Principal's Pānui
11 February 2023
Tēnā tātou e te whānau whānui o Tiriwā,
After a delayed start, it was wonderful to welcome back the heart of Massey High School – our students and teachers.
Our Teacher Only Day on Tuesday started with a pōwhiri to welcome staff new to Massey High School. It is always great to see new staff who are eager to add to the fabric of Massey. The day also enabled our staff to reconnect, plan, and familiarize themselves with our goals for the year ahead – not so much our ‘business as usual’ rather the areas that we need to refresh, improve, or introduce. After several years of disruption, it could be said that the focus was really on getting back to basics with our routines and ensuring that our students are best prepared for each school day. This year there will be ongoing work on the curriculum refresh, NCEA changes, and honing the pathways available for our students to best meet their needs.
We staggered the reintroduction of our students, culminating in the welcome of our new Year 9 students – and there were a lot of them. This is the largest cohort of Year 9 students that we have seen for many years and they had a whole day to explore the school without other year levels.
Their pōwhiri was held in the Jack Adam Gym and was largely student led, a testament to the leadership of our Te Whare Āhuru students. What was particularly uplifting was the number of whānau in attendance – the most I have seen in my many years at Massey. As I have mentioned on the day Massey High School is as much their school as it is their children’s.
Our Year 9 students then spent the rest of the day familiarising themselves with the school and meeting new friends, classmates, and teachers. We capped the day with a hāngi in the hall, it was quite the sight to see 370 Year 9 students all having kai together. My thanks to Mr Brendon Wheeler who has taken up the role of Year 9 Ākina Leader, a role which will see him progress through each year with this cohort. He did a superb job co-ordinating the day – he will serve his students superbly.
Special mention must be made of our student leaders, drawn from Years 12 and 13 who gave up their time to ensure that our Year 9 students had the best possible start at their new school.
Friday was devoted to our Year 9 and 10 students – labelled as ‘Learning to Learn’ the day saw these students learn to use our network, Office365 and Teams, learn about Cybersafety, Schoolbridge, and have a look at the co-curricular opportunities available at the school.
All students return on Monday for timetabled classes. We would ask that all parents and students familiarise themselves with the school day using our student and whānau handbook on our website. Whilst parents of students new to the school will be eager to collect their children inside the school grounds, we remind you that visitors cars are not permitted in the school gates between 8.20am and 9am, and between 2.30pm and 3.30pm – this is to ensure the health and safety of our staff and students and ensure clear access for our many school buses.
Tropical Cyclone Gabrielle
As you will have seen on social media and elsewhere in this newsletter, we are anticipating being open on Monday. Please continue to monitor our normal channels of communication to see if there are any changes to this plan. The forecast weather event is a rapidly changing situation and more information will be available on Sunday. We have reviewed all of our emergency procedures.
We trust that our community will be prepared as best they can for the weather.
Ngā mihi
Alastair Fairley
Principal