He mihi mahana kia koutou katoa - Warm greetings to all.

Thank you for your support on Friday night at our Whanau Evening. It was such a success that we are planning something similar for 12 February, so pop in your calendar.

It was a shame that the Kahukura Festival had to be cancelled but our tamariki did us proud at their Wednesday afternoon performance. Thank you to whanau for your wonderful support.

We have heard back that the name we selected for the baby kiwi chick has been accepted. Welcome to Tua o te Ngahere or Tua for short. Tua is still very little and I have included some photos and information about him in another article.

Next Monday our Year 6 tamariki are off to Living Springs for their camp. We want to wish them all the best and thank in advance their teachers - Sanchia Paterson, Daniel Caigou, Jane Brittenden and Kellie Englefield for the huge amount of planning they have undertaken for this camp. We also hope they and their band of happy parent helpers get plenty of sleep this weekend in anticipation for the 2 nights next week!!

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the many people who donated funds to ensure all Year 6 tamariki attend camp this year and next . We appreciate the huge support.

Best wishes to Lily Campbell, Zoe Rhodes, Georgia Martin, Zoe Skinner, Charlotte Bobichon, Jacob Akurangi, Daichi Morioka, Noah Green, Levi Weston, Leon Dennis, Jack Drummond - who represent us next Wednesday at Central Athletics.

Next weeks camp kicks off on a busy three weeks for our tamariki and staff as we charge towards Thursday 17 December when we close for the summer. For important dates see a separate article.

The important dates for the end of the beginning of the year are 3/4 February - Getting Connected Meetings.  There is information coming home on how to book these on Friday 11 December.

Classes begin Friday ,5 February then it is the long weekend and classes resume Tuesday, 9 February.

On Tuesday six of our tamariki featured on the TV1 news, they were speaking about the new words and phrases that are now part of our vocabulary thanks to COVID. They did us proud and were very articulate - the news item was a bit short for you to gauge that but believe me they were!! Well done - Mia McHarg, Charlotte Chinn, Evie Scherp, Giacomo Zamperini, Maadi McCormick and Leo Baker. A special thank you to one of our whanau, Joy Reid, who gave our tamariki an opportunity to shine on national television!