Kia ora koutou, Talofa Lava, Ni Hao, Namaste, Malo e lelei, Asalaam wa laykom - Welcome to Week 10!

End of Year

We have had another successful year here at College Street Normal School, and it is difficult to believe this will be the last newsletter for 2025. Thank you for your continued support of our school during this year. Having a strong learning triangle, the relationships between home, the learner and our school, certainly helps us develop learners who are future-focused and have the knowledge and our CSNS Values and Competencies to thrive in an ever-changing world. 

The end of the year is always an exciting time to look back over the course of the year and analyse the annual academic progress our learners have made. Our learners are fortunate to have an exceptional team of teachers and support staff who support their progress. I want to take this opportunity to thank all our team for another successful year.

Farewell

I want to say a special thank you to Sasha Pritchard and Abbie Lawrence, who will be leaving our kura at the end of the year. Sasha has done a fantastic job working with our youngest learners and helping to ensure these learners have a fantastic start to their lives at school. Abbie has done an outstanding job as a release teacher for 3 days a week across our school.

Finally, we have the following Teacher Aides who are leaving us at the end of the year: Bryn Wilson, Wiki Doyle, and Coralee Hadfield. These people have been working with a variety of learners across our school, and I want to take this opportunity to thank each of them for all the time and effort they have put into their respective roles. Your mahi is greatly appreciated!

Thank You

Thank you to everyone who has helped us this year, coaching a sports team, sharing your expertise with learners, making costumes for our production, working with our Kapa Haka rōpū or attending trips, to name just a few. We couldn't do a lot of what we do without your help, and it is greatly appreciated!

I also want to take this opportunity to thank Robyn, Amy, Elleke, and the rest of the team who make up the Parent Teacher Association. The Parent Teacher Association has done a fantastic job this year, with one highlight being the Grocery Grab raffle, which they ran. They have also fundraised for several resources and opportunities for our learners, which otherwise wouldn't have been possible. On behalf of our learners, thank you all for your fantastic work!

2026 Classes

We wanted to let you know the composition of our Pods for 2026. They will be as follows:

Class Placements

We have put a great deal of time and effort into placing learners in classrooms for 2026. Our team has put a lot of thought into teachers who are best suited to meet the needs of each learner, as well as ensuring learners have a range of friends with them in their class. As you can appreciate, this is a significant undertaking, and we are unable to make changes to these classes. Classes for 2026 will be communicated to families and whānau via Hero on Monday 15 December. Learners will be spending some time getting to know their new class and teacher for 2026 on Monday 15 December.

VEX Nationals

We are pleased to let you know that all 16 of our VEX IQ teams qualified to compete at the 2025 VEX IQ National competition. This competition was held at the Fly Palmy Arena in Palmerston North over the weekend. Our teams did an outstanding job, with several teams winning awards. Four teams made the finals. I also want to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to Mr R for the numerous hours he has spent of his own time preparing these teams for this competition. At this tournament, Mr R was awarded the 'Teacher of the Year' Award. It is an outstanding achievement to win this national award as it recognises Mr R's commitment and service to robotics.

Kindo Accounts

A reminder to check your Kindo account to ensure all the necessary payments have been made. There are a significant number of Kindo accounts outstanding for things such as camp, Mathletics, New Zealand Playhouse Performance, Beach Ed, and Sports Fees. It would be greatly appreciated if these could be cleared by Friday 12 December, please. We have sent out reminders to those account holders who still have outstanding balances. If you would like to organise regular payments of these accounts, please let our team in the office know.

End of Year Reports

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading a variety of End of Year reports from across the school. It’s pleasing to read of the progress our learners have made across a range of areas in 2025. On Friday 12 December, your child’s teacher will post an End of Year report, celebrating the success your child has had throughout the year. You will also receive a book list via Hero on Monday 15 December, for your child for 2026.

End of Year

Our last day of term, Tuesday 16 December, will look different to a normal school day as we will be finishing at 12.30pm. Please note this change of time. It is important that alternative arrangements have been made to collect your child at 12.30pm so they aren’t waiting to be collected. Contrary to what I communicated last week, aPlus will still be providing a service on Tuesday 16 December; however, this will be off-site. Please contact aPlus for more information.

Merry Christmas

I want to take this opportunity to wish you and your family a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  I trust you have a relaxing break and manage to spend quality time with friends and family.