High School Corner

Poutama Day

Thank you to all parents, caregivers and students who attended interviews with form teachers or deans on Poutama Day. Feedback from all was encouraging and it was useful helping students to focus on their goals. There will be opportunities during the year for students to review the goals they set. If you are aware of an inspiring person/story, please let Mrs Goble know as we are always looking for speakers for our Poutama assemblies.

Parent teacher interviews

Reports have been posted for all students and senior students with parents and caregivers will have an opportunity to meet with teachers on Thursday 3 April from 7 to 9pm in the assembly hall. A booking sheet was posted with the reports.

Parents and caregivers of junior students will have an interview evening on Thursday 10 April from 7 to 9 pm.

Positive Behaviour for Learning - School Wide (PB4LSW)

Congratulations to Rachel Martin, Nikita Dorne, Matthew Kowalewski and Matthew Rine on their appointment as Positive Behaviour for Learning  Ambassadors. Their role as ambassadors in the PB4LSW team is to act as a student voice on the team and to put forward a student perspective on the promotion and development of PB4LSW in our school and the wider community. We look forward to working with them.

Latest updates

The latest newsletter is on the website http://stratfordhigh.ultranet.school.nz/WebSpace/358/

Please remember that Y11, 12, and 13 students should be making appointments for interview evening on Thursday 11th April.

Junior students should receive reports this week and interview evening is on Thursday 18th April.

Sheliah Winn Shakespeare Festival in the school assembly hall on Wednesday 17^th April. Check the daily notices for starting times. It would be great to see support from the community for this event.

School finishes on Friday 19^th April at 3.15 pm.

2013 Kidz Art Show

This is on at the Percy Thompson Gallery in Stratford. SHS Year 10 art work is currently being exhibited along with art work from other regional schools at the gallery. Also on show are the McDonald Real Estate Canvas Challenge pieces, which was won by ex-student William Bennett.

World Vision

The student leaders for the 2013 World Vision 40 Hour Famine took part in training earlier this week. The famine is on from 7 to 9 June. Stratford High School will be running activities for the famine and encourage students to register their participation in the famine team. Watch daily notices for more information.

Diane Lithgow

Principal’s PA

Stratford High School

Term 4 Starts

Andrew Hunger
2011-2012 Student Trustee

New student trustee
Congratulations to Andrew Hunger who has been elected as the 2011 – 2012 Student Trustee for the SHS Board of Trustees. There were ten students who put themselves forward for this position so it made for an exciting election period. Andrew attended his first board meeting in October. Many thanks to Astyn Buckland who has been the current Representative.

Senior Prizegiving

All parents and caregivers are invited to the senior prizegiving on Tuesday 8th November commencing at 1.00pm. We ask that parents are seated by 12.50 pm to ensure a prompt start. The prizegiving will be followed by afternoon tea for parents and prizewinners.

Final Payments
All parents and caregivers are encouraged to pay all outstanding accounts for students. The money has been outlayed on behalf of your student for their course this year. Any money outstanding for curriculum or sports means that next year there will not be as much funding in departments as these debts will have to be covered by the MOE funding.

Board Of Trustees Strategic Plan - Community Consultation

The Board of Trustees are reviewing and finalising the strategic plan for 2012—2014. The first draft of this plan is on the school website and has been posted to parents. If you would like to comment on this please email the Board of Trustees bot@stratfordhigh.school.nz or send a letter to the board via the main office of the school.
Also on the school website are two surveys which you can complete. The first concerns the strategic plan and the second concerns the school uniform review.
Uniform Survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/7CXM6VQ

Junior Parent Interviews
Junior parents will be able to meet with teachers on Thursday 27th October from 7 pm to 9pm in the school assembly hall. Booking sheets were included with the graduation reports.

Mr P Keenan, Principal

Interview evening

Interview evening and reports.
Parents and caregivers of senior students are invited to attend an interview evening on Thursday 6th October from 5 pm to 7.00 pm in the assembly hall. Interview sheets will be posted on Thursday along with the school newsletter.
The school will be posting out Graduation Report 4 to all junior students on Thursday along with the school newsletter. Parents of Junior students will have an interview evening on Thursday 27th October.

