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Principal's Blog: Term 3 Week 7
Friday, 1 September 2023
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Kia ora whānau I have had the privilege of travelling the country across the course of the past week in support of Marsden students and their respective endeavours. There is nothing quite like being witness to our students’ gifts and talents, and to see them absolutely flourish and thrive doing the things that make their hearts sing. It makes me incredibly proud to be arriving at venues, to be greeted by friendly, smiling Marsden students whose welcomes have been enthusiastic and appreciative. I can assure you that the pleasure has been all mine. It was an absolute thrill to be at the Gala Performance of the Big Sing Finale, and to be witness not only to the stunning performance of Altissime, but also to share in the jubilation that comes when students from all over the country come together with a shared purpose and love of their art. Their support of one another was phenomenal, and the music they made together, incredible. Altissime were met with rapturous applause at the presentation of their Gold award, and the reactions of our students when they realised quite what they had accomplished was priceless. Our sports teams have done wonderfully well in their respective campaigns, with not all having completed their respective tournaments at the time of writing. Our teams are tremendous. True competitors, they bring their best efforts to achieving success, and do so with good old fashioned, never out-of-date Marsden grit and grace. They are such wonderful supporters of one another; inclusive, kind, and supportive. A true measure of accomplishment is the manner with which Marsden students conduct themselves, their interactions with one another, and the respect they show to their opponents. They are the epitome of play hard, play fair, and they have had a wonderful time in doing so, making memories that will last a lifetime; halcyon days of donning one’s school colours and benefiting from all that is good in school sport. On the curriculum front, course selections for 2024 are now due, and any students who have not yet made their choices are encouraged to do so as soon as possible. We also have Upper School Learning Progress Interviews coming up next week. For these learning conferences, we encourage parents and students to attend the meetings together, as this is an ideal opportunity for parents, students, and teachers to hold a transparent and open shared conversation about learning and progress. Appointments can be booked online and are five minutes duration with each subject teacher. Booking information can be found in the year group notices within this newsletter. Once again, my plea is that unwell students remain at home to fully recuperate prior to returning to school. Winter germs are rife, and to protect the wellbeing of all at school I ask that sick students do not attend. Unfortunately, our in-house health services have been overrun of late, and we have constantly been needing to send unwell students home. Whilst admirable that learners are wanting to be at school, particularly in the lead-in to practice examinations, it is in the best interests of the individual, and everyone else, that germs are kept well away from school. Thank you for understanding, and for assisting in keeping our school community as germ-free as possible. All the best to our AIMS Games teams and individual athletes who are about to participate in what is reputed to be the Southern Hemisphere's largest sporting event. Go well! |