Kia ora e te whānau; It was great seeing so many of you at PSTs this week. There were lots of really good conversations about students’ learning, the progress they have made, and what the focus needs to be for the rest of the year.

These evenings are important because they give students, parents and teachers the chance to have an honest conversation about how things are going. For some students, that means recognising what is going well and building on it. For others, it means identifying a few things that need to change. Either way, there is still plenty of time left in the year to make a real difference.

Our Derived Grade Exams will take place in Weeks 9 and 10, and the expectation is that all students will sit all exams scheduled for them. We are still four weeks away, but now is a good time for students to start thinking about their preparation and using the feedback from PSTs to identify where they need to focus. We will share more information about the exams closer to the time. The next round of CAA literacy and numeracy assessments will also take place during Week 8 for our Year 10 students and for senior students who have not yet achieved their literacy and numeracy requirements.

The most important thing now is that the conversations at PSTs lead to action. I would encourage students to think about what they heard, decide what they need to work on, and make a plan for the next few weeks.

There has also been plenty happening in other areas of school life. Congratulations to Year 13 students Lily Lei and Lilly Clements, whose work has been selected for the Pat Hanly Creativity Awards exhibition at Auckland Art Gallery. This is a significant achievement and we are incredibly proud of them.

I loved seeing Rockapella perform at Stand Up, Stand Out last week. Singer-songwriter Elias Hunt and our Year 13 band, Incipit, also performed, with Incipit making it through to the semi-finals. Our string group also performed beautifully at St Mary’s-in-Holy Trinity this week as part of the KBB Music Festival. It’s been an exciting couple of weeks for our music students, and I really loved seeing them perform.

Many of our winter sports teams are now reaching the end of their seasons and playing their final games, and I’m looking forward to seeing some of them in action over the next few days. It has certainly been a fantastic season of winter sport.

Have a great weekend.

Fiona Barker
PRINCIPAL