Kia ora koutou

I tēnei wiki, i whakanui tātou i Te Wiki o te Reo Māori, ā, kua autaia te kite atu i ngā kaimahi me ngā ākonga kua tautokona te reo mā te whakamahinga o ngā rerenga me ngā kupu ki roto i ngā kōrero o te ia rā. Ka pai.

This week we have celebrated Te Wiki o te Reo Māori, and it has been great to hear many of our staff and students embracing the language, integrating phrases and words into conversation. Ka pai.

It has been great having our students and staff back onsite under Level 2, albeit with a few new norms – one of which is live streaming our events. On Wednesday we celebrated a number of our many talented students at our Term 3 Awards Assembly, and we were thrilled to see so many of you tune into the live stream (view the recording here if you missed it). Congratulations to those students who received awards – Awards Assemblies are always a strong reminder of the depth and diversity of talent amongst our students.

Great communication with you as parents and caregivers is important. We want to be sending you relevant and timely information on the most appropriate and accessible channels - and would love your feedback on how you think we are doing. We’ve created a short survey here. The survey will be open until 8am Monday, September 27, and one lucky participant will be drawn at random to receive six delicious bottles of Black Estate wine!

Our team are currently working through a number of changes to the school and the community events calendar as a result of our recent lockdown. There are a number of cancellations and postponements and I urge you to keep an eye on our events update in each Intouch. Our end of year dates for Prize Giving (Thursday, December 2 ) and Leavers’ Ball (Friday, December 3) will not be changing. I thank you for your consideration as we work through what is an ever evolving landscape.

Finally I would like to congratulate all of our athletes on an incredible winter season - our 1st XI Hockey took out the Connetics SSP Premier Final last night (you can watch a replay here), and on Wednesday night our 1st XI Football lost to a strong STAC side in the final of the Premier grade - an amazing effort especially considering this season was the first time our team had been in the top grade for 11 years. There were a huge number of teams and individuals who also competed with skill, gave it their best, and did us all proud - thank you to the students, coaches, support staff and supporters for a successful season. 

I wish you all a fantastic weekend. 

Ngā mihi nui

Dr Sandra Hastie