2021 Week 1 Term 2








Tēnā koutou katoa

Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou

We are now into Term 2 and I have been here a term. I am starting to feel at home at Greymouth High School and I would like to thank everyone who has made me feel so welcome; I really appreciate it!

During the first weekend of the holidays myself and 5 other members of the Board attended the NZSTA (New Zealand School Trustees Association) annual conference in Rotorua. NZSTA provides a range of services to all boards to support and enhance boards’ capability in governance and employment. .

We all learnt so much while we were away. It was especially useful to find out more about the Education and Training Act that came into law in November 2020. It was a really great way for all of us to build positive relationships which I believe sit at the heart of any team. As you can see from this newlsletter’s photo we also had a lot of fun!

I would really like to thank all of our Board members whose main purpose is to ensure that Grey High is a place where all of our students are safe and healthy and can effectively learn. They demonstrate our ARCH values of akoranga (learning), respect, community and hauora (wellbeing).

On Anzac Day I was fortunate enough to experience our service at the College led by our own Military Service Academy. We then moved down to the RSA and commemorated the day with the rest of our community. It was a very moving service and there were lots of our students involved in the service in a variety of different guises.

Over the holidays there has been a lot of building work going on. Raewyn McKnight our Executive Officer, Alex Hume our grounds keeper and Wayne Griffin our caretaker are working hard to liaise with all our contractors to make sure that we have safe, waterproof and warm buildings.

This week we have lots of exciting things going on including the start of rugby and our Year 9s having a St Johns CPR training day.

Looking forward to week 2 a heads up that on Thursday 13th May we have Senior NCEA parent-teacher interviews going from 4.15 to 7.15 pm. Keep an eye out for interview information and have a talk to your young people about how they are going.

One of the things we are working on with our Toki Pounamu primary schools is blogging. I have challenged myself to do this and although so far it is only my newsletters and my draft school assembly speeches at least it’s a start! https://mrsmortimerreflectionsatgreyhigh.blogspot.com/

Let’s make sure that we all have a great Term 2; this starts with making sure our students attend school every day, unless they are sick, do their best work in every class and have respectful relationships with each other and our staff.

“Whāea te iti kahurangi - strive for success”

Ngā mihi nui

Samantha Mortimer

Principal

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