Thank you to all parents and grandparents, key caregivers and providers of family support, the teachers and support staff.

You all played a crucial role in ensuring our children continued to be educated during what was a highly challenging time. It was through your partnership that our community was able to feel supported and our young people were able to return to school feeling safe in the knowledge that Redwood School was still a great place to be.

We are now in the process of planning the new playground. It is an exciting time. Staff and community have been surveyed and feedback has been gathered to bring together everyone’s ideas. Earlier this month a group of community members spent a weekend ‘touring’ recently rebuilt playgrounds and play spaces. Families, staff, BOT members and their children investigated, experienced, explored and most importantly played in a range of different playgrounds across the city. Everyone enjoyed themselves and it was interesting to see what the preferences were for the children. We are now in the process of requesting quotes and design ideas from a range of companies.

Redwood School has also been allocated $214,000 from the Ministry of Education. We were excited to receive these funds as they are helping to support the work we are doing on the playground and will go towards play equipment, paths and walkways as well as general maintenance around the school. Alongside these projects we will be using some of the funds for a large storage container to store loose but moveable playground equipment.

The colour scheme has also been decided on for the re-build. You are invited to come and view some of the paint and colour designs and the wall and floor covering that have been selected for the new buildings and the wider school redevelopment. You will find these in the main office.