and learning new things coupled with the stunning weather, have made for this ‘feelgood’ vibe. Long may it last!
We are celebrating too some outstanding results from the 2024 external examination season where our students earned 22 scholarships and grade quality in the NCEA exams bears testimony to the quality of teaching here [see below a couple of photos from our special morning tea to celebrate our 2024 Scholarship recipients].
Excellence endorsements at Level 3 of NCEA (Year 13) were 12% better than other schools in our EQI band (the decile replacement figure). For Level 2 (Year 12) excellence endorsements were 11% above the national average and for Merit endorsements the good news continues in a similar vein – 11% above national averages. Much of the doom and gloom around the Literacy and Numeracy Common Assessment Activities is also misplaced here, with 92.4% of our Year 12s having gained Literacy and 90.4% gaining numeracy. This increases to 98% of our Year 13 students gaining Literacy and 97.5% gaining their numeracy requirements (and the importance of exit qualifications is what we emphasise).
A special thanks to parents and caregivers for your active support of arriving on time with lates dropping to record lows. Remember we start at 9.00am with the first warning bell rung at 8.50am, which should be the target arrival time for students. We now employ two Attendance Officers (one for WSC & one for NPoW) – part of an MOE initiative to target students whose overall attendance is low. A reminder that the government goal of 90% attendance (equivalent to one day absent per fortnight) is a national goal with 80% of students attending 90% of the time by 2030!
Students should be signing up for winter sports codes in Te Whakamanu in the coming weeks as we prepare for the busiest sporting season of Terms 2 and 3.
Regards,
Ivan Davis
Principal
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