Principal's Diary

Kia Ora

Welcome back to a new term at school, I hope you all had a great holiday and managed to escape for a few days. I spent part of my holidays moving house and part up in Auckland at a conference about learning and ICT. It was a wonderful course that gave me a whole heap of new ideas about ways in which we can use the latest web technologies to improve the learning of all our children. Part of this involves the PTA and I would like to explore new ways for us to use the web to communicate the great work of the PTA to the community.

Just a quick reminder that I will be holding meetings next week to introduce myself to you all formally and to share with you my educational philosophy and vision for Fendalton School. I hope that you will be able to make it to one of the sessions.

Tuesday 16th October @ 8pm - Parents with children in the Junior School.
Wednesday 17th October @ 8pm - Parents with children in the Middle School.
Tuesday 23rd October @ 8pm - Parents with children in the Senior School.

All the sessions will be held in the Village and will involve some interactivity (I promise not to make you work too hard.)

Last week we put adverts into the education Gazette for new teachers to start in January 2008, this is partly to fill some of the long term relieving positions that we have had this year but also because of the news that Anne-Maree Tippen will be leaving us at the end of term 4. We are very sad that Anne-Maree will be leaving us but would like to congratulate her on her appointment as Associate Principal at Remuera Primary School in Auckland. Anne-Maree has taught at Fendalton School for nearly 10 years and has done a wonderful job, I would like to thank her for all her hard work and dedication and wish her the best of luck with her upcoming wedding to Tim and her new life in the North Island.

Congratulations to Kim and Jamie Wilson who had a baby boy during the holidays – mother and baby are doing well and we are all looking forward to meeting Max over the next few weeks.

I am also trying to finalise numbers for next year so I can work on class organisation. Thank you to those who have let us know that they will not be back next year - if you have not yet informed us please do so now! Likewise, if you know of children moving in zone who have not yet enrolled please let us know. We are not looking at class placements yet and we do not know which teachers will be teaching at particular levels. You will receive information about this as it becomes available.

Sadly we had a series of incidences of vandalism over the holidays, including several broken windows, if you see any suspicious behaviour around school please let us know and report it to the police.


Paul Sibson