A very busy couple of weeks for the Arts and Sport at Massey High School.

The annual Music Soiree was again an outstanding night, with already talented musicians taking it up a notch in some of their performances – great to see Teuila performing ahead of their trip to Wellington to compete in the National Final of Tagata Beats. A highlight for many was Keenan Te Tai making Ellaphon Tauariki (who earned a rare four-chair turn from the judges on The Voice Australia) sit up and take notice when he performed an amazing solo piece.

Moscars on the Thursday was also a great event, with some amazing film-making on display.

Bookending Tournament week was the success of our wrestlers – with Jaime Robinson, Jack Robinson, and Itai Pyzhanov all picking up gold medals in their divisions at the NZSS Wrestling Championships at the beginning of Tournament, then Akira Taingahue, Karen Ota, Tapua King, and Cadence Graydon-Tolua picking up gold medals in their divisions at the NZSS Weightlifting Nationals at the end of the week.

Tournament Week as a whole again highlighted the remarkable nature of our Massey High School students. I was extremely fortunate to be able to see Boys Basketball (Pukekohe), Girls Hockey (Pakuranga), Girls Football (Hamilton), Boys Football (Rotorua), Netball (Hamilton), and Boys Hockey (Pukekohe) over the course of 4 days last week. At every event, our students were exemplary on and off the court/field. Their attitude, whether winning or not, was positive and supportive. A huge thank you to all students who competed, to staff who supported/coached, and to parents who supported/coached across Tournament.

Whilst I didn’t get up to Whangarei, a huge congratulations to U15 Rugby, who finished 3rd in their tournament.

Our Science block is now back online – the scaffolding came down last week (some of our students and staff seeing the building for the first time as a result). A huge thank you to Stryde Projects Ltd, who completed stage 1 of the remediation, and Shakti Construction, who just completed stage 2. It is great to be able to get the Science Faculty staff back into their staff areas, and to have all rooms useable again. Our Science Faculty have shown great resilience over the past couple of years as work was conducted on the building. Around our grounds, more outdoor seating and new bins are being installed – with more of our old green plastic bins being consigned to the scrapheap. New shaded areas will go up over the forthcoming holiday period, and we are looking to develop more all-weather social spaces for our students to use.

Senior Exams (Derived Grade Exams) are now underway. The importance of these exams cannot be overstated. They not only serve as a valuable marker for students in terms of what they are good at, and areas that may need further development – they also provide evidence for a derived grade should one be needed in their forthcoming NCEA exams.

Similarly, our Year 10 students are sitting their CAAs this week – these are just as important as their subsequent qualifications can’t be recognized should they not gain Literacy and Numeracy. We have asked that our Year 10 students are prepared, punctual and professional. That is, come prepared (use of a Chromebook or laptop provides them with the ability to access spell checkers and to have questions/writing read to them), come to their exams at the right time, and sit them in a manner that gives them the best opportunity to pass them (whilst also providing their peers with the opportunity to do so free of distraction). They are also early exposure to the nature of rigorous exams that they will sit in years to come.