INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

Principals Piece

Students at the Centre of Learning

Community at the heart of who we are

Ka nui te mihi mahana ki a koutou,

A warm greeting to our parents, whānau and community,

It was great to start the year with a pōwhiri to formally welcome our year 9 students and their Whānau to Spotswood College. It was great to see so much support for our new students and we are excited to be a part of their secondary school journey. A welcome also to new students at other year levels including our 16 international students.

During the first week our new year 9s were supported with an orientation and peer support program to help them connect with their teachers, peers and our prefects, so that they gain a strong sense of belonging and feeling safe in their new kura.

I would especially like to acknowledge our staff, Prefects and Peer Support leaders for their commitment to ensuring the year started off so well. Ngā mihi nui.

By now your child’s Learning Advisory teacher would have made contact to introduce themselves to you. Your child's Learning Advisory teacher is their advocate at school and your first point of connection at the school. Our aim is that Learning Advisors will mentor your child academically and offer pastoral support including working with you through any issues.

The Learning Advisor will work alongside your child to set and review learning goals during the year, and be a part of tracking how they are achieving and progressing with their learning at school as well as guiding them through the course selection process.

Can you please add LA names and email addresses

Should you require the email with your child's Learning Advisor teacher, or your portal login details please email admin@spotswoodcollege.school.nz

In addition, all Learning Advisors are supported by Pou Tiaki (Deans). The Pou Tiakai for this year are as follows

Year 9 Airana Ngarewa ang@spotswoodcollege.school.nz

Year 10 Cameron Hopkinson cho@spotswoodcollege.school.nz

Year 11 Tulah Katene tka@spotswoodcollege.school.nz

Year 12/ 13 Wayne Cribb wcr@spotswoodcollege.school.nz

They will support Learning Advisory teachers and your child to develop programs that support well-being, goal setting, career guidance, cybersafety and any other specific need for that year level. They will also be advocates for their year level and the young people in that year.

For more specific classroom needs classroom teachers will make direct contact with you if required.

Nicola Ngarewa

Principal

nng@spotswoodcollege.school.nz

https://www.spotswoodcollege.school.nz/

FB: Spotswood College Events

Instagram: Spotswood College

Principal

Whaea Nicola email: nng@spotswoodcollege.school.nz

Deputy Principal

Mr Daryn Shaw email: dsh@spotswoodcollege.school.nz

Senior Leadership

Mrs Hilary Takarangi email: hta@spotswoodcollege.school.nz

Senior Leadership

Mr Darren Scott email: dsc@spotswoodcollege.school.nz

Year 12 and 13 Dean

Mr Wayne Cribb email: wcr@spotswoodcollege.school.nz

Year 11 Dean

Mrs Tulah Katene email: tka@spotswoodcollege.school.nz

Year 10 Dean

Mr Cameron Hopkinson email: cho@spotswoodcollege.school.nz

Year 9 Dean

Mr Airana Ngarewa email: aro@spotswoodcollege.school.nz

International Director

Mrs Nicola Healy email: nhe@spotswoodcollege.school.nz

We look forward to introducing you to our new staff who have joined us this year.

Welcome to Felix Harman (Food Technology), Claire Wigley (Art), Rachel Smith (English), Abbey Buckley (English), Yvonne Cribb (Property), Tania Ormond (Teacher Aide), Aniwaniwa Waiwiri-Hetet (Teacher Aide).

Prefect Roles 2023

Student Leadership is a key aspect to driving the vision, direction and culture of our school.

Our student prefects attended leadership training at TOPEC where they worked collaboratively to grow and challenge their leadership skills in anticipation for their work in 2023. Below are our student leaders for 2023

Head Students

Ethan Clough

Olive Denton Wooley

Deputy Head Students

Alistair Abdulin

Maaia Waiwiri

Zara Erol-Watt

Regan James Brown

Hau Ora Leaders

Cleopatra Burwell

Ella Green

Political and Social Leaders

Melissa Berridge

Hannah Carpenter

Cultural Arts Leaders

Thomas McCabe

Isis Kennard

Academic Leaders

Bella Hopkinson

Jacinta Pattison

Kyran Fawkner

Ellie Dinnis

Sports/ Communications Leaders

Lucas Heggie

Anna Clough

Jack Skinner

Joe Cocker

Environmental Leaders

Catherine Reilly Ledbetter

Megan Botha

Komiti Māori Leaders

Phoenix Shaw

Leo Lea’ana

Tēnā koutou … It has been a busy but very happy return to school for all the students and staff in Te Waka Manaaki.

