7 December 2024

The penultimate week of the year comes to an end with our Girls and Mixed Touch Teams competing in Rotorua. Our Year 9s and 10s have heard the best orators in their year levels at the annual speech competitions. Last minute tweaks to the Junior Activity Week have also been made through the course of the week – ensuring that all on-site activities, and offsite excursions are ready to go on Monday.

For our Year 9 and 10 students (and for their parents and caregivers) make sure you check TEAMS carefully so you know which activities you are on each day, where you should meet each morning, and what equipment you need (all students should make sure that you have plenty of sunblock, SunSmart clothing, and water (although sunblock will be made available on each activity). My thanks to Gordon Bruce, Callandra Field, and Robert Short for the huge amount of planning required.

The week ahead, and indeed the school year, will culminate with our two Prizegiving ceremonies on Thursday – see separate notices about these ceremonies. Students must be in correct uniform.

On the subject of uniform – you should have seen details of the new items being introduced next year. To clarify – there is no separate Summer/Winter uniform – students are free to wear shorts all year should they choose to do so. The blazer remains non-negotiable as it is the central pillar of our visual identity as Massey High School students, although common sense prevails in hotter weather.

There will of course be much more detailed information on uniform etc. in our start up letters that will be sent out to all parents and caregivers in a few weeks – a couple of points to note involve sandals. Please pay close attention to the styles allowed, and also to the fact that students will need covered shoes (any covered shoes) if they are doing practical lessons in science labs, kitchens, or workshops that they change into for the duration of that lesson. Our Science and Technology Faculties will be providing all students with detailed procedures at the beginning of the 2025 school year.

Similarly, there will be some changes to our attendance procedures, a tightening of cellphone regulations, and new programmes in place for Year 9 students, and academic counselling.

Speech Competitions

As mentioned above, our annual speech competitions took place this week – thanks to Michael Onslow-Osborne for his organization and running of these competitions. As always, the standard of our speech givers was incredibly high, with students tackling some subjects from plastics to shark-fins, from moving to New Zealand to Manaakitanga. Thank you to all students in Year 9 and 10 who gave each speaker the best opportunity to express themselves on stage, the respect you showed was appreciated by all.

The winners were:

Year 9 Speech Competition

• 1st: Isabella Noble 9HBA—The problems of hypocrisy in our society
• 2nd: Liam Delos Santos 9HCV—Moving from the Philippines to Aotearoa—hope, tough times and triumph
• 3rd: Kautubh Gautum 9KTM—Moving from wanting to be somebody else to wanting to be the best version of yourself

Year 10 Speech Competition

• 1st: Tu’I Tavo 10KOB—Celebrating Pasifika pride, culture and identity
• 2nd: Devon Matich 10MCW—On transforming schools to promote wellbeing
• 3rd: Billie Hughes 10MCW—The perils of plastics and micro-plastics, and what we can do about it

Sport

As sport wraps up for the year there have been some fantastic results from some of our other sporting codes at school in the past couple of weeks.

Congratulations to our Junior Tag Girls who recently finished 4th in Auckland – thanks to their coach Fou Tuivaiti and managers on the day Maddy Golightly and Duwayne Toko.

Our Junior volleyball teams have performed well, with our Junior Volleyball Boys finishing 3rd in Division 2 and our Junior Volleyball Girls finishing 6th in Division 2 at the recent Secondary Schools Nationals. A huge thank you to the coaches of each, Marvis Pauli and Coach Rudy who have both contributed to the development of volleyball at Massey. Thanks also to Meafou Vaigalu for his support.

Waterpolo goes from strength to strength, with our team finishing strongly in their competition – one highlighted with two wins against Kings College and a huge win against Auckland Grammar. Thanks to the energy of Sadie van der Kraaij and Alex Hill the sport continues to develop and grow.

Finally, our Junior Girls Touch Team won the Western Zone season – thank you to the ongoing support of Teresa and Luke Kanuta, Whaea Danielle, and Jarrod Framhein.

To all teachers, parents, coaches, managers, or transporters of students through the year across all sporting codes I would like to express my warmest thanks. Our students could not take up the many opportunities on offer without your help, dedication, and time.

There will be one final Panui at the end of the final week – to all students still at school, make the most of Junior Activity Week.

Ngā mihi