I had the pleasure of attending two school events recently that were very diverse but successful events.

On Friday night I attended the promotion- relegation netball game where our own Huanui Silver netball team played against Whangaruru to gain promotion to the premier grade for the championship round of the Whangarei netball season. The girls did not play a perfect game according to their coaches but did enough to edge Whangaruru in the final reckoning. It was great to see all the support for the team on Friday night. It has already been a high-achieving season for the team with them starting the season in College A1 grade, being promoted to and winning the Premier Reserve division and now into the Premier grade. Huanui College will join Whangarei Girls High School in the premier division and it is the first time that two College teams have been in the Premier Grade since the introduction of the Competition in the 1980’s.

This result is not a fluke and is down to a lot of hard work by all the players, coaches, manager and support of parents. Silver demonstrate those intrinsic team aspects, where they have a common purpose, everybody knows their role in the team and they openly support and encourage each other. We wish them all the best for the Championship round.

The School ball was held at the Whangarei Athletics Stadium on the 18th of June and has grown in size since the first Huanui Ball in 2013. The venue was beautifully decorated to reflect the Grecian Gardens theme. The dancing went all night and at one stage I feared the dance floor would not cope. A lot of kudos must go to the Ball Committee, Mrs Rudolph and Mrs Myburgh for organising a wonderful event and to the teachers and Year 10 serving staff for helping on the night. The challenge is laid down to next year’s Ball committee to raise the bar even more.

Your children would have received their examination marks this week, reports will be emailed out this Friday and Parent – teacher interviews will be held during the first week of next term. The reason we have exams is to give a very clear snapshot of how your child is achieving in each of the subjects they had examinations for and so that students have enough time to act on the feedback they get from the results of these exams before the external examinations in Term 4 for seniors.

I have outlined below some tips for students to take from the feedback they have received from the examinations:

1. Don’t panic 
Remember this is a practice exam and don’t overreact to either a positive or negative result. It will however give the student an idea of the standard that is expected of them.

2. Listen to the Teacher
Some students may be happy with their grade even if their teacher believes that they can do better and vice versa. Teachers can suggest that students may be putting too much or too little pressure on themselves, but ultimately each student must set and strive towards their own goals.

3. Identify positives
Emphasising what they have done well is beneficial because they can take pride in their progress and stay motivated. Additionally, reminding them not to neglect a certain topic or concept just because they have performed well so far.

4. Identify negatives
Negative aspects of exam feedback are often most useful because they allow you to identify topics with which are problematic. Work produced in an exam situation is a realistic measure so exam feedback can illustrate areas that must be improved.

5. Make plans
Feedback is useless if it fails to inspire action. Spend more time on areas in which you performed poorly and less time on those in which you excelled, and ask teachers for their input in order to form a realistic plan of action.

6. Work with teachers
Feedback should motivate you to work harder in order to achieve your goals, so ask your teachers to work with you to make the most of this motivation. 

7. Just do it
The three week holiday break should include some time to pick a topic that you might not have done particularly well in and revisit and review that topic.

On Tuesday, six of our students interested in Songwriting travelled to the University of Auckland where they were treated to a day of full on songwriting with top lecturers and graduates from the School of Music, Pop and Jazz section. The day started by meeting the team and students from other schools with some fun warm-up activities. Students were paired up and sent off to work with graduates who mentored the students with their arrangements and song lyrics. Students then got to work with an amazing rhythm section to rehearse and refine for the evening performance. Workshops on theory and stage performance were also conducted along with a talk from one of NZ's up and coming singer/songwriters Possum from the band Openside. Students then performed their songs in front of an audience with high tech sound, lighting and staging. Well done to Matariki, Kristin, Christina, Mana, Jacob and Merlia for putting your heart and soul into the workshops and writing some amazing songs. Keep going!