INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

Principals Piece.

Staffing News.

Students at the Centre of Learning.

Community at the heart of who we are.

Cultural and Sporting Success.

Ka nui te mihi aroha ki a koutou,

I want to start by thanking you all for your awesome support this term as we have navigated through some very challenging times attempting to keep the school open and to keep students engaged in learning while managing the huge demands on staff. The lockdowns over the last 2 1/2 years have been demanding, but this term, with the very high levels of student absences and staff absences due to Covid and winter illnesses, has been one of the most demanding I have experienced in my teaching career.

I want to acknowledge the dedication and commitment of the staff. We have been experiencing high numbers of staff out each day this week and staff on-site have had to pick up extra responsibilities and duties. I know they fully deserve a refreshing break at the end of next week.

I also know that it has been demanding on students and whānau.

Protection Measures

Thank you for keeping your child at home if they are unwell. Once again, we understand when some fatigue sets in around this. From time to time we have noticed students coming to school with cold/flu symptoms and we have had to arrange for them to be picked up to go home. Staying home when unwell is a key protection element.

Despite the ongoing challenges we have had with COVID and illness, Spotswood College students have spent the latter part of term two continuing with celebrations and special events, extracurricular activities and sports, and cultural activities.

Congratulations to the following students who won their respective year-level Spotswood College Speech Competitions, Indie Shearman and Kenzie Gray who were awarded First Equal in the Year 9 Speech Competition, Aster Danenhauer First in Year 10; Catherine Rielly-Leadbetter and Izzy Oakes-Hill First Equal Year 11, Ellie Dinnis First Year 12, Alastair Abdulin First Year 12 Monologue, Jazmine Murray + Hana Ono First Equal in Year 13.

A Careers Week was held for the students that offered a glimpse into the world of tertiary study and employment, which was well-received by all involved. A special thank you to the Careers and Gateway Department who coordinated all of this.

Our school band, Boiled Up Roots and Kapa Haka team performed as part of the New Plymouth Puanga festivities and once again mesmerised the crowd.

Our YES teams pitched their products with Ahi Tote winning the YES Rural Award, and these and other student-designed products have been sold out of our reopened student-led Designery Store. Their first day of opening was a sell-out!

A real highlight was our School Ball. The Ball Committee aided by Hilary Takarangi did an amazing job of planning and executing the evening of Gilded Glamour. Students looked amazing, had a great meal, danced the night away and were incredibly respectful of each other. We all had a very memorable evening.

Looking ahead when we return to term 3 we will have:

3 Aug - Level 3 Risk Assessment Course

5 Aug - Forklift Course

11 Aug - Open Night

16 Aug - Sport/Team Photos

20 Aug - VEX Scrimmage 3

22 Aug - Teacher Only Day

31 Aug - Student-Led IDPs

14 Sep - Parent/Teacher Interviews

Communication is essential and we strive to connect with our students, whanau, and community each and every day. We will continue reaching out to you with weekly emails, texts or through our app. We also encourage you to visit our website and follow our social pages including Facebook, Instagram, and our student-run official Spotswood College TikTok for announcements, information, and celebrations.

As always, we wish to express our sincere gratitude toward our entire school community. We would not be the amazing school that we are without the help and support of all of you.

We wish you all a great holiday and hope you all get lots of R&R time.

We invite you all to join us on our Open Evening to gain a glimpse into the world of learning at Spotswood College

As the term ends we acknowledge and farewell staff who will be leaving us to embark on their next exciting adventure:

Sarah Watson has done an amazing job coordinating our school library.

Melissa Keith has been a supportive teacher aide connecting well with staff and students.

Steph Julian has won the hearts and minds of students that she has taught in English and Media studies for the past 4 years. Steph moves on to strengthen her own media consultancy.

Sara-Lee Pheulong has worked in Te Waka Mannaaki and made a huge impact on our young people. Sara-Lee is heading off to live overseas with her family.

We wish the staff departing us all the very best!

Parent Representatives for the School Board of Trustees

Nomination forms will be issued by Friday, 15 July 2022.

Nominations close on Wednesday 3 August at 12.00 noon.

Spotswood College will be undertaking a parent election for FIVE vacancies on our School Board.

The nomination form and instructions on how to submit your nomination will be emailed to you if your email address is on the school roll database (or sent by post if we don’t have your email address).

Nomination papers will also be available at the school office.

Parent/Caregiver Roll – From Monday 4th July 2022 a copy of the roll will be held at the school office for inspection. This will be ordered by students’ surnames.

A vote takes place where nominations exceed vacancies.

