Kia Ora everyone. 2023 has been another positive year for our school. It is important to reflect on the year that has gone and there is a lot to celebrate! Our children have continued to strive for personal excellence throughout 2023, and our school roll has grown to 520 students.

KNS is a wonderful place to be! Our strength as a school revolves around our positive school culture, strong values and beliefs, fantastic family support, many opportunities to shine and participate, and dedicated and caring, supportive staff. We look forward to our Year 8 Prize Giving and Social this evening at their graduation and social. We will give out awards, share some kai and then have a bit of a dance to celebrate our Year 8's effort, high achievement, and contributions as students at Te Kura o Ruataniwha Kaiapoi North School.

We had a superb evening for our KNS Celebration event last week. We recognised the huge effort of our children across all of our Cultural, Sporting, Performing Arts, Enviro and Coding opportunities. We gave out badges, bars and trophies and were entertained by our performance groups. Thank you to our staff and parents who lead these opportunities - it is so heartwarming to see our children giving opportunities a go and shining!

Thank you to our 2023 Year 8 leaders, you have done an outstanding job representing our school. We are excited to have announced our new 2024 School leaders (photo at the top of this newsletter) and House leaders (photo below) last week. We look forward to your contributions in 2024!

Well done to our KNS basketball teams for competing so strongly in the North Canterbury competition again in 2023, special congratulations to our 5 teams who played strongly in their finals - KNS finished with 2 first placings and 3 runner-up placings to continue with our reputation as a force to be reckoned with!  A big thank you to Mrs Megan Gilmore for her leadership and to all coaches and managers!

On Monday you received a letter with details about the beginning of the 2024 school year and notification of your child’s home class and teacher. Please be aware that there has been a detailed and sustained process into making class placements for our children. For Year 2-8 students your child will have a core teacher but will also be working in a Flexible Learning Space (FLS) with other children and teachers. I encourage you to take the time to connect with your child’s home class teacher early in 2024. With Celeste Lamond on maternity leave we welcome Mrs Kenzie Darby to our staff in 2024. We plan to have a meet the teacher opportunity on Thursday 1st February. Below is a map of the school to give you information about where teachers are located and where classes will be located in 2024. 

Our school office will re-open in 2024 on Friday 26th January for existing families to provide us with any new information about circumstances and for new enrolments. School uniform is available from The Warehouse in Rangiora and from Kaiapoi Monograms in Hilton Street. Your child will receive a pack of stationery (cost will be added to family account) on the first day back next year - Wednesday 31st January, 2024.

I would like to conclude with a thank you to everyone in our school community, thank you to:

- our exceptional children for striving for personal excellence
- our wonderful staff for your effort, enthusiasm and expertise
- parents and caregivers for your positive support throughout the year
- the Board of Trustees for your effective child focused governance of our school
- the PTA for your outstanding support and financial donations throughout the year
- our 2023 Head Students for your wonderful service to our school.

If you need to contact me over the holidays please feel free to email me jason.m@kaiapoinorth.school.nz . Please look out for information on our HERO App as the new school year approaches - remember to download it on your  phone!

We will conclude 2023 with a school assembly on Friday from 11:00am - 12:00pm. The 2023 school year finishes at 12:00pm this Friday, please make sure you pick your children up by 12:05pm at both entrances as normal. Wishing you all a very happy and safe holiday season, we look forward to welcoming the children back on Wednesday 31st January, 2024.

Kia Kaha, Kind Regards
Jason Miles, PRINCIPAL