A NOTE FROM THE PRINCIPAL

I’ve been watching a lot of the Olympics lately and am waiting with anticipation for the Paralympics. I love watching sports I don’t normally consider and seeing the ‘against the odds stories’ that make the Olympics so special. It made me think that a school year or even a ‘life’ at school is very much like a 2000m rowing race 9 a sport we Kiwis excel in!)

Term 1 is the anticipation of a new start, everyone is nervous at the start line, and you don’t look out of your boat as you want to focus on yourself, get those first few strokes in the water and get a good start. Like your studies, you want to start well, complete your work on time, don’t worry about what’s around you. Sometimes you may miss a couple of strokes, but you cannot get flustered, you need to stay calm and trust you have the ability to get back at it.

The next 500m, or Term 2, is about consistency, you are tapping away stroke by stroke, doing a little bit each day. Concentrating on you and your work and not on the end result. Being in the moment and taking it day by day.

Reaching the 1000m mark or the halfway point is the most difficult part of any rowing race. Here is where you can lose your focus, question your life choices, and feel sorry for yourself that you have another 1000m to go, forgetting how much work you have put in the first 1000m. The key is that you must keep going, so that you don’t let the work you have done go to waste, and it’s a bit hard to bail in the middle of the water!

The third quarter of your journey is the most difficult, here you are facing burnout, frustration, the work piling on top of you and the stress mounting. Other pressures come in – the weather improves, work for summer interferes, and sports seasons often come to a climax. For Year 13’s Uni decisions have to be made, while everyone seems like they are sorted and you feel like your stroke is going all over the place, but if you do the work here, you are making your job a lot easier for the final 500m. For other seniors, it’s the decision to stay or go, what happens for the next year. For juniors, it’s option choices and are they making the right decisions based on what they need not who they want to be with!?

Term 4, the last 500m is where you start solidly preparing for your external exams, utilising and harnessing the work you have done in the previous 1500m. Now is not the time to hold back, you can see the finish line, keep on that grind and finish strong. You come into end-of-year wrap-ups, activities days and Prizegiving. As you reach those final few strokes and final few moments, you know you have paced a rowing race well, as when you go across that finish line you have nothing left to give. And if your year has been paced well you will see the benefit of hard work in exam results, prizegiving awards and most of all in that sense of doing your absolute best and being able to walk away proud of your work.

WHAT’S COMING UP?

FRIENDLY REMINDERS

• If your child is going to be late or absent, please call the school office on 03 319 5138 or email office@kaikourahigh.school.nz any time after 8 am to let us know. We send texts out around 10.55 am for absent students.
• BOT Parent Rep Nominations close on 4th September. Please see the full information further down in the pānui.
• Hoodies are not permitted to be worn at KHS.
• A gentle reminder to not park on school grounds at any time. This includes the field, bus bay and the Year 7/8 playground area by Barnardos. Please only use the parking available on Rorrisons Road.
• NEW KAMAR PARENT PORTAL LINK: https://kaikourahigh.school.kiwi/
• Please be aware that school uniforms will no longer be put onto school accounts and must be paid for upfront. We have a significant amount of uniforms that have not been paid for.
  If you need support with uniform costs, please contact your child’s dean or check your eligibility with Work and Income. Or visit their website and search for “School Uniform and Stationery”.

LATENESS

It’s really important for our students to let off some steam during break times, and the field is an amazing space to do that.
However, we are seeing a lot of lateness from some students as they head back from the field to their classes. Being five minutes late each day loses 25 minutes of class time a week! If that’s happening for each break… that’s a lot of school being missed.
Consistent lateness will result in a reflective service and could mean a referral to Kaikōura Attendance Services.
We would love your support with managing attendance!

NO INTERNET AT KAIKŌURA HIGH SCHOOL

What does this mean!?

We’re heading back in time for a few days as we have our internet service upgraded. We apologise in advance for any chaos, but we would appreciate your patience as we navigate those days.

Our Student Management System will not be working fully during this time.
You can call us on this cell phone: 027 478 5760.
You can still email us, but responses may be delayed as we will be relying on data coverage. We will also have staff monitoring the school’s Facebook Messaging service.

Thanks for your cooperation!

WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING?

Health
This term year 7 is learning about Resilience and how we can overcome challenges and bounce back. Last week we had fun making clay models that represent resilience. We had some really creative models from Bouncy balls, Superheroes and a relaxing space. It was great to see such amazing talent.

Talent in Trades
Some of our talented ākonga (Ben Lister and Jacob Harris), testing out their kicker prototype in trades. Ka Rawe!

Art
Some of the Year 9/10 art class students have successfully completed their portraits using the grid method. This technique helped them accurately capture proportions and details. These students have shown great focus and effort in their work which is evident in some impressive results!
Year 7 art class students worked hard at making a clay pinch pot. They enjoyed modelling with clay using only their hands and I can’t wait to see the final result!

Queen Charlotte Exchange 2024
The much-anticipated trip up to Picton for the annual Queen Charlotte Exchange was held on 14th August. Our sporting stars had been looking forward to this for months.

