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1 Issue 60 – October 2017 – QUEEN MARGARET CALLING FROM THE PRINCIPAL I have now been Principal of Queen Margaret College for over a term. Thank you to the school community for what has been such a warm welcome; from the Mihi Whakatau on my first day to the Parent Associations’Meet the Principal occasions. On my first day I told the students my door was always open to visitors and I have been delighted by the amount of children who have come to say hello and introduced themselves. The confidence that the girls have shown, from 5-year-olds through to 18-year-olds, popping in and having a chat about something that they want to talk about is so encouraging as we start to develop a greater understanding of the student voice. One of the most empowering things we can do for our learners is listen sincerely to their opinions, engage them in our conversations, and act where we can on their interests and needs. An early example of this has been an initiative by two Year 12 students and our gardener, Sara Bishop. Collaboratively they proposed a business plan for the establishment of a glasshouse to support the interest of the Junior School students in gardening. The girls have had to find out so much about business plan writing, sourcing materials, marketing and pitching to the board and leadership team. This is now going to be something we have in the school. There continues to be a lot of discussion about the education of young people. I recently came from working with schools and researchers all over the world using research informed methodology about what works best for student outcomes. Research of Professor John Hattie is internationally acclaimed and one of the key messages his work shares is the importance of having a quality teaching staff who are inspired, passionate and prepared to not only take risks themselves, but to provide opportunity for the learners to take risks. We need learners to be in control of their own learning, be future focused and be developing skills that they need for their future. One of the questions we must ask ourselves is how we can, regardless of ethnicity, be our authentic self and the best we can be. As we start to articulate as a school community the language of learning at QMC I will invite you to come on the journey with us. I am so proud to have seen QMC girls excel in a number of different fields. This edition of QMCalling features just some of our students’ achievements over the past few months. I cannot wait to see what the girls achieve in Term 4 and beyond. I would like to thank this year’s prefects for the very fine leadership they display constantly; their service and commitment to the school is exemplary. Soon we will be welcoming boarders to our community for the first time since the 1950’s. We already have a number of girls joining us to be part of the first intake and they represent a very typical New Zealand community in 2018. Some of our international students will spend their time with us at the boarding house and New Zealand girls are coming for a variety of reasons. We look forward to sharing some of their stories with you in the future. The end of the year is fast approaching and we are now in exam season. All our Year 11s will be taking part in NCEA exams. Year 12s and 13s are offered the dual qualification pathway and will be taking either NCEA or IB Diploma exams. Teachers throughout the school have been working hard towards both the qualification examinations and producing learning programs to allow our students to be the very best they can be, and I thank them for all their work. As we look towards the College's centenary in 2019 we look to how we can continue to make a positive influence in our girls’ lives and how this will work as our world becomes more technology focused and globally connected. Jayne-Ann Young