We welcomed seven Year 9 students … Luciano Ngaia, Kaleb Craig, Reese Paul, Cash Askew-Davis, Connor Davies, Maddy Hinton and Bella Ross and Te Ahupō Fortune - Year 13 who are all doing such a great job in their new school environment.

Also new to our staff whanau is Aiwanawa Waiwiri-Hetet …welcome Ani!

Our Jacky Molloy has launched a new recycling initiative for our kura which will be monitored by Te Waka Manaaki students.

We now have 4 Green lidded 240L bins which are to capture all compostable waste. They are for any rubbish that can be composted, particularly the cardboard containers from our wonderful school lunches. The goal being to reduce our general waste volume that goes to landfill.

Kapai everyone!

Our ongoing connection to support your childs journey at Spotswood College is very important and we invite our parents and whānau to join us for our Parent Meet Teacher Picnic

Kia ora ano,

We have had an amazing response to Hāpara over the last few weeks. We do encourage you to ask questions and take a look at the Hāpara website for more information. As a College we have decided that this tool, alongside our cybersecurity system N4L is the key to helping students become better digital citizens when online, in the age of device addiction it is imperative that we guide our students during school time to help become resilient life long learners.

Hāpara will allow us to guide students in the right direction and ensure we are providing a safe environment to browse online. In saying this Spotswood college reserves the right to enable hāpara on students' domain named google accounts. This means any students using the Spotswood College domain (spotswoodcollege.school.nz) for education purposes at school will have Hāpara enabled. Spotswood College provides these google accounts to students for educational purposes and we want to ensure that these are being used for such purposes.

We understand that you may have questions about this so we have listed a few of the frequently asked questions below. We thank you for supporting us on this journey and hope to see success and better outcomes for all students in the Digital Space.

Does hāpara filter websites that are non educational?

No N4L filters out all inappropriate content on the schools network. This does not affect the students ability to access online educational resources unless the site is deemed unsafe or malicious. Even with the use of Hāpara, Spotswood College will be using N4L guidelines and filtering as per usual. You should not notice any changes to your browsing capabilities.

Can you see my device outside of school hours?

Hāpara has a built in system that only allows access to the application during school hours and only when on the schools network.This is a part of the system secure privacy settings. The system will then disable teachers from using it outside of these hours and/or once you have left the school ground. - This is covered in Hāpara statement of Ethical monitoring practice.

How do we know you won't be able to access my whole computer?

Hāpara is not a downloaded software but an extension to google chrome - this application will only be pushed out as a chrome extension which only allows it to see what is shown when signed into your school account on chrome itself. Hāpara does NOT see anything outside of google chrome. For personal use or searching personal things, we recommend students to use their personal google accounts. Hāpara is active only on the domain name spotswoodcollege.school.nz (school account)

What Information is collected?

Hāpara does NOT collect browsing history at all. This means parents, teachers or students are not able to request any information on what you have looked at over the week or even an hour ago. Hāpara will only display to the teachers what you are browsing in chrome at the time you are browsing (e.g. If you are using your device at lunchtime and browsing, we will not be able to go back and see what you were searching).

Again we do recommend students using your own personal google account for personal reasons that are not school related. Your school's google account is owned by the school and given to each student for the sole use of teaching and learning.

Hāpara has a privacy policy on what information is collected and not collected . Also check out the Privacy toolkit if you have any questions.

We do encourage you to contact Hāpara if you have any more questions as well.

A reminder to please fill in the form below for your child. This form needs to include any dietary restrictions so we are able to cater for them in our School Lunch Program. Please note that this does not include special diets such as Keto or Paleo. This is only for food safety, intolerances and allergies to food products ONLY.

THIS IS FOR ALL STUDENTS ATTENDING SPOTSWOOD IN 2023 - If you have filled this out in previous years you will still need to complete this form so we can update our records.

Dietary Form

MoneyHub has 10+ NCEA resources to help everyone attain merits and excellences - check it out and prepare for upcoming internals and externals with confidence.

https://www.moneyhub.co.nz/resources-for-ncea-students.html

Please make sure your teens are checking, opening and reading their emails. Opportunities are being missed.

School Counselling Services are available to discuss academic, career, or personal/social support.

To make an appointment

Careers Officer Chell Lusk - clu@spotswoodcollege.school.nz

Guidance Counsellors - manaakitanga@spotswoodcollege.school.nz

Drop in Public Health Nurse hours - Monday 9.00 am - 2.00 pm.

