2022 is nearly underway and we look forward to seeing you all soon...

Dear whānau,

Welcome back to another year of fun learning at Knights Stream School | Mingimingi Hautoa. We welcome many new families to our community of now 347 students. We hope you managed to have some quality time away from work pressures and had the opportunity to spend lots of time with family and friends.

As we head back into uncertain times I would like to reassure parents that we will be doing everything we can to make school the safest and happiest place for your tamariki (children). The staff are well briefed on the health procedures to help all children feel comfortable in their new spaces. Mask wearing in Y4-8  will be a challenge for some but we are here to support them through this new health measure.

As a school we will remain in our 3 teams and spend the majority of our time in our learning spaces so we minimise mixing. With only half of the site capacity, the children have plenty of space to play outside. The theme of this term is Tūrangawaewae. Tūrangawaewae is one of the most well-known and powerful Māori concepts. Literally tūranga (standing place), waewae (feet), it is often translated as 'a place to stand'. Tūrangawaewae are places where we feel especially empowered and connected. They are our foundation, our place in the world, our home.

The planning for the Stage 2 Build Project - Owaka is underway and the initial meeting with the design team has been exciting! We look forward to adding some practical changes to our design to support our collaborative and creative teaching style.

2022 will certainly throw some more challenges at us and our school values of courage, care, connection, creativity and curiosity will certainly be needed. We do anticipate that once Omicron circulates there will be disruption to the 'normal'. This means we will be flexible where we can. It is a good time to make sure you have a learning device at home in case parts of the school have to be closed for health reasons. 

Remember we are all here to help each other through these uncertain times - ʻHe waka eke noa' - we are all in this together.

Matua Mike