MC Magazine 2017 FINAL FULL

The Principal's Report
As I come to the end
of my second year as
principal of Mangere
College I reflect back on
another very successful
year for the school and
think about the strengths
of the school and the
challenges we face.
I am proud to be principal of
Mangere College and I enjoy
coming to school every day. It can
sometimes be a challenging role
but it is always rewarding. As a
school we have so many strengths
and it is important to recognise
them as we reflect on the year.
This is a school that has a strong
sense of identity - we know who we
are and we are proud of that. Our
values of respect and responsibility
are strong around school and in our
community. When students display
these values we have an excellent
environment around school.
Recently there has been tension in
the community in the lead up to
a Rugby League World Cup match
between Tonga and Samoa. I was
concerned that this tension would
spill into school but when I spoke to
students it was clear that they felt
4 Mangere College - 2017
'...we're
all MC
Family
here.'
a unity at school - as one student
put it ‘we’re all MC Family here’.
That feeling of family goes beyond
any cultural, religious or social
differences we may have and brings
us together.
‘Seek The Heights’ is a strong motto
for us: always aiming for the best we
can do and striving for excellence.
We have not reached it in some
areas but we continue to improve.
All these things that are strong in
our school add up to the way we
act and behave around school -
something we are starting to call
‘The MC Way’. The way of showing
pride in your school and showing
respect for those around you,
the way of demonstrating your
responsibility and always ‘Seeking
the Heights’. These things are
strong in school and we want to
strengthen them even more to
ensure we have a school we can
all be proud of. A school where
students who leave are ready
to go on to contribute to their
community. This is ‘The MC Way’.
As I look at our students I see the
potential that our young people
have - this is a potential that we
need to recognise and develop.
This potential is the future of our
community - the future of Mangere.
It is a potential that we as teachers
have a job to develop. If we have
strong schools in this community
this potential will continue to grow
and produce young leaders for
Mangere. It is for this reason that I
put my name forward this year as
the lead principal of the Mangere
Kāhui Ako - our Community Of
Learning. I am honoured to work
with other schools in the area to
strengthen what we are doing. Our
work is in its early stages but it will
grow as we move into next year
and collaborate for the benefit of all
our students. We have a common
goal and that is to work together to
ensure that our schools are serving
our community well and providing
excellent education for our students.
This year has seen a lot of change
at Mangere College. The road has
sometimes been a rocky one but
at the same time it has been a very
successful year and we are well
placed to see further improvements
in the future. We have a new
Senior Leadership Team this year
with the introduction of two new
Deputy Principals - Ms Ward and
Mr Whipp. ICT around the school
has continued to improve with
a new wireless network and the
introduction of Chromebooks that
will start to be used in classrooms
soon. Our teachers have been
examining their practice and
making improvements for the
benefit of our students.
Despite all these changes some
things remain the same - our
successes at Polyfest and our
improving achievement results
are examples of this. This year
our Samoan Group and our Cook
Islands Group came first in their
stages at Polyfest and our Tongan
Group gained a second and third
placing. This is on top of many
placings in different categories
across the different stages. In terms
of achievement we always aim for
improvement and to do better than
we have done before. We have seen
results getting better in each of
the past four years and we aim to
continue this next year. At the start
of the year I challenged the senior
students to achieve better results
than the year group before them.
They are on track to doing that and
I look forward to seeing the final
results in January.
- Tom Webb,
Principal