Tēnā koe Te Ao Mārama Whānau

I hope this update finds you all as well as can be during an increasingly lengthy time of uncertainty across the motu. I want to take this opportunity to update you on a couple of items as we move rapidly toward the end of the year.

Firstly, in this newsletter you'll also see the link to a community survey for you all to undertake. It's quick but important to the Board and School and results will help inform future direction and adjustments to our school charter. Please take the time to contribute and note the Archies treat that some families will win!

Secondly, as you know there is a new build in the pipeline for Te Ao Mārama. This will be in the form of a new classroom block that will allow a maximum roll size of 800+ tamariki at our school in future. The Ministry of Education is progressing design and contractual discussions and although Covid has affected timeframes it looks as if building could be underway by the start of 2023. We will keep you up to date with this, especially as our school roll continues to grow in the interim.

Alongside this property development it looks as if the Council development of Hare Puke Park is progressing well despite recent restrictions through lockdown levels on earthworks. We're all looking forward to having a community greenspace adjacent to the school (and the carpark will be pretty useful too!)

Thirdly I want to mention that nationally the School Trustee elections have been pushed out to September 2022. Whilst this adds an additional 6 months onto current trustee terms it does provide us good opportunity to ensure that as a board we plan for future succession. Part of this will be inviting interested parents along to Board meetings during 2022 to observe how we operate and to hear from the current trustees about their experience as part of the Te Ao Marama board group from 2019-2022. So have a think about whether this is something you might like to put your hat in the ring for in 2022.

The Board is impressed with the dedication and energy of our staff despite the current situation being tolling personally and professionally in many different ways on many different people. We have an amazing team (as we all know!) and they keep showing us this everyday through their engagement with our tamariki, whether this be online (majority of us) or for the small amount of kids present at school during Term 4.

Kia pai to rā

Andrew Corkill
Board Chair