There have been a number of wonderful events held over the past week or so. Our Carol's Evening, Cultural Day celebrations, Canterbury Athletics Competition, Star Week, Junior Athletics, Santa's Grotto trip and our star studded Gala Evening.

2018 has certainly been another busy year for our staff and students. I am continually amazed at our ability to cram such a lot into four school terms.  

Thank you to our dedicated teaching team. I appreciate the work you do to provide our students with a rich, extensive curriculum in and outside of the classroom.

As leaders and teachers, we are supported by hard-working staff, learning support, ESOL, administrative and property teams. Thanks to each and everyone one of you.

To our PTA – thank you.  A great group of parents committed to supporting our school in so many ways. We’ve appreciated your support and commitment this year and I thank you for taking the time to be involved. We would love some new members so do please think seriously about being involved in our school in this way.  We'd be at a real loss without our PTA.

Thank you to the number of parents who support Merrin in so many ways. It would be impossible to run a school without your support. Some of you are highly visible while others quietly work in the background to ease the load of the classroom teacher.

Another thank you to our Board of Trustees, your service to our school is very much appreciated.

Farewell to Shane Barr who has made such a positive contribution to our school over his thirteen years here.  Your maths prowess, sense of humour and love of dressing up will be dearly missed.

Best wishes also to Nicole Sutherland, Katrina Steccaci and Wendy Hay in their new directions, we value your contributions to our school.

Another farewell of a sort is to Jason McKenzie.  'Our big boy Jason' is off to training college to become a teacher.  Jason has been one of our dearly loved Teacher Aides and he will make a fine teacher.

To our children – you really are Whetū Kohara, shining stars. On behalf of all our the staff, I wish you a very happy and safe summer break. I hope you get lots of time to run, jump, laugh and explore!

The staff and I look forward to welcoming you back to school on Thursday 31 January for classes and on Tuesday/Wednesday, 
29 & 30 January for your face to face meetings with your child's teacher.

We hope that you all have a happy and safe holiday break, wherever it takes you.

Best wishes

Lisa