Principal’s End of Year Newsletter 2024

“Mana Rangatahi – Empowering Young People” is our kura vision and we have this at the forefront of our thinking in everything that we do for our students. I want to congratulate our diverse, talented and real teaching team. They have once again responded without hesitation, developing creative and responsive approaches, to ensure students remain at the centre of all efforts. They are a very committed, professional, and hardworking team and I am very grateful to them all. They are the ones working directly with our students, literally walking alongside them, helping them to navigate their day to day lives in and out of school. The ongoing efforts of our support staff (office, caretakers and learning assistants) have held us all together and we are grateful for their contributions. I would like to specifically acknowledge the role that Quenten Browne, Deputy Principal, Kura Tuakana and Haylee Webber, Deputy Principal – Kura Teina hold in our school. Together we collaborate easily to combine our strengths to support our students to learn and our teachers to share their knowledge, wisdom and passions.

To our Board of Trustees,  Parent Teacher Association, coaches, managers, transport providers and volunteers – my thanks to you all for your ongoing support, sheer hard work and commitment to our school’s operation. You are representative of the wider Whaingaroa community and we simply cannot operate without your assistance and support. Our school values of manaakitanga and whanaungatanga are alive and active in your efforts. We welcome your feedback and encourage you to come in and to see us. We are always open to feedback and looking to improve in our practices.

We especially acknowledge Margaret Dillon and the Feed The Kids team of volunteers for making Wednesdays a joyful day for many – providing kai, kindness and laughter to staff and students alike – in the Whaingaroa way. Every year, we are also fortunate to receive some financial sponsorship and donations – we are very grateful to everyone who has made any contribution – please accept our sincere thanks. 

I do want to acknowledge the kindness of donors this year who have made contributions towards the school pool, no matter how big or small. Donations have provided the funding required to get our school swimming pool up and running again. These donations are truly gold to us as our ability to provide our students with water safety and swimming education is of high importance within our school PE programme. With many schools throughout Aotearoa emptying and closing down their swimming pools, It is wonderful to see how valued this asset is to our community.

We hold five end of year formal gatherings (Sports, Years 0-6, 7-10, 11-13 and Te Rōpū Aroha ki te Reo) to celebrate the learning of all of our students. We congratulate those who have achieved highly in different subject areas and in the use of our school values of Manaakitanga, Whanaungatanga, Kaitiakitanga and Poutama. These are great celebrations of learning in a bicultural environment, and huge congratulations go out to all of the successful student recipients. Their steadfast efforts are acknowledged and valued. All of these events are held onsite and streamed live online. The Sports and Senior School prize givings were held in November.

These have all been completed and will be sent home at the end of this week; Friday 13th December. We invite you to email us at principal@raglanarea.school.nz or to contact us in the new year if you wish to discuss any of the outcomes that have been shared with you about your child’s learning in this second half of the year. 

• The Ministry of Education (MOE) Target for schoolwide regular attendance is 90%. This means a student who attends school 9 out of 10 weeks is regularly attending.  
• The MOE wants schools to reach 70% regular attendance by the end of 2024. Right across the school our current attendance rates are not yet meeting this aspiration but we continue to review our processes.
• End of year Attendance data shows 38% of our tamariki are regularly attending school.   The Tuakana exam schedule has had a huge impact on this data and we need whanau support to lift the attendance rates for 2025.
• Attendance and Non-attendance is monitored by our teachers and office staff.   We have appreciated whaanau letting us know when our students are absent through illness, alternative schooling arrangements, family gatherings and any other explained absences.  This information helps us to monitor and track attendance patterns. 
• Our partnership with our neighbouring primary schools  (Waitetuna, Te Mata and Te Uku) has been successful. We hope to retain the two Attendance Officers who have been connecting with whaanau who are not attending regularly. 
• All reports sent home now include an Attendance figure to help whaanau to monitor more closely their children’s attendance.
• Together we can make a difference.

We have had an outstanding year in Kura Teina with many successes throughout the team. These have been shared throughout the year with highlights being noted at our End of Year Prize giving ceremony. We have also added in data for the Year 7-8 group for 2024.  One area that continues to require our attention is Writing. This is something that is common across many schools in New Zealand.  RAS has committed to undertaking MOE PLD in Structured Literacy, it will mean that all teachers in the Year 0-8 space will have received targetted PLD in 2025.  This will support future learning of our tamariki in Literacy aka Reading and Writing.

