Deputy Principals View

It has been another eventful week at QPS. Our teaching and learning programmes are in full swing with junior swimming underway, senior athletics day, Yr 7-8 camp prep for Paradise camp- designing menus, building shelters and understanding how to survive outdoors. Thank you for the Mahi at pick up time where drivers have respected the changes to our pick up / drop off area. Please respect the yellow lines and not double park as it helps us to keep your child safe. Don't forget that we have parking on our bottom field all term 1- head down there and make use of this free space for drop off and pick up. Thank you to those parents who completed the survey to choose their preferred teacher-only days. We will confirm these dates in next week's newsletter.

Today has marked a massive milestone at Queenstown Primary School; at 4.30 am this morning, concrete trucks were working in the heart of our school, pouring part of the 328 metres of concrete that forms the new pathways and all-weather play surfaces. The new junior playground is in place and looks fantastic. The new multicoloured soft fall will finish this space off nicely. The sandpit is well on the way to completion. As you can see from the photos, it is huge; the design allows for wooden decks around the edge to keep the sand in the pit. The concrete footing for the double basketball court has been created and is being poured next week. The Intermediate students will be excited to see the new astro laid.

You might wonder what the 15-metre diameter circle is in the middle of the upper play area. A celestial compass will fill this space and provide a central meeting point for the Kura. We look forward to engaging with our community about how this space works as part of our cultural narrative. It has been a long journey getting to this point, we thank everyone for their flexibility. The Year 7-8 team have a 400m round trip into their teaching spaces.

Good luck to the Year 7-8 classes who start their 2-night camps at Paradise next week - can they survive 48 hours in the New Zealand bush? I'm sure they will come back with plenty of tales to tell.

Kia ora, everyone, have a happy and safe weekend.

Matt Leach

Deputy Principal

Queenstown Primary School