Hero photograph
 
Photo by Rob Naysmith

Principal's Desk

Rob Naysmith —

We are now in the last week of another busy term. It was great to see so many families coming in to meet with teachers this week for our Parent Teacher Conferences. The school home partnership is extremely important and conferences are a great way to develop this while celebrating children's successes and looking at next steps. I would like to thank our teachers for the thought, time, and effort put into producing mid year reports and planning for these conferences.

This week we say farewell to Debs Moffat our Office Manager as she heads to Marlborough. I would like to thank her for the fabulous work she has done for the school over the past 11.5 years, and especially for the amazing support she has been to me over the past 6 terms. We wish Debs all the best for the future.  We will welcome Tracey Wilson as our new Office Manager from the start of Term 3.

We also farewell Minami Tainui who has been working as a Teacher Aide, and Office Support for the past year. Minami is heading away on maternity leave and we wish her all the best for her new arrival.

It was great to see buddy classes Tōtara and Kauri working together today on a scratch project (Computer programming). This is one of many advantages of a full primary where our older students can lead our younger students through learning. The conversations I overheard while in the room were fantastic with our older students asking some great questions of our younger students and showing an ability to give clear instructions and not take over the 'doing' of the activity. (Main Picture)

Congratulations to the children in Years 5-8 who competed in the Hockey and Football Zone Tournament. They all represented the school admirably. Thanks also to the wonderful parents and teachers for their support with transport and supervision, I hope everyone has managed to thaw out! 

If you are using the pick-up area after school and need to drive on the neighbour's grass frontage please slow right down and go onto the grass at the last possible moment. It can become a real mess along this area so if we can all make an effort to minimise the damage that would be great.

If you are wanting your year 5-8 child to sit an ICAS test next term please read the article and sign them up now as registrations close soon.

I hope everyone has a safe, happy break. We look forward to seeing everyone back on Monday, 17th July, for another action packed term!

Ngā mihi

Rob Naysmith

Principal