Kia ora koutou katoa. What a busy week we have had with lots of exciting activities. The annual Staff v Students netball game was held on Wednesday with the staff just managing to eke out a win by one goal! The Year 6 students played really well and showed some great skills. It was such a shame the netball season was cut so short as I am sure this team would have played well together.

Last Saturday night some of our students were involved with the Christmas by the Lake event. This was a fabulous night and saw our choir singing with both Takapuna Primary School and Westlake Girls High School with the Auckland Symphony Orchestra. Opportunities such as these are really valuable, and I thank Eugenie Middleton for arranging this. It certainly opens doors for our students when we have someone so talented on staff.

On Tuesday, our talented sports students took part in the annual Takapuna Cluster Athletics event. This was a great day that saw Milford School as the overall winners. Thank you to Scott Polkinghorne and Paula Snowball for taking these athletes.

During the past week we have also had the Year 0/1 athletics and the Year 2/3 athletics events at school. It is great to see the enthusiasm of our younger students in taking part in the events. A huge amount of organising goes into these events and I thank the Year 0/1, 2 and 3 teachers.

I do ask that you keep Louise Lavulo, our amazing PE teacher, in your thoughts as she battles a severe concussion. Louise was playing rugby 3 weeks ago when she suffered a serious head knock that has caused a concussion. She is really unwell with this and will most likely not be back at school this year. We do hope she recovers quickly and can return to her role next year.

As I mentioned in a previous newsletter, Linda Vane, one of our DP’s, is retiring at the end of the year. There is a farewell assembly for her on Friday 11 December at 2.15pm and parents are warmly invited. We have employed our new DP who will start her role at the beginning of next year. Her name is Nicola Hewitt and she is currently a DP at a school in Nelson. The Board went through a rigorous process of selection, and are really excited by this appointment.

We have a whole school assembly this afternoon at 2.00pm, and all are invited. Also, don’t forget to put the Festival of Song in your diary. It is on Friday 11 December here at school.

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

Ngā manaakitanga

Sue Cattell

Principal