Over Labour Weekend, the school held its 150th reunion. 140 former staff, Board members and students attended the four different functions of school tours, drinks and nibbles on Friday night, official welcome and reunion dinner.

A great time was had by all and the former students were most impressed with your child's positive attitude towards the school and their learning, as well as their ability to interact with the attendees. They really were fantastic and showed the schools values to the highest standard.

The following are just a few of the many positive comments we received:

"Tila was as a lovely guide, and she disappeared before I could thank her."

"Dear Ava, Thank you for decorating such a splendid goodie bag.I can see you have many ideas, and I like the way you use shapes to make pictures. I had a lovely time at the 150th reunion. I saw many old friends, and we had lots of fun talking about the old days."

"We had a splendid time looking around all the classrooms and talking to the children who were so friendly and polite. The orchestra and the choir made a grand job of the OLD school song which I have never heard before. I really enjoyed the Kapa Haka group on Saturday performing the NEW school song."

"Hi William I was the lucky person who got the goodie bag that you made. Thank you! It was just perfect for putting things into."

The children have learnt a huge amount about the school as we used this as our context for learning. Stephen Clarke has researched much of the background information the children have used, and we thank him for his efforts in sourcing this information. His book is available for purchase at the school office for $25. It could make a great stocking stuffer! A copy will be provided to all Year 6 students as a gift from the Parent Group.

A huge thank you to Kelly Macknight for the massive amount of work that she put into organising the event on behalf of the former pupils. Thank you to the parents who offered to be our "heavy lifters," drive trailers, staff the registration desk, and organise cakes.

Finally, thank you to the staff who gave up their Labour Weekend plans to spend it at school. It shows once again what dedication you have towards the school.

You may have seen recently in the news the debate around school donations. The Government will replace the request for donations for all decile 1-7 schools who sign up with $150 per child of funding. This is not an option for our school as we fall outside of this range.

The school and Board do its very best to keep costs to a minimum, and the Parent Group pays for many of the field trips. Swimming, camp and expensive EOTC experiences such as rock climbing are usually the only curriculum bills you will see on your invoice.

The fear that many schools have about accepting the Governments offer is that it will limit the opportunities that children will have. In our case, the two swimming sessions that the juniors have in swimming would use the entire allocation with no money left over for other activities throughout the year.
The school donation has not risen from $65 for over five years, and the Board is considering a $10 increase next year to keep up with inflation but more importantly making sure that our students get the best possible learning opportunities.

Kind regards
Simon Clarke

Kaikorai Primary School November 22 Newsletter

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