If a vote is required, voting papers will be sent by post to caregivers by 10 August 2022 with the poll closing on 7 September 2022 at 4 pm.

Anne Bovett - Board Secretary

Principal

Whaea Nicola email: nng@spotswoodcollege.school.nz

Deputy Principal

Mr Daryn Shaw email: dsh@spotswoodcollege.school.nz

Senior Leadership

Mrs Paula Cast email: pca@spotswoodcollege.school.nz

Senior Leadership

Mrs Hilary Takarangi email: hta@spotswoodcollege.school.nz

Senior Leadership

Mr Darren Scott email: dsc@spotswoodcollege.school.nz

Year 12 and 13 Dean

Mr Wayne Cribb email: wcr@spotswoodcollege.school.nz

Year 11 Dean

Mrs Tulah Katene email: tka@spotswoodcollege.school.nz

Year 10 Dean

Ms Ann Rodgers email: aro@spotswoodcollege.school.nz

Year 9 Dean

Mr Airana Ngarewa email: aro@spotswoodcollege.school.nz

International Director

Mrs Nicola Healy email: nhe@spotswoodcollege.school.nz

Our Young Enterprise Scheme teams Ahi Tote and Boardom Games, held their product launch which was a great event with presentations and guest speakers.

Ahi Tote and have been working hard on their new products.

Thank you to Jessie Brodie who has been an integral part of the YES team's journey.

Products can be purchased at the Haukai Bistro & Bar, the Seaside Market, Jet Charm, and The Designery.

The Designery

In keeping with the theme of entrepreneurship, The Designery has reopened and continues to see an amazing array of products created through the impact inquiry courses.

Never not handmade!

We are overjoyed to be welcoming three International Students from Germany and Denmark in Term three.

The International Department has been busy rebuilding from a dormant state due to COVID-19 and border closures and is gearing up to welcome more International Students from our global community in 2023 and beyond with a number of inquiries steadily coming in. Staff and students and our loyal host families are very excited to have our global community among us again.

Over the years we have had a strong cohort of keen host families who have contributed to the success of our International Programme and made wonderful global connections, many of these continuing on to this day. This is a very enriching experience for all involved and we are looking for more families to host.

If you are interested in becoming a host family please contact Janet Wrightson-Lean at jle@potswoodcollege.school.nz and check out the stories from our homestay heroes on The Study Taranaki Website.

Specialist Services Team

Once again we have come to the end of another term, and what another fun term it was. Whilst we had a reduced last couple of weeks of school, we did thankfully get our planned Puanga planning and activities completed. As a department, our Puanga celebration included lots of art, making of natural fibre stars, and writing our hopes and dreams for the forthcoming year. We also spent many lessons making wonderful kites, that have yet to reach the stars, but which we will endeavour to take to an outdoor park in term 3. As a Puanga finale, we shared a Hangi where students took part in the planning and preparation of the Kai that went in Matua Kiley's portable hangi.

Please return any cups and trophies to the school office, we are in the process of organising the end-of-year prizegivings. Thank you

What an amazingly busy week we had during Careers Week. We had a CV writing and Job Interview skills workshop, NZDF visited and our main attraction was WITT with their interactive displays and free hot chocolates for the students, and our Non-uniform day, where students and staff got to dress up in their trade uniform of choice. Congratulations to the prize winners for best dressed. We look forward to doing it all again next year.

Gilded Glamour with a touch of class.

Another memorable Spotswood College school ball was held on Saturday 2nd July 2022 at the Plymouth Hotel. The theme of Gilded Glamour certainly matched the outfits of our students and their guests! One hundred and fifty staff and students ate a lovely dinner, had fun photos taken in the Photo Booth and formal photos taken by Miss Aly Scott and then danced the night away!

A special thanks must go to the Year 13 Ball Committee for their great organisation and teamwork to organise such a great evening.

There are a few local businesses which require a special thank you. They are:

- The Plymouth Hotel (for providing the location, food and drinks)

- TSH Audio & Video (for donating the fairy lights)

- DJ Wrecklyss (for the music)

- Photo Booth Fun (for providing the Photo Booth)

- Miss Aly Scotty (for taking the formal photos)

- The Vocational Pathways/Gateway Department (for donating the red carpet and stanchions/velvet ropes)

- Members of the Year 13 Ball Committee

- Members of the local school community (for donating ball outfits, shoes, jewellery and money)

- The members of staff who attended.

Congratulations to Aster Danenhauer, one of our talented year 10 students who was part of the trio that won the top award “best overall group” at the NZCT Chamber Music Contest. Aster Danenhauer played piano with a NPGHS student and Taranaki Diocesan student on flutes.

