2021 Week 7, Term 1










Tēnā koutou katoa

Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou

We were all hit pretty hard by the news of Simon Norris who passed away in a traffic accident. Whenever anything happens like this I always want to hug my own children close and be grateful that they are safe. The funeral was a sad but beautiful time and I was so proud of our students who came to say goodbye and our kapa haka group who did an amazing job. Ciaran Tangney and Jana Roos spoke beautifully for our school and really captured the essence of what Simon was like as a young man. I can only say again that our thoughts are with Simon’s family and offer support where needed to them and our community.
The arch deacon who was co-ordinating the service talked about us acknowledging the loss and the grief and also celebrating Simon’s life and the contribution he made to his family, friends and our school which we have done on a page in this newsletter. He also talked about moving on and continuing with our lives; not forgetting Simon but carrying on.
Therefore, in this vein we are carrying on and I am now reflecting on the great things that happened since our last newsletter.

On Sunday 7th March I caught the final production of four of our Grey High School rangatahi who have been working hard learning new waiata and haka with the West Coast kapahaka rōpu. It was absolutely fantastic and I hope that there will be a lot more joining them next year. Thank you from me to Kylie Bellis, Joe Mason and Erin Connolly who supported our students over the weekend.


West Coast Secondary Schools Athletics was on Tuesday 9th March for all of those who qualified via GHS Athletics Day. It was a great day and all of the athletes involved did their best. Kia kaha! Please read about this in more detail in our newsletter.


Kapa Haka has also started every Tuesday during periods 3 and 4 this term. We are very excited for this to be happening and very much looking forward to all of the amazing things that come out of it. Please remember that kapa haka is for anyone who is interested at Grey High.

Our staff took part on Tuesday in some great professional learning led by Sandra Quick and Angela Seyb as part of Toki Pounamu. One of the reasons I wanted to join Grey High was the work the teachers had been doing on making great learning experiences for our students. Angela and Sandra challenged us all to make our classrooms places for deeper learning to occur and as I moved between groups I could really get a sense of this happening across departments. A thank you from me to Sandra and Angela.


I wanted to add that the Akoranga Learning Hub is up for 2021. Senior students can find links to their learning by the subject code and for Juniors there is a homepage for each core class. This is a way for you to keep up to date with your students learning in an online environment and is the equivalent of show me your book and what you’ve been doing in class!

On Wednesday of last week, Kiri Russell (our Kaitakawaenga) and I went down to Noel Leeming to meet Matt Herron (NLG Business Development Manager - Education) and Paul Rose (NLG Greymouth Store Manager) where we had our photo taken to celebrate Noel Leeming generously gifting us a freezer for our kura. Kiri and her team, consisting of other GHS staff, have been organising, cooking and delivering ready made meals to students and their whānau who need them. When Noel Leeming was contacted about donating a freezer to make sure we always have kai on hand, they didn’t hesitate to help out - we can’t thank them enough for their generosity.

An exciting thing that I took part in this week was the 10 year Property Plan with Raewyn McKnight, Wayne Robbins from the Board and our MOE Property Advisor to start planning for our next round of property updates. Looking after our property is vital as all of our students deserve to have an environment that supports their learning in a positive way.

So finally, look after yourselves, look after your whānau and keep healthy, happy and safe.

“Whāea te iti kahurangi - strive for success”

Ngā mihi nui
Samantha Mortimer
Principal

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