Tena koutou katoa. Nga mihi nui atawhai.

Welcome back to Term 4. We had an almost manic end to Term 3 so I hope that you were all able to take a good break and refresh, ready for the final push in Term 4.

Term 3 ended with the last 3-4 weeks including Tournament Week for our Seniors, followed by practice external exams, during which the Year 7 and 8 were competing in the AIMs tournament in Tauranga. Then we had the Year 13 overnight retreat and our stunning weekend of ArtFusions. We finished off the Term with Mercy Week, a 4 day ERO visit, the Technology students competing in the CREST competition, an exhibition of our Senior Art students, the Year 8 Eco Fashion Night, the decision making for our 2020 Student Leaders and a BOT meeting at 5.30pm on the last Friday to hear preliminary feedback from ERO. Whew, we definitely needed a break!

The preliminary feedback from ERO was very positive and the Board will be receiving a draft report to comment on in the next couple of weeks. This will then be sent back for final confirmation and made public by mid-November. I would like to thank all the students and parents who made themselves available for interviews and especially thank all the staff who worked so hard to prepare all the required documentation for this review. It was very pleasing to see that this external review’s initial findings affirmed all the great work that we are doing to ensure all students are able to achieve to their potential.

With Term 4, we have a very brief window of around 3 weeks before the seniors go on study leave to do their final preparation for their external NCEA examinations. All the teachers have put in many extra hours to get the practice exams marked and to make the feedback available to both students and parents so the students know where to focus their study to achieve well in these upcoming exams.

Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can. – Arthur Ashe