From our Tumuaki / Principal

Kia ora e hoa mā,

Welcome back to the second term of our 2023 school year. I hope you all had a lovely break with whānau and friends, and enjoyed some much needed rest and relaxation. I certainly enjoyed my change of pace, spending time tripping around Wellington with my mum, who was visiting from Australia. I always enjoy seeing Wellington through the eyes of visitors, and recognising and enjoying the beauty and vitality of our fabulous city.

The term ahead promises to be yet another busy and productive one. If you have not already done so, please check out the Term 2 Whānau Information article in this digest, which gives you a thorough overview of the term ahead. Here are a few key headlines from me for the term:

Staff updates

• We are still in the process of appointing a fifth teacher to Harakeke Hub, owing to the unexpected departure of Jingwen part way through last term due to health issues. We hope to have our fifth kaiako in place early in this term. In the meantime, for the first few weeks we will have Kirat, our fabulous ELL (English Language Learners) kaiako, working in as a whānau teacher in Harakeke Hub for two days per week, and Merryl Scott will be relieving in Harakeke for the other three days each week. Merryl will start in Harakeke Hub on Friday this week, due to the short week.
• We also welcome a second relieving teacher, Jenny Lowe, to Koru Hub for two days each week for the first few weeks of term. Jenny will be helping to cover teacher release for the first few weeks of the term.
• We would like to congratulate Gina Quintero, who recently became a fully registered teacher after two years as a beginning teacher. We are tremendously proud of Gina and we are very happy to have her as part of our fabulous team.
• I would like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to Gail who, along with being our finance and in-house property manger, also works tirelessly to keep our team well fed. Gail provides our catering for additional work sessions, such as student conferences, staff only days and holiday planning days. She pampers us with fabulous food and treats, and ensures all of our different dietary needs and likes are met. I am particularly grateful that she knows my secret love of custard, and it usually works it way onto our menu at some point. Ngā mihi nui, Gail.

New build update

• Our amazing construction crew are continuing to work very hard to keep the build on track for having Pōhutukawa Hub move in at the start of Term 3. The landscaping and pathways at the back of the new hub will not all be fully completed at this point, and some work will continue after this time. However, the plan is to have the interior of the building and the exterior at the front of the building completed very early in Term 3, so that we can move our ākonga out of the hall and into the beautiful new hub.
• The photos attached to this article show the climbing wall in our ground floor movement space, the cubbies for bags and coats ready to install, one of the closeable breakout spaces, and the nook on the first floor at the top of the stairwell. It is all taking shape well and, and we have our second BoT and team walk through scheduled for later this week.
• We are now at the point of purchasing our first tranche of new furniture for the hub. We already have some furniture for the space, as we needed to purchase some in advance when we moved Pōhutukawa into the hall. In consultation with staff and students we are now purchasing another small set of furniture for the big move into the hub. We are not looking to fill the hub with furniture straight away, as we would like to spend some time in the new building with the furniture we already have, in order to better understand what we still need to purchase.

School professional development

• Primary principals voted at the end of last term to go on strike for the duration of Term 2 this year, whilst we continue negotiations with the government over resourcing and support for primary school. Please see the article about the strike in this digest for further details around this.
• The strike meant that the Staff Only Day on Monday of this week could not be used as a day for working Te Mātiaho the curriculum refresh changes, as originally planned. Instead, our team spent time working on a review of biculturalism and the honouring of Te Tiirit o Waitangi at Amesbury, and some time setting up professional book club groups that will run throughout this term and part of next term. The afternoon session was spent in our wider Kāhui group of ten schools, focusing on various mahi around improving outcomes for all of our ākonga.

Finally, just a quick reminder that Jemima's student conferences will be running this week, as she was away from school with Covid in the final week last term. If your child is in Jemima's whānau group, please ensure you have booked a conference with her for this week.

All in all, a busy and focused start to an exciting term. We look forward to our ākonga returning to school on Wednesday, and to continuing to work in partnership with you all in the term ahead.

Ngā mihi nui, 

Urs Cunningham