I shall begin with a comment from a delightful 6-year-old the other day as we got ready to go to lunch. He sat down with a flourish and exclaimed, “ Good heavens, it’s been a busy morning!”

And that about sums up the term and the whole year for that matter.
This term began with a visit from Jerome Kavanagh and his awesome Maori musical instruments with such magical sounds!  Then Joy arrived to inspire us with her pottery skills. The results are indeed a credit to her and the children’s beautiful very colourful sea life creations are now displayed on the swimming pool wall for all to see and be awed by. So very impressive!  I hope you have been entertained by the comments and drawings in the booklet “All About Me” which the children brought home in their folders along with some amazing artwork they did with Bevan and other bits and pieces. The family trees have been posted on Seesaw and will come home this week.  Our potatoes are growing and flowering!! Since each bucket is the effort of two children, I will tend to the plants for the holidays and share out the spuds when school goes back or when they are ready to harvest. Promise!!

Now I would just like to take the opportunity to say a very fond farewell to our Y8 students. I have very much enjoyed teaching this very loveable group of ( dare I say ) “Ratbags”!! It has been a pleasure to watch them grow and develop over the years, in particular, Tyler and Summer who have been with us since...well, since they arrived in 2006! And it was awesome to have Tai, Lachy, and Shannan, (as well as James), arrive on the scene over the last few years.  We’ve been lucky to have a super bunch of senior kids who are so energetic, kind, helpful and all in all great role models for the younger children!

“What is retiring?” I got asked the other day from that very same 6-year-old.“Well, I won’t be coming to school to teach, but I might just come and hang out every now and then.” He thought about it for a minute and then replied...  "Yes, you’ll be able to come and hang out with us...that’s a good idea.” So I might just do that!  I shall stop waffling now and wish you all a very magical happy Christmas!

Cheers Bonnie