Lifting learning and achievement is a strategic priority.
We live in a strange, strange world at the moment. Our young men must look at the world and be perplexed. A world in which a New Zealander is in the top three goal scorers of the English Premier League. A world in which a rambling sentence or two from one powerful man can add or remove billions of dollars from the global economy. A world in which 2+2 no longer seems to always equal 4 as facts become optional and flexible.
Education and thinking are a form of defence against these strange, strange times. One of the key purposes of state education is to educate our young men so that they can participate productively in our democracy and live together in reasonable harmony. It promotes thinking, and today that ability to think for ourselves is more crucial than ever in this odd world.
To encourage that capacity for thinking, our focus this year academically is a strategic priority for the School. That is to:
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“lift learning and achievement”
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to demand ”high student work ethic and achievement, reflected in NCEA and co-requisite results”
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to build ”purposeful relationships” based on “high expectations” of students.
We have areas of the school where that already exists.
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Our Art classes in 2024 gained 201 Excellence grades last year including 60 in externally marked folios. Congratulations to Ms McCormack and her team who are national leaders in Art
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Archie Gillies (last year’s Dux)- individually gained 22 Excellences across all his subjects
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Jacob Inch (winner of the Adams House Ngaere Leggat Award in 2024)- awarded a Future Leader Scholarship at Lincoln University
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and internationally, young men from our school succeed on the world stage. Henry Flood (2010 Senior Monitor and 1st XI Football Captain) has just completed his dissertation and gained 1st Class Honours from the University of Cambridge at the end of 2024
Excellence and expectation don’t necessarily mean being the best in the world, but it means being better than you were yesterday; setting a goal, saying it out loud, seriously committing to it, pursuing it wholeheartedly, and holding yourself to that higher expectation of what you are capable of.
As we begin classes in 2025, your staff will be collectively demanding that you lift your expectations, lift your work ethic, and seek higher things.
Altiora Peto
Mike Boomer
Assistant Principal / Curriculum and Teaching
