Tēnā koutou e te Whānau,

The Board of Trustees would like to thank Stuart and our great team of staff for their hard work throughout this year. Unfortunately, it has not been as settled as we would have liked, with Covid-19 presenting challenges again this year. We have been impressed with the continued commitment to our students and whānau throughout this time. We would also like to thank our wonderful PTA for all of their work this year and everything they have funded, particularly the BBQ area which has now been completed and is such an asset to both the school and the wider community.

The Board has been working hard behind the scenes to prioritise and deliver a range of property projects as part of the $400,000 cash injection from the Ministry of Education’s School Investment Programme (SIP). When we confirmed that the School Road Development Project would not go ahead, we were able to look across the school and identify a number of alternative school grounds, buildings and infrastructure improvement projects.

We thought this would be a great opportunity to highlight some of these improvements and to update you on preservation work to our stand of Oak Trees on School Road that the Board will fund separately in early 2022.

Here are some of the improvements you may have seen around the school which were delivered in over 2021:

• Astroturfing, path and tidy up projects

• New speakers, blinds and heat pump cages for the hall

• Relocation of the bike area and caretakers garage

• A new playpod and tree planting behind the Kahu block

• Removal of the concrete pad on School Road, and replacing with grass

• Blinds for the new BBQ area

• Upgrade of the telephony system to VoIP

And here is more of what’s to come in 2022

• Construction of a new Ōrongomai natural playground

• A new outdoor water pump for the juniors

• Double glazing of the Kahu block

• New drinking foundations

• Outdoor lights and hand dryer replacements

Finally, as mentioned above, the Board has decided to fund, separate to the SIP package, remediation work to the Oak Tree stand on School Road. We would really like to get this right and spend more time developing the plan. In funding this ourselves, and with work unable to commence until Autumn, as it is the best time for planting, we now have more time to stage and plan the project and organise community involvement in this key project.

We would like to make a special mention of Rob Naysmith. Rob is departing as Associate Principal of Halswell School to take up a new position as Principal of Weedons School in 2022. Rob has made a huge contribution to the school and will be greatly missed. In addition to all his school activities, he attends a number of our Board and subcommittee meetings outside of school hours and has been a key contributor to the Board. We all wish Rob the best of luck in his new position, Weedons School is lucky to have him.

We also wish all of our Halswell School leavers all the best for their future studies, and we hope all families, staff, and students have a relaxing summer break and a great start to 2022.