Tēnā koutou e te whānau whānui o Rangitoto,
With the national concerns regarding teacher supply exemplified by some schools having to roster home year groups due to a lack of relievers, it is timely to recognise the contribution of all the staff at Rangitoto College. As a community, we are fortunate to have people who demonstrate their commitment by regularly going beyond expectations in their desire to give our students the very best education possible. A special thank you goes to our pool of relievers who always step in and help run classes when needed.
For 2025, we have been recruiting globally to ensure our students have excellent teachers in front of them in Term 1 next year. We are currently planning how we can best support the evolving needs of our students and the wider community with the efficient deployment of our large team of staff, particularly in regard to second language learners. The new literacy and numeracy common assessment tasks have served to highlight the need for a rigorous knowledge rich curriculum that both challenges and supports students to be successful. For students new to New Zealand, this presents particular difficulty due to the language requirements and is something that all schools in the sector need to address with urgency. While the pace of change required from primary to secondary schools is concerning to some, I believe it is imperative that we all act quickly and decisively to bring the basic literacy and numeracy levels to where they need to be, and I am supportive of the current decisions that are driving schools forward.
Patrick Gale, Principal