5 August 2025

This Panui was delayed pending the announcement regarding proposed changes to NCEA. Whilst most affect next year's Year 9 students, there are still ramifications for our current students – particularly with regard to the rollout of revised curricula. We will keep our community fully informed of the processes involved.

On the topic of community, please keep an eye out over the coming weeks for a short multiple-choice survey that gathers your input as we develop a strategic plan that reflects our community’s vision for an excellent, all-round education.

Discussions have commenced with the Ministry of Education concerning our new allocation of classrooms, as well as the continued development of Massey High School over the coming years.

Thank you to all that made it in for the most recent round of Parent Teacher meetings (focus on junior students). It was wonderful to see so many parents/caregivers in through the course of the evening (both in person and online) to engage fully in their children’s education. Thanks to Ken Allington and his team for the organization of the evening.

This time of year, is the first real indicator of our Year 13 students preparing to move on to the next stage of their journey through life. It is at this time that the endorsement requests for University scholarship applications start filling my inbox. It is great to see the number of those requests coming in, and the quality of the applications being made. It is a reminder of the caliber of students we produce, not only in terms of academic achievement, but also their involvement in a wide variety of extra-curricular and community endeavours.

It was great to get out amongst the junior netballers on a wonderful Saturday morning. 7 games across 2 hours highlighted the full range of our netballing talent – from the elite through to those playing for the love of the game, often the best reason to get involved in sport. What shone through though was the positivity regardless of the result. What was also apparent was the support for our students shown by staff, parents, and senior students.

The season for our First XV has drawn to a close – a difficult season to say the least, but the signs are promising for the future. Our U14 and U15 teams are rich with talent and a good knowledge of the game. Indeed, our age group teams are progressing well in their competitions – making the playoffs over the coming weeks.

I had the privilege of seeing our Jazz Combo perform at the Auckland Secondary Schools Jazz Competition at the Birkenhead RSA last Sunday. A superb group of musicians performed with confidence and without fault. Their drummer Allan Argent the undoubted star of the performance drew significant applause from the judges (in an apparent break of protocol – he was THAT impressive). Thanks to all involved in their preparation – great to see Massey back on the Jazz circuit again.

The next few weeks are particularly busy with Futures Week being one of the most important weeks for our students – a week to inform their subject choices for 2026. We also have a number of students in preparation sessions for the upcoming   round of Literacy and Numeracy assessments.