Congratulations to Harrison Larkin who has been selected for the New Zealand Youth Climbing team to compete at the Climbing Youth World Championships in Dallas, Texas, USA. He's super excited to have been selected following a competition in Auckland and is busy training 5 plus times a week. Be sure to keep an eye out for his upcoming fundraising events to support his trip to compete!

From the sideline:

Netball:

Our traditional sports seasons are well and truly here as we enter the deep dark depths of winter. As comes the rain, the wind and the snow; so too comes the time to show some grit, some resilience and some passion.

After some 3 weeks of grading games, our netball teams started their official seasons well before having a break for Queen’s Birthday.

After 1 round, Arotahi 1 and Arotahi 2 sit atop their tables, with Tuakana sitting in 2nd = due to points differential.

Chill sits atop their section after round 1 with Teina in a good position in 4th with a favourable points differential.

A rough start for our netball teams and our netball playing tauira, but as the season gets into full swing we hope to see our teams rewarded for their perseverance and determination.

Rugby:

Spotswood College rugby is well underway and heading into the backend of the season.

Our U15 restricted team is a team of real potential and started the season with a great win against a well-drilled and technically strong NPBHS team. Unfortunately have had some inconsistent showings since going down against the other NPBHS team, FDMC, and Hawera High School. Kingston Bush-Pouha keeps growing as a player and living up to his nickname the Black Panther, Mason Scrivner is relentless in contact and always goes forward, with Piripi Mokaraka starting to find his feet and comfort in this team.

Our Under 16 girls team started their first two competitive games against SHGC and NPGHS. In a tough game with only 12 fit players, SHGC used their noticeable size and strength to their advantage as they took us on up front. Although the girls lost, they were their own worst enemies and made SHGC look better than they were. Against NPGHS the girls got to show off the new playing strip and reinvent themselves and girls rugby at Spotswood College. It was a fast and free-flowing game, with many points scored. We came away victorious 43-30. They followed this up with a 27-22 victory over Waitara High School and a narrow 35-31 loss to a strong Inglewood High School team.

A busy term 2 holidays will see Ashleigh, Eunice, Sarah, Jordyn, Ocean and Jamie attend the Te Tini a Maui U18 Mareikura Māori Camp in Palmerston North, with Ashleigh, Sarah and Eunice to return and play for Taranaki U18 girls in a tri-series against Whanganui and King Country.

Basketball:

Our basketball teams are all playing in the local competition this year with some nice changes by Basketball Taranaki. Our girls both play on Monday nights and our boys Thursday, with Basketball Taranaki trying to play both teams at the same venue one after the other. Our teams have had mixed results with some wins against more favourable opposition, and some heavy losses to some of the more dominant teams in the competition. This should not deter our young ballers as there’s heaps of potential and room to grow. Sometimes in sports, our shots just don’t fall, but we need to show some determination and resilience to keep going and try to get the next one to drop.

There’s no denying the last few years due to Covid have seen the sporting realm change. Our national and regional sporting organisations, although have done a good job to get a product going again for our young people, have not planned accordingly for the changes in our communities. There’s a national shortage of volunteer coaches, administrators, and referees/umpires and this affects the product we deliver to our rangatahi. So to all coaches, managers, referees/umpires and whānau who are volunteering their time to ensure our young people get these opportunities, we thank you.

Sport is made possible by you and your efforts do not go unnoticed.

Student Achievements: School Sport NZ Student-Athlete Commission

A huge congratulations to Zara Erol-Watt who was recently elected to the School Sport NZ Student-Athlete Commission. Zara is one of only 6 students nationwide elected to the commission, with the focus of being the voice of rangatahi in an ever-evolving school sports setting. An exciting and well-deserved opportunity for Zara, and one that she’ll no doubt represent Spotswood College proudly over the next 2 years.

Representative Honours:

New Zealand Youth Climbing:

Harrison Larkin has been selected for the New Zealand Youth Climbing team to compete at the World Championships in Dallas, Texas, U.S.A. This is an awesome opportunity and a well-deserved achievement for Harrison and we wish him well!

Volleyball Taranaki:

Congratulations to the following Spotswood College girls and boys on their selection into 2022 Taranaki age group teams that participated in the Volleyball New Zealand Inter-Provincial championships played at the ASB Stadium in Wellington during Queen's birthday weekend.

UNDER 17 GIRLS:

Anna Clough (Captain), Samantha Hart, Scarlett Dinnis, Chelsea Gartner, Haruna Saito.

