Kia ora Whānau – Greetings everyone.

It is hard to believe that we are nearly halfway through Term 2 and having skipped Autumn it seems we are now right into Winter!

I’d like to welcome Miss Jordan Engen who will be working in the Year 7-8 Syndicate, Room 18. Jordan has been here since the start of Term 2 in a part time capacity and now replaces Mrs Nicky Pateman while she is on Maternity Leave. Mr Jarad Pateman will now lead the Senior Syndicate.

The Board of Trustees Election process has been completed for St Martins School. We did not need to go to election as we received the number of nominees required to fill the positions that came up for reelection. Nikki Tod, the Board Chair has retained her seat on the Board and we welcome two new parent representatives to the Board. Congratulations to Becky Ellis and Mike Greenslade, we welcome you and look forward to the knowledge and expertise you are able to bring to the Board of Trustees.

This week Bernadette May, Deputy Principal, and I will be attending the Trans Tasman Principal’s Federation Conference in Auckland at which we will be presenting. Our story will be the challenge of leading a school through a natural disaster. It is a fantastic opportunity to share with 1100 principals from New Zealand, Australia and around the world what an amazing place St Martins School is.

For Term 3 I have been fortunate to have been granted a Canterbury Primary Principals’ Association/Ministry of Education Study Fellowship to look at the importance of growing networks for building resilience particularly in the context of leadership in education. I feel quite honoured to be successful in being granted this Study Fellowship and although I will still be about in Term 3, Bernadette May will be Acting Principal for the duration. 

Thank you all for your understanding for the Teacher Only Day on Friday 27th May. All of our teaching and support staff were able to attend a full day seminar on Growth Mindsets which was presented by James Anderson, a fantastic and very inspiring speaker from Australia. It was a great time for staff to learn and share together, an opportunity that does not come about that often.

You may have seen the overflowing bins of lost property. We have had to relocate them from the office to the entrance to the school hall due to the volume of lost property. Office staff endeavour to get all named lost property back to students when they have the time, but we do ask that you and your children have good look through the lost property bins, classrooms and cloakroom areas and do not depend on the office staff to locate lost clothing for you. We still continue to have much unnamed uniform items – please name everything, even shorts, skorts and cargo pants as these have turned up in lost property on occasion.

Kind regards

Rob Callaghan