Principal’s Notes – May 2024

It has been a busy start to Term 2.

Thank you for your support with our focus on attendance and lateness as signalled in our Community Update at the beginning of the term. Our average attendance over the first three weeks of the term (by year level) is as follows:

• Year 9 – 84.3%
• Year 10 – 82.0%
• Year 11 – 79.8%
• Year 12 – 83.8%
• Year 13 – 78.4%

The number of chronic lates has remained stable, however, we would like to reduce this list to as small a number as possible due to the impact this has on everyone’s learning. The national goal for attendance is 90% – this equates to only one day absent a fortnight or a maximum of six to seven days in a school term. As you are aware, there is a direct link between attendance, engagement and achievement.
As the above figures indicate, we have to work closely with families to get this figure to 90%.

Today (Tuesday 21st May), we had our Junior Student/ Whānau/ Teacher interviews with 500 families booked in for over 2000 individual subject interviews. These interviews are an incredibly important part of the home-school partnership in supporting students to be the best that they can be, and to ensure every student is acting on the feedback given to them.

You will be aware that the new co-requisites for Literacy and Numeracy are an essential part of every student’s qualification journey at Springs/Waiōrea. This Thursday and Friday (23rd & 24th May), some of our Year 11, 12 and 13 cohorts will sit their Literacy and Numeracy co-requisites. Students have been attending workshops and studying hard towards these common assessments, and we wish them all the best.

Our Winter Sports programme is well underway and we are currently running 40 teams (so far this winter season – football, netball, hockey, badminton, squash, basketball, rugby union), with so many teams and students being physically active. If you have skills in any of these areas, please contact our Director of Sport, Peter McIntyre via email (mcintyrep@wsc.school.nz) if you are able to provide these teams with any support – including coaching, manager(s), transportation and/or drivers. With such a huge winter sporting programme, there is always somewhere or something that our college community can support us with.

We are heading into our Winter Tournament Week (Term 3, Week 7 – Mon 2nd to Fri 6th September), which is associated with considerable costs. Therefore, if there are any community members who can help with financial support or sponsorship, then please let Peter McIntyre know if you would like to discuss this further.

Auckland Transport has contacted the school to report dangerous student behaviour, which includes entering through the rear exit only door, and standing too close to the curb as the bus pulls in. Transport safety is important for all, so please discuss with your children about standing away from the curb when the bus pulls up, board the bus through the front door and swipe their AT Hop Card. Thanks for your attention to this.

Future Dates

Towards the end of the term, we wish Waiōrea all the best for both the Kapa Haka Nationals in Nelson and the Regional Mānu Kōrero competition. They are also competing in the Big Sing and the World Choir Games. We wish them all the best!

Julie Debreceny
Acting Principal