By Rector Dave Thorp | Posted: Sunday December 3, 2023
Tēnā koutou.
The end of the school year is just about here. The NCEA External Examinations are over and the seniors are already busy driving tractors, working at New World, life-guarding at CBay and a hundred other things. The Year 9 boys are about to have a couple of days of fun with the House Activities, and the Year 10s will soon enjoy the Electives and the White Shirt Induction. After that it’s just the Junior Prizegiving and Conferencing to go. Another year done and dusted.
Sport has been a real highlight this year and we still have the National Secondary School Athletics Champs to go - good luck to all those athletes. So much work goes into sport at Boys’ High. Thanks to all those parents, teachers, and volunteers who support our boys. We think the effort to get students involved in active, physical pastimes is really worth it. While we promote excellence in everything we do, we also recognise that most boys play sport because it’s a wonderfully fun thing to do.
This year, we have also been building up our Arts and Culture programmes at TBHS. Due to the restructuring of our junior curriculum, every boy in Year 10 now takes at least one Arts option. We introduced Kapa Haka tutorials into Year 9 and Year 10 this year and we plan to enhance and increase that in 2024. We are also looking forward to hosting the joint TGHS/ TBHS musical next year for the first time since 2019.
Of course, we are first and foremost a school and we are proud of our students’ learning and achievement. In 2024, we are introducing Agribusiness to our senior Commerce options. Our Agricultural Science courses have been extremely successful over the years and we think the Agribusiness programmes will have the same ‘real world’ relatability that helps the students engage with complicated ideas. Also, Agribusiness as a subject just makes sense in this part of the world.
Lastly, in 2024, we will be welcoming somewhere between 190 - 200 Year 9 boys into the TBHS whānau. It’s our biggest group for over 2 decades. 5 years ago we had 5 classes in Year 9; next year we will have 8!! We are really looking forward to helping these young lads to begin their Secondary School journey.
Have a great Christmas everyone!!
Scientia Potestas est - Mā te Mātauranga te Mana - Knowledge is Power
