Principal's Foreword

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Tēnā koutou,

Former All Black Captain, Richie McCaw, visited the college this week. He spoke to the Year 11 – 13 students from John McGlashan, as well as Columba College, in our Memorial Chapel. The main focus was on how to deal with pressure, not just on the sports field, but in life. The students asked some very good questions and were very engaged for the hour that Richie spent with us.

On Tuesday, there were 14 Year 12 boys donating blood for the very first time. Blood donation is one of the most meaningful things a person can do as it literally saves lives. Right now, New Zealand is short around 100,000 pints of blood a year. We simply don’t have enough donors here at home so thank you to those boys and JMC community members that do donate each year.

The Mana Pounamu Young Māori Achievers awards take place today. Our Kapa Haka rōpū went to the teacher's college auditorium to support Kura Stevens, who has been awarded Teina (junior recipient) this year, and Jayden Toro, who has been awarded Tuakana (senior recipient).

 

The JMC boys from 'Deaf Raccoon' are playing this Saturday in the Regent Theatre for the RockQuest Otago Regional final. Doors open at 7:00pm and tickets are $15 for students and $25 for adults. It's a great concert to watch with loads of talent on display from all of the schools across Otago. Here's wishing Chris, Jamie and Leo all the best for their performance!

 

We also have some Year 9 and 10 boys in the Canterbury Science Competition today. We hope they have some successes with that.

Thank you to all of our parents that supplied amazing Tombola prizes today for our 2nd Fete Non-Uniform day. We look forward to the school Fete on Saturday 13 September.

Sadly, we have some teachers leaving us at the end of this term. Both Lachie McLellan (3 years at JMC) and Ella Murdoch (6 ½ years at JMC) are starting a new adventure at the same International School in Singapore. A special mention also to Kyle Murdoch, who will be accompanying Ella, as he has served on our College Board as the Presiding Member. Leandra Hassmann will also be leaving us this term. Leandra joined John McGlashan at the beginning of 2025 as the German Language Assistant for Terms 1 and 2, and will be returning to Germany to begin her teaching career. We thank them for their service at JMC and wish them and their families all the very best.

Next week we have 16 junior hockey players heading to Hamilton to compete in the Tanner Cup Invitational U15 Hockey Tournament. The team is coached by Thomas Meder and Nicholas Friedlander, both old boys of the college who have continued to give back to the hockey programme that provided them with so many opportunities. We wish them the best of luck as they take on some of the best hockey schools in New Zealand.

Finally, parents will be receiving school reports later today. We encourage you to read through these reports carefully and have some meaningful discussion with your son(s) so that they are fully prepared for the second half of the year. For our Senior boys, they only have 14 weeks of school left before end-of-year exams.

Happy Term 2 Holidays.

Kā mihi,

John Veitch
Acting Principal