Kia ora koutou. It has been a very busy term for us all and I am sure that we are all looking forward to a well deserved break.

Earlier in the week we made you aware of some important news relating to staff changes for next term. In case you did not see this, the changes are as follow:

As many of you know, our Principal, Heather Walkinshaw, has been away this term on sabbatical. She was scheduled to return at the start of next term, however, Heather won’t be back until mid term due to having surgery during the Term 1 holidays. Heather is doing fine and has been scheduled to have this surgery all term. Unfortunately, she has been caught up with the surgery delays that Christchurch hospital has been experiencing. We wish her well for her recovery.

This means that I will remain Acting Principal till she returns mid term 2, with Michelle Gordon continuing as acting Deputy Principal. Alicia Bell will take on the role as Acting Team Leader, with Michelle’s support, for the term.

In addition to the above changes, we have employed a new teacher for Pūkeko to support the increasing number of juniors that we are getting. Louise Kidd will be joining the team and comes to Wigram with a lot of experience including early childhood teaching. In addition, we have employed Ellie Cruz in a fixed term capacity for term 2 to be part of the Pūkeko team. Jane Baugh who has been working in Pūkeko for this term will join Ruru as their release teacher because Jacqui Tabak will be leaving us at the end of the term. Jacque and her husband are heading north to be closer to their grandchildren and plan to travel around the country in their campervan. We would like to thank Jacqui for all she has done at Wigram. We will miss you Jacqui.

Regan Baxter, one of our Kōtuku teachers, will also be leaving us at the end of this term. We will be sad to see Regan go but are also excited for her. Her classroom role will be covered by Fiona Lunan until we are able to appoint a new teacher. 

Lastly, as you would have seen, I have resigned and have accepted a Principal position at another school. I will finish at Wigram at the end of term 2.

We also want to remind our community, as previously communicated, that there is a Teacher Only Day on the 24th of April. The 25th of April is Anzac day so the first day of the term is the 26th of April.

Thank you very much for all your support over this term. We wish everyone a safe and restful break.😀

Ngā mihi nui

Gerhard Potgieter

Acting Principal