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Principal's Blog: Term 2 Week 6
Friday, 26 May 2023
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Kia ora whānau We are excited to be taking registrations for our Experience Marsden days, where we open our doors for a day at school to the next generation of Marsden students from right across the greater Wellington region and beyond. There is nothing like a real-time, authentic immersive experience to realise and appreciate the Marsden difference; our welcoming, supportive environment with unapologetically high standards that sees students striving to do their very best in all endeavours, truly sets us apart. Our rigorous academic programmes, with exceptionally sound foundational learning, particularly in literacy and numeracy, serves our students incredibly well with our achievement data continuing to buck educational trends. Marsden students are thriving. We have strong interest in the Experience Days and continue to welcome further interest for Experience Primary on 7 June, Experience Year 7 on 14 June and Experience Year 9 on 21 June. Our families are our greatest ambassadors, therefore please be reminded of our Referral Scheme, which benefits both existing Marsden families who recommend the school by way of a fee discount, and also the new Marsden family with a generous $500 voucher towards the school uniform. Referring families can benefit from the scheme across every successful referral made. We sincerely hope you take every advantage of this offer, which is our way of thanking you for your loyalty and commitment. In a shift from tradition, at this early stage in the year we have already received strong enrolment numbers for 2024 across year levels, with much greater interest at Year 9 than usual. We will be monitoring enrolment numbers carefully in order to ensure we preserve our unique offering, including our ongoing commitment to keeping class sizes smaller. The numbers attending our scholarship examination day this Saturday are incredibly buoyant, with 65 students sitting exams for 2024 consideration at Years 6, 7 and 9. We look forward to welcoming applicants and wish them every success. We communicated with you throughout last week as we undertook our annual emergency audit with external provider, Harrison Tew. It was opportune to test our ability to respond to a range of potential threats, which included the lockdown exercise. Our external reviewer was incredibly impressed with our students, who were engaged, polite, interested, asked great questions, and followed instructions to the letter. Possessing the nous to switch on when required, and to do exactly as required when expected, gives us every opportunity to properly leverage the experience; and in the case of a legitimate emergency, to keep them safe. It is when we receive such feedback that we are reminded how privileged we are to be working with outstanding young people, of whom I am their most vociferous advocate. Please be reminded that we have a Teacher Only Day on Tuesday 6 June, the day after King’s Birthday weekend, providing students and families with a well-deserved mid-term break. Unlike other schools, we have been open for the business of teaching and learning without disruption for the entire first part of the year, and our busy and conscientious students could well do with taking a breath. Teachers will be utilising the day on 6 June to work on the refreshed national curriculum, which for us includes refining our Structured Literacy approach in Primary and Preschool and planning for the new NCEA across the Upper School. We are excited to be planning the Marsden version of NCEA Level 1, which will bring requisite academic rigour grounded in core curriculum and coupled with innovation and choice. More on this will be coming your way soon. In the coming week we say ‘haere ra’ to employee, Dawn Morrison, who has relinquished her marketing and development office role in favour of family time and travel. We will miss Dawn’s sunny disposition and thank her for her service, although we know that she is not lost to us as a forever friend of Marsden. Manu Rere Ao. |