He mihi mahana ki a koutou katoa - Warm greetings to all

As we near the end of the year, some of our team have decided to look at new horizons with Danielle Thomson winning a permanent position at Fernside School and Jane Brittenden off up the road to South Intermediate.

Danielle joined us from Auckland and is now looking forward to the country school experience as she and her partner build a home out in Fernside. I'd like to thank her for her contributions to our whānau, I know the tamariki in her space have flourished under her guidance.

Jane has been with us since 2017, teaching in both the middle and senior school. In the last two years Jane has been Lead Teacher of Arts and worked closely with Sam, our creatives teacher, to add a new dimension to our programme beyond the choirs and visual arts.  Although it is our loss I admire Jane's desire to extend her skills as a teacher.

I'd like to thank Danielle and Jane for the contributions they have made to our kura and the impact they have had on the tamariki in the time they have been with us. I know you join with me in wishing them well in the next episode of their teaching journey.

Next year we are joined by two new staff - Simon Ward joins us in his first teaching position and Sioned Rees hails from Wales via Wairoa.

We are looking to welcoming them next year and both will join the staff on our Teacher Only Day on 5 December.

There are several teachers changing levels next year and the full list will be in next week's newsletter.

Congratulations to Greg Pateman our caretaker, and Alesha Irie, grounds person, who once again won an award at the Schools Environment Enhancement programme awards. Greg  was awarded the caretakers Merit Ward. The school also has awards for School Environment Awards and Waste Minimisation and Recycling. We hope to continue these from now on as next year we become an Enviro School and our theme for the year is, Sustainability is not just something to learn, it's something to live.

With the  inclement weather predicted for Friday evening the PTA have made a decision to  postpone the Whānau evening and just have the Kids Market. Please come along and support these young entrepreneurs! We have planned another Whānau evening for Friday, 17 February. Hopefully the weather will be kinder to us then.

Congratulations to our central Athletics team who competed on Wednesday. Our tamariki had a successful day competing against the best in Canterbury.

SCHOOL IS CLOSED ON MONDAY, 5 December for Teachers Only Day.