E te whânau ô Kaipara, tena koutou
I hope you have had the opportunity to enjoy time with and reconnect with whânau and friends over the summer and festive season.
Whilst we are all looking forward to the excitement of a new school year, we must also
Principal Cindy Sullivan
reflect on the challenges of the last one. Congratulations to all our students for their perseverance and resilience in getting to where they wanted to be. Our senior students, with the support of their teachers and their whânau, worked really hard in difficult learning circumstances, to achieve their learning goals, with many students successfully gaining their NCEA year level qualification prior to senior exams commencing. Junior students continued learning at home and at school in the final few weeks and also achieved some great results. This is testament to their character and commitment as well as the dedication and expertise of our teaching and support staff.
By the time you read this, Kaipara College will have commenced for the 2022 year.. Although we were hoping to start the year before Omicron emerged it was not to be. As I write, we are looking forward to having all our students back at school for learning on-site and also welcoming our new students, despite recent traffic light system changes to RED. Despite this the normal school timetable will have resumed and teaching and learning will be face to face. The risk of the spread of Omicron is on everyone’s minds but hopefully with the increase in our vaccination rates and by following all Ministry of Health Guidelines we will be able to minimise the impact the virus has on the start to the school year. Masks are mandatory inside for everyone and all our staff are fully vaccinated as per the mandate. We know that 2021 was a more difficult year than usual and recognise that not all students have come through it unscathed. As a result, we are committed to supporting the students (both current and new) to move from wherever they are at with their learning when they return, to where they need to be, ensuring that all our students will be well prepared to achieve their 2022 learning goals.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank our wider school community for your continued support. It is only by working together in partnership that we can support our young people to develop a true sense of identity and belonging and enable them to achieve their own level of excellence and success. What was reinforced throughout last year’s lockdowns is the importance of the role of the whânau group and whânau teacher (kaiârahi) in maintaining connections and building relationships. Through whânau time we run our Te Puâwaitanga programme in which we express care, challenge students to grow by having high expectations, to understand accountability and to reflect on and grow from failures; provide support to complete tasks and achieve goals and expand possibilities and broaden horizons. The close connections built between the student and the whânau teacher as a result, helps our young people to discover who they are, cultivate the ability to shape their own lives and to learn how to engage with and contribute to the world around them.
This year we will continue to see exciting developments in our Year 9 integrated curriculum, the further embedding of our Te Puâwaitanga Programme during whânau time, renewed and invigorated focus on positive behaviour for learning and restorative practices throughout the school. We will also see ground breaking on the building of a brand new 14 teaching space Innovation Centre, which will house the Arts and Technology faculties and will allow the delivery of the curriculum in these areas in world standard facilities. This development will be followed by the building of a state of the art Whare Ako and Special Education facility. We have a staff that is committed to supporting every student to be the very best they can be, to achieve their full potential in every aspect of their lives and to enable each student to develop a sense of belonging and success.
Over the summer break our students have not been idle as indicated by the brilliant results from our students in the recent Dressage Waitemata Premier League Championship Show. Year 10, Alana England was awarded Overall Prelim Pony Champion with KT Mahunga Hui and Year 11, Piper Crake was awarded Overall Prelim Pony Reserve Champion with Flaxhill Golden Dust and Overall Novice Pony Champion with Cinder Strike.
We wish you all the very best for 2022.
Stay safe
Cindy Sullivan, Principal
