From The Principal's Desk

Dear parents and caregivers

What a year this has been! I know I have mentioned this before and many times it has been relevant to each and every one of us. Never before have we had to be put in such situations, where we are all Learning to Navigate our Changing World.

Through this, we have learnt so much and I hope as this year draws to an end we can all have an appreciation for what we do have. May we all continue to show kindness to each other and show gratitude each and every day.

People's lives have been changed and I hope that next year we are able to build on our strengths.

We are a great community a great school and I know we have fabulous students, staff and families, that together we can achieve so much. We tautoko (support) each other.

Waiho i te toipoto, kaua i te toioa.

Let us keep close together not far apart

This last term has been so great to see people interact and connect at school events. It has also been a wonderful time to celebrate and acknowledge what has happened
this year. I would like to include my speech to the year 6's as it covers so much of what needs to be said.

Year 6 Leavers speech - 2020

E nga mana, e nga reo,e nga iwi

E rau rangatira ma, Nau mai, haere mai, piki mai

Tena kotou, tena kotou, tena tatou katoa

Kia ora hui, hui mai, tatou katoa

All people here, all groups, all whanau

Welcome, welcome, welcome to you all, Greetings to all gathered here

On this very special occasion

It's the time of year where we celebrate together – this year, the last of your year 6 year and look forward to the beginning of 2021, for us all and for you as you move to
year 7.

This year – we have learnt a lot, we have grown a lot, (some of us more than others - depending on how much home baking we did ) and even though we have been apart
for a lot of the year we have also grown together as a class, a year level, a school and as a community.

To our parents,

Thank you for your understanding and ability to organise things at home, along with your jobs, or changes in such, and home tasks, ensuring the learning continued at
home in whatever form was appropriate to your household. You have managed so well. If you would like to consider a change in career, ... becoming a teacher? I am
happy to talk at any time!

Thank you to our PTA for planning and re planning and organising events despite what has happened. It has been so wonderful to be part of recent events where
families can interact and share and connect. I would particularly like to acknowledge the work of Kirby Rainbow in the uniform shop and a number of roles over the past 6
years. Also, thank you to Dawn Gillard for chairing the PTA throughout this year.

To our Board of Trustees I would like to thank you for your governance and meetings throughout this year. I would like to acknowledge Moana Paterson for her two terms
of service to the school and wish her well as she and her daughter leave Mellons Bay School.

I would like to thank our staff for the fantastic effort they made during the year, from our office staff, to teaching staff, to learning support staff , to Tony our caretaker. We
have all supported each other and I know there has been much kindness extended to and from all.

I would particularly like to acknowledge my fellow senior leaders , Paul, Judy and Hayley for their ongoing support throughout this year. Along with Karyn, Vanessa and
Jane as our team leaders.

And now to our year 6 graduates – the most important people of the evening

You have joined together and participated in Pirates of the Curry Bean (the year 6 Production)

You have also joined together and participated as Learners of the new build.

At the beginning of the year we had references to the new build as Downton Abbey!

I don't know a lot about this series but Wikipedia states that it was a period in history; with the great events of the time having an effect on their lives. Events depicted
throughout the series include news of the sinking of the Titanic in the first series; the outbreak of the First World War, the Spanish influenza pandemic,

This is our first series of the new build and ... Well we didn't have a war, and no ships were sunk but .... We did have our own pandemic.

So if we were to make other analogies..

Apparently there were six series of Downton Abby and for many of you if this is your 6th year at MBS, can you put your hand up if you have been here 6 years. Parents too,
if you have been with us for the past 6 years, thank you for all you have done and your support for the school and your child.

Would this also mean that your teachers would be. ... Lady Bell, Lady McCurdy and Lady Hall – it has a ring to it!

Throughout all our ups and down of this year, you as the learners of Downton Abby have truly upheld our school vision.

You have learnt to navigate your changing world and you have done it with respect responsibility and resilience. I have read it recently in your reports and I have seen
these dispositions constantly in action. To see you as the mature confident young people you have grown into makes me so proud.

Take this vision with you, keep navigating and you will cope with whatever comes your way. Keep being confident, caring, creative, communicative and connected young people, no matter where you live.

You are indeed like a family.

At the beginning of the year I asked Mrs Bell for your feedback on your new home of learning and this is what you said.

This year the students are so grateful to have an amazing classroom. The students the learning opportunities and the teachers are awesome and make the classroom a
fantastic place to be. We have an elevator for disabled people to use. At the moment we store fans in there – Mrs Bell says that they are her biggest fans – that jokes makes everyone laugh – Milly

On the agency sheet we get a choice of things to do for that day but we have to try and get it all done. The point of learner agency is to learn to be more independent and to manage our time. – Scout

The breakout room is peaceful and quiet and I think all classrooms should have one- Mylan

For our learning it's amazing because we have two amazing teachers, so when we have to do group work we can have two groups working at a time and if one teacher is working with a group you can ask the other if they're not busy to help you with your learning - Emma

All the weird cool wacky colours stand out and give a nice look in the classroom – Jake

This class is a helpful class with amazing teachers that are super cool - no they are not just cool they rock!- Cooper

I also like the break out room because it's good when you need to concentrate and do your work. In class we try to push ourselves to the edge and learn as much as we can. I love learner agency because it gives us freedom to do our work in any order we want. We can manage our own time. – Parker

I also enjoy and am intrigued by the moss, it's extremely odd and one of kind in our school. The students here also get an awesome education. The teachers organise many groups so that the children receive the right level of learning for them. The teachers don't organise everything though, the students here focus a lot on learner agency. Learner agency may sound confusing, but it's a huge stepping stone to help people learn to manage their work and become independent – Sarah

Our class has a strong focus on learning. Each person in our space is learning at their own separate academic learning level...This room is altogether a great learning space. I think anyone would be happy to learn here –Nathan

In conclusion this learning space is a great place to learn. We have a great amount ofspace and an amazing environment surrounding us. – Cody

One thing often goes un unnoticed while people gasp at the newly built buildingