Board Award – December - presented by Andrew Marshall

Last December we did not get a chance to celebrate our Board Award recipient, so we would like to acknowledge them now. 

We want to acknowledge the hard work and dedication that Cassie Calvert does within our Learning Support department.  She is an integral part of school transitions for our Year 8 students who have high learning needs.  Cassie starts this process just after mid-year, is in constant contact with the contributing schools and facilitates numerous school familiarisation visits and meetings to ensure that each learners needs are met when they arrive at our school for the first time.  This is extremely time-consuming and a process that simply cannot be rushed.  Cassie fulfils this role with patience, empathy, and care so that all whānau feel at ease with the huge change ahead. 

Cassie also expertly facilitated the Special Assessment Conditions for our NZQA Co-requisite Numeracy and Literacy Exams.  The coordination and allocation of Reader/Writers, as well as separate accommodation allocation was a mammoth task which Cassie successfully coordinated to ensure that students were supported in the best possible way to have success during these stressful assessments.  At a hugely stressful time for many, Cassie was able to calmly slots the necessary systems in to place to ensure a smooth and successful outcome.  Cassie – you truly are a superstar!

Board Award – February

Today we would also like to celebrate our February Board Award recipient.

Working as a language teacher can sometimes feel isolating as you are often the only teacher who teaches your language.  Today we recognize Terina Yee for her dedication and commitment to our Chinese language programme.  Terina is much more than just a teacher of Chinese, she also coordinates the Mandarin Language Assistants, she is the liaison for the Confucius Classroom initiative, she plans our Chinese New Year celebrations and morning team each year, she encourages our students to enter Chinese language and culture competitions and she is currently planning another student trip to China in the up-coming April holidays. 

Given that Terina is a part-time teacher and much of this falls in her own time, she truly is a legend and we are so very fortunate to have her on our staff.  Our students benefit from her dedication. Terina, thank you for everything you do for our school!

Article added: Thursday 28 March 2024