Principal's Report Term 4, 2016

Principal's Report Term 4, 2016 • News • Te Aroha College

Dear Parents and Caregivers

We have had a lot to celebrate in the final weeks of the school year and I have included some of our highlights as we head into the Christmas break.

Top Achievers. 

Congratulations top year level achievers

• Dux -Rosa Wallace – Year 13
• Norman Blakey Award for General Excellence – Hamish Clayton- Year 13
• Academic Excellence - Teagan Gorman - Year 12
• General Excellence - Tayla Sweeney & Teagan Gorman - Year 12
• Academic Excellence - Nicholas Hagan - Year 11
• General Excellence – Nichole Suarez-Perdomo – Year 11
• Academic Excellence -Brooke Sweeney – Year 10
• Academic Excellence - Jasmine Gorman – Year 9

Scholarship Success

Our students gained 13 University of Waikato Scholarships of $5000 or more (from the 26 offered to the whole of the region) Further extensive scholarships were awarded from Auckland, Otago and Canterbury universities between $7000 and $10000.  The Scholarships received totalled over $130000.  In 2015 the scholarship total was approximately $30000.  This has been a great financial boost for students to support with fees in their first year of study for 2017.

Year 13 Leavers Directions

We are very proud of the class of 2012 to 2016.  They attained the highest level of achievement success with 68% successfully gaining entry to tertiary education and 17% going directly into employment.

• Attending University – 51%
• Attending Polytech – 17%
• Going directly into Employment – 12%
• Seeking Employment – 14%
• Going on overseas Experience and Exchange - 2%

The numbers of students choosing to attend further study is very pleasing and has highlighted the strong emphasis on career planning and direction for our seniors.  Our students have got into an array of great courses and are competing well with students nationally.

Gateway Programme Success

We placed 52 students in their choice of vocation and met our key performance indicators by attaining 20 credits per student.  This is the second year in a row we have met the new requirements of 20 vocational credits per student supporting our students to the highest levels of achievement in NCEA Level 2 for the school. Five students have been offered apprenticeships as a direct result of this course in 2016 which is a great achievement. We have been offered additional places and will have 55 Gateway places in 2017.   This is testament to the excellent programme that Linda Merriman and Lynda Lovelock have created.

Trades Programme Successes

In 2016 we were given 26 places initially.  This was increased to 35 places through the year.  Students gained a total of 899 vocational Level 2 credits and Level 3 credits.  The average credit achievement for each student was 26 level 2 or level 3 credits. The areas covered were Manufacturing, Construction, Community Services, Service Industry, Agriculture, Building and Automotive. These were provided through Taratahi, Polytech and Wintec.  Te Aroha College students have received five awards for top performance from Wintec out of 36 awards offered to the 35 participating secondary schools.  It was a great pleasure to see these students receive their awards at Wintec.

University Study for year 13 students in 2017

In 2017 we have the opportunity to offer free of cost a choice of 37 university papers to our year 13 students as part of the Waikato University pilot. These cover a vast range of topics including Accounting, Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Economics, French, Geography, German, History, Human Development, Language and Literacy, Law, Maori, Mathematics, Music, Philosophy, Physics, Political Science, Screen and Medial Studies and Statistics.  These will be available to senior students who have a proven academic track record of success and students will have the opportunity in February to select up to two papers for each semester - February to June and July to November.

Current Achievement Statistics as at Pre Exams and Predictions

Our pre NCEA exam results and predictions have us well placed to exceed our 2015 year’s results. We entered the exams with a higher level of overall endorsements of Merit and Excellence at both NCEA Level 2 and NCEA Level 3 and with a predicted 8% to 10% pass rate increase for these critical years.  We have again seen boys’ achievement increase against the national trends and we are looking forward to confirming these very positive results for students in the new year.

Interest Day

The school Leadership would like to thank the community for the feedback on Interest Day from the survey we received a total of 35 parent replies.  We continue to work through our strategic review processes with feedback now gathered from students, staff, and the community. The Board and leadership will continue to process this information over the coming weeks supporting our strategic and operational planning for 2017.

Staff Leaving Us

We would like to congratulate Dan Hammond who has won a Deputy Principal’s position at Bohally Intermediate in Blenheim.  We would also like to congratulate Dan Kerr who has won a position as Head of Social Sciences at Stratford High School and Jackie Driver has also won a promotion to Morrinsville College as Head of Agriculture and Farm Manager.  We also wish Mel Basher well as she embarks on an overseas adventure. We would like to thank and acknowledge these staff for their contribution to Te Aroha College and wish them well for the future.

Staff Joining Us

We are very pleased to announce the promotion of Torina Halford to Head of Humanities and Social Sciences.  Torina will also continue her role as year 13 dean in 2017.  We have also appointed very experienced teacher of Mathematics, Rosemary Brandon, a very experienced Geography teacher and Dean of Year 12 Grant Aitken and a New PE Teacher Patrick Aislabie. Each are exceptionally skilled and talented and we are very lucky to have secured their services for Te Aroha College. 

Property Works

We begin work on the Gymnasium upgrade.  Work will begin on this early in the new year.  We are also very excited that the board have selected a colour change for the school and painting will begin over the Christmas break on the hall and admin block with colours inspired by the new events centre. Over Christmas a heating pipe replacement is also being undertaken as part of our ongoing maintenance.

Staff Thank you

We would like to thank the staff for their continued professionalism and commitment to the students of our community and we wish them all well for the Christmas break and look forward to working with them in the new year. We also wish our community a safe and happy Christmas break.

Although these is still a lot of work to do to refine our programme for 2017 the results and achievements of our students are a heartening reflection of the importance of continuing to evolve our learning focus on success for all students. We are very grateful to the staff for their continued efforts to create a positive and successful learning environment for all our students.

Dates for your diary -We begin the year with:

• Year 13 camp –Wednesday 25^th January & Thursday 26^th January
• Senior Course Changes Thursday 26^th January (Year 11 – Year 13)
• Teacher Only Day – Friday 27^th January
• Monday 30^th January Holiday – Auckland Anniversary Day
• Tuesday 31^st January Year 13 Attending
• Tuesday 31^st January 6.30pm Welcome Powhiri for all Year 9 and New Students
• Wednesday 1^st February – Year 9 7 Year 13
• Thursday 2^nd January & Friday 3^rd January -Full School - Year 9, Year 10, Year 11, Year 12 & Year 13

We hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a happy new year with friends and family and we look forward to seeing everyone in the new year.

Heather Gorrie

Principal

 

Level 3

2015/ 2016	2015 Actual	2016	Pre Exam Passed	Exam Prediction
Level 3	66.7	Level 3	37.8%	75%
Excellence	2	Excellence	4	5
Merit	6	Merit	3	5

Level 2

2015/ 2016	2015 Actual	2016	Pre Exam Passed	Exam Prediction
Level 2	79%	Level 2	60%	86%
Excellence	4	Excellence	7	10
Merit	6	Merit	5	6

Level 1

2015/ 2016	2015 Actual	2016	Pre Exam Passed	Exam Prediction
Level 1	83%	Level 1	51%	88%
Excellence	13	Excellence	2	9
Merit	15	Merit	7	5

 

Note. 12 level 1 and 3 Level 2 students are still completing internal assessment work within an additional programme and these will be added prior to the end of the year.