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

This week we celebrated our 2023 Year 11 – 13 students and their wonderful achievements last year in NCEA. Acknowledging Te Iti Kahurangi, or the pursuit of personal excellence is a key pillar/pou of Craighead. We need to remember that we are not aiming for perfection, but instead we are providing the environment for each student to pursue personal excellence. Aristotle said that “excellence is not a single action but a habit”; you are, therefore, what you repeatedly do. If we apply this to academic pursuits then personal excellence is gained through study and revision, repeatedly going over things learnt in classes, asking questions and checking in with teachers. Like anything pursuing excellence academically will and should challenge and test our students and each year our senior students rise to that challenge and put in a considerable effort to achieve to the best of their ability.

Working alongside the girls and supporting them through NCEA are our staff. Led by our Heads of Department, it is their dedication to the profession and their outstanding teaching and learning programmes that allow our students to flourish and achieve to the level they do. It is likely that there will be some movement with our statistics as reconsiderations and reviews are completed and marks updated however, currently our statistics show that:

• 92.3% of our Year 11 students achieved their Level 1 certificate;
• 98.5% of Year 12 students achieved their Level 2 certificate, and
• 95.8% of our Year 13 students achieved their Level 3 certificate, with
• 87.5% achieving University Entrance.

These results remain consistently high in comparison to the National figures and the School Equity Index Band (formally known as our Decile rating). This comes down to a whole school team effort involving our curriculum leaders and teaching, pastoral and support staff teams.

To be awarded Scholars Colours students must have achieved 50 or more Excellence credits towards their main Qualification (Level 1 or Level 2) in the 2023 academic year. To achieve a Merit Endorsement Certificate students must have achieved 50 or more Merit and Excellence credits towards their main Qualification in the 2023 academic year. At Level 1 50.9 % of our students gained a Merit endorsement and 35.1% an Excellence endorsement. At Level 2 48.4% of students gained a Merit endorsement and 25% an Excellence endorsement. At Level 3, 54% of our students gained their qualification with either a Merit or Excellence endorsement.

Elite Colours were also awarded on Wednesday. This award is based on the most Excellence credits earned in the academic year for the main qualification. Congratulations to Camryn Porter and Nadia van den Bosch who both earned Level 2 Elite Scholars Colours and Emily Stuart and Carmina Cabrera-Martin who earned Level 1 Elite Scholars Colours.

As a school, we would like to congratulate all those students who achieved their NCEA Certificates last year, we are looking forward to seeing what you achieve this year!

Each year we award a Year 13 Scholarship to a student who has already made a contribution to the life of the School and shown a commitment to taking responsibility for her own academic learning. We had a number of strong applications again this year, and these were wonderful to read. Thank you to everyone who applied. This year the Year 13 Scholarship was awarded to Georgia Coles – congratulations Georgia!

Over the summer break three of our Year 12 students: Georgia Coles, Diya Kohle and Tara O’Brien attended the Rotary National Science and Technology Forum in Auckland. This programme is aimed at high achieving, well-rounded science, maths and technology students. A two-week residential course, it has been described as ‘a combination of learning, fun, chaos, COVID, personal growth, and lack of sleep’. From here students were selected to attend the International Science and Technology Forum in London this July, and all three of our students have been selected for this, which is an awesome achievement, well done girls!

Last night our Year 7 and Year 8 teachers hosted our annual Year 7 and 8 Parent Evening. It was wonderful to see the support for this with a fabulous parent turnout. Our Junior School teachers work hard to ensure that our Year 7 and 8 students are integrated smoothly into Craighead and are ready to step into the Middle School when the time comes. We pride ourselves on working with parents to ensure that transition points are seamless. Thank you to Mrs Ottley (Year 7 and 8 Dean) for running this evening. Mrs Ottley has pastoral oversight for all our Junior students and ensures that they all have a great learning environment. Ms Hall is our HOD Year 7/8 and oversees the Curriculum for our Year 7 and 8 students. She works with HODs in the Senior School to ensure that programmes in Year 7 and 8 build into Year 9, and our highly experienced teaching team of Miss Walker, Mrs Tregenza and Mrs Ford who are all focussed on providing the best learning outcomes for our students.

On Sunday our Cricket, Volleyball, Tennis and Touch teams leave for the Quadrangular Tournament which is being hosted by St Margarets, Christchurch with competitive sports games happening on Monday and Tuesday. If you are in Christchurch and able to pop in to some of the games I am sure that the girls would love to see you and have your support.

Next week we’ll have a wrap up of the Quad Tournament and the experiences of the girls, along with feedback from our first Student-led Assembly and the theme for the year.

Finally, the winner of ‘The Manu’, which I promised in last week’s newsletter, was Alli Keane!

Have a fabulous weekend

Ngā mihi

Ms Lara Hearn-Rollo

Principal