Kia ora, e te whānau

As the first term ends, we farewell three staff.

• Maria Walker, Director of International Students since 2019, is heading overseas and then eventually moving to Whanganui to be closer to her whānau. We shall miss her enormously - her work over the Covid period with students unable to return to their families for 4 years in some cases, was nothing short of phenomenal.

Maria has been replaced by Hali Balfoort, who worked in the International team here for many years until the end of 2022 when she left to do her Masters at VUW. It’s lovely to have her back.

• Whaearua Ross, our HOD Te Reo Māori since the start of 2022 is also heading overseas for an extended period. Whaea’s broad smile, positive attitude and care for her students will be missed by us all.

Louise Baker, who left us at the end of last year to move to Christchurch, is coming back to us to take on this role. Louise has been the Māori Dean, worked with Kahukura and taught junior Te Reo classes in the past, but after a year on full immersion study leave last year she is now ready for the HOD role. We are delighted to have her coming back to WGC and she’ll start on 27 May. Whaea has set her classes up for the first four weeks of term so they won’t fall behind

• And Shayne Kale, our Administration/Receptionist since the start of 2023 is also heading overseas. Shayne’s calm and gentle manner with the students and her background as a Nurse has been a real asset in the office and we shall miss her.

She is being replaced by Anita Stewart who is currently in the same role at Porirua College and has previously worked at Scots and St Mark’s. So she knows schools, she knows KAMAR and she lives locally so probably knows some of our students as well - we hope that should make for a smooth transition at the start of next term

I also want to congratulate our Summer tournament teams for their good results, but particularly highlight our three medal winning Rowing crews. Emma Bagrie won the U 18 singles by 11 seconds; she was joined by Ella Barr to win the U18 double by 8 seconds; and they were both joined by Annabelle Stirling, Sophie Jones and & Emily Mora to win Silver in the U18 coxed four, losing by a heartbreaking .7 second. Rowing in Wellington is hard work as they get so little time on flat water, so these performances are incredible. Congratulations also to their coach, Catherine Duffin for all the work she puts in and all the rowing parents and crews who put so much time and effort into this sport.

And I want to wish our Cross Country team well as they head to Kenya to represent NZ as the girls’ team at the ISF World Schools’ Cross Country Championships. Ava Sutherland (Yr 13), Giselle Kenworthy, Maria Revelant & Annabel Tuck (Yr 12) and Maia Holden & Juju Moorhead (Yr 11) will represent NZ in Nairobi leaving at the start of next term and returning mid May. They will spend time in South Africa training at altitude before heading to the competition. We’re looking forward to hearing more on their return; it will be an incredible experience and thanks again to all the parents involved in getting them there, including those accompanying the team.

In the last Newsletter the Board indicated its intention to select a member to replace Trish Raea. Two parents emailed to ask us to hold an election, but that is well short of the 10% of parents required. Accordingly at last night’s meeting Katie Graham was selected as the replacement. The Board is now working on co-opting two more members, considering the needs of the Board now and the issues it will be dealing with over the next couple of years. We hope to be able to confirm names after the next meeting at the end of May.

The Board also considered the draft Profile Report from the Education Review Office (ERO) which was received very positively and should be shared with you early next term, once ERO confirm it with us.

They also looked at our mobile phone procedures in light of the new government’s requirements. To comply with these we need to make some tweaks, which are outlined in more detail in this newsletter. Please have a read and get back to us if you think there is a better way to meet the requirements.

The holidays run from 15 - 26 April. We should have work start on our new prefabs on the field in that time. And we’ll see everyone back on 29 April ready for Term 2.

Ngā manaakitanga

Julia Davidson