Tēnā koutou e te Whānau

Welcome back for Term 2! We hope you and your whānau had a lovely Easter break. It was fantastic to see so many of you attending the ANZAC Ceremony yesterday. Thank you to our school leaders, Mila and Connor, for representing Halswell School and to Catherine Fitzpatrick from our Learning Support Team for putting together our commemorative wreath. It was beautiful!

We spent Monday’s Staff Only Day building knowledge and awareness of “Te Mātaiaho, The Refreshed New Zealand Curriculum”. 

Te Mātaiaho is being gradually rolled out to all schools between now and 2026. You can read more about the Curriculum Refresh here.

This term we are delighted to welcome four new staff members to our team.

• Ally Lee will be teaching T30 this term while Anita Head is out of the classroom to support us in an Acting Associate Principal role. In Term 3 Ally will take over T21 when Anna De Francis goes on maternity leave. Ally is very experienced and was teaching in Auckland until moving to Christchurch with her family earlier this year.

• Erica George joins us to teach T12 and cover Nicole Batty’s maternity leave. Erica comes to us from Methven School where she has had three years experience in the junior school.

• Sarah Hickey joins our Performing Arts Team, as our new music teacher. She has a passion for music and is a competent guitarist, singer and cellist!

• Marcela Breckon is our new part time teacher aide. She will be joining the support team and working in the junior school. Many of you will already know Marcela as a school parent.

A very warm welcome to our school family!

The term ahead is exciting! We have the Year 7 & 8 students heading off to camp at Aoraki in Week 4, a Years Year 5 -8 Production in Week 9 and a Year 0-4 Art Exhibition in week 10. Make sure to book these dates in your diaries.

Ngā mihi nui

Cathie Zelas and Tracey Mora

Acting Co-Principals