What amazing weather we have been having over the past few weeks. This has allowed us to have brilliant outdoor opportunities and fun. It’s been great seeing our students out and about enjoying the fresh air and everything that our wonderful city has to offer.

We have had an amazing start to Term Two. The students and staff have arrived back rested and ready to work. We will have lots of amazing activities for the term including our Matariki art and dinner night. We will also have a parent night that will be around agencies that support our students and their families. More information will come out around these events.

Progress on the school build is well underway now. The contractors have heavy machinery sculpting out the new carpark. Once that is completed the machinery will move over to the school site and begin the earth works on that. We are looking at 1-2 months’ completion for the car park.

The worrying threat of strikes still looms heavily for our school. As yet, the MOE (Ministry of Education) and NZEI (Teachers Union) have yet to settle on an agreement for teachers' pay and conditions. If we do engage in strike action, then we will close our school. This is because of health and safety concerns with no teachers or management on site. We hope that it will not come to this and agreement will be soon met. Currently, there have been strikes in secondary schools. This action does not involve our staff and school. Our teachers are part of the Primary School Collective.

We welcome new students to our school. We have Dominic who is a new student in Pikopiko, Te Au in Manuka and Xavier who will begin in Karamu. We also welcome new support staff; Tane in Mānuka, Sam in Pikopiko, Nicola in Kākano and Corban in Kākano. We know that you will have an amazing time as part of our school community.

In the weekend a group from Rotary clubs across Dunedin came and helped to plant an orchard at our new school site. We planted 21 apples, pear and plum trees. We hope that by the time we move into the school the trees will be beginning to bear fruit. This small orchard is the beginning of providing an asset to the Riselaw Road community. We hope to provide fruit, berries and vegetables for this community and that we develop a community garden for the Carlton Hill area and that families will be able to come and harvest food. This will go a long way to making us part of the heart of this community.

A reminder to parents to please ensure that the absences come through the school phone 034558347 and not through class phones. This is because we have at times experienced significant staff absences and the sooner we know about student absences the sooner we can move staff to manage absences.

Regards

Matt

Kowhai's Royal Tea Party