Thank you for your patience while the Board of Trustees considered the options open to them.

The decision is to close on Thursday 16 March as the majority of the teaching staff will be participating in the Strike Day and there will not be enough staff available to supervise children to open the school safely.

These are challenging times for teachers and the decision to strike is not taken lightly. Communities are under stress and families and whānau feel that in their work places and homes. That, in turn, is often played out at school. Schools around the motu report an increase in anti-social behaviours and physical behaviours. This not only happens between students but also with teachers and teacher aides.

Staff deserve better than this. Where is the support in schools to help us manage these challenges? It's certainly not what teachers got into the job for. They want to teach.

Current offers from the government did little to address serious issues around understaffing, class sizes and sick leave, let alone the current under funding of teachers as professionals. The pay has to be good enough to retain high quality practitioners or they will be lost to much higher paying jobs to pay their mortgages.

Make a noise in support of your teachers. Join them, back them, appreciate them. Only when the Government fully funds our teachers and schools will we return to the A class education system we need and deserve.

I will make contact with CASPA, our before and after school care provider, to see if they may be able to offer families some support on this day. More information early next week.