Kōrero ō te Tumuaki

Principal's Update

19 September 2025

We have come to the end of another busy term and there has been much to celebrate.

One very special treat we have had this term has been a number of student teachers from University of Canterbury on their final placement before they graduate and go out into their careers.

Belinda, Bianca, Adele and Yang have been with us over the last six weeks teaching in Rooms 14, 8, 3 and 4 respectively.

Their energy and ideas have been really valued throughout the school, and I have seen many examples of the deep care they show the children. It is great to see that the profession is in good hands with skilled and caring practitioners coming through.

Eloise has been in placement in Room 12 and will continue in the school next term (Victoria University have different placement times).

This week we welcomed Kate Milne to our team for the remainder of the year. Kate will be supporting programmes across Manaaki four days a week.

I also want to extend gratitude from the whole school to Kyra Wilkie for stepping in this term to teach in Room 5. Kyra has done a fantastic job keeping things ticking along while Sue has been on refreshment leave. We look forward to welcoming Sue back next year.

NZEI Strike

You may have seen in the media that NZEI members, including many primary school teachers, principals and support staff, have voted to strike on October 23.

Should this strike go ahead, we would not be able to safely have all children on site that day.

Early next term we will send home a form for you to complete if you are unable to keep your child at home that day. There will be minimal supervision available at school so we will need to have a clear indication of numbers so that we can plan ahead.

Thank you for your support with this.

Fundraising

Thank you to families who recently contributed to our two community fundraising events.

The Shields family received grocery and petrol vouchers, along with activities they can do as a family during this tough time for them. Our EGS community was incredibly generous in their support.

We also held Daffodil Day/Wig Wednesday last week. We raised $448.50 which we split between these two charities to support the important work they do.

Communication

Thanks for the feedback people have given about communication from the school. Next term we will be rolling out a range of new communication initiatives. HERO will replace Seesaw (we will keep Seesaw active next term while we transition between the two platforms).

We will also introduce a new platform for a regular newsletter. Hail Mail will replace my blog on the website and be contributed to by a number of staff members. These will be emailed to you, and we will keep previous issues on the website.

We hope that these two initiatives will consolidate some of the messages coming home to keep things more consistent.

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It was great to see so many parents celebrating our end of term assembly today, with a performance from our kapahaka group and our Manaaaki students sharing learning from throughout the term.

I would like to repeat my message shared at this assembly by wishing everyone a happy, safe and refreshing holiday break and I look forward to seeing you all back for Term 4.

Ngā mihi nui,

John