Term Three - the Premiership Quarter!
This week many families and fans are preparing for finals in a range of sports. I wish the best of luck to all those who are participating, coaching, supporting or cheering! I hope your team wins.
There is an old football adage about the third quarter being the "premiership quarter" - the period of the match where flat performances get exposed and disciplined ones get rewarded. Where the better teams rise up and the less prepared are exposed. It's rarely the quarter anyone remembers most vividly, but ask any coach and they'll tell you it's the one that decides the result.
Term Three works much the same way in schools. It doesn't have the fanfare of the start of the year or the celebration of the end, but it's where the real work happens - the work that sets up a strong finish to Term Four and a confident start to the following year. It's a term of steady effort, of events and experiences that add richness to school life, and of the kind of preparation that only pays off later. Like that premiership quarter, its value is often best measured in hindsight. Looking through the content of this week’s newsletter, you can see for yourself how much is happening.
Alongside the usual busyness of Term Three, we have had the added layer of preparation for 2027. Many of our families have attended information evenings, and our students in the middle and senior years have made subject choices that will shape their pathways next year.
We have also begun welcoming the newest members of our Newhaven community. Last week saw the start of our 2027 Prep Transition Programme, with a wonderful group of excited children - and equally excited parents - getting their first taste of life as a Newhaven College student. And this week we hosted our Year 7 Information Night, welcoming families from twenty different schools who will be joining our current Year 6 cohort next year.
Events like these matter. They are how a school community grows and renews itself, and how new children and families begin to feel at home before they've even started.
As we move through the remainder of Term Three, I encourage our students to keep their focus. Like that premiership quarter, the effort put in now may not be the most visible, but it will make all the difference when it counts.
In Quietness and Confidence Shall Be Your Strength
Tony Corr
Principal