Kia ora koutou e te whānau

The end of the school year is all but upon us and we can reflect on what has been a year of challenges and celebrations at Elmwood Normal School.

Hopefully you’ve been able to sit down with your child/children and let them share their learning achievements that were captured in their digital reports in HERO. I hope you are as proud as I am of each student’s achievements for the year.

Farewells and Welcomes

This year we farewell Richard Oswin, Willem Kortekass, Louisa Belcher, Caro Searell and Cate Stevens. To all of these staff we thank you for your many contributions to our school and we wish you well in your future endeavours.

I would also like to acknowledge the tragic loss of our dear friend and colleague Isaac Levings.

His passing has presented many challenges for us all but together we are becoming stronger each day. The strength of our community in its support for one another has certainly helped our healing.

Isaac was a fine young man and an outstanding teacher whose memory will live on with us.

Next year we are delighted to welcome to our staff Matt Hooper, Brendon Harper, Bridie Harris and Cameron Ryan. Matt will take over leadership of the Ruru Team, while Bridie will be teaching in Year 5, Cameron in Year 4 and Brendon in Year 3.

On Tuesday your child spent some time in their 2024 class with their next year’s teacher getting to know their new classmates. They will have been issued with an introductory letter from their 2024 teacher which they would have brought home to share with you. A stationery brochure on how to login and order your next year's stationery pack was included with that letter.

The school year will conclude this Friday 15 December. Students will be dismissed at 12:30pm from their classrooms so please make arrangements to collect them from there at that time.

The School office will reopen on Friday 26th January 2024 from 9.00am - 12.30pm and be open on Monday 30th January from 9.00am - 12.30pm. The school office will be closed on Tuesday 30th January. School reopens for instruction on Wednesday 31st January.

The second hand uniform shop will also be open on Friday 26th January from 9.00am - 11.00am and also on Monday 29th January from 9.00am - 11.00am.

As this is our last news update for the year I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their support during the year and wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I hope you all have safe, relaxing holidays.

Looking forward to seeing you all again on Wednesday 31 January 2024.

Ngā mihi,

Paul