• Our Reading data shows at the end of 2024, there were 69% of students in Yrs 0-8 achieving at or above.
• Our Maths data shows at the end of 2024, there were 64% of students in Yrs 0-8 achieving at or above.

• End Of Year data shows that 51% of our students are achieving at or above the expected Writing standard.   
• We have identified the below students who will be our priority learners for 2025.
• Structured Literacy will support the teaching and learning of writing.
• We have new Curriculum leads that will support the Literacy implementation throughout Yrs 0-8. 

Throughout the year we have had a number of new students enrol into year 11, including one from overseas. Getting these students Numeracy (10 Credits) Literacy(10 Credits) and NCEA 1(60 Credits) has proved difficult (The student from overseas – Australia – had no transferable qualifications)( 8 students were in this category) that joined Term 3 or after are unlikely to pass.

Year 11 Data (44 students)

• 56% have gained Level 1 NCEA (25/44)
• 13% are awaiting Positive CAA results to pass (Numeracy /Literacy exam results ) (6/44)
• 9% need CAA and externals exams / Art boards to pass(4/44)
• 23% will not have enough credits and or are unlikely to pass CAA (they arrived mid term 2 or after without NUM, LIT. Had 15 or less credits and missed or failed  mid year CAA)
•  77% Potentially will pass this year(34/44) 

In Years 12-13 the Target is for 90% + to gain NCEA Level 2 and to Improve the numbers of students achieving University Entrance outcomes for Year 13.

NB:  Current data results are interim while we await the exam results to be confirmed by NZQA in March 2025. These results are encouraging but below our 90% target.

Year 12 Data (46 students)

• 80% are on track to attain Level 2 NCEA
• 93% have gained their Literacy credits (2 New students end of term 3)
• 93% have gained their Numeracy credits (2 New students end of term 3)

Year 13 Data (25 Students)

• 40% of students have gained Level 3 NCEA (the rest are awaiting exam results) 
• 100% have gained their Literacy credits
• 100% have gained their Numeracy credits
• 76% have gained University Entrance Literacy. (19/25)

I (Whaea Louisa Barham) will be on Sabbatical leave for Terms 2, 3 and 4 in 2025. Quenten Browne will be Acting Principal in my absence and Haylee Webber will assume the Deputy Principal role across the entire school for Terms 2, 3 and 4 in 2025. They will be ably supported by the Board of Trustees and our middle school leaders.

We acknowledge, thank and say farewell to the following staff members who are leaving us; Jason Borich Y9-11 Maths Teacher (returning to St Paul’s Collegiate),  Wendy Sutton Years 3&4 Teacher, Emma Taylor Years 7&8 Teacher (both are available for relief teaching in 2025) and Ruby Gibbs senior students Learning Assistant (pursuing tertiary studies). We extend sincerest thanks to each of these staff members for their unique and individual contributions and wish them every success in their future endeavours. Kia Kaha, Kia pai te ora!

Emily Meleshenko, Naomi Tovio, Hilary Elliot and David O’Loughlin have been on leave for the entire 2024 school year and will return to us in 2025. We also extend a warm welcome to Felipe Queriquelli (Years 7 & 8) who comes to us having been teaching at Maeroa Intermediate School in Hamilton during 2024. We welcome Simon Thompson onto our staff as a teacher in years 5 and 6, Simon has been a regular reliever in 2024 so many of our students will already know him. We also welcome Natasha Rao on board as a counsellor in our Hauora Team.

Below is a complete list of the confirmed teaching team for 2025.

