Dear Parents and Whānau,
You will have received a letter from Jane Stanley last Friday sharing our latest Education Review Office (ERO) report.
The report beautifully highlights the high levels of achievement, progress, and wellbeing across our school, alongside the exceptional quality of our leadership, teaching, curriculum, and student support systems. It also explicitly recognises the inclusive culture that ensures our students feel deeply connected, supported, and ready to thrive.
You may notice that this report looks quite different from previous years. ERO has introduced a new reporting format designed to be more accessible and easier for families and communities to understand. We warmly welcome this change, as it provides a much clearer picture of school performance and our ongoing improvement priorities.
On Wednesday the 24th of June, myself and fellow Associate Principal Nicky Whitham-Blackwell, along with presiding member of the board of trustees Jason Britten, attended the inaugural New Zealand Education Excellence Awards at Parliament as a finalist in the category of Excellence in Educational Leadership. We were thrilled to come away as the winner in the secondary school section, which is an acknowledgement of all the incredible work that occurs daily throughout our school community.
We are absolutely delighted by this honour, particularly as it coincides with our ERO report, which rated our school leadership as ‘Excelling’ (among many other top categories).
Meanwhile, our busy, vibrant school life continues. We have an especially rich cultural week ahead, with both our Indian and Chinese Nights taking place:
- Indian Night: Tonight, Friday 26 June
- Chinese Night: Hosted at the Westlake Boys’ School Auditorium on Friday 3 July
If you haven’t attended one of these events before, I heartily recommend securing tickets. Both are incredibly fun, energetic occasions, and it is a privilege to see our students celebrating their heritage with such joy and pride.
As this is the final newsletter for the term, I wish you all a wonderful, relaxing weekend ahead and end to the term.
Ngā manaakitanga,
David Burton
ACTING PRINCIPAL
