Welcome back to Term 4. I hope you had some time with your children over the holiday period and just enjoyed hanging out together.

The holidays provide the opportunity to undertake activities that we can’t normally fit in to our normal routine, so I hope you had a chance to pursue a favourite pastime with your child.

On your return you will have noticed that the Junior playground safety matting was removed and the playground closed over the holiday period. It had been hoped to raise this matting, remove the tree roots and replace the matting while we looked at further development. Unfortunately the safety rubber base could not be uplifted piece by piece and had to be chain-sawed into small pieces and then dumped. The good news is that this job was on the to do list, it has simply been given a higher priority out of necessity.

It is quite appropriate that we now have this project in full view, as the fund raising we are going to undertake with the upcoming fair will go towards the development of this whole playground area.

What a scorcher we had for the school athletics on Tuesday. It was a brilliant day, with the children all competing fiercely, but also being very supportive of one another. A position on the Zone Athletics team is always a coveted spot, so the competition was of a high standard. Thank you for your support on the day and to Mr McInnes for his excellent organisation.

Our Bishopdale-Burnside Junior Speech Competition finalists recorded some fantastic results at Breens Intermediate last Wednesday evening. Danny Coyle won the Year 8 section, while Bridie Richards finished second and Jack Richards third in the Year 7 cohort. We had similar success at Year 6 where Ava Willis finished second and Joe Coyle third. These 5 students showed the overall standard of formal speaking in our school is of a very high standard, as the competition on the night was extremely polished and well researched. Thanks to Danny, Bridie, Jack, Ava and Joe for their hard work and practice.

Congratulations to our Water Polo team who once again won the Year 7 and 8 Canterbury Championship over Labour Weekend. We are indeed fortunate that former secondary school pupils have created a community culture where they come back to coach at their old primary school and share their knowledge and skills. The current A team coaches, Pat and Sam O’Neill, have created a marvellous team environment over the past few years and this has seen other young coaches return to coach and develop their skills with our B team. Thanks also to Kylie Rochford who has handled all the organisation and communication over a very long season. Good luck to the team as they set out to regain the South Island Primary School Championship in Dunedin this weekend.

Our choir participated in the Christchurch Schools' Music Festival last night and gave a very accomplished performance as part of the massed choir. Our congratulations go to Denver Williams who received her medal for making the Special Choir for 4 consecutive years. This is an incredible achievement and only a small number of performers achieve this distinction. Well done Denver and thanks to our choir leader Mrs Kearns.