Kia ora koutou

Welcome back to school for 2023. I can’t help but be relieved that we are living at the right end of the country in terms of weather events that are occurring at the moment although we are now bordering on being too dry. After three years of disrupted learning I am hopeful of a year uninterrupted by the pandemic or other significant events. It was good to welcome our new students and their families to our school with a mihi on Wednesday. Welcome back to Eliza Collings who is back from maternity leave and will be job sharing with Kirstin Engelbrecht in Room 3. Welcome also to Gemma Owen who is a student teacher who will be working with Lisa Lyell in Room 1 for term 1.

The Board of Trustees has the appointment process well in hand for the new principal. This is not a short process to ensure that it is as robust as possible and will most likely take a good portion of the first term to complete. This will allow the new principal to begin the transition in Term 2 and be ready to go at the start of Term3.

During the first part of the term (especially) we are carrying out a schoolwide review of our programmes and strategic direction for the next three years. There will be opportunity for input from our parent community during this time. It may take the form of focus groups, surveys, online questions or other as yet undecided ways. From 2024 the existing charter is being replaced by a three year strategic plan using the National Education and Learning Priorities (NELPs) therefore our strategic goals need to reflect these. Megan Gallagher will lead a lot of this review so look out for correspondence from her.

The pool is up and running. Thank you to Donna for running swimming lessons in the week running up to school starting. Donna will again be taking lessons during school time. Rooms 4 and 6 will have theirs over at EOHS as we build up to the cluster swimming sports in weeks 5 or 6. We are aiming for two lessons per week in a group situation for students.

I have had a few enquiries regarding footwear at school. The guidelines say sensible footwear for active wear. Jandals and scuffs do not fit into this category.

We are just finalising our calendar dates for the various events that occur at the start of the year. Please check the dates further on in the newsletter to see when they are occurring.

The boiler replacement is starting next week and part of the staff car park will be fenced off while this is happening. Please stay clear of this area while the work is in progress. The junior school upgrade has gone out to tender which is very exciting. When this work will take place is an unknown at this point and how disruptive it will be is also not clear. However the finished product will be worth it.