Kia ora koutou

The end of the term is now in sight and a good time to update you on our rebuild project.

The first block of classrooms are still on track to be ready for our incoming Year 7s in January although we do accept that delays may happen and this may occur in reality some time in term one. Our builders are putting the roof on next week and anticipate having an opportunity for the community to walk around the framing early in term four. Early 2023 will see the demolition of rooms 1-10 and the second block of nine classrooms get underway. At this stage the plan is to build this AND the new technology block concurrently to minimise time disruption. However we do have some logistical issues to resolve to make this happen in reality. The field and hardcourts will also start in the new year with a focus on getting the hardcourts completed as quickly as possible to give us dry play spaces for winter and time for the grass to strike before the weather turns. 

Following my last newsletter, we had some excellent sessions with an organisation called Attitude who delivered some powerful messages around positive social media usage to all students. This week, we had our parent session delivered by Linewize which was very well attended as part of our overall plan to improve the wellbeing of students in the online space. Attitude gave each child a contract to bring home to talk through with you as parents and set some common boundaries and expectations. I hope you have found these discussions useful with your child as we all come to grips with keeping our children safe and secure in the world they now find themselves in. Attitude covered many aspects of online safety during the sessions with students and the overall theme was for us all to be intentionally positive online. This was, I thought, a great perspective to take as the digital world is here to stay and focusing on our interactions and values will always prove to be far more powerful than restrictions in this space. 

Welcome to our newly elected Board members Candice Breeze and Stephen Townsend and it is great news that we have retained the experience of Rebecca Wilson, Norm Castles and Kane Crossan to support our school through what will be an exciting time of change. Ross Cooper will also be joining our Board as staff representative. Huge thanks to Shane Dixon and Gaye Roberts who have served our Board so well in the last term. 

Our wonderful Susan Rogers announced her retirement this week and will be leaving us at the end of this year. Susan is a valued staff member, an excellent teaching practitioner, a committed year group co-ordinator and a passionate advocate for mathematics in the school and will be sorely missed. We will be running a recruitment process over the coming weeks to try and fill the big shoes left behind in her absence. 

That is all for me for term three. Have a wonderful term break with our children and we look forward to seeing you all back in term four ready for summer sport, athletics and so much more.

Ngā mihi nui

James Griggs, Principal/Tumuaki