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Kia ora te whanau o te kotuku
Today, reports were published and attached to this report is an NCEA summary for anyone who has completed NCEA assessments. It explains credits achieved at achieved, merit and excellence level. There is a summary of credits still available that are internals, and the number of externals credits that students have access to.
As part of the increased focus on what’s important now for our Year 11-13 students we have issued all students this week with a hardcopy of a student tracking form.
All students in Year 11-13 should have completed this in tutor time this week.
The value of this is twofold.
1. They are fully cognizant of where they are at, how many credits are left available, what their strike rate is and therefore how much work is ahead of them to achieve the goal they set.
2. Parent teacher evening is next week as is the process for subject choices and having this information at the fingertips of our students and yours as whanau is important.
In week 5 we will repeat the same process. As of today, our Year 11, 12 and 13 students have 7 Mondays left this term and 4 Mondays next term. They have the same number of Tuesdays etc. What are the priorities and are those priorities reflected in what happens each day before the externals begin.
Where to next, I suggest asking your young person the following 10 questions. Where the answer is no to any of the 10 questions then there is an obvious next step. Progress is to be able to answer yes to one more question by Tuesday.
Can you answer yes to all of the following?
How to make the most of the next 11 Mondays. The ultimate goal is to be able to answer yes to all 10 questions. One more a week is progress.
- Have you got your own personal record of what credits you have achieved to date? Not just what is on the NZQA website?
- Do you have a schedule of when assessments are due to occur or due for completion?
- Do you have a weekly plan of how you manage your time during the week?
- Do you have specific time set aside for study and completion of work; both normal class work and preparation for assessments?
- For those of you with externals are you looking at the website for exemplars? Do you look at past papers? Are you already spending time doing past papers or exemplars?
- Are you reviewing the notes or work covered that day, each day?
- Do you review and organise your books, folders, notes on the weekend to prepare for the week ahead?
- Have you been taking advantage of the tutorials or extra help available at school?
- Do you ask your teacher questions when you are unsure?
- Do you talk at home about schoolwork and progress and what’s important now to attain your academic targets?
I will continue on this theme next week.
Something to ponder
And just because I like this anecdote and photo. The photo shows a fast race between dogs and a cheetah, the goal was to see who was the fastest.
Everyone was surprised that the cheetah did not budge from its place. We asked the race coordinator what happened.
After seeing this picture, he replied:
Sometimes trying to prove that you are the best is an insult.
We do not need to go down to the level of others, to show our strength.
Think carefully and save your energy for what you deserve...
The cheetah uses its speed only to hunt, not to prove to the dogs that it is the fastest and strongest.”
Don't waste your time proving your worth your time your self-worth is more important than the image of you they hold....
If they can't see it don't bother trying to make them.
For me I liken this to all the self-promoters who spend hours cultivating their online image and not enough time working on what really matters, developing their human capital.
Parent/Student/Teacher Conferences - Thursday 10 August from 2pm to 8pm
Bookings are now live for you to book some time to speak with subject teachers on Thursday next week. Log in to the School Portal/SchoolBridge. Make sure you use the email account you have registered with the school. You can log in using your Google or Microsoft account (i.e. you use your own password for Google/Microsoft). If you do not have a google/Microsoft account you can use the magic link which will send you a code to use to log in. Click on Term 3 PSST Conferences and book your time. Bookings will be open until 9am 10 August. A coffee cart will be on site from 1.30 to 4.30pm.
Careers Expo
Our Careers Department has organised a Careers Expo on 10 August to run alongside Parent/Student/Teacher Conferences. They will have a lot of tertiary providers and career experts available for you talk with. You can find out more here. This is a great evening for any student, but especially those students who are thinking of tertiary study or work opportunities next year. They will be open from 2pm - 7pm in the School Hall.
Kia Kaha
Gary Moore
