Kia ora e te whānau, 

Poipoia te kākano kia puawai; nurture the seed and it will blossom. 

It has been a very exciting week and a busy time at school, with the building blessing happening on Monday, the big move into the new spaces for Pōhutukawa Hub, and the opening up of the hall and library again for other hubs. Added to this, our thoughts have started to move to next year and how we organise our hubs and spaces going forwards (please see the separate article in this digest around organisation for 2024). It has led to a lot of conversations around how best to nurture and grow ngā tamariki and meet their needs. 

Our Board Presiding Member, John Bunting, spoke at our building blessing earlier this week and referenced one of the window manifestations (pieces of art work on the internal windows) in the new building, which can be seen in the photo above. It was designed by a group of our ākonga and one of our teachers at the time, Vanessa Shilston, several years ago. The artwork shows a rimu tree at the centre of the window, with a pair of hands holding a tiny seed underneath the tree. 

There is a story behind this artwork, as with all of our manifestations in the new building, and we will share those stories with our community. However, when John referenced the artwork, he shared his own personal interpretation of it. He talked about seeing the roots as our students developing strong foundations in their life long learning, and the trunk of the tree as our school team, working together in unity and strength to support ngā ākonga to grow and flourish. He saw the branches above as the school community, providing shelter and protection for our tamariki, and referenced all parts of the tree working in harmony to be healthy and strong. I really like that analogy, as it brings to life what it is we are trying to do as a whole school, giving a visual image of our endeavours. This is what we will be holding in our mind as we continue to plan for next year - how we best all work together to provide solid and dependable support for our students so that they can flourish - poipoia te kākano kia puawai; nurture the seed and it will blossom.

Over the next few weeks I will continue to share some of the different window art created by Vanessa and some of our past students, and the stories behind the art work that has been turned into window designs. Here is the story and process behind the tree artwork shown above. 

Have a lovely weekend. Stay warm and dry, and enjoy time with whānau and friends. 

Hei tērā wiki, see you next week. 

Urs Cunningham