29 July 2023

This week ended with our Parent/Teacher meetings. Well over two and a half thousand interviews were held across the 2 days, providing parents, caregivers, and students valuable insight into progress to date, what lies ahead, and areas that require work. We trust that our hybrid offering of online/in person interviews provided our community with the opportunity to connect with those teachers that they needed to talk to. It is always good to see our wider community in the school. A survey will be sent out next week to all who attended to gain feedback so that we can better tune the experience to the needs of all involved. My thanks to Ken Allington for his organisation of the event.

Year 13 2024

Work continues on our offering for Year 13 students next year. Further information will be available over the coming weeks and leading into Futures Week and course selection. It is exciting to see the possibilities for the option being developed, an option that will complement academic courses with essential skills needed for success over the next 3 to 5 years. As mentioned before, the development of the course is being guided by the needs of our students – with the voice of Year 12, current Year 13, and students who have graduated in the past few years informing the content of the course.

For our Year 12 students, there is an exciting announcement on the horizon regarding a refreshed opportunity for them at the start of 2024 – further information will be made available next week.

In-School Teacher Training

There was good news this week with confirmation that the Ministry of Education will fund the In-School Teacher Training Programme (of which Massey High School is a member school) into 2024. This programme allows those who are looking to change career and step into the incredibly rewarding teaching profession the opportunity to do so - the point of difference being that they learn their craft exclusively in school. We have had a number of outstanding participants in the programme over the past few years and are looking for some more to take part next year. If you are interested, or know of someone who is, look for the information on our web-site and get in touch.

Lock-Down

Many of you will have seen the incident that unfolded at schools in Te Atatu Peninsula earlier this week. These events are incredibly trying for all involved – but it is the thorough planning by those schools, and adherence to plans by staff, students, and the community (assisted by Police) that any stress and anxiety is mitigated as much as possible. At times like these it is vital that our community work with the school to ensure that students are kept as safe as possible. A reminder that should an event unfold here at any point in the future, parents and caregivers should monitor email and social media for timely updates. Phone contact should be kept to a minimum to keep lines to emergency services available. Whilst we ask that students (and staff) refrain from using phones during these incidents, we also ask that parents and caregivers refrain from calling students. We understand the desire to get in touch – but should a situation arise we ask that you follow the communication being sent out from the school.

Sports etc.

It was another busy week watching Winter sport. Whilst some of our teams were on the wrong side of the ledger in terms of the score, they had plenty on the right side in terms of spirit, sportsmanship, and enthusiasm. The Junior Girls Basketball team showed this on Wednesday night – well behind on the scoreboard the team were simply enjoying playing together on the court, encouraging each other and enjoying the smaller successes together. This was repeated on Friday night in clear (but cold) conditions by the Boys First XI Football Team who were unlucky not to come away with a win – chances just didn’t stick on the night. Likewise, our Junior Boys Football teams on Saturday morning showed the same camaraderie. Special mention to the Under 15 Rugby Team for their performance on Saturday morning. Despite the loss to St Paul's, they never gave up, encouraged each other all game, and gave St Paul's a game they won’t soon forget. My thanks to Dominic and Ben who give their time to coach the team, developing a wonderful team culture in the process.

Our Junior Girls Rugby Team had a huge win over Takapuna Grammar on Tuesday night, but remained humble, great to see the last quarter of a hugely entertaining game.

Congratulations to our Senior Open Debate Team who have made the quarterfinals of the Auckland Schools Debating Competition, beating Auckland Grammar to get there.

Finally, our First XV returned to winning ways with a convincing 38-0 win over Rangitoto College. With one round of the competition to go it appears likely that we will have a home semi-final against Rosmini in a couple of weeks’ time. If you haven’t had a chance to see them in action, I would recommend to all to come along to support them.

Looking Ahead

Best of luck to our Jazz Combo who are competing in the heats of the Auckland Jazz Competition on Sunday afternoon at the Point Chevalier RSA. I’ll have the opportunity to see them in action on Saturday night at the Alumni Dinner.

Next week we welcome a group of students and staff from Tokyo Nodai, Japan. Their first experience of Massey High School will be at a Whakatau on Monday morning – this will also be an opportunity to welcome students who have started at Massey during Term 2. Thank you to all families that are hosting our Japanese visitors.

Nga mihi

Alastair Fairley, Principal

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