On behalf of the Board, I would like to welcome you all to a new school year. Firstly, I want to extend a warm welcome to Meg Ryan, who has joined the Board as the Staff Representative - we look forward to having Meg contribute as the voice of all our school staff. I also want to pass on my thanks to Rae O’Hara, who is retiring next month to focus on her orchard and family, for the years of dedicated service to the school and the many, many board meetings she has helped with.

Recently, the Board has been working with Craig and the Senior Management Team to develop the school’s Strategic Plan for 2024-25. This document outlines our goals and objectives as a school and your feedback from previous community consultation surveys helped shape it. This has now been published and is available for you to view on our school website.

Property projects have been moving along nicely. It was fantastic to see the large wastewater project completed at the start of the year, and you may have seen the areas recently fenced off where our two new classrooms are going to go. These new teaching spaces are much needed and we expect to be using them on the first day of term 2.

Finally, on a personal note, over the last few weeks I’ve been lucky enough to be involved with the Middles camp at Raglan, the Top Schools competition, school swimming sports and triathlon days, and the BBB golf day. I loved every part of these days and it’s really amazing to see our school in action outside the classroom. Thank you to everyone that contributed - the teachers and staff, the fundraising committee, the parent helpers and even the kids - all helped make these events a huge success. I would encourage anyone who can, to get involved in future events or even just try to make it along, to add to our growing school community spirit!

Paul Hansen.