Principal's Comment

Kia Ora Kevinians and Supporters of the College,

Next Friday, our senior students will be beginning their exam leave. This will last from the 23rd to the 30th August and will be followed on the following Monday by Teacher's Only day.

This timing seems very odd, so I am taking this opportunity to explain it to you. Firstly, our teachers only day is a mandated TOD. We usually choose to take this on the Monday of Tournament Week as that is usually a disrupted week anyway.

With regards to the timing of examinations, by adding the IGCSE in Year 11 we are now bound to the same timelines as the rest of the countries in the world who undertake Cambridge examinations. The Year 11 Mathematics examination will be held on the first day of Term 4, as it is on the same date all over the world. As we are also offering NCEA examinations in selected subjects, we are combining both sets of exams in our upcoming derived grade examinations. In order to have enough time and space to create derived grade examinations for both systems, we have had to take the Friday of next week as well as the following normal Term 3 examination week. By pushing these forward, we are ensuring that we are allowing a greater period for revision and study leading up to exams than usual. We believe that this added to the purposeful use of the study periods we have provided all year for students will enable them to meet their potential in either system and across all year levels.

This week we received the results from the Cambridge English Literature course which we embarked on last year as a trial run. The results were excellent. Of the small group who sat (18 students) 16 of them achieved a B or above (a D is a pass in Cambridge) with 3 of them achieving A Star results which ranks them as the best in the world at their level.

Earlier in the week the SLT put together a pack for Year 11 students with the examination time table, a letter from myself and a wall planner study guide to help support students to create a study plan.

If your Year 12 or 13 student would like a copy of this planner, please ask them to pick one up from the office.

I would like to thank Lorena Marshall for this beautiful shot. You will see more of her amazing work in our school magazine. There are still a number of these that have not been collected from last year, so if you have paid for one as a family, please ensure it is picked up from the office.

Have a lovely weekend

God Bless

Jo