Over the past few months, the carving of our school waharoa (carved wooden entrance way) has been underway. It is now finished and is ready to be installed.

Our waharoa tells the story of our school - the people and the place. It will frame the doorway into our school reception area, next to the hall doors, and will be a very powerful and meaningful entranceway for our kura (school).

We are not able to share photos of it until it has been installed and blessed, but I can assure you that it is absolutely beautiful. It has been carved by Hermann Salzmann, of Ngāti Toa iwi. The amo (side columns) represent Ngāti Toa rangatira (leaders) and also Tāne Mahuta, as the bringer of knowledge and higher consciousness. The maihi (top piece) represents our community, both tangata whenua (people of the land) and people who have migrated here from all over the world. Once the waharoa has been installed and blessed, we will share pictures and the full story of the carving.

The blessing of our waharoa will take place just before dawn on Friday November 15th. We will confirm the exact time in the next few days. You are all most welcome to come and join us for this event. We will begin in the hall (using the side entrance at the far side of the car park), and as part of the blessing we will walk through from the hall to the reception entranceway and reveal the waharoa.

For those of you unable to make the early time of the blessing, we will have our school cultural celebration and gathering from 4-6pm on the afternoon of the 15th, and you will all be able to view and enjoy the waharoa installed.

Our waharoa has been a long time in planning, and has been a labour of love for a number of people. We would like to particularly thank several people:

• Kris Love, who has taken the lead on this project and been a long time advocate of the mahi (work) around the waharoa

• Callum Kātene, Ngāti Toa, who has supported this mahi and helped us with information and history about the land and the people

• Hermann Salzmann, Ngāti Toa, who listened to our school story and has created a beautiful carved narrative of who we are and where we are from

We are delighted that this project is so near completion, and we warmly invite you all to come and enjoy it once it is installed.