Senior Leadership Team

• Louisa Barham (Principal)

• Quenten Browne (Deputy Principal Kura Tuakana – Years 9-13 / Acting Principal Terms 2,3 and 4)

• Haylee Webber (Deputy Principal Kura Teina – Years 0-8 / Deputy Principal schoolwide Terms 2,3 and 4)

Kura Teina – Te Rōpū Aroha Ki Te Reo Kaiako (Māori Full Immersion classes)

• Juanita Asi (Team Leader TRAKTR, Y0-3 kaiako) 

• Aroha McQueen (Y4-6 kaiako) 

Kura Teina – Mainstream Years 0-8 Teachers

• Hilary Elliot (Classroom Release Teacher Y3&4, Curriculum Leader Y0-6)

• Steph de Besten (Learning Support and Enrolments Years 0-6)

• Nicole Bell (Team Leader Y0-2, Y0-1 teacher) 

• Lisa Brunel (Y0-1 teacher)

• Sheree Gibson (Y2 teacher)

• Grace Winter (Y2 teacher)

• Celia Risbridger (Classroom Release Teacher Y0-2)

• Rebecca Hishon (Structured Literacy teacher)

• Kieran Hallgate (Team Manager Y3&4, Y3&4 teacher) 

• Kim Geros (Y3&4 teacher)

• Emily Meleshenko & Annie Stuart Job Share (Y3&4 teachers)

• Christine Prouse (Y3&4 teacher)

• Alison Hewett (Team Leader Y5&6, Y5&6 teacher) 

• Amy Haswell (Y5&6 teacher)

• Simon Thompson (Y5&6 teacher) 

• Nick Wilson &  Lisa Mitchell Job Share (Y5&6 teachers)

• Victoria Cooper (Classroom Release Teacher Y5&6)

• David O’Loughlin (Team Manager Y7&8, Y7&8 teacher) 

• Serita Drewery (Y7&8 teacher) 

• Eddie Martinez (Y7&8 teacher) 

• Felipe Queriquelli (Y7&8 teacher) 

Kura Tuakana – MainstreamYears 7-13 Lead Teachers

• Gwyn Brodie (Learning Support and Enrolments Years 7-13)

• Joseph Rao (Y9&10 Dean, Social Sciences teacher)

• Linda Holmes (Y11 Dean, Lead Teacher Social Sciences,)

• Stevie Gardiner (Y12 Dean, Food Tech, Hospitality teacher)

• Pauline Sweetman (Y13 Dean, Gateway, Careers, Correspondence teacher)

Kura Tuakana – MainstreamYears 7-13 Teachers

• Betty Diprose (Counselling)

• Natasha Rao (Counselling)

• Ariana Millward (Lead teacher Te Reo Māori, Te Reo Māori, teacher))

• Liam Coulden-Lavers (Lead Teacher Outdoor Education )

• Briar Heinrich (Health & PE, English teacher)

• TJ Pemberton (Lead Teacher HPE & Sports)

• Lee Copson (Lead Teacher Science, Physics & Chemistry teacher)

• Karen Woodcock (Lead Teacher English)

• Sandra Jonas (Lead Teacher Maths)

• TO BE CONFIRMED (Y9-11 Maths teacher)

• Angela Prain (Lead Teacher Enviroschools: Science, Biology, Horticulture teacher)

• Levonne Dodunski (Visual Arts teacher)

• Brendon Rickard (Lead Teacher The Arts, Music Teacher)

• Ruth Hare (Dance & Drama teacher)

• Adrian Reeves (Lead Teacher Technology, Materials Technology teacher)

• Matt Stockton (Digital Technology Teacher)

• Deane Hishon (Surfing Academy, Graphics teacher)
• Larry Fisher (Surfing Academy, HPE teacher)

Congratulations to Manoa Beaudry who is the Head Boy and Lani Frazerhurst who is the Head Girl for 2025.

Cormag Eadie, Jivan Rao, Summer Diprose, Star Knuiman, Kaiya Miller and Vida Bradbury will be the other six members of the Student Leadership Team. I also take this opportunity to congratulate Kaiya Miller who has also been voted on as the Student Trustee for the Board of Trustees.

• Tuesday 28 January

The school office opens for enrolments and general enquiries. 

• Friday 7 February

Years 11, 12 and 13 students come to school for subject confirmation meetings. Each student will be sent details closer to this date.

• Monday 10 February

Welcome Whakatau for ALL Years 0-6 students 9.00am in the school hall.

Welcome Whakatau for ALL Years 9-13 students 11.30am in the school hall.

Click here to see our Full Term Dates for 2025 and Stationery Lists for 2025.