Year 7 Camp Omaui
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6 March 2020 Year 7 Camp Omaui 1 Principal’s Comment In a situation like this, there is a tendency for official advice. A small number of students facts, half facts, slight slithers of fact, and even from China have not been able to return for falsehood to gather momentum into a wave of study this year. On the other hand, a visiting populist hysteria. group from Thailand, due next week, is still expected to arrive as planned (at the time of writing), and a Hargest group is still planning The situation is serious, but clear perspective to depart for France next month. and a calm approach is called for. In terms of our students here at Hargest, we are supporting through assemblies (etc) the general health To change the subject, school routines for reminders about the safest way to contain a the year are now well established. We sneeze, the thorough washing of hands, and appreciate your support, as always, in the staying at home when unwell with anything keeping in touch with what is happening - spreadable. The risk of infection of school aged reading this newsletter online is an excellent students in NZ is extremely low, but it is timely way to do this! to emphasise the above reminders nevertheless, Andy Wood even for “normal” coughs, colds and winter flu... Principal Nga mihi Andy Wood Like all schools, we are carefully scrutinising the Principal vKia ora regular official advisories from the Ministry of Education for clear and accurate information. The Covid-19 Coronavirus outbreak is an example of how the unpredictable can rock the entire world. It is unsettling, to As far as International students and visitors are say the least. concerned - again, we are following protocol and From the Boardroom Kia ora koutou years. We now have 5 counsellors (some part time), totalling 3.8 fulltime equivalents. The first meeting for 2020 was held on 13 February. Significant points of interest were: • Wage increases for Support Staff (including Teacher Aides) together with • We have had a greater teaching staff salary increases for teachers have created turnover than usual. 23 new teachers fiscal challenges for the Board. have been appointed across both campuses. The principal reported that in • The draft Annual Report for the school spite of a sparse teacher supply, he was was tabled and discussed before able to appoint a very strong group of new submission to the Ministry. The “vital staff. statistics” for James Hargest for 2019 (covering a wide range of indicators) are • Included in the new staff are 2 new very healthy. The Report will be available Guidance Counsellors. As a Board we to parents when finalised. have placed a high value on having Chris O’Connor adequate counselling services available, Chris O’Connor BOT Chairperson and this has been increased in recent BOT Chairperson Staff Welcome Staff Farewell Jackie McCullum Kristi Jardine Jackie joins us in the Student Many of you will know Kristi, who Administration area as well as fronted our Student Administration Administrator for the Sports area for about eight years and prior to Department. This is a new joint role that worked in the Careers Department. and we anticipate it will be very busy. Kristi developed such a wealth of in- Jackie initially trained as a bilingual house knowledge and could turn her teacher and is also involved actively hand to anything. Her expertise is going with netball as a coach and selector, to be missed. She also contributed so is an ideal person for this position. willingly to the wider life of the school Welcome to the team Jackie. You have so much to offer James helping with productions and being instrumental in the staff Wellbeing Hargest College. Committee. We wish her all the best in her new role at Ray White Real Estate. 2 PTA Report Hello to all Please feel free to join us at the PTA meetings - dates listed below. We always I hope you are all refreshed and ready for enjoy meeting new parents/caregivers – so another busy year in 2020 please take the time to pop along to the meetings and get an insight/update directly from the teachers representative on both The PTA had 2 Uniforms sales after school campuses. You may be surprised/amazed at finished, the first on 11 December and what information the kids didn’t pass on to the second on 19th January, the January you !! uniform sale was particularly busy with everyone getting back into the school mode. A big thanks to all the helpers over The schedule for the 2020 meetings are as both dates, as always it was successful and follows. They are all held in the Brig (above the parents were happy with the quality the office) at Senior Campus. Monique Shirley of uniforms on offer, The December sale Chairperson is generally busy with the year 13’s selling All are scheduled to start at 