Thursday 14th November 2024

Kia ora whanau

Where has the year gone? It is hard to believe that we only have 4 weeks left in 2024. NCEA exams are now halfway through. It has been encouraging to see excellent attendance and noted that most boys are staying in the exams for a good length of time. No doubt, we will see the ‘fruits of their labour’ when results come out in mid – January.

Speaking of exams, our junior exams are in 2 weeks’ time. The boys should now know what is in their exams and be studying accordingly. If they do not know, please contact their teacher. A reminder also that our junior prizegiving will take place in the school Auditorium on Wednesday December 11th. In my last newsletter it was stated that the first day of school for next year would be Wednesday 29th January. This has now been pushed back to the 30th January. On this day only the Year 13’s and the new Year 9’s will attend. Our school powhiri/welcome with the whole school in attendance will take place on Friday 31st January. We look forward to welcoming 5 classes of Year 9’s into our school for the first time in many years.

On the staffing front, I am pleased to announce that Margo Marshall has been appointed as a new English teacher (Margo is currently HOD at Kaitaia College). Her husband, Donovan Marshall has been appointed as a new Technology teacher (Donovan has just graduated from the University of Canterbury with his Masters in Teaching and Learning). We very much look forward to the Marshalls and their family joining us in Oamaru. We look forward to announcing other new staff appointments in the near future. I must also apologise to Sue Nuttall who leaves us at the end of this year and was not appropriately recognised at our senior prizegiving. Sue has only been with us this year, teaching in the Technology department part-time whilst also fulfilling an RTLB role on-site. She has done an excellent job, especially with her Level 1 Technology class and also helped out with the ‘Inspire’ cooking class. We wish her all the best next year in a full-time RTLB role and will still see her about the school in a different capacity.

Our congratulations this week must surely go out to old boy Nathan Smith who made his NZ debut for the ‘Black Caps’ on Wednesday playing against Sri Lanka. Nathan left school in 2026 and is now our most recent national representative. It is fantastic for our current boys to have a role model such as Nathan and appreciate that you can come to Waitaki Boys’ and achieve the highest honours. We are extremely proud of Nathan and congratulate both himself and his family on his deserved success. We look forward to celebrating many more of his successes in the years to come.

Please see attached photos from Stephen Hinds of the recent renovations to the Hall of Memories with the Organ now removed. We meet with representatives from the Ministry next week to discuss where the project is at and look forward to more progress in the new year. It is also wonderful to see so much property work currently in progress around the school. The downpipes and drainage have been completed on the front block as has the Library roofing. The new Agriculture classroom and the Art room courtyard has also been completed. This is an amazing space and we look forward to formally opening this area in the new year. Other projects that are also now in progress and to be completed for the new year are the Toilet block east of the Technology block and also the Technology block roof.

At this time of the year, we are also very focused on the smooth transition of current Year 8’s into our school for 2025. A huge thank you to current Year 9 Dean Ben Winders and our wonderful Guidance Counsellor Janice Vermeulen who have spent countless hours in the past two weeks going out to our contributing schools to meet our new entrants and their families. We also had a number of our new entrants from rural schools have a wonderful Science day at school yesterday.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend and thank you for your on-going support of our school.

He waka eke noa

Floreat Waitakia

Darryl Paterson

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