The Coach was Mr. Robbie Booth.

UNDER 19 WOMEN:

Jessica Proctor (Captain), Summer Price, Ellis Dinnis, Isis kennard, Isabel Lindsay-O'Sullivan.

The Coach was Mr. Phil Gayton.

UNDER 17 BOYS:

Lucas Heggie, Balu Molnar, Zalan Lizan

UNDER 19 MEN:

Shaeden Wetere, Joe Cocker, Noah Fleming, Jayden Leece

Basketball Taranaki:

Ty Greenbank-Wilson and Komene Te Nana have been selected for the Basketball Taranaki Under 15 squad. A huge achievement for both boys who have been working hard to maximise their potential in basketball.

Netball Taranaki:

Congratulations to Sylvia Larkin (Under 14), Harmony Awa-Paora (Under 16 Mixed) and Mishka Katene-Rosa (Under 18) who have been selected to represent Taranaki in their various age groups.

Taranaki Rugby:

Ashleigh Hill, Sarah Mangu and Eunice Mangu have been selected to play for Taranaki Under 18s in a tri-series against Whanganui and King Country U18s on July 12th-13th.

Our Kapa Haka group in action giving another stunning performance at the Puangat.

Digital platforms can be useful tools, but in this time and age, there is a significant risk that social media platforms can be used by students to bully each other or spread rumours about others. We are asking for the support of this community to come together in addressing this.

The Spotswood College’s Responsible Use of Technology Policy is below.

As part of the enrollment process, an agreement is signed by both the student and the caregiver regarding the appropriate use of the school's ICT systems. The school offers a monitored internet connection and a safe environment for the students.

Unfortunately, students’ personal Cellphones are not covered by the protections that the system offers. These devices can easily be used to cause harm including the form of unconsented recording or photography.

To prevent this, it is important that as a community we understand the harmful digital communication act and the impact that this form of bullying and harassment can have on the victims. In this digital age rumours and jokes can have lingering consequences.

The Netsafe organization is the best place to get help either by starting a conversation with your child, seeking advice to help create a safer home internet connection or getting support if you are already suffering from online abuse.

Spotswood College will be using SchoolAppsNZ to send out notices and information to our whānau. This is a free app available on Apple and Android devices. You can also access newsletters, contact the school about absences and find helpful links as well as quick access to Kamar. (Link below).

We have a school attendance target of above 90% for every student. To ensure that together we reach this, it is important that if you know your child is going to be absent from school, that you please contact the school by using one of the following options.

Option 1: Telephone the school on 06 751 2416 and speak to the receptionist (Tracey) or Attendance Officer (Jenine).

Option 2: Send a text to the Attendance Officer (Jenine) on 021 023 93060

Option 3: send an email to the Attendance Officer (Jenine) - jpr@spotswoodcollege.school.nz

Option 4: Use the school app to log attendance.

Option 5: Leave a message on the Attendance hotline by calling the school on 06 751 2416 and press (1) to report a student absence. Record your child’s name, parents name, contact details and reason for absence.

If for any reason you are concerned about your child’s attendance, you can speak with the Attendance Officer (see contact details above) or she will pass you on to the DEAN or your child’s Learning Advisor.

Our expectation as a school whanau is that our young people are in the correct uniform at all times. As we are now heading into cooler weather, it is important that students have the correct winter school uniform. Items can be purchased from our Uniform Shop. Students will be required to hand over non-uniform items which can be collected back at the end of the week.

We also have a large accumulation of uniforms that are a part of lost property that is kept in this space, If your child has a missing school item, please encourage them to check the lost property racks.

Uniform shop hours

Uniform shop hours each week are as follows:

8.00 am to 9.00 am & Interval - Monday to Friday.

Phone 751 2416 Ext 721 or 022 676 2750.

Sick or injured at school

The sickbay is closed for any sick-related issues. If you are sick, we will contact home and ask for you to be picked up immediately. Please do not arrange this yourself as we need to know where you are at all times.

The sick bay is open to help with injuries.

A public health nurse is available for you and your caregivers if you have any concerns. This could be a rash, not sleeping well, regular headaches, ongoing health issues etc.

Please ask to talk to her privately. Consultations are confidential, offering information and advice. Health resources are available, with a choice of providers for referrals to agencies.

TERM 2

Monday 2nd May – Friday 8th July - (10 weeks)

Queens Birthday Monday 6th June

Matariki Friday 24th June

TERM 3

Monday 25th July – Friday 30th September - (10 weeks)

TERM 4

Monday 17th October – 9th December

Labour Day Monday 24th October