By Simon Clarke | Posted: Tuesday December 12, 2017
"So this is Christmas and what have you done, another year over and a new one just begun. And so this is Christmas I hope you have fun. The near and the dear one, the old and the young. A very Merry Christmas and a happy new year. Let's hope it's a good one without any fear" - John Lennon
What a year 2017 has been! It seems like a long time ago that we were told that the Ministry of Education is going to invest 7 million dollars into rebuilding the school in 2019. This has been nicely book ended by the announcement a few weeks ago of $310,000 from the Otago Community Trust to go towards teacher professional development on project based learning which includes topics like STEM and Digital Technologies.
But it is what happened in between this time and the success of the students that I am most proud of. The highlights for me were seeing the children's entrepreneurial skills during our KAIKVILLE programme, the collaboration shown during our structures topic and the creativity of each class in their contribution to the school movie. We hope that your child has enjoyed these experiences as much as we have had creating them.
Thank you to our dedicated team of teachers and teacher aides. Your tireless enthusiasm and willingness to give new ideas a go is one of the reason which makes our school such an interesting place to be.
A special thank you to Hannah King and Linda Martin who will be leaving us at the end of the year. We wish Hannah all the very best for her impending nuptials and her new life in Blenheim. We have really appreciated all of the work that you have done in Room 5 this year.
Linda has been the Deputy Principal at Kaikorai for 13 years, this included a time in the "hot seat" as Principal. She has been involved in all aspects of the school from sports to culture, from extension to support programmes and she has had a positive effect on 1000s of students who have walked through Kaikorai's doors. No words can describe the appreciation we feel for her contribution and we wish her well in her retirement.
Thank you to Dougal McGowan and our excellent Board of Trustees for your support and superb governance during the year.
Thank you to our Parent Group who have also worked hard behind the scenes ensuring that our students get the best possible opportunities to have access to a wide range of resources. Also a big thank you to our many parent volunteers who give up time out of their busy days to make sure our students get to learn outside of the classroom.
Finally, thank you to the students. You make my job very easy with your independence and decision making! I would like to wish all of our Year 6 students all the very best for their future schooling, we look forward to seeing all of our returning students in the new year and we would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a safe and enjoyable holiday.