Kia ora koutou and warm greetings from Karaka House.

Welcome back for 2022 and Term 1 - our last term at Linwood College at Ōtakaro before we return to Aldwins Road and Te Aratai.

I would like to take the chance to introduce myself as I am fulfilling the Senior Dean Role for Karaka in 2022. I teach in the Science Department, so I may teach some ākonga in my classes. I am looking forward to working with all the Senior Karaka students this year and making sure it is successful for everyone.

This term started well but once again it has been an interesting start to the year with the Omicron outbreak gaining momentum. I hope you and your whānau are safe and well. Despite the disruption, it has been great to see many of our senior students engaged in their schoolwork and doing well.

The focus for students in Term 1 is Attendance and Uniform. Please awhi your ākonga to make sure they are in the right place at the right time and wearing the correct uniform. In the first instance, the students' kaiārahi will be following up and you may receive a phone call or email from them. Please get in touch if there are any challenges with either of these and I can assist from a Dean’s perspective.

With the unknown times of Covid, we have already started rostering students home - it is really important that, where possible, students are completing their mahi at home that can be accessed online or teachers may have provided paper materials for learning. I would like to encourage students to continue to take ownership of their learning and show good self-management during these times.

As always, please contact us at any time with questions or concerns. The first port of call is our kaiārahi which are listed below or contact me as the Dean.

Kaiārahi are:

KarSIL - Olivia Silvester - sil@linwoodcollege.school.nz

KarNIJ - Francine Nijdam nij@linwoodcollege.school.nz

KarCAL - Taryn Caley -cal@linwoodcollege.school.nz

KarVIJ - Sai Vijayakumar - vij@linwoodcollege.school.nz

KarKGU - Kath Gunn - kgu@linwoodcollege.school.nz

KarNFL - Nicky Flewellen - nfl@linwoodcollege.school.nz

KarMBL - Melanie Blomfield - mbl@linwoodcollege.school.nz

KarDRA - David Draper - dra@linwoodcollege.school.nz

KarPTR - Amelia Painter ptr@linwoodcollege.school.nz

KarKYL - Scott Kyle - kyl@linwoodcollege.school.nz

Ngā mihi,

Erin Chamberlain

Senior Karaka Dean

ech@linwoodcollege.school.nz