Kia ora CHS Whaanau,
Depending on their year level and other factors, our senior students are currently in very different situations. Some need credits and have important assessments still to complete. Some have external exams ahead. Some have already accumulated all the credits they need to pass their NCEA level. Some Year 13s are only weeks away from finishing school, while our Year 11 and 12 students will be back next year. Derived Grade exam results are imminent if not already received.
For each of them, "ready" looks different.
A student who still needs credits might be ready because they have spoken to their teachers, understand what opportunities remain and have a plan. Another might already have plenty of credits but be leaving opportunities on the table because they have decided they have done "enough".
At school, deadlines, teachers and NCEA requirements provide plenty of external motivation. But increasingly, as young people move through senior school and beyond it, the motivation has to come from within.
Our Year 11 students don't magically become Year 12 students over the summer. Our Year 12 students don't suddenly become leaders when they put on a Year 13 jersey, and Year 13 students don't suddenly become independent adults on their final day at school.
We become ready by practising readiness, and the habits established now matter. Turning up, asking for help, doing things properly, following through on commitments, helping others and continuing to challenge yourself when the minimum has already been met. Ask any employer if you don't believe me. I like the idea captured in ka mua, ka muri, often expressed as walking backwards into the future, with what has gone before informing where we go next.
As we head towards the end of the year, I encourage every senior student to imagine themselves in December and look backwards.
What will you wish you had done with the weeks you have right now?
The encouraging thing is this:
The rest of this year is still ours to write.
They're not regrets yet. They're choices. Let's write the ending well.
There is still time. Use it.
(With apologies to Natasha Beddingfield's "Unwritten" and the "No Regerts" tattoo meme)
I wish you a peaceful school holiday and look forward to welcoming you back for the final push in term 4. A quick reminder that Monday 12 October is a Teacher-Only Day as we continue our preparations for the upcoming curriculum changes.
Ngaa Mihi,
PL McAvoy
Principal / Tumuaki
