I hope this final newsletter for 2023 finds you all well.

We had a busy and rewarding fourth term as a boarding community primarily focused on endings and new beginnings. There are many awards ceremonies in recognition of our students' many talents. As house parents, we could attend and support sports awards, arts awards, senior prizegiving, junior prizegiving, graduation ball, year 10 day trips, Habit for Humanity, and the Sustainability Gala. We even sent a submission to the New Zealand Boarding Schools 2023 yearbook. These events celebrate hours of dedication, courage, hard work, resilience, diligence and whanau support. We know that it takes a village to raise a child.

This term, we farewell Hannah Sudano (Gap tutor) and Gwen Hurley (Assistant Director of Boarding and Senior Assistant House Parent). Hannah returns home to Sydney, Australia, to continue her education and Gwen, with her husband Mark, has moved to Geraldine to spend time with her much-cherished mokopuna. Both Hannah and Gwen will be sorely missed, and we wish them all the best for the future. In addition, our van driver, Brett Addison, also tendered his resignation and will finish his role at the end of February 2024. We are grateful for his four years of driving service.  At the time of writing this newsletter, we are still advertising for the van driver position and interviewing for the House Parent position, and as soon as these roles are filled, we will let our boarding community know. 

Next January, we will welcome two gap students to our school community, Rachel Field-Kozak (South Africa) and Jaimee Newby (Australia). To ensure consistency and continuity of pastoral care, next year, Kim Rose will be our Year 10 house parent, and Emily Maree will be our Year 9 house parent.

As we come to the end of 2023, I would like to thank you all for entrusting us with your precious aakonga. We don't always get things right; please do know we do love and cherish our boarders. We are very blessed to have this opportunity to partner with you to ensure your daughter thrives in this independent environment where mutual aroha and manaakitanga are front and centre. We have loved getting to know our boarding girls and their whaanau. We look forward to continuing to do so in 2024.

Ngaa mihi mo te Kirihimete me te Tau Hou - Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Ma te Atua e manaaki ki a koutou katoa

Jacqueline Smith | Director of Boarding                                                MEdLeadership (Honours), BA, Grad DipT, Dip.Soc.Sci, Dip TTP (Te Reo Maaori), CertTEAL