From the Tumuaki

Tena koutou,

We farewelled our senior students last week at our Senior Prize Giving before they all headed off on exam leave this week. We wish them well in their upcoming exams.

We have a very busy term ahead of us for our junior students with such a wide range of events and opportunities. As parents and caregivers, please encourage them to take up these chances to try something new or different.

Senior Prize Giving

This is our premier event and celebration of our Year 11 to 13 students achievement over 2023. It was a pleasure to have a past pupil, Mr Hamish Johnson, who is now a Psychologist in Christchurch. He had a great message for our students on their journey through life and finding their path and things that make them happy and content.

It was a wonderful event with a range of outstanding performances and lovely to have a number of people from our community presenting various awards. We will have our Junior Prizegiving on our last day of term Friday 8 December.

Academic Success

At our Senior Prizegiving, we recognise the top academic students in our senior school. These are students who push themselves to attain the highest grades in all their subjects and who do the extra work needed to reach this level. The 4 distinct awards and winners are below:

• Year 12 Academic Excellence Award - Senadi Kariyawasam Haputhanthirge

• Proxime Accessit- Awarded to the second highest Academic performance in Year 13 - Elle Fraser

• Board Of Governors’ Trophy- Awarded For All-round Excellence- The Premier award for outstanding all-round standards in leadership, scholarship, participation in sporting and cultural activities - Olivia Chapman

• Geraldine High School Dux Trophy And Medal - Awarded to the top academic student in Year 13 - Olivia Chapman

Our congratulations to these outstanding students and we wish them all the best for 2024.

School Reports

These will have gone out on Friday for our Seniors and this is an important opportunity to go through these with your child and celebrate the achievement and learning done this year as well as have a conversation about the external exams they are sitting for NCEA. As we all know, both revising and sitting an exam is a life skill as we have these types of things throughout our careers so please help them with having good study routines.

Staff Appointments

We have completed our staffing for next year and we have a high calibre of teachers joining us for 2024. We welcome these staff:

• English and Languages Department - Mr Scott Austin and Mr Otis Perenara who are both graduates from Canterbury University

• PE and Health Department - Mr Rob Kelynack from Westland High School and Mrs Cath Hudson from Hamilton Boys’ High School

• Technology Department - Mrs Natasja Wright from Fairfield College, Ms Andrea Rogerson from St Dominic’s Catholic College, and Mr Sumitesh Kumar from Ratu Latianara College in Fiji.

• Science and Maths Departments - Mr Leonardo de Angelis from Hauraki Plains High School

• Maths Department - Ms Lydia Yang who is a Master Graduate from Otago University.

International Students and Homestays

We have had a wonderful year as we have welcomed students from Thailand, Laos, Germany, Argentina and Japan to our school and it gives all of our school the opportunity to be more aware of the world and students whose school life is very different from our own. We are looking for homestay families for next year as we have a number of students coming next year. It is a wonderful opportunity to be a host family for students for 2 weeks to a year. If you are interested in knowing more, please contact international@geraldinehs.school.nz

Please keep an eye out for the details of this term's events as well as specifics about the end of year.

Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā tātou katoa