We held our Achievers’ Evening last week and our guest speaker was Nikki Samu, an ex-student who is now a qualified teacher. Our Mission Statement is ‘Personal Achievement at the highest level’ and it was rewarding to see how our students are meeting this aspiration so successfully.

Our Thai students will be leaving us at the beginning of the holidays and we have again enjoyed having overseas visitors at the school. We have two groups of 20 each year for three weeks and the cultural exchange is a valuable learning experience for our students.

Although the school officially closes for the end of term, during the first week of the break our students will be very busy. The Thais have their final two days, The Rising Foundation is running daily trips and as usual the Church group will be using the Hall on Sundays.  There are also Youth Council meetings and residential Tongan Leadership camps.

In the break the Prefects will parade at the 9.00am ANZAC service in town.  Our Head Student Rereahu Collier will speak on the school’s behalf whilst Casey-Anne Fenton will recite the ode in sign language.  Rereahu in Te Reo.  This event is always a great honour to attend and is one of the greatest expressions of our National identity.

Our school is becoming world renown, for example our Hospitality Department has recently hosted a Canadian student teacher as we were identified internationally for our success in this vocational field.  We will also be hosting a visit by Gordon Ramsey, the infamous British Chef.  Our next Newsletter will give more details around his visit.

Our recent ERO visit went well and while we await the report there were many encouraging comments about the tone of the school and the ‘go ahead’ atmosphere in many classes.

Finally our long saga over replacing our tired buildings seems to be reaching a resolution; we will keep you updated once decisions are made public.

Enjoy the break and the time with your families.