Property News: 

Room 19 toilets look awesome after their big upgrade.

Room 15 toilets will also be awesome - soon.

Ditto room 13 toilets.

One of the few benefits of COVID-19 when it shut down our city for a while was that it gave nature a chance to breathe and restore itself.

There were Tui and all manner of birds out and about in prolific numbers. It was amazing to see and hear Mother Earth rebuild, restore and refresh.

Our own Ngahere - bush - is also in need of some refreshing and restoring, so we have fenced off the bottom half to let that happen.

Here's a message from Bush School Teacher - Whaea Nic - and her Wednesday Bush Class:

Kia ora family,

Our Bush School kids have noticed that the bush is struggling at the moment. We took the morning to identify the obvious issues and noticed that there is a lack of leaf litter around, and as a result, the bush seems drier than usual at this time of year, which can't be good for our beautiful native trees. 

This also means there will be a lack of beneficial bugs on the ground, and the tree roots are more likely to be exposed in high-traffic areas.

To show kaitiakitanga to Papatūānuku, we have decided that we as a whole school need to give back to a space that has created so many fun memories and learning opportunities.

We will fence off the lower part of the bush (see pic above) for the remainder of the term to allow the bush time to rest and recover. The upper part of the bush will remain open during class time (not during morning tea and lunch), and we will reassess this in term 4.

Hopefully, with the plan to plant a few more trees in this space this term, this will help with the recovery.

I will speak to each class as I have them over this term, and with the field being closed, there may be no issues at all, but if you do take your class into the bush (and please do), just be aware that the fence is up and we stay on the 'school side' only.

Whaea Nic