By Ross Stevenson | Posted: Monday November 4, 2019
Thanks to all of those who attended our Senior Prizegiving on 31 October.
It was a terrific evening and a great way for our Year 13 students and any other leavers to finish their High School career. Special congratulations to our Dux Ben Helliwell and Proxime Accessit Liam Johnston.
Our student leaders for 2020 were also announced at prizegiving: Head Boy Joshua Earnshaw, Deputy Head Boys George Mulder and Callum Bowmar, House Captain Peter Rawlins.
All Prefects for 2020 were presented with their Prefect badge at the last full school assembly on October 30th. Prefects: Mackenzie Annett, Harry Black, Jack Blakemore, Callum Bowmar, Ethan Chittock, Taylor Donaldson, Alexander Doyle, Joshua Earnshaw, McGregor Isbister, Matthew Moore, Quinn Motley, George Mulder, Peter Rawlins, William Rawlins, Sean Rhodes, George Small, William Snuggs, Hamish Stayt, Seb van den Bosch, and Lucas Wood. We look forward to these young men providing leadership in the school next year.
Senior students are now on study leave for their NCEA examinations which start Friday 8 November and finish on Tuesday 3 December. Those students with exams have their entry slips along with an exam timetable; please ensure your son has a clear study plan and knows what day and time his examinations are on. We wish our students the best of success. Some students have been invited back for the Booster programme this week and they will be completing any outstanding internal assessment work.
This is also an important time of the year for our junior students. Our Year 10 students have just sat or are sitting examinations in English, Mathematics and Science this week. We are now expecting our Year 10 students to lead by example in the school, to put in to practice what they have been learning in their Rite Journey programme. This will lead on to Week 6 when they will complete the Rite Journey year by undertaking their overnight Solo experience.
While there are plenty of positives happening in the school at present there is an issue we are concerned about and that is vaping. There have been instances of students vaping on school property, to and from school and even in the classroom. We are concerned that young people who have never smoked maybe taking this up as a habit as it seems it is the in thing to do. We will treat vaping incidents the same way as we deal with smoking at school.
According to the Ministry of Health website; “The risks associated with long-term vaping are unknown. While vaping is less harmful than smoking it is unlikely to be totally harm free. Ideally, smokers who are vaping to quit should look to eventually stop vaping too. Scientists will not be certain for many years of any health risks associated with vaping. We don’t know what is in all vaping e-liquids, as there are no safety standards in New Zealand yet for vaping products.”
By law, vape devices and e-liquids are regulated under the Smoke-free Environments Act 1990. It is an offence to sell nicotine vaping products to young people aged under 18.
