Dear Whanau
Kia Ora Tatou
 
Whilst it has been a short week it has felt extremely busy and we have crammed a full five days into the four. I do hope that whanau had the opportunity to make the most of the largely fine weather over the long weekend.
 
Apologies
Last week’s newsletter had some errors and links not working as they should. I apologise for these and thank those people who pointed them out to the school. Our newsletters are created by an external provider who were working with new software and there were some hiccups. I have been assured that they will be fixed for this week.
 
Celebrating excellence
During the last few years the Art Department have been trialling some of the new NCEA standards and have had great success. Ryan Williams has had some of his art work selected for a national exhibition which will be touring New Zealand. The art work will be an exemplar of excellence.
 
Ryan also sat a scholarship art assessment at the end of year 12 and received an ‘Outstanding Scholarship’ which is the highest grade possible for his painting submission. Congratulations also go to Bonnie Shaw who also was awarded a Scholarship for her painting work also. Both these awards acknowledge excellence at a level higher than NCEA Level 3 and is a significant achievement.
 
Greenpark
This week the Year 9 students have attended the Greenpark team building day either on Wednesday or Thursday. I visited the group yesterday and despite the weather they were having a great time. I would also like to acknowledge the Year 13 Peer Support students who assisted with the running of the activities. They did an excellent job. Thank you also to all of the staff who attended and gave up their time to support our new students.
 
Whanau Hui
On Thursday evening we held our first Whanau Hui of the year. It was good to see so many parents attend and share their thoughts. Parental involvement like this supports the school to meet the needs of whanau and the community. For parents of our Maori students who missed out on this meeting we will be holding another early next term. I look forward to meeting the parents again along with any others who are able to join us.
 
Attendance   
No doubt many will have seen the headlines of chronic school truancy. I attended a meeting for the South Otago Attendance Service this week and poor attendance of a student is classed as less than 90% attendance. When a student has a lower attendance rate it is a concern. South Otago High School is currently reviewing their attendance procedures. As in the past we will be setting expectations for all students to be able to participate in out of school sport and cultural activities. In the coming weeks we will be publishing these expectations in the school newsletter.
 
Finally
The weather has been cooler this week and it has been good to see the new school jersey’s being worn by students. They do look smart and I hope that students are enjoying wearing them. We do have a transition period where students may continue to wear the woolen jersey for the next few years.
 
Ka kite ano