5 February 2020

Kia Ora Tatou

"Mā te huruhuru ka rere te manu"

Adorn the bird with feathers so it may soar.

I would like to welcome you all back to the 2020 school year.  A special welcome to those of you who are new to Newlands College.  With our largest ever Year 9 intake of over 260 students, and new students to other levels that is quite a few of you who are new.

For families that are new to our school the ways that we communicate with you are very important. Communications, such as the Principal’s newsletter are provided on the website every two to three weeks, and we advise parents of them by e-mail. In addition, Parents and Caregivers can find important information specific to their own student(s) through the Parent Portal. This information will include: attendance, timetable, invoicing, and personal details. The students' progress is also reported through the portal, subject by subject as significant pieces of work are completed. In this way you will receive regular feedback. All students will also receive a Me Whakamatau Report. This will replace the engagement report that we have used in the past.  It will be posted on a regular basis and more details will be provided shortly. The portal is password protected and you should have received your password by now. If you have any difficulties with your password, please contact my P.A. Fei Gao at [email protected]

Last year’s students have now received their NCEA results, and while there is still an opportunity for students to gain additional credits, the college has a picture of how well the students achieved this year. Last year the way that the school’s success is calculated has changed.  Now, any student who has been in the school for 70 days is counted in the data.  Also students if they identify with more than one ethnicity are counted in each of their chosen identities with up to three choices. The data includes students who have not yet engaged with Level 1 on the curriculum (NCEA Level 1 is Level 6 on the curriculum) and students who left during the year.

NCEA Results (%)

Also of note is that our Pasifika and Māori students did extremely well, although in some cases using percentages can be misleading as the groups of students are small in numbers. For this reason, I have not included Level 3 and University as percentage reporting is meaningless.

Māori Level 1 63 (51%) Level 2 65 (63%) and for Pasifika, Level 1 76% (54%) Level 2 80%(65%)

(National Results)

Female students who stayed until the end of Year 13, 93% achieved Level 2 and 93% of males gained the qualification.

The students also did well in the Scholarship examinations.  These are the most difficult examinations on offer and usually only 0.5-1% of candidates are successful. These examinations are usually taken by year 13 students, but this year we had two who were successful in year 12.

Successful candidates were:

Gaby Conway                     Biology, Chemistry

Amber Zhu                         Biology, Chemistry, Physics

Kayla Latham                     Geography

Brandon Ru (Year 12)         Biology, Chemistry (Outstanding), Physics

Ray Wu (Year 12)               Biology, Chemistry

Issac Butt                            Drama

Senuka Sudusinghe            Drama

Avni Labhsetwar                  English

Sylvia Chia                           Chemistry

I would like to welcome the following new staff to our College:

James Taylor            Health and Physical Education

Katrina de Graff         Art

Stephanie Hopkirk     English

Sandy Deng              English

Jessica Knipping        English/Media

Lana Page                Health and Physical Education

Nathan Jip                Social Sciences

Brendon Reddy          Technology

Rosaleen Sawaya       Learning Support Co-ordinator

Karen Forsyth            Social Sciences

Emma Hoey              Learning Support Teacher

Student involvement in the wider life of the school is already well underway.  Our cricket teams have begun their competition, the Dragon boat teams are training hard, auditions for the school production Shrek have begun and the elections of our student executive are underway

As in past years, we took our Year 9 students and their Year 13 Peer Support Leaders away to Camp at the start of the year. It was the biggest camp ever with over 300 students involved.  While the weather was not typical of a Kapiti Coast summer, it did not deter our students as they got involved in all manner of activities, swimming, a beach hikoi, the water slide and initiative activities. Everyone had a great time and the students made many new friends before their classes started

The new students and staff were formally welcomed to the school on the following Monday with a Powhiri.  This year we tried as much as possible to have the whole school involved and it was held outside in front of our wharekura, Te Ao Marama.  The result was much more powerful singing and the haka made a significant statement as the new staff and students were welcomed.

I will keep you informed of what is happening in the college as the year progresses and please regularly check the website and the Parent Portal as there is a lot happening this term.

Ngā mihi nui

Grant Jones