This was one of the biggest exchanges we have ever done, with a whopping 83 students heading up to Picton on buses and vans. Despite the very early start, the music was pumping and the kids were in great spirits. Matua Alan caught out a few students trying to snap a selfie with him while he was “resting his eyes!”

We had a beautiful mihi whakatau in the morning with our hosts and the karakia set us up for a warm day watching some fantastic sport. QCC Kapa Haka were hearty and passionate, so we hope to see our friends perform at Te Taiopenga this year.

Ki o Rahi seemed to be the game of the day. The weather was warm and dry, so many people came out to watch. For a few, it was the first time they had seen the sport being played and it was very exciting!

QCC took out the win overall, however, we are so proud of all of our teams and everyone for their hard work and positive attitudes. We were so impressed with the sportsmanship in all the games.
Year 7/8 Rugby 0
Year 9/10 Rugby 0
Year 7/8 Dev Netball 1
Year 7/8 Koru Games Netball 1
Senior Netball 0
Year 9/10 SISS Netball 1
Year 9/10 Dev Netball 1
Mixed Basketball 0
Girls Basketball 0
Volleyball 0
Ki o Rahi 1

An important part of our exchanges is whakawhanaungatanga and it was special watching new friendships formed, contacts being swapped and lots of laughs between KHS and QCC. It was also a great chance for many whānau to reconnect and catch up.

A huge thank you to our volunteers, staff and spectators for making this happen for our wonderful students.

Next year we aim to have teams sorted much earlier in order to start preparations as early as possible for welcoming our manuhiri.

Roll on next year, when will will face Queen Charlotte College on home turf!

Staff v Students Hockey
Last week hosted the first of two staff vs students hockey games – playing against the two senior hockey teams. It was an intense game and there was the typical amount of cheating from the teachers and trash-talking from the students! The Blue team came out with the win – roll on next week for the redemption game against Team Black!

Board Of Trustees Student Rep
A huge congratulations to Alice King (Year 11) for being elected to the position of Student Representative on our Board of Trustees.
We reckon Alice will make a fine addition to the team and encourage you to talk with her to bring student voice to the table during these meetings.

Supporting our Community and Wildlife
Check out Matua Doug’s woodworking class!
This amazing team are doing something special for our community and our local kōrora (blue penguin) colony.
Blue Penguins are a small, endangered bird and it is vital that we do everything we can to protect the small number of colonies in Aotearoa. The class is building nesting boxes for our local birds to keep them safe and warm when they’re back on land after a long slog in the ocean, feeding.
Working in partnership with the Kaikōura Ocean Research Institute, we hope these boxes can be a part of keeping them safe for years to come at the South Bay colony.

Thank you to Gig Bassett for donating the macrocarpa for this project.

Papanui High School Kapa Haka
We had the honour of hosting Papanui HS Kapa Haka on the 20th Aug, led by alumni Te Haere Stirling, who also got to reconnect with some of his whānau.

To make the most of the short time our kapa haka had with Papanui (who were here on a wānanga), we had a mihi whakatau and got straight into the waiata-a-ringa.

First, we came together as a rōpu to waiata and haka some well-known Ngāi Tahu pieces. Papanui then showed us a beautiful rendition of “Nei Ra te Kaupapa”, which our students could aspire to as they have also been learning this waiata. They were so fierce in their haka. Papanui were strong, confident rangatahi who were proud of their identity and their passion. Such a well-drilled rōpu but also had a lot of fun together and respect for one another. We were all blown away!

They were humble and shared lots of advice for our relatively new rōpu. We hope that this gives our kids the confidence to know that they are great and can, and will be fierce too!

After our session, our students took Papanui out to our grounds over the lunch break to show them around, play some basketball and even help Miss Smith’s cooking class eat the cakes they had been making! It was a beautiful example of whakawhanaungatanga and we hope to make these more regular occurrences.

COMMUNITY NOTICES

Kaikōura High School Board of Trustees – Casual Vacancy for Parent Representative
Kaikoura High School Board Parent By-Election 2024

Our school will be undertaking a parent by-election for 1 School Board vacancy. This position will be held until the triennial election in 2025. This process will start with the issuing of nomination papers to our caregiver community by Friday 16th August 2024.

We have employed CES to undertake the election process on our behalf. This year with legislative change, our nomination form and full instruction on how to place your nomination into our own School’s Election website will be emailed to you if we have your email address in our database or you will receive it by post if we don’t have your email in our database.

Nomination papers will also be available at the school office. The school will send those on to CES for processing upon receipt from candidates.

Nominations close on Wednesday 4th September 2024 at 12 noon. We look forward to your participation in this process.

Returning Officer CES

89 Nazareth Avenue | Middleton | Christchurch | PO Box 414 | Christchurch 8140

P (03) 338 4444 Web www.cessl.org.nz

AWESOME OPPORTUNITY
Interested? Contact Jayne Mallinder, our guidance counsellor for more info:
jmallinder@kaikourahigh.school.nz
0212470986