All Dunedin schools are performing well, and yet you want to find where your son and/or daughter will really be given the opportunity to thrive. It's a good idea to attend the open nights of schools your family might be considering, so you can make a well-informed decision and choose the best for you.
Bayfield High School will hold its Open Night on Wednesday July 25, starting at 6.45pm.
If you are looking for a school where each and every student is important, you are invited to come to see what Bayfield can offer your family.
The community is strongly endorsing the school, with a continuing roll growth in our Year 9 enrolments over the past three years, enabling the school to continue to provide a wealth of opportunities, while still retaining a close family atmosphere.
One of the major benefits of co-educational schools is that students are prepared for the real world beyond school.
After school, our young men and women have to be comfortable interacting with all members of society, and research shows students in co-educational schools grow to be confident expressing their views in the presence of members of the opposite sex.
They also adapt more quickly to the environment and demands of tertiary education. Both young men and women thrive academically and socially, not just at school, but beyond it. The feedback from employers and tertiary educators is that Bayfield High School pupils come to them with good initiative, excellent work-habits and mature social skills.
Professor Alan Smithers, director of Education and Employment Research at the University of Buckingham concludes, "There are no overriding advantages for single-sex schools on educational grounds''.
ACADEMIC SUCCESS
Bayfield High School teachers are inspiring, dedicated to their pupils, and highly effective in maximising the potential of each young person in their care.
"We achieve excellent academic results,'' Bayfield's principal, Mrs Forbes, said. ``We are very proud of our NCEA pass rates and endorsements and we work hard to ensure that each student is given the opportunity and support they need to fulfil their potential.
We do this by nurturing individual aspirations, helping to develop the skills, knowledge, qualifications, and attitudes that our young people need to thrive in life. Our teachers make learning engaging and motivating, so that pupils are interested and want to do well. We concentrate on the individual, so that pupils get plenty of help and attention in small classes.''
Bayfield High School pupils and their achievements are proof of this, across the board: in NCEA examinations, subject-specific competitions, sports, cultural events and with service to their community.
THE BAYFIELD FAMILY
Bayfield, with its unique location on the peninsula, is part of its local community. It has strong relationships with local primary schools, local sports clubs and Otakou Marae. The school grounds border Bayfield Park, giving an extensive and vital green space. Junior social-studies classes benefit from trips to Quarantine Island, as they obtain an insight into Otago Peninsula history. Biology pupils test water quality and study the rocky shore situated on their doorstep.
The school also prides itself on close communication with parents, ensuring that everyone is well informed on pupil progress and the many ways in which pupils have excelled at school. The Year 9 and 10 fortnightly email reports keep parents and caregivers well informed, while the online portal enables young people and their parents to track their academic progress.
"We are also proud that the school's parent interview online booking system was set up by a former pupil of digital technology as part of his scholarship portfolio and is now being used widely around the country,'' Mrs Forbes continues.
EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES
Bayfield High School offers a vast array of extracurricular activities. These include the traditional sports and also sailing, water polo, curling, ice hockey, canoe polo and smallbore rifle-shooting, debating, an environmental group, kapa haka, and so much more.
Bayfield is well known for its strength in the performing arts, and the school show is always a highly anticipated event on the calendar, by both the school and the wider community. Come and ask about the wide range of extracurricular activities they have on offer.
VALUE-BASED EDUCATION AND THE JUNIOR DIPLOMA
The school has a strong values structure which focuses on what most people really want for their families. This uses the RISE acronym, representing Respect, Integrity, Service, and Excellence.
Bayfield seeks to underpin everything it does as a school with these values. They often have house events celebrating these values, such as showing service by their clean-up afternoon of both Bayfield Inlet and the surrounding neighbourhood.
It helps Year 9 and 10 pupils to develop a meaningful and practical understanding of the school's values and how they are lived out in everyday life. There is also senior mentoring, where each senior student meets regularly with a designated staff member to help keep them on track to be as successful as they can be.
WANT TO FIND OUT MORE?
Look out for the latest winter edition of the Bayleaf, included in The Star, or call in to the school to obtain your copy to read about what has been happening this term.
Please attend the Open Night on Wednesday July 25 at 6.45pm to meet present pupils and the school's highly professional and approachable staff.
You will be impressed when you see for yourself how well Bayfield High School is set up to help your son and/or daughter build an amazing future of which they, and you, can be proud.
