We have reached (near enough) the midpoint of the term, and for our Junior students – the midpoint of their year. The Government made two recent announcements which will have an impact on Massey High School. 

Massey High School was announced as being one of 500 schools across the country that will receive solar panels – in our case, sufficient generation for 110 kWp. Further information will be received in the future, but this is an exciting development.

On the Curriculum front, the new Industry subjects have been announced (9 of them) that will form part of the new curriculum in future. At this stage, no details other than subject names have been released. We are following up on obtaining detail around these as a number of these subjects have parallels with our Academies programmes and may sit neatly alongside them, if not then we still have scope to build a qualification pathway (similar to what we currently do) that provides our Academies students with robust, authentic pathways.

We recently had Academic Week, which included a number of activities that were organized and run by our Academic Prefects, we also recognized a number of our top scholars with the awarding of Academic Blue Ties.

The award of these ties recognizes success at the highest level, we look at the percentage of credits that students have gained at Excellence and Merit, the level of the credits gained (some take subjects a year ahead), and their NCEA endorsements as well as factoring in their relevant extra-curricular activities.

We invite the parents and caregivers into the presentations. The list of recipients is below:

• Isla Cave - 10HSY 
• Chelsea Dao - 10KVS
• Edie Halstead - 10HSY
• Elisabetta Tamburini - 10KVS
• Chelsea Del Mundo - 11KTM
• Rana Mirranay - 11HFR
• Julianne Palencia - 11HBA
• Anton Yip - 11HBA
• Rina An - 12TGW
• Billy Halstead - 12TUL
• Ezra Meyer - 12TUL
• Daisy Loose - 12MCW
• Devon Matich - 12MCW
• Tracey Caisip - 13TWZ
• William De Jong - 13MAO
• Devlynn Edwards - 13MAO
• Cyriz Gregorio - 13HSV
• Saphira Walder - 13THU

Tuck Shop

We can confirm that our tuckshop will now be run by Mammoth Brands known as TuckR. TuckR runs a large amount of school tuckshops across the country and feedback from those schools has been very positive. They have only just taken over but there will be noticeable changes to the tuckshop for our students as they upgrade the facility. The tuckshop is currently operating an interim menu, but the full menu which incorporates meal options will be introduced shortly – as will integration with Kindo which will allow students to pre-order their food.

The last couple of weeks have seen Winter sports starting to wind down, and it’s been a busy time getting around numerous venues to watch netball, hockey, rugby, football, and basketball amongst others. I was particularly impressed with both of our First XI Hockey teams (boys and girls) – each team has a mix of very experienced/skilled players and less experienced players – yet both teams were inclusive and supportive of their players across the field, exhibiting a wonderful culture. Tournament Week takes place in a couple of weeks' time and for all teams travelling across the North Island it is apparent that they will enjoy their tournaments and their time together.

On the sporting success front our Girls Tag Team (who won the Auckland Championship earlier this year) has been invited to the invite-only OzTag Tournament in Sydney, Australia. The tournament is billed as the most prestigious of its kind in Australasia and entry is limited to those teams with a proven track record of success. The competition is supported by the NRL who have generously provided significant funding and gear for the girls and their coaches to attend the tournament in September.

Next week is Arts Week, the highlight of which is the Music Soiree and the evening Dance Showcases (Junior and Senior), which take place tomorrow evening.  I recommend that as many as possible get along and attend as the level of talent in both fields at our school is phenomenal. The soiree will also be an opportunity to see Teuila (National finalist at Tangata Beats) perform before they compete in Wellington. Timely congratulations to Mr Motufoua and the Massey High School Big Band as they picked up a Silver Medal at the recent KBB Music Festival.

Our International visitors are in the school again (Term 3 being particularly busy) and we recently said farewell to an amazing group of students from Wenzhou Longwan Experimental School, China. The students immersed themselves in the wider life of Massey High School, both in and out of the classroom, and their accompanying staff were great to work with – we have a strong relationship with Longwan, which we are looking to build upon in the future.

A final reminder that next Monday is Massey High Day – so school is closed. Our Senior Exams, and CAA Exams take place in weeks 8 and 9.