Update from Mr Sim

Kia ora koutou,

Things are certainly moving quickly with our landscaping work with the first stage completed with the community planting last Friday and the mulch being spread yesterday morning. This area looks fantastic and certainly enhances the courtyard area for the children.

The second phase has been slightly delayed until after Easter weekend. Hopefully this won’t delay the completion time which was due to be the end of the holidays but even if it is delayed for a week we have still managed to get these projects completed within a very short time frame. Phase two is particularly exciting with a scooter track around the outside of our school alongside basket swings, tunnels and an obstacle course. All of this will be surrounded by native plantings to tie the project all together. Early next term we will be looking at having a second community planting day. This will obviously be a lot bigger than our day last week and covering a far larger area. We would really like as many community members as possible along to help support the children with the planting.

Our board of trustees of Linda Glasgow (Chair), Don van Onselen, Bec Roper Gee, Thelma Te Pania, Jeremy Moses and our staff representatives Maren Lohkemper / Penny Knowles have been right behind moving this project forward and continuing to develop the physical environment for our children and wider community.

In particular I want to acknowledge the work of Don van Onselen. Without his time, effort and expertise we would be nowhere near completing these projects to the standard they have been or within the current timeframe. Like all of our board members Don has his own day time job and family commitments so the work that is done is on top of an already busy life and it is greatly appreciated by the staff and school as a whole.

Next week is Book Week culminating in a book character dress up day next Thursday. We will be running a book fair all week in Māhuri with lots of exciting books for the children and caregivers to look at and purchase. The Easter raffle will also be drawn next Thursday so it will be a busy day.

Our Tī Kōuka learning assembly this morning was a fantastic example of what happens within our learning teams each week. I was very impressed with the quality of learning that was being shared and the confidence of all the presenters as well.

With Easter just around the corner we have a couple of short weeks coming up. Next Friday April 2nd is Good Friday and the following Monday and Tuesday 5th and 6th of April are Easter Monday and Easter Tuesday. School will be closed on these three days. After 9 busy weeks this long weekend should be a good chance to recharge before the last week and a half of the term.

Ngā mihi nui Alistair Sim (Principal / Tumuaki)