Kōrero

Ko te piko o te mahuri, tērā te tupu o te rākau

The way in which the young sapling is nurtured determines how the tree will grow

Nau mai, hoki mai, welcome to the 2024 school year!

I hope you have all had a wonderful summer break over Christmas and New Year with family and friends.

Officially this will be my first address as Principal in our weekly Kōrero newsletter, and as such I would like to give a special welcome to our new and returning staff members in 2024. Ms Sonya Hull joins us from Waitaki Girls’ High School appointed as our Deputy Principal, Curriculum and Assessment. Ms Hull brings a wealth of knowledge in Curriculum, PLD delivery and literacy having worked in a cross school role in the Oamaru Kāhui Ako. Mr Andrew Jones’ position at Craighead has been regraded also to Deputy Principal and will be retaining his Teaching & Learning portfolio. Craighead’s Senior Leadership team now comprises of a Principal and two Deputy Principals. Mrs Kathryn Ford returns to Craighead as a permanent teacher, working primarily in the Junior and Middle School. Mrs Ford is already known to many of our students and I know they will be looking forward to working with her again. Mrs Ella Wright and Ms Kate Morgan both return to us from maternity leave, both are highly experienced English teachers, with Ms Morgan also taking Media Studies, we are looking forward to having both of them back with us. Mrs Lucy Bradley also joins us permanently this year as the Head of Drama with Performing Arts. Over the next few weeks you will be able to read a bit about our new staff members, as we introduce them to our community in our Kōrero newsletter.

There has been considerable maintenance work completed around the school over the summer break. I would like to extend a big thank you to our Property team - Greg and Tristram for working with the contractors, it has been a huge effort with multiple trades on site. The school grounds are also looking fabulous with more seating areas for students put in place, the pruning and felling of some trees and the tidying up of the flower beds, hedges and lawns. New bathrooms on the bottom floor of the Len Home Boarding wing are almost complete and are looking fabulous. Those bathrooms on the second and third floors will be ready for use shortly.

Our 2023 external assessment results are once again outstanding. Our students have achieved some excellent results at all levels based on the provisional data from NZQA. We congratulate all students who have achieved so well. I would also like to thank the teaching staff for maintaining our high academic standards and their dedication to ensuring students are prepared and ready for these exams.

We are still working on our timetable and hope to have this completed within the next day or two. Thank you to Mr Alastair Townshend for his work so far on this. It is a big task getting a timetable together that allows for as much flexibility as possible. We are also currently working on how best to implement the government's new One Hour a Day Reading, Writing and doing Maths policy that will be in place from the start of Term 1. There is additional information for parents here.

Our mobile phone, or personal device policy, has also had some revision in light of the Phones Away for the Day policy and we will be working through this with students as they return to school.

Thank you to Mrs Gala Kirke, Mrs Katy Gray and the Magazine team for producing another superb Craighead Chronicle capturing school life in 2023. I am really looking forward to reading through this over the next few days. A digital link will be sent out to our families of the 2023 Chronicle very soon.

At the start of the school year there is a lot of work done behind the scenes to make sure that we have as smooth a start as possible. Thank you to everyone involved in this, particularly our Office and Support staff, Finance staff, Operations, Boarding staff, Heads of Department, Deans and Senior Leadership and Grounds staff.

We are looking forward to another very successful year at Craighead, and I look forward to meeting you all at some stage during the year.

Ngā mihi

Ms Lara Hearn-Rollo

Principal