Kia ora, Talofa, Kia orana,

Greetings Parents, Grandparents and Caregivers,

Congratulations to Santana Harding who has been named this year’s West Park School Wellington North Primary Schools’ Citizenship Award recipient. The award run by Wellington City Council acknowledges students across the nine local primary schools, who have shown “true leadership, citizenship, and contribution to school life”. The Mayor of Wellington will be presenting Arnav with his award at a special evening ceremony on Friday week. A wonderful acknowledgment of an outstanding young student.

It is great to see the large number of kids who are now riding scooters or bikes to school, unfortunately, many are doing so without helmets. As a school, we can’t enforce the wearing of helmets to or from school but do ask that you encourage your child to wear one. Over the past few years we’ve had several nasty injuries that could have been avoided by having worn a helmet. Please help us keep your children safe.

We are still working through recruiting for next year, and therefore, have not finalised team structures or staff placements for 2022. It is hoped that both structures and placements will have been finalised and be able to be communicated to families by the end of next week. Following that communication, the process for allocating students to their 2022 classes and teams will commence. This will take into consideration a large number of variables including academic needs, social needs, and teacher strengths. The process is one that teachers devote a large amount of time to in order to ensure the best possible structure for all students within available resources.

If there are any specific requests or information you would like staff to take into consideration when making the 2022 allocations please wait until after teams and staff allocations have been announced. If you do make a special request or provide information to be considered, please address them to me in written form and deliver them to the school office marked ‘Confidential’. When the lists are finalised they will be communicated and/or displayed accordingly. Towards the end of the term students will have the opportunity to come together in their 2022 class and spend some time with their 2022 classroom teacher and class mates.

Please note:

1. Staff allocations for 2022 have not yet been made but will be communicated as soon as they have been. Students will not be confirmed into classrooms until staff have been allocated to their 2022 classroom and this has been communicated to parents and caregivers.

2. Requests will be considered in making the final allocations, however no guarantee is given that requests will be met.

The end of this term will farewell Jodi Chappell and Jeremy Coenen.

Jodie in a very short time has proven to be an absolutely amazing office administrator and an absolutely privilege to work with. Recently, Jodi and her partner bought a property in Ohau where both their families are. Initially she had planned to commute daily from Levin, however, within days of securing the property a nearby school (5 minute walk) advertised an office administrator’s position, which in due course she applied for and was then offered. Her final formal date will be 18 November, however, I have negotiated with her and her new school, to have Jodi work at West Park School two days a week until the end of the year. That will allow us to run a full recruiting process, and have Jodi available to be part of this year’s end of year actions. I think that it is absolutely fantastic the way that good fortune has shone on Jodi and her partner, and I am incredibly grateful for her willingness and keenness to help find a suitable replacement, whilst ensuring that we reach the end of the year being on top of things. My objective here is to find a suitable replacement as soon as possible, so as to have them working with Jodi as much as possible before the end of the year.

The second person leaving at the end of the year is Jeremy. Jeremy will have been with us 5 years, having started here as a teacher aide whilst completing his teaching qualification. During his time at West Park School he has worked with several year levels and taken on many opportunities to develop his practice and support others in developing their practices. A more ‘chilled’ teacher I’m perhaps yet to meet. Jeremy had originally intended to leave and travel overseas over a year ago, but Covid and lockdowns brought a change of plans, as has been the case, with many people on staff. Jeremy is in a unique position in his life, and ready to explore his career option and future goals. He is excited and eager to face whatever the future may bring. His enthusiasm, willingness to muck, and friendship will be missed by many on staff. Efforts are in place to now fill permanent vacancy.

Have a lovely weekend ahead.

Luis Echegaray

Principal

The thing that made me go for the student council was that I wanted to go for more leadership roles and I wanted to help the school more.

My favourite and most proud moment was when I put plastic free day into action even though we had to keep changing the date that it started on, but we achieved it!

I have learned that being on the student council is that most of the things that we wanted to do actually happened like plastic free day.

If I would give any advice to the 2022 student council it would be to continue to do plastic free day without any changes.

I am on the lookout for a few more volunteers (limited spaces due to Covid regulations), donations, and access to any services anything that you may have contacts for. If you are able to help please email jasmainem@westpark.school.nz or if you see me around don't be afraid to come up and have a chat! Last year we raised over $5000 for Camp Quality and this year I would love to raise more!