This week is a special time for us as we reflect back on the highlights of this year and focus on the success of our students and staff in 2018.

We are proud of those who were acknowledged in the prize giving and assemblies this week but equally proud of those of you who worked hard to achieve your own personal and learning goals this year.   I want to acknowledge all of you who have made progress this year whether that is with your learning or your own development to be a better person.   

This week is also a time to be thankful for the good people around us who have helped make this year a brilliant one at Breens.

To our parent community, we thank you for entrusting your children to us. It has been a pleasure to work in partnership with you - your children have been our children and we will be sad to farewell our senior students on Friday.  We welcome your feedback - you can tell us here what we are doing well and what you would like us to do better.

Thank you to our Board of Trustees and to Karla Paul for her strong leadership. We are fortunate to have such varied expertise on our Board and people who are very progressive and positive in their approach to governing the school.

Thank you also to our fabulous Parent Support Group for their time and combined efforts in helping the students and teachers. This year the PSG have organised a school dance, hosted the supper at the Rotary Speeches, supported the organisation for a celebrity cooking demonstration here and funded new music equipment, sports uniforms, leavers gifts and student badges.

To every one of our fantastic teaching team and support staff - you have been dedicated, professional, hard working and shown a unwavering commitment to high standards right through the year. In our school we believe it takes a village to raise a child and you have all contributed to our village.

We will farewell three teachers at the end of this week and I would like to acknowledge Randall Grenfell, Sue Greenwood and Steve Cooke for their dedication and contribution to Breens. Best wishes to each of you as you  embark on new and exciting adventures next year.   Thank you and best wishes to Sean Kiely also as he begins his teacher training at UC next year.

A big thank you to our student leadership team. I have really enjoyed getting to know you all. You have been brilliant role models and young leaders. Best wishes to you for all your adventures ahead! We know you are going to go far and be successful in whatever you choose to pursue!

To our Year 7 students, we have seen such progress in you this year. We know you will step up to be BRILLIANT Year 8s in 2019 and look forward to seeing you back here in late January ready to be our senior students.

To our Year 8s we are sad to see you go but happy in knowing that you leave us ready for the challenges of high school. You have a strong foundation for future learning as you go on from here and we hope you will take our Breens values with you on your journey.

Meri Kerihimete whānau,

I wish you all a safe and happy Christmas.

Nikki