7.30pm. off their uniform, whereas the January sale Tuesday 17th March 2020 (AGM followed we are busy with new students buying and by the regular meeting) existing students getting an extra shirt/skirt/ Tuesday 19th May 2020 trousers or Blazer for the coming year, there is also the opportunity to buy sports tops, Tuesday 21st July 2020 kilts, etc.at either of the sales. If you missed Tuesday 15th September 2020 the sale and have some items of good Tuesday 10th November 2020 quality that you are hoping to sell, your’re welcome to leave them at Senior Campus Regards reception with your contact details, There maybe some items we are in short supply of Monique Shirley this year. PTA Chairperson School Presidents and Deputies Junior Campus 2020 Presidents and Ambassadors Congratulations to 2020 Presidents Libby Crawford, Caleb Devery, Lucy Thomas and Allan Raymond. Congratulations also to our 2020 Ambassadors Finn Edwards and Maria Simpson. 3 Nanocamp Robert Beck (departing Year 13 student) and Michael Moynihan (Year 13) were lucky enough to attend the all-expenses paid Nanocamp, Robert in Wellington and Michael in Auckland. These camps were made possible by the MacDiarmid Institute and involved both boys in activites such as making nanoparticles in the lab, take home mini projects and making movies of their weeks work.) Year 9 and 10 Production HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL JR Tuesday 7 and Wednesday 8 April 7:00pm in the Senior Campus Hall Debating JHC Rugby Otago Southland Regional Competition AGM JHC entered three teams, Yr 11,12 and 13 and they had six rounds of limited March 11 preparation debates with speech times of eight minutes. JHC 1 then came in as the third semifinalist and won against Columba 2 and then came up against Columba 1 in 7:00pm the finals. at School Hall Two of the girls in the Columba 1 team were already in the Otago development squad and we had already come up against them twice in the draw superb debaters. The All parents and players debate was very entertaining, of a tremendous standard but we lost to a better team. encouraged to attend The team consisted of Samaria Anaru-Hill, Liam Barnes and Donald McIntosh (below from left to right). Donald got a ‘highly commended’ certificate and Liam is a travelling reserve to the Otago team which will compete in the National Debating competition later in the year. 4 Otago University Sheilah Winn Shakespeare Southland Festival Parent Teacher Interviews Wednesday 25 March 6:30pm in the Year 9 While the focus is on option selection, core subject teachers will be Senior Campus Hall available. Thursday 19 March 5.30pm - 8.30pm School Photos Year 10-13 Parent Teacher Interviews This year photographs will be available for you to view Tuesday 24 March 4.00pm - 8.30pm and order OnLine with PhotoLife Studios. Your son or daughter will shortly bring home an OnLine To make appointments please go to slip with their unique Access Key detailed on it. This www.schoolinterviews.co.nz and enter the following code: Access Key will display all the photographs of your child. It is then an easy process for you to shop on-line and 6nxy5 (Year 9) or 4qew6 (Years 10 -13) purchase the photographs you want. If you place your order within three weeks of receiving Please print your schedule of times. your Access Key you will receive free delivery for your Parents/Caregivers/Whanau who do not have access to the internet photo orders. PhotoLife has agreed to dispatch all the are welcome to make their interviews by phoning the school on orders back to the school and your child will bring their 2176129 ext 205. photographs home. Please mark these dates in your diary. We highly recommend your son/daughter attends the interviews so Any orders placed after this three week period will be collectively you can work with us to set goals and develop some plans sent directly to your specified delivery address and will around achieving them. incur a $6.00 Postage & Packing charge. You will see this message when you go Online to view and order your Bookings can be made TWO weeks prior to the event photographs. House Captains Hamilton Thomson Debating Riley Faulkner Katie Oliver Junior Campus Hamish McKenzie Cameron Fraser Otago Southland Regional Competition We are already practising for the House Haka competition being held on Friday 2 April. Menzies Watson Danielle Aitken Chloe Savage Izaah Iosefo Mark Payne NCEA Changes Being Planned In case you missed it, the Government has recently confirmed its final NCEA change package. Schools have been advised that the changes are intended to: strengthen our national qualification; address over-assessment and fragmented learning; promote culturally responsive teaching and learning; and improve accessibility, the support available to teachers, and the information available to students and whānau.