Mrs Mortimer's reflections at Grey High/Māwhera

I was very lucky that that board invited me to the NZSTA conference in Rotorua this year. I haven't attended one of these conferences before so I was looking forward to finding out about it! There were 6 of us who came from Greymouth High School and a number of us from the Coast. You can have a look at the programme below. https://www.nzstaconference.co.nz/ There were about 1000 people there so a big conference. There were boards from all over the country including the Stewart Islands which was pretty cool. We started on Friday morning with an amazing pōwhiri. The group who welcomed us were so talented - I could watched them for hours. My wairua was full and we all had tears in our eyes. There were a number of guest speakers and I especially enjoyed and was challenged by Karl Vasau - Principal, Rowendale Primary School, Manurewa and Kathryn Berkett - Educational Psychologist. http://www.engagetraining.co.nz/ The rest of the conference was a lot of learning - especially abo...

It’s been a long journey for myself towards principalship but the one common theme has been taking opportunities when offered. My first school, a large, low socio-economic high school in Manchester, UK, gave me as many opportunities as I wanted to take. This included being offered the Teacher in Charge of PSHE (Personal, Social and Health Education) from my first day as well as being the team leader in charge of Health policies. When the opportunity arose for me to apply for Health Advisory teacher positions I jumped at them, being offered the Drug and Alcohol Education Consultant. This role gave me lots of opportunities to lead teams, manage large budgets, write policies, run lots of professional learning and so on. I decided to go back into the classroom when one of my colleagues asked me about my future plans and mentioned that if I stayed out for too long then that might hinder me getting higher leadership roles. I decided to look for a HOD position back in a school and ser...

Tēnā koutou katoa Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou Starting with our NCEA celebrations assembly. We had fantastic results for our school in 2020 - they were amazing! We are very proud of everyone who received Excellence and Merit results in 2020, especially in such a challenging year. These students epitomise our school motto - “Whāea te iti kahurangi - strive for success.” They have put in the hard yards - ka pai! On Friday evening I went to the Open Mic night at the Nest, 34 Tainui Street. The Nest is managed by Bronte Roper and is a community creative space. I got to see a few performers From Grey High and I was very impressed. There is a lot of creative talent here at Grey High. Thanks so much to our Head of Arts Marty McDonald for supporting this venture and Arts at our school. On Wednesday night I am going to the MSA’s (Military Service Academy) parents information evening. I am very much looking forward to meeting the parents, spending more time with these students, and hearing about t...

I’ve now been at Greymouth High School for a term and I’m still having a good time and slowly getting to meet all of the staff and you! I now know all of the teachers first names but not all their last names - so that is a start! But today it is about celebrating NCEA 2020. Congratulations to everyone who did their best to be successful last year - we are very proud of all of you. It was a challenging year with COVID but everyone - students, your families and teachers worked together to make our results fantastic! Well done!! Akoranga is one of our ARCH values and learning is the crux of why we come to school. NCEA is one of the ways we can demonstrate what we are learning and how we are learning it. Later in the year we will be recognising excellence in other areas of school but today’s assembly is about recognising the hard work of our students who received merit and excellences at NCEA Level 1 and Level 2 in 2020. Today I want to especially congratulate them. But before th...

Tēnā koutou katoa Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou I hope that everyone had a great Easter break and found some opportunities to relax! We are heading towards the end of the first term and our senior students should all be well into their NCEA journey for 2021. Please talk to your children about how they are doing and how we can all work together for their success. Students need to be at school every day unless they are unwell, as attendance is really important and we thank you for encouraging your child or children to get to school. If you would like some support with this please contact the office and the relevant person will get back to you to assist you. Our PB4L team is working with our students to ensure everyone is in class and on time. A heads up that on Friday 9th April there is an Open Mic Night @ The Nest from 8-10. It is open to student aged performers and we are hoping to see lots of interesting acts. Remember, if you are interested in joining the PTA they are meeting on Wednesda...