Kia ora Parents / Caregivers / Whanau

Can you remember when the school year was broken into 3 terms?  It meant that each term was approximately 14 weeks in duration.  This was the system I knew and experienced as a student.  Then, in 1996, NZ moved to a 4-term year with each term being 10 weeks in length.  As an educator, this is all I have known and experienced. Now, for the first time since 1995, we are having the longest term - 12 weeks long.

While some of these 12 school weeks were spent at home distance learning, our students and staff have been working hard throughout and I commend them all for maintaining such a positive attitude and willingness to adapt and learn despite the disruption and stress that COVID has placed on many people.

Now we are at Alert Level 1, things have settled down very well here at school.  It's really easy to revert back to the routine, the familiar learning landscape that we are accustomed to.  But there can be many lessons we can take from our time in lockdown.  We are eager to learn more about how our staff, students and families experienced life and learning during this time as this could be a golden opportunity to make some positive changes to the way we learn or operate as a school.

To gain a deeper understanding or insight into how people coped during the lockdown and as we transitioned back to onsite learning, we have designed a survey that is being rolled out across all schools and ECE's in our Rolleston Community of Learning.  We would really value your input so we ask that you take some time to complete the survey and share your story.  Here is the link:  COVID-19/Distance Learning Survey

Property Update:

We are currently undergoing some minor property projects across our school.  These projects include an upgrade of our CCTV system, we are installing a new shade structure in the prefab class area, we are developing new motifs for our new team names as well as new signage around school and we have new gates and fencing being installed during this upcoming holiday break.

At each entrance into our school (Cameron Crescent, Carrick Place and Broadlands Drive), you will notice new 'pool-style' gates with latches and our main entrance will have a new 1.6m fence (with gates) installed that will span the main entrance, from the school sign to the hall.  Look out for this when we return to school for Term 3.

All of these projects are much needed and will be make great additions to our school facilities.

Enjoy the rest of your week and have a lovely weekend.

Ngā mihi nui

Rob Rush