Over the past couple of weeks, it has been my great pleasure to welcome students and staff back to Avondale College for the 2022 school year. In particular, I welcome all of the students and families who are joining Avondale College for the first time. Over the past week it has been great to see our students ready to learn, settling quickly into new classes and with positive goals for the year.
I trust that you have had a restful and enjoyable summer break, and that students are refreshed and ready for the year ahead. A great deal of work has taken place around the school grounds during the holidays, and we are delighted that the work to provide additional seating and recreational spaces for students has been completed. We look forward to working with our students to add planting to these areas.
We are extremely proud of our students for the incredible academic outcomes that they achieved in 2021. In a highly disrupted year, our students clearly made the most of every second they were in our classrooms, and of the high quality on-line teaching and learning that took place. Our NCEA results show a marked rise in achievement levels across all year levels, which is counter to the drop experienced by most of New Zealand. Of particular note is the increase in subject and year level endorsed grades. The Cambridge results are also impressive, again with increased achievement rates, and very high numbers of A* and A grades.
Today we were delighted to receive the NCEA Scholarship results, in which our students have achieved 32 Scholarship Awards, including an Outstanding Award in Chemistry. In addition, our students achieved 9 Cambridge Learner Awards, with 7 students Top of New Zealand and 2 who are Top of the World!
These are superb results, and our congratulations go to all of our students, their families and their teachers for these achievements.
It is unfortunate that once again we start the year with COVID-19 at the fore. Later in this newsletter there is information that explains Avondale College and the Ministry of Education’s planning around COVID.
I wish you all the very best for 2022, and we look forward to seeing the progress and achievement of our students over the year.
Ngā mihi nui
Lyndy Watkinson, Principal
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