Kia ora e te whānau

Jocelyn Heremaia's Farewell Assembly

Yesterday we farewelled Jocelyn Heremaia who has been a beloved staff member at Kaurilands School for 42 years. It was wonderful to celebrate with Joc and her whānau, friends and former colleagues as well as all our current community. Joc has been an incredible teacher and her legacy will remain. Thank you Joc for your incredible mahi, the gifts you and your wonderful husband, our former kaumatua Pat have shared with us along the way.

Yesterday we sent all families a copy of our book 'Mānawatia a Matariki ki Ōkaurirahi' which has been created to commemorate the first Matariki public holiday in Aotearoa New Zealand in 2022. This book is dedicated to Jocelyn and Pat Heremaia who began this hikoi in 2007.

We will miss you Joc, you will always be part of this place.

Kia hora te marino,kia whakapapa pounamu te moana,

Kia tere karohirohi i mua i tou huarahi.

May calm be spread around you, may the sea glisten like greenstone and the shimmer of summer dance across your path.

Te Whānau Āwhina

Huge thanks to Te Whānau Āwhina for their incredible efforts this year in fundraising and organising events for our community this year. The team have worked tirelessly behind the scenes, all as volunteers, giving up hours and hours in the service to the school. I would particularly like to thank Danielle Falconer and Anita Maxwell who have been long term members of Te Whānau Āwhina and will be finishing up this year as their children head off to Intermediate. You have both been so generous with your time and energy and our school is a better place because of you.

Special mention also needs to be made of Stella Bray who takes the sausage sizzle orders every Monday and Sian Carter, who along with Danielle cooks the sausages every week!

Te Whānau Āwhina is run by our magnificent leader, Sarah V'ant Hof who has made this whole machine work. Huge thanks Sarah on what is often a thankless task! You're so inspirational and we are lucky to have you leading this group of absolute troopers!

Whānau, please consider joining Te Whānau Āwhina in 2023. We need you! At the moment a core group have a huge responsibility riding on their shoulders and it would be great to share the load. More on this early 2023.

Staff news

As always at the end of every year we farewell staff members. This year we have a number of staff moving on who we will miss greatly. Suzanne Freeman has worked with us for 11 years and we have really enjoyed our time with her. Suzanne is taking early retirement and will be travelling soon to Europe - yep we're jealous!

Catriona Pianina has been with us for 8 years and is leaving to become an RTLB (Resource Teacher of Learning and Behaviour) and we wish her all the best in this new role. You will be awesome Cat!

Laura Hillier will be shifting to Blockhouse Bay Intermediate School to work as a specialist Science teacher which is a fantastic opportunity and we are very proud of her.

Catherine Wiechern is moving north to take up a position at Maunu School and begin a new chapter in her life with her fiancee. Exciting times ahead.

Ashley Goodspeed will be working part time with us and taking the opportunity to spend more time with her family. Glad we still get to see you!

Matua Grant will be on study leave next year working on a Diploma in Oral Māori Language Fluency. Whakamihi Matua!

Last but not least we say goodbye to Lance Pope who started the year with us as a relief teacher and ended the year being full time in a classroom. We have loved working with Lance, he is an outstanding kaiako. Lance will be working at Woodlands Park School in 2023.

We will miss all these amazing staff who have contributed so much over the years. Next week I will send through the organisation of our staff for 2023 which includes our new staff members who we are excited to work with.

Until then, hang in there, a busy time ahead for the next week or so! We got this!

Arohanui

Jo