A Message from our Principal

Even though we have been blessed with plenty of extended autumnal weather of late, the advertising of Dunedin’s annual Mid-Winter Carnival is a reminder that we truly are half-way through the year. A longer term 2 at this time of year can be challenging for our staff and learners with illnesses, mid-year assessment, NZQA co-requisite reading writing and maths exams for our year 10s, and high expectations of work output and assessment completion from our year 11-13s, along with winter sports tournaments, arts and cultural practices and performances and more. I had the pleasure of checking in with our netball teams taking part in the Otago Netball Tournament on Sunday and Monday and then attending The Big Sing Gala Concert on Monday evening. It was great to have our Trinity Choir back in this long-standing national competition. In the past few years, our Musical has coincided with The Big Sing, and it has not been possible for us to do both. They sounded wonderful, and I appreciate the generosity of ex-student Ewen Clarke-Wallace in training and conducting the choir. His Best Conductor Award was certainly well-deserved.

You will be thinking that our young people are busy! And you would be right. I know what it is like for parents when being chief taxi driver and a virtual ATM during these years seems to occupy every waking moment. Our four, now adult, children were always busy with sport, music and speech lessons and other community activities during their teenage years, and I truly believe they are better adults because of it. As a principal, given the opportunity to make extra-curricular activities compulsory for every student, I would do so in a heartbeat. I realise that for various reasons and complexities, this is not possible for all rangatahi. For the vast majority, the social skills, resilience, goal setting, communication, organisation, self-management, and teamwork skills, gained from being part of something bigger than just themselves, cannot be underestimated. These are all skills they are developing for their world after school. What better time to practice these skills than when the protective factors of family and school are there to help them pick up the pieces when it gets hard. Instead, many of our young people these days spend endless hours outside of school gaming and on social media – in my opinion these are both activities that make their real world smaller.

I attended a meeting with colleagues last week where we had Gregor Fountain (ex-principal of Wellington College and now with Sport NZ) speak to us about the value of sport in the lives of young people while they are at school. I consider that the messages are just as relevant to the arts and cultural spaces as to sport. Research shows that teenagers taking part in sport engage more in learning, stay in school longer, have higher levels of achievement and have higher levels of mental wellbeing. There is a strong correlation with high attendance at school which then contributes to stronger achievement. Human beings are not made to be isolated individuals. Belonging to a social group enhances wellbeing. Having that commitment to others through sport, music, dance or other activities, increases their sense of wellbeing, belonging, and engagement, and by default raises attendance at school. It worries me when teenage boys particularly, feel their only sense of belonging is at home in their bedroom with a group of online gamers. We see that their attendance and timeliness at school is often affected by having their sense of connection with others at home in their bedroom, rather than at school.

You will see in the newsletter today, information about a ‘Social Media and Online Safety Information Evening’ being held at school on the evening of the 25th June. Thank you to Mr Andrew Duncan, Year 7 Dean, who has organised this event. Year 7&8 is often a hotspot for cyber issues when children are beginning to experiment with social media without the cognitive understanding and fully developed values conscience to realise their impact on others or themselves. I encourage you to attend this evening to stay up to date with the current temptations of having an online presence that can sometimes undo all the good that school, family, and involvement in extra-curricular activities, has on these children at a vulnerable age.

Ka kite,

Mrs Kate Nicholson

Principal