Principal's News

Year 9 and 10 Options for 2023: Year 8s and 9s are now making their option choices for next year. Parents and caregivers are strongly encouraged to discuss these carefully with their children, as these choices often set students up for future NCEA subject choices.

Fun Day: We host our annual Fun Day here at school on Wednesday 30th November. This is a day organised by the Junior Syndicate for next year's new year 7 and 8 students, who have already enrolled. It promises to be a fun-filled day and a wonderful opportunity for students who arrive from a number of feeder schools to get to know each other, their teachers and to become a little more familiar with the high school.

Staff Only day and PUM: On Friday senior teachers attended Ruawai College for the day, along with teachers from Rodney College, and Dargaville High School. This was another MOE allocated day for schools to get ready for the extensive NCEA changes starting from next year. One of the key messages that came out of the day was the new standards for literacy and numeracy that will be set at a much higher level than the current literacy and numeracy requirements, particularly for literacy. One of the ways parents and caregivers can help their children prepare for this is to ensure they are regularly reading at home. Please encourage your child to put time aside for this each day. We are currently developing a literacy strategic plan to be implemented next year to help those students who are currently behind where they should be.

A reminder that on Tuesday the 29th November there is a paid union meeting for teachers at Rodney College, starting at 1.30pm. As a result, school will finish at 12.30pm on this day.

Our final staff only day is on Tuesday 6th December. There will be no school for students on this day unless they are seniors sitting NCEA examinations.

Matariki Toi Māori Festival: Please join us at school on Saturday the 3rd December for our annual Matariki Toi Maori Festival. This promises to be an incredible day, with kapa haka performances from a number of roopu, stalls and activities. We will also be canvassing attendees for ideas for the development of our Māori student achievement strategic plan. Thanks to our amazing Taira for all the hard work she is putting into organising this event.

Vaping: A reminder that it is illegal to vape (or smoke) at school or on the school buses. We will be taking a very strict approach to students who breach this law. Please ensure that your child is not bringing vaping devices to school. Students found vaping on the bus will be banned from riding on the bus, and will have to find alternative ways of getting to school each day. For more information on vaping, please see this link.

COVID: The number of COVID cases nationally remains high. A reminder that positive cases still need to self-isolate for 7 days but asymptomatic household contacts can return to school subject to daily RATs. If your child displays COVID symptoms at school, it remains our policy to contact parents/caregivers to collect their child as soon as possible. We do have spare RATs available if needed.

COVID and NCEA Examinations: If a student tests positive for COVID-19 and is not able to sit their exams during the period that they are required to isolate please email Huia Coll and let her know.  Students will need to provide a screenshot of the text they receive from the Ministry of Health upon reporting the positive case to them.  This is all the evidence required for the school to apply for a derived grade. Please do not go to the doctors to get a medical certificate. If students arrive at their examination with cold or flu-like symptoms, they will be asked to complete a Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) and will only be permitted to enter the exam room if the test is negative. Students are encouraged to wear masks.

Chromebooks 2023: A reminder that all year 10 to 13 students will need to bring a Chromebook in a hard shell case to school each day from the start of 2023. We encourage you to support our amazing local supplier 100% Fergus Appliances for your Chromebook purchase, but we have also partnered with PB Tech and Cyclone who have some good deals available. See our website: Our School => Student Chromebooks for more details.

Policy Review: Each term a number of school policies come up for review, as part of our triennial review programme. If you wish to provide any recommendations on these policies, please click on this link, The username is Otamatea, and the password is bickerstaffe. We value your feedback.

Dirk Smyth
Principal