Principal's Page

Kia Ora Friends - welcome to term three:                    

Returning to school and seeing all our beautiful children happy to be back is always energising and inspiring. Hopefully, you all got some quality family time together and found some cool things to do in and around the rain.

I was blessed to be part of a group of teachers from Mangere Central School - where my wife is the principal - who travelled to Aitutaki in the Cook Islands this past holiday. We visited Araura Primary School, where Junior Pauka is the new principal. Junior was the Deputy Principal at Mangere Central School for many years before taking up his new role in Aitutaki. 

Junior has just over 100 children at his school. The Cook Islands Ministry of Education pays staff, but everything else Junior pays for. Power, water, sewage disposal, internet access, all learning resources and any professional development his staff needs must be covered from an annual budget of only $13,000. That is not a misprint - $13,000.

Our mission was to collect as many resources as possible and deliver them, along with professional development based on what we do here in New Zealand. To that end, we collected a dozen iPads, some Apple TVs, various stationery items and $1,000 of Art equipment. Elfa Chen of iFusion provided the art equipment funding. His daughter previously attended our school, and Elfa manages our IP phone system, intercom system and video monitoring cameras.

Aitutaki is an incredibly beautiful place. The difference between Aitutaki and Rarotonga is considerable. It is much quieter, slower and simpler on Aitutaki. It was 28 degrees every day, and it rained once for about ten minutes - it was paradise. 

I have a few photos to share from our visit later in our newsletter. It was a chance to take our Pay It Forward approach a bit further afield, and it was a very rewarding and inspiring experience for us all.

We hope you enjoyed Matariki. This Friday, we will be celebrating Matariki with a breakfast event. You can expect more information from your child's teacher this week.

As always - if you have questions or concerns about anything school-related - email me at macash@mac.com, and I will get back to you asap.

My very best regards to you all,

Ash Maindonald

Principal.