In December last year, the Ministry of Education announced a $400m School Investment Package (SIP). This is the most significant capital investment for schools in the past 25 years. The funding has been worked out on a per-student rate. As a large school, Halswell qualified for the maximum level of funding totalling $400,000.

Over the course of the past few months, the Board of Trustees has worked through a process to determine what this funding will be spent on. We are pleased to inform you that the funding will be used to complete a range of projects around the school including tidying-up some of the asphalt and soft fall areas, increasing the storage and improving the overall flow around the school. 

The largest and most exciting project will be the installation of a new astroturf court on the field. As you will be aware, for the size of the school we have limited outdoor spaces for the children to play games on. This is compounded in the winter months when the field is too wet and muddy to access. The astroturf court will provide a space for the children to play on all year round. We also hope that this will become a valuable community asset in the future.

We will be removing the silver birch trees that run along the fence line behind Kahu and Ōrongomai. These trees regularly cause asthma and hay-fever related issues for students and staff at certain times of the year due to the highly allergenic nature of silver birches. 

The removal of established trees is not something the Board undertakes lightly but due to the issues the silver birches continue to create, we feel that this is in the best interests of our children. We are committed to replacing any tree that is removed with another more suitable tree. This may or may not be in the same location. The silver birch trees are scheduled to be removed in the upcoming holidays. 

This SIP is a very exciting opportunity for our school. We will keep you updated as we work through the process and finalise the schedule of work.