NEWSLETTER  MARCH 2025

Dear Friends and Supporters of St Andrew's High School. With the 2025 school year well under way, it's time to send you the latest news from St Andrew's High School in Tonga, as well as some news from the Hornsby Trust.

St Andrew's continues to perform well under the leadership of Principal Losana Latu. This year 180 students have enrolled,including a handful in the newly re-introduced Forms 1 and 2 (Years 7 and 8). With the Tongan Government offering free or heavily discounted places in Government secondary schools to just the top 20% of students Church-run schools such as St Andrew's provide education to the balance of secondary students, receiving only a small subsidy from the Government and relying on fees and donations to cover the balance.

The Anglican church in Tonga is small – many of the students and staff are from other denominations – and so the school relies heavily on support from the Hornsby Trust and now the Anglican St John's Trust Board to support its operation.Adding to the challenge is that the school is (deliberately) not academically selective, willing to enrol all those wanting secondary schooling.

Despite all these challenges students performed very well in external examinations last year, with a 100% pass rate.

ST ANDREW’S UPDATE

SCHOOL FEES
Last year, thanks to your generosity, we were able to send money to pay the school fees of 29 Junior Students and 29 Senior Students, as well as four tertiary students studying nursing, teaching, music and economics. These students have all been identified by the school as being from families with limited or no ability to pay the fees themselves.

TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Long term supporters will know that teacher training and development remains a perennial challenge. With such limited income, Church schools are not able to offer attractive salaries for staff (the average annual teacher salary at St Andrew's is around NZ$11,000 per annum) and many staff are unqualified.
This year we have funded an ongoing programme of professional development for staff. This has included supporting separate visits by the Rev Tony Gerritsen (a former Principal of St Andrew’s and also former Manakura of St John’s Theological College) and Dr Martyn Reynolds (Martyn, along with his wife Sylvia, spent 2012 living and teaching at St Andrews and, as well as being a very experienced teacher, he has made a particular study of education in the Pacific). Both Tony and Martyn generously donated their own time and energy to the visits.

ADDITIONAL LEARNING SUPPORT
A very generous and ongoing donation from a Singaporean donor has enabled us to support additional learning support to students this year.In particular the Trust part-funded the cost of senior students boarding at the school in the run up to their exams at the end of the year. This enabled them to benefit from night classes and the opportunity to study without distraction.

KAVEINGA VAKA
Some of you may be aware that in September last year, Kaveinga Vaka graduated from Auckland University with his BMus. Kaveinga is a former head prefect of St Andrew’s, who showed exceptional musicianship in his early teens. After leaving St Andrew’s, he spent a year at Onslow College in Wellington, supported by Hornsby Trust donors, being mentored by music teachers Katherine Hodge and Justin Pearce.
For the past four years, he has been studying at Auckland University supported by a scholarship from the Diocese of Polynesia, and living with his wife Fila and young daughter Lupe at St John’s Theological College. He is continuing with his Masters in Music degree this year, majoring in Choral Conducting, attached to Auckland Cathedral, and has been asked to direct Chapel Music at St John’s. Thank you to those of you who have supported Kaveinga’s education over the years.

IMPROVEMENTS TO FACILITIES
Thanks to the extraordinary generosity of Elmar Galitis and AISCorp the school received in 2023 an entirely new computer suite and associated networking. To help protect this investment the Trust this year funded new airconditioners and stronger doors for these rooms.

ONGOING SUPPORT
We thank those of you who donated last year, both for student fees and regular monthly payments, and we hope that you will feel able to support the school again this year. It would be helpful if we could receive donations for fees this month, so that money can be sent to the school in time to meet the fees deadline of 31 March.

Annual school fees remain at NZ$275 for Junior Students and NZ$330 for Senior Students. If you would like to make a donation our bank details remain: Bank account: ANZ 06 0837 0302748 00.

Please put your name in the reference box. If you are donating for the first time, please email us your name and address, so that we can thank you and arrange for a receipt for tax purposes to be sent to you. We love to know who our friends are, and promise we will not bombard you with requests! If you would like your donation used for a particular purpose, please let us know in your email.

Thank you again for supporting the students and teachers of St Andrew’s High School. Your support has made a significant difference to many young people’s lives over recent years.

Hornsby Trust
www.hornsbytrust.org.nz
Hornsby.Trust@gmail.com
12 Nagpur Terrace, Wellington 6035 Bank
ANZ 06 0837 0302748 00