1 September 2025

I realise that I am beginning this Panui by repeating a message given at approximately this time last year – but it is a message that does not change regardless of the cohort of students that it is directed at.

Senior Exams start this week, and it is a process that our students need to be familiar with, need to not be apprehensive about, and need to embrace as part of their personal journey to success. This time last year said that good is not good enough if it can be better. Our senior exams will provide the basis for derived grades should they be required by students in the end of year external examinations (although there are very strict criteria to be met for a student to be able to draw on a derived grade). Of equal importance is the value they serve in providing students with a yardstick of their progress to date – confirming what they both know, and what they don’t know (yet). In the run up to this week our senior students were provided with information pertaining to the examinations from both an administrative perspective and from a motivational one. We know that some students enter the exam period with the perception that they will fail, therefore they will not give their best (or in some cases not even attend). In trying to avoid failure instead of trying to apply what they can do they do themselves a disservice. Students should instead be approaching these exams as a learning opportunity, a timely reminder of what they know, and what they need to work on in the coming weeks. 

Whilst it might not always be apparent, our students must remember that they have time, they have support, but they need to go into the exams with the mindset that regardless of how they perform in these examinations, they can always do better. If they experience failure, it is how they respond to that failure that will determine their chances for success in future. An exam which was attempted to the best of their current ability but not passed is of far greater value to them than an exam not attempted at all. Regardless of where they perceive themselves to be in terms of their preparedness, they should be approaching them with the mindset of good is not good enough if I can do better.

With the signaled changes to our assessment system, the importance of external examinations – and success in them becomes paramount.

Tournament Week

Finally, a huge thank you to all staff, parents, coaches, and of course our Sports coordinators for their work getting a huge number of students out to their Winter tournaments last week. Our students were competing from Taupo to Whangarei and all points in between. Keep an eye out on our social media channels for individual results, but the overwhelming theme coming back was the manner in which our students approached tournament week – competing in the best possible spirit (our First XI Girls football team picking up an award for sportsmanship). All who competed made us proud.