Digital platforms can be useful tools, but in this time and age, there is a significant risk that social media platforms can be used by students to bully each other or spread rumours about others. We are asking for the support of this community to come together in addressing this.

The Spotswood College’s Responsible Use of Technology Policy is below.

As part of the enrollment process, an agreement is signed by both the student and the caregiver regarding the appropriate use of the school's ICT systems. The school offers a monitored internet connection and a safe environment for the students.

Unfortunately, students’ personal cell phones are not covered by the protections that the system offers. These devices can easily be used to cause harm including the form of unconsented recording or photography.

To prevent this, it is important that as a community we understand the Harmful Digital Communication Act and the impact that this form of bullying and harassment can have on the victims. In this digital age rumours and jokes can have lingering consequences.

The Netsafe organization is the best place to get help either by starting a conversation with your child, seeking advice to help create a safer home internet connection or getting support if you are already suffering from online abuse.

Spotswood College will be using Skool Loop to send out notices and information to our whānau. This is a free app available on Apple and Android devices. You can also access newsletters, contact the school about absences and find helpful links as well as quick access to Kamar.

We have a school attendance target of above 90% for every student. To ensure that together we reach this, it is important that if you know your child is going to be absent from school, that you please contact the school by using one of the following options.

Option 1: Telephone the school on 06 751 2416 and speak to the receptionist (Kara) or Attendance Officer (Jenine).

Option 2: Send a text to the Attendance Officer (Jenine) on 021 023 93060

Option 3: send an email to the Attendance Officer (Jenine) - jpr@spotswoodcollege.school.nz

Option 4: Use the school app to log attendance.

Option 5: Leave a message on the Attendance hotline by calling the school on 06 751 2416 and press (1) to report a student's absence. Record your child’s name, parents' name, contact details and reason for absence.

Based on our attendance data system we will send an automated text to parents of any students that are absent, once in the morning and once in the afternoon.

If for any reason you are concerned about your child’s attendance, you can speak with the Attendance Officer (see contact details above) or she will pass you on to the DEAN or your child’s Learning Advisor.

Sick or injured at school

The sickbay is closed for any sick-related issues. If your child is sick, we will contact home and ask for them to be picked up immediately. Students should not arrange this themselves as we need to know where they are at all times.

The sick bay is open to help with injuries.

A public health nurse is available for you and your caregivers if you have any concerns. This could be a rash, not sleeping well, regular headaches, ongoing health issues etc.

Please ask to talk to her privately. Consultations are confidential, offering information and advice. Health resources are available, with a choice of providers for referrals to agencies.

TERM 1

30/01/2023 - 06/04/2023

• students start on Wednesday 1st February

• Monday 6th February = Waitangi Day

• Monday 13th March = Taranaki Anniversary Day

• Friday 7th April = Good Friday

TERM 2

26/04/2023 - 30/06/2023

• Monday 24th April = Learn from home Day

• Tuesday 25th April = ANZAC Day

• Monday 5th June = King’s Birthday

TERM 3

17/07/2023 - 22/09/2023

• NCEA Accord Day = Friday 8th September

• School exam week Wednesday 13th September - Tuesday 19th September

TERM 4

09/10/2023 - 8/12/2023

• Monday 23rd October = Labour Day

• Senior Prizegiving Wednesday 1st November

• NCEA Exams start Monday 6 November - Thursday 30 November

• NCEA Accord Day = Wednesday 22nd November

13th - Lockdown Practice

WITT Te Pukengā Trades Academy Pōwhiri

14th - Ball Committee Fundraiser

- Build A House Construction Begins

15th - Kapa Haka to welcome Touring Ship

- TSSSA Tennis Competition

- Whānau Meet the Teacher Picnic (Weather Permitting)

17th - Swim Carnival (Weather Permitting)

24th - TSSSA Sailing

27th - TSSSA MB XC

March

1st - NCEA Information evening

TSSSA Rogaine

Year 9 Health checks begin

6th - TSSSA Surfing

7th - School ID Photos

9th - School Athletics

TSSSA BMX

13th - Taranaki Anniversary

16th - TSSSA Athletics

20th - TSSSA Orienteering

21st - Photolife Catch up date

23rd - TSSSA Senior league

26th - TSSSA Triathlon

27th to 31st - Secondary School Waka Ama Nationals

28th - TSSSA Para-Swimming