Congratulations
• Laureen Cox (Y12) competed in the TSSSA cycling champs on Sunday September 4 in Lepperton. She rode in a mixed team with NPBHS and NPGHS around a 16km course and placed 3rd in the senior girl’s individual time trial event around a 16km course.
• To Crystal Melville-Grace (Y13) who came third in the Taranaki Foodstuffs Checker of the Year competition recently.
• Taranaki Zone Chess Championships held recently with the following results for our students. James Burt 1st place Gold; Tayla Corbett 2nd place Silver, Top Girl Gold; Cameron Luckhurst 3rd place Bronze. With fourth member Rowan Meads the team won the Top team Gold medal as well. They are currently waiting on confirmation for their place in the Chess Power Interschool National Championship to be held in Auckland on October 4th.

Poutama
We were recently privileged to have Shane Jordan as a guest speaker at our Poutama assembly. A Stratford High School old boy, Shane Jordan has been chopping since he was 15 years old. He told us that he developed an interest when Bruce Reichardt from Douglas was training some young guys at school.

When he left school, Shane trained as a helicopter engineer and went to work in Taupo. He was fortunate to have a great coach and mentor who spent his days sourcing wood for Shane to chop. Shane stressed the importance of surrounding yourself with people who believe in the dreams you have for yourself. Shane cuts hundreds of training logs, spends many early mornings at the gym and late nights adjusting and perfecting his equipment. This training ensures he is physically and mentally prepared. He has kept very many people in firewood along the way.

He has competed and represented NZ in the USA, Spain, Austria and Australia. He has held numerous titles throughout the North Island and was also a member of the NZ team which set a new World record in Austria. He showed us a video of how he achieved his goal of competing in the American Stihl series. Shane told us he was planning an attempt at a New Zealand record in Inglewood in a few weeks’ time. We have since learned that he achieved his goal. In the standing block he carved close to two seconds off the previous record, set in 2005, of 18.63s. Shane's mark is 16.64s.

Shane’s advice for our students was that they can do anything they want to if they believe in themselves and set their mind to it.
P H Keenan
Principal

Latest News and sporting success

Junior Graduation Reports

The first junior graduation report was posted this week to parents and caregivers of Year 9 and 10 students. There will be parent interviews on Thursday 7th April from 4.00 pm to 6.00pm by appointment only.


TSSSA Swimming 2011

         A small but dedicated TSS swimming team under the expert guidance of Sports Captain Sarah Cooper, had a quite successful meet in 2011.
         Team: Curtis Boyde, Nadege Coates, Ryan Cooper, Sarah Cooper, Laureen Cox, Mhirron French, Brittany Kivell, Sarah Malone, Claire O’Neill, Beth West
        Beth West managed a 3rd placing in the Junior Girls 50m Breaststroke and the Junior Girls team of Beth, Nadege, Sarah and Mhirron gained 2nd placings in both the 4 x 1 Medley and Freestyle relays. Ryan Cooper swam into 3rd place in the Intermediate Boys 100m freestyle and had 2nd placings in the 50m backstroke and 5om butterfly. Sarah Cooper excelled on the night, however, by winning the Senior Girls 100m freestyle and 50m backstroke and was placed 2nd in the 50m breaststroke. A very good effort from all swimmers who must be congratulated for their performance.

TSSSA Orienteering
On Wednesday March 23rd 2011 a 23 enthusiastic students went to TOPEC to compete in the annual Orienteering Taranaki Secondary school championship. This event has grown so much in popularity and this year our Junior team excelled in all categories.

First up Kody Simpson and Liam Burnell went out over the Junior Boys course and came in to win easily a minute ahead of Xavier Hay and Nick Hornby also SHS Juniors with a NPBHS team in 3rd.

In the Intermediate Boys, Cameron Cox and Herbert Van Veen breezed around the complicated TOPEC course to come in 2 minutes faster than yet another SHS team of Reece Saywell and Robbie Howatson, in a time of 19.12 minutes. The rest of the field were at least three minutes behind these teams. Students reported back to say how challenging it was and how much fun they had during the event. It was great to see all teams finishing in the clear daylight.

Many thanks to the back up team, Willie Burnell and Jackie Kofoed who managed and transported the team. We look forward to some exciting times in the year ahead when there will be opportunities for students to take these skills and compete in the Taranaki Get2 Go and Hillary Challenges.

Poutama Day, Student Council announced.

 A newsletter was sent home with students on Wednesday 9th March.

Poutama Day

Thursday 17th March is Poutama Day where all parents and students meet with teachers or Deans to set goals for the 2011 academic year. Your son / daughter should have arranged your interview time which will be confirmed in a letter to you this week. Mr Keenan is encouraging all students to set three goals; academic, personal and community. We look forward to meeting you on Poutama Day, 17th March 2011.

  

Student Council Announced
The 2011 student council was elected last week and elected members received their badge at Monday’s assembly. The reps are:
Amess House: Daniel Stieller, Laura Lambkin, Alex Taikato, Mhirron French.
McAllister House: Shade MacKay, Hayden Hendry, Josh Hunger, Kyle Stewart
Trimble House: Matt Simpson, Cameron Johnson, Faith Fleetwood, Jayde Nahi

Tyrer House: Logan Marks, Harmony Blake, Lewis Marchant, Shayna Heal

 

 

Congratulations

 Congratulations and thanks to all the students who participated in the recent school swimming sports. Amess House were the winners on the day while the Year 13 vs staff relay was hotly contested and narrowly won by the staff with a minimum of adherence to the rules. Trophies will be presented at an assembly later this term.

 Joshua Robins won the High Point Senior Youth Trophy at the American Quarter Horse Nationals. He also won the Senior Youth Reining competition and had numerous other placings during the event.

 Ryan Cooper: won the 200m backstroke with a record time at the NZ National Age Group Swimming Champs last week. As well, Ryan was a member of the winning Taranaki team in the 5 x 50m that set a new Taranaki relay record.

Congratulations to all students who took part in the TSSSA Beach Volleyball at Ngamotu on Sunday. The senior boys played well and were runners-up in the senior boys’ fours.

Congratulations to Simon Terry who was nominated as the Volunteer of the Month for the Lake Rotokare Restoration Trust.

 

Mrs Rachel Neild, who was a member of the Canterbury Masters Hockey team, that won gold at the recent NZ Masters Tournament in North Shore. Mrs Neild has also been selected as a reserve for the NZ Masters team.

Mr P Keenan, Principal


 

High School Corner

High school corner for Thursday 25th March 2010
Poutama Day
Thank you to all parents, caregivers and students that attended interviews with form teachers or deans on Poutama Day. Feedback from all was encouraging and it was useful to assist students to focus on a few goals rather than many. If you are aware of an inspiring person/story please let Mrs Potter know as we are always looking for speakers at our Poutama assemblies.

Newsletter
A newsletter will go home next week with all students. Check out the school blog on www.shsinfo-centa.blogspot.com for weekly happenings.

Congratulations
• To all students who participated in the Relay 4 Life over the weekend. Tracy Kivell did an amazing job of organising students into teams and our four batons were continuously on the track. A total donation has not yet been finalised but Mrs Potter reports that it will be close to $4000 this year.
• At TSSSA Swimming on Tuesday the school team received 13 places in various races. Many thanks to staff and parents who support this event.
• TSSSA Rogaine, Triathlon and Orienteering are events we are waiting to hear results from. Our Rogaine team was the biggest team with over 80 students taking part in this annual event.

Interview evenings
Parents of senior students will be making appointments to see teachers for the report evening on Wednesday 31st March from 7pm. If you do not have an appointment sheet please contact the student office, between 8.30 am and 3.30 pm.
Junior parents will be able to meet with teachers at an appointment only evening on Thursday 23rd April from 7pm – 9pm.
P H Keenan
Principal