Kia ora Parents and Whānau
Intermediate school is such an exciting time for our students as we continually enhance our curriculum to provide rich learning experiences both inside and outside the classroom. I want to express my sincere gratitude for everyone’s hard work, dedication, and support during what has been an incredibly rewarding but busy term.
I would like to both acknowledge and congratulate all students who participated in this year’s Science and Technology Fair. The entries were of an incredibly high standard, demonstrating real depth of inquiry, creativity, and a genuine commitment to thinking and investigating like true scientists. Seeing our students tackle complex inquiries and present their findings with such clarity was truly outstanding. We had 24 projects entered into North harbour Science Fair; we look forward to the North Harbour Science Fair judging, Tuesday the 22nd, 7pm at Northcross Intermediate. Thank you all for your commitment to learning.
A massive thank you to everyone who supported our trip to the AIMS Games in Tauranga last week, which was a true celebration of sport and fair play. A huge shout-out goes to Miss Shannon Hale, with great support from Deputy Principal Jill Haslam and the team, for organising such a massive experience both on and off the field. Seeing our teams competing while supported en masse by their peers was inspiring. The electric atmosphere at the Water Polo grand finale showcased that spirit perfectly, capped off by our first-ever gold medal win for Water Polo.
Our cultural groups have also achieved remarkable milestones recently. A massive thank you to Mrs Sylvia Watson for organising the Northcross music team at the Auckland Choral Federation’s Kids Sing Festival, led by choir directors Gnesyer Gomez and Annabel Yu. Following an intense day running from 8:00 AM to 9:30 PM—involving two trips to the Auckland Town Hall, a morning grading exam, and an evening Gala Performance—our team achieved a Bronze grading against established private schools and community choirs. This is a massive step up from last year’s results. Thank you to everyone involved.
Additionally, we acknowledge Mr Mark Jensen and our Kapa Haka group for their impressive performance at Westfield Albany on Thursday night in celebration of Te Wiki o te Reo Māori (Māori Language Week). Looking ahead, the group will also be performing at halftime during the NPC rugby match between Harbour and Canterbury at North Harbour Stadium this Sunday the 20th. Mark, we very much appreciate your team’s dedication in preparing for these prestigious events as they continue to act as outstanding ambassadors for our school.
Looking ahead, please mark your calendars for Friday, 25th September, which will be a Teacher Only Day. On this day, the school will be closed to students while our entire teaching team spends the day working directly with world-renowned education researcher Professor John Hattie.
Professor Hattie’s ground-breaking research, Visible Learning, draws together thousands of evidence-based studies to determine which strategies have the greatest impact on student achievement. At its heart, Visible Learning occurs when teachers see learning through the eyes of their students, and when students take responsibility for their own learning. Through Visible Learning, we empower our students to become assessment-capable learners who understand what they are learning, why they are learning, how they will know they have learned it, and what their next steps are. Our teachers establish clear learning intentions and explicit success criteria so students know exactly what achievement looks like.
Thank you to all our parents and whānau for your ongoing support as our staff take this valuable day to engage in high-level professional development to further enrich the learning journey for every Northcross student.
Ngā mihi nui,
Jonathon Tredray – Principal
