The Redevelopment Begins…

It is exciting to see the redevelopment of the school finally being started after many years of ‘shifting goalposts’! Although I will not be here day-to-day to see the redevelopment occurring, it is great to know that Redwood School and the Redwood community will reap the benefit of a much improved school for many years to come. The redeveloped school will be ‘school home sweet school home’ for Redwood tamariki for decades to come.

This has not been an easy path to tread… here is a brief timeline:

2011 – 2013 … Ongoing earthquakes. School property money frozen/retained by Ministry of Education

2011 School library redevelopment completed, begun pre-earthquakes

2012 Ministry of Education announcement of school mergers, closures, redevelopments. Redwood told: Redevelopment $5-10m, start date late 2016, roll to be reduced (due to roll decisions re neighbouring schools)… originally a roll of 225 was proposed by the MoE, school argued against this, final roll proposal 330 agreed by 2016

2013 MoE directed collaborative teaching/learning spaces, community meetings and community ‘backlash’ against collaborative teaching (‘the big barns’)

2014-15 Community consultation re school redevelopment

2016 Planning begins, project scope determined, start delayed

2017-19 Planning and delays. MoE commits to completing agreed school scope

2020 MoE reneges on completing full school scope arguing funding issues

School objects strongly to MoE broken promises re completing scope and delivering sound outcomes for our Redwood tamariki, little headway with MoE

School persists and publicises the issue

November 2020 MoE ‘re-agrees’ to complete the originally agreed Redwood School scope. Whew!

We will end up with school that is physically much improved compared to the deteriorating environment we currently have. The school has had to juggle its day to day funding and limited emergency funding from the MoE to maintain the school but not waste money in parts of the school that will be demolished or replaced.

So, next year, pop by and see the transformation of the school, but always remember not to judge a book by its cover… the quality of teaching and the strength of relationship are key determinants of your child’s learning success, not the buildings or grounds they are taught in. However, it will be lovely to have a much more attractive cover as we move through the next few chapters in a redeveloped school.

Classroom visits and staffing 2021…

We are very fortunate to have an excellent staff team at Redwood and there will be only one confirmed change next year, the Principal! The appointment process has been undertaken by the Board of Trustees and will be finalised in the next few days. The Board will confirm with you soon who the new principal will be and their proposed start date.

Please note the following classroom organisation for 2021

Next week tamariki will be spending a little time with their teachers and classmates who wiln. Class/hub organisation is as follows:

Junior Team Whakatipu

Rooms 1/2 New Entrant Maddie Stevenson and Shireen Myers

Room 6/7/8 Year 1/2 Lynda Selwood, Sarah Burt and Cindy Giddens

Room ? New Entrant Growth class: Trudi Tremewan from July

Middle Team Poutama

Rooms 3/4 Year 3/4 Charlotte Spencer and Kirsty Fletcher

Room 5 Year 3/4 Kate Norman

Senior Team Paerangi

Rooms 15/16 Year 5/6 and 4/5/6 Laura Grant and Chris Thurlow

Rooms 17/18 Year 5/6 Allyce Muir and Josh Harding

Learning Support:

Ellie Cherry and Jan Beck-Manawatu

English Language Learners (ELL)

Jan Beck-Manawatu and Angeline Joseph

Curriculum:

Nick Gunn

Our support staff…

We have an amazing team at Redwood including fantastic Kaiawhina (teacher aides) and admin/caretaker staff. Special thanks to Kaiawhina Maria, Barb, Angeline, Gemma, Priscilla, Bernie, Ita, Rodney. Office staff: Pauline and Megan. Grounds staff: Ron and Francis.

All of our support staff go the extra mile on behalf of the team and the tamariki. Kia ora mo to awhi… thanks for your help!

Redwood School Redevelopment… a message from our builders, Brosnan Construction.

As part of the upgrade works at Redwood School, we will be demolishing several blocks (prefab buildings on eastern and western sides of the school) and building two new large teaching blocks, upgrading two existing blocks and upgrading the playground.

The existing cladding on 4 of the prefab blocks has been tested and is confirmed to contain asbestos. We have engaged a specialist asbestos removal company, licensed by WorkSafe to carry out its safe removal ahead of the demolition. During the removal process, air monitoring will be undertaken by an asbestos assessor, followed by a clearance inspection to ensure all asbestos containing material has been removed.

This work is scheduled to start from Monday 14th December 2020 and will continue into the new year. Trucks will access the construction site through the existing entry off Pyatt Place.

A traffic management plan will be in place for the duration of the project.

The school is very excited to get this project underway and look forward to inviting you to view the new facilities.

Please accept our apologies in advance for any noise and inconvenience caused at this time. Should you have queries or concerns please do not hesitate to contact the school directly.

Redwood successes continue: Did you know...?

· Our amazing jump jam team came second in New Zealand in their section… our best result ever!

· Mia W, Room 12 was awarded Distinction in this year's ICAS examinations in Mathematics, English and Science!

· Our kapahaka teams performed at the Casebrook Cultural Festival and the North Canterbury Cultural Festival at Ourhuia… amazing performances that did our school proud. Thanks to Lynda Selwood and our tutors

· Our tamariki competed at the Rotary Speech Competitions Bryn Johnson came third… a great effort but also great efforts from our whole speech team… thanks to Allyce Muir

· Max Hurring did amazingly well at the Christchurch Central Athletics, gaining first in Year 5 high jump and second in sprints… a great achievement

· I have had feedback from relief teachers, venues our children have visited and others in our wider community about the excellent behaviour of our tamariki and the positive attitudes they bring. This has been fabulous to hear and a credit to bot tamariki and staff

· We had a lovely helpers’ morning tea last week. A HUGE thank you to all our parent helpers who assist us in so many ways, it was great to touch base with so many last week, but also thank you to those helpers who were unable to attend the morning tea. Thank you to Pauline Prescott for her organisation of the morning tea

Baby announcement:

To Jess and Braydon Narbey, the birth of a bouncing, baby boy, Otis! Our sincere congratulations!!!

John Stackhouse

Tumuaki/Principal