Newlands College > News From The Principal's Desk

News From The Principal's Desk

21 September 2022

He taonga rongonui te aroha ki te tangata

Goodwill towards others is a precious treasure

Ngā mihi mahana ki a koutou katoa

As you will be aware we have recently held our triennial Board Election. The Board consists of voted members and, on occasion, co-opted members who are responsible for the governance and strategic planning for the College. The members of the new Board which had its first meeting on 19 September are: Gavin Knight, Brian Norris, Anna Middlemass, Cherish Paul (Ngāi Te Rangi, Tainui), Sapphire Aitchenson and Nathan Dodds. The new staff representative is Ash Lambert. The student representatives are currently going through their own election process. I would like to congratualate everyone who has been invloved in the election and I look forward to working with them.

The year is well advanced now with the end of term being 30 September. With Monday 26 September now being a public holiday to commemorate the passing of the Queen, there is very little time left for our students. Currently 65% of all internal assessments have been completed with students successfully achieving 80% of these. This is higher than last year at this stage. I am mindful though that a lot of internal assessment has been delayed because of COVID-19 so the students will be under significant pressure to get everything completed. Term 4 is not much better as the students will only have eight periods per class left before they finish for the year.

There is still a lot happening in the school though. The summer sports programme is begining, this term we still have the NOSCARS and the Year 11 Semi Formal. Looking into Term 4 in the first three weeks is the the Celebration of Sport, the Arts Evening,Art Exhibition and the Senior Grizegiving. So there is still a lot to do.

Since my last newsletter, the winter sports season and tournament week have been completed. There were many highlights including: our Senior B Boys Basketball team being undefeated, Newlands 3 winning the Collegiate 1C competition, the College gaining second place in the Inter Collegiate Small Bore competition, our students combining with Tawa College to win the U15 Division 3 Competiton, Noah and Jaybez Bryce making Wellington Rugby teams, and our Boys and Girls Table Tennis teams coming second in their respective competitions. Congratulations to all our students. More information and photos can be found at, https://sports.newlands.school.nz/news/.

On the building front, we have now completed our SIPPS project. This project converted the top of A Block into a modern learning environment and provided the staff with a new planning room which was much needed.

The new staffroom, planning rooms and student support centre which includes the Dean offices, Careers and Transition as well as Guidance Counsellors is still on schedule to be completed on 21 November. We will then move the staff up from the Pavilion which will be converted back into classrooms.

The Ministry has decided to expand the scope of work relating to the weather tightness and roll growth classrooms. Next year will become a year of further planning and in the interim, another relocatable classroom will be brought onto the site.

This time of year we are well into planning for 2023. Our returning students have selected their courses for next year and we are now planning to build our timetable in earnest.

I wish you all the best for the break and I look forward to Term 4 when the days are longer and warmer.

Ngā manaakitanga

Grant Jones