Welcome back to term 4 and big thanks to you!

Hi everyone and a big welcome back to Term 4.

I just wanted to say a big thank you to you all for working with us as we continue to navigate Covid-19 and the new vaccination mandates back here at school. I emailed you all last Sunday with how we are trying to proceed in this every changing climate.

We want to acknowledge your frustration at the uncertainty around events going ahead. My email on Sunday hopefully painted the worse case scenario and it our sincerest intention to be able to surprise you with good news if we are able to proceed with some events as normal. Today's announcements of the Covid-19 Protection Framework (Traffic Light System) makes me think that events planned for after 29th November could be more likely to happen - if we get a 90% vaccination rate across all DHBs. What has been made very clear to us from the Ministry of Education is that Public health Orders yet to be gazetted by the Ministry of Health will have clear and specific guidelines for each of the traffic light stages and for current Level 2 limitations - details of the framework follow the end of this article.

I would like to acknowledge all our staff, volunteers and contractors for quickly filling in our vaccination register. We have an amazing team here and some incredible supporters in our community.

I was excited to see the huge progress the landscapers made in the weekend prior to school opening for the term. You can actually see the shapes and outlines of so many of the features. And it looks like they are ready to pour some of the concrete....maybe that will be a surprise for us on Tuesday. Yesterday, along with Astrid, Glenys and Adam, I had the privilege of meeting with some of the families who have loved ones we will be remembering in the Remembrance Garden. I felt truely proud of us for being a school community who can acknowledge sadness but look back with happy memories and forward in hope for all who hold Addington Te Kura Taumatua in their hearts.

Its been a busy week getting back into our Shrek rehearsals and for the next two weeks we will be meeting in our production teams every day to get the mahi done.

Whaea Glenys and Juanita have also been busy making appointments for enrolling new students starting school in 2022. if you have a 4 year old  (or someone you know does) you want to start here in 2022 please pop into the office and let Juanita know so we can add them to our list. We are also working at school structure and staffing as we will soon be needing to consider student placement for the coming year. if you have and requests you would like us to consider for your child in 2022 please email me - principal@addington.school.nz

I hope you all have a wonderful Labour Weekend and we will see you back at school on Tuesday. I will be spending quite a bit of my time at the theatre. I am in a play called The Revlon Girl which goes to stage next Thursday. So Sunday and Monday I will be busy with technical and dress rehearsals. If you watched The Crown and saw the episode about the mining slip in Aberfan, Wales this play tells the story of 4 woman coming together to grieve and find hope after losing their children. Its a tear jerker for sure.

Be kind folks and see you on Tuesday.

Donna