11 September 2020

Post date: Sep 11, 2020 2:35:2 AM

A couple of weeks ago, I looked up the synonyms for the word I could use to best describe this year. I came up with quite a list of synonyms relating to unusual (eccentric, freakish, idiosyncratic, nonconformist, unconventional, unorthodox, extraordinary, preternatural, rare, deviant, uncommon, uncustomary, unwanted, odd, peculiar, strange...)

So, in one of these years in the life of a school, like in your homes and workplaces, things have been turned a little bit sideways! In the main, our tamariki and staff have marched forwards and ridden over the speed humps as smoothly as they could.... and I thought the massive building project would be the main distraction. How very wrong I was, but in a way it (the building project) has seemed more like a gentle breeze rather than a howling southerly.

What it has meant, however, is our usual fundraising efforts, which we so heavily rely on for resourcing - staff and stuff - has had to be cancelled as in Disco number 1, food for Arts Celebration, and due to the uncertainty and not being able to have many people on site due to no driveway (Health and Safety) and who knows regarding Alert Levels... has meant that our fabulous School Fair has had to be altered in this deviant year.

Not all is lost, the phoenix will rise and something inventive is being cooked up in the fundraising oven to help with the blip this will cause the school, and no doubt many others.....

Come March 2021, we will be celebrating the opening of a wonderful 'new' school. This serves as a wonderful opportunity to wrap something festive and fun (draising-ish) around this much anticipated moment in the life of Te Kura o Whetūkairangi and bring the community together in a new year. Yay - so a new addition here! Then the 'normal' Fair come November 2021. Again.

Also, we have a lot of smaller things going on. Rust doesn't sleep! You would've see in the last Newsletter that we have made $5150 so far from:

    • Sausage Sizzle

    • Pizzas

    • Pilates

    • Hoodies

    • Deli Items (ongoing until none left - and very delicious)

    • Munch

Soon we have:

    • Knack Market - Saturday 19 September

    • Quiz Night - Thursday 24 September

    • Double Vision - Brew for Good (date to come soon)

    • Disco number 2 (Friday 30 October)

.......and there may be room for a little bit more!

It's a bit tough, yes, but with creativity, energy, goodwill, strong networks and just plain old good ideas, I feel confident that we can do it.

Thanks for your mahi and looking forward to new challenges and perspectives. We need to aim to not just bounce back but get even stronger