By Simon Clarke | Posted: Sunday December 6, 2020
2020 - A year like no other!
Who would have known that in our planning meetings in January, how the year was going to play out.
Many of our plans were thrown out of the window, and the teaching team had two weeks to adjust to working in a completely different way and delivering a learning programme entirely online. The building project that was due to start in June was postponed but will start (fingers crossed) on Monday.
As disruptive as the year has been I take great pride that we have continued to stay focused on our original plans. The teaching team have made great progress in understanding and delivering Project Based Learning and we are now receiving requests from around the country to see what we are doing. This was highlighted by the quality work the children completed on the Hospital rebuild.
The community pulled together in November as we held our first and very successful Street Party. Thanks again to everyone involved, especially Kelly MacKnight and the Parent Group.
Thank you once again for all of your support over what has been a stressful and frustrating year. I cannot stress enough how proud I am of our students and our teachers for the way they responded to the lockdown levels. I want to take this opportunity to thank you, our families and whanau, for the support you have provided throughout. It has definitely been a team effort!
Next year we will be running the popular KAIKville programme in term 2 and will be making the third in the trilogy of school movies in term 3. In term 1 of next year, we will be working with Ian Taylor and his company Animation Research who make the America's Cup animations. The focus of this study will be on Kupe, the great explorer.
We farewell Jody Bolger who has been working in Room 7 this year and Lara Valentine one of our teacher aides. We wish them both well for their next adventure.
We also say farewell to our Year 6 students, and we hope that we have prepared you well for the next stage of your schooling. You will have many exciting challenges ahead, and if you keep the Kaikorai Values in the back of your mind, I am sure you will go on to do so many great things. Congratulations to Race Porter who was awarded the Kaik Values Award for Term 4 and to all the children who were nominated.
Thank you to the entire staff of teachers, teacher aides, admin, caretakers and cleaners who all pull together to try their very best every day for the children. The work that you do is much appreciated.
Finally, we look forward to seeing all returning students next year, and we wish everyone a safe and enjoyable Christmas break!
Kind regards
Simon Clarke
Principal