TAWA COLLEGE
Issue 2
April 2018
Dear Parents and Caregivers We are almost at the end of Term 1 and I have been delighted with the positive start that students have made in 2018. Most have made good decisions and have represented the College with pride and skill. Unfortunately, the final results for the 2017 NCEA exams have not yet been released by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority. Despite this I can report that it is highly likely that the Year 12 and 13 students of 2017 will have achieved our highest pass rates at Level 2 and 3 respectively. This is a real tribute to the students, their families and the Tawa College staff. In the last week of Term 1 we will be hosting our Academic Prizegiving to celebrate the success of those students who have excelled in NCEA Levels 1, 2 and 3 and those who gained subject scholarships in 2017. Earlier this year members of our Blue Notes Choir entertained the Johnsonville Friendship Club. The Club's vice-President, Ross Fletcher wrote… " It was an outstanding performance and a quality of singing many of our members would not have heard before from college students. As a student myself at Tawa in its early years this was a quality of music-making we could only dream of. One of our members was very impressed and commented on how the students stood attentively while the soloists played during today’s performance. These young people are a huge asset and great ambassadors for your school.”
regional finals. A new sport that Tawa College students have performed in at a high level is e-gaming where we have experienced successes over Wellington College and last year's national champions, Cashmere High School. Trulani van der Hyde and Johniel Bocacao have been selected in the final 24 in New Zealand for the Biology Olymiad. Hanifa Kodirova and Kaylim Poese-Nathan have been selected for the Wellington delegation to attend the Aotearoa Youth Declaration in Auckland. We have recently received survey results from Smoke Free Aotearoa which details smoking rates nationally over the last 14 years for NZ secondary school students at Year 10 level. Since 2003 the percentage of students “never smoking” has increased from 45.5% to 89.5%. Since 2003 the percentage of students who “regularly smoked” has decreased from 20.2% to 2.5% and the percentage of students who “smoked daily” has decreased from 15.5% to 1.7%. All of these results show a very encouraging trend of students make the choice to either not take up smoking at all, or significantly reduce the amount of smoking they do. It is great to be part of a caring college community and I appreciate your feedback and your assistance in so many ways. Murray Lucas Principal
PARENT PORTAL & SCHOOL APP
Parent/Student Portal
My thanks to conductor Isaac Stone and Head of Music, Murray Cameron for organising this event. It has been excellent to observe the number of students that have involved themselves in summer sports. We recently held a successful sports exchange with Havelock North High School in the Hawkes Bay. At the Summer Sports Tournament Week, our Boys Softball team played well narrowly losing their semi-final 6-5 to St Pats Town. Our Girls Cricket 1st XI at the time of writing are in two
The Portal had an upgrade over the summer holidays. The Portal has the function to change passwords - this is now working.
TAWA COLLEGE “DO JUSTLY”