Site Blessing: 

We are one week away from starting an exciting new building project.

We have waited five years for this to come to fruition, so it is just awesome that it is all finally happening.

Five years ago, we made a strong and comprehensive case to the Ministry for the establishment of a new permanent, four-classroom, two-storied block of classrooms.

The Ministry said the case we put together was the most comprehensive and thorough they had ever received - 57 pages - and we gained approval.

In the meantime, they gave us four temporary classrooms to house our children until the permanent block could be built. Those temporary classrooms are rooms 31 to 34.

Covid-19 put a lot of 'spanners in the works', causing lots of delays and holds.

 Eventually, though, things progressed right through to Auckland Council Consent Compliance, and we were ready to launch.

Sadly, by the time we reached that Consent sign-off, the cost of the project had sky-rocketed. The Ministry informed us the project would cost up to $3,000,000 more than they had initially budgeted for, so the whole project was back almost to square one.

Fortunately, we have some wonderful allies in the Ministry of Education - people who love our school, love our vision and approach to learning, and have seen the difficulties we have had with insufficient classroom space. They fought hard for us and our project, and while many building projects around the country were cancelled, ours was not. 

We held a special Dawn Site Blessing two Mondays ago to bless the land, remind us of the kaupapa of our school and bless all those working on the site to bring this special project to fruition. Thirty people attended the blessing at 6 a.m., and Julie and Kathryn from our Tuck Shop provided an awesome bacon and egg breakfast for everyone.

Matua Aaron provided the blessing with Karakia and by sprinkling water from the  branch and leaves of a Kawakawa plant - a plant with important traditional Māori medicinal uses.

It was a special and beautiful occasion. We had representatives from the Ministry of Education, the architects who designed the building, the project manager, site supervisor and construction company representatives - along with lots of our staff - all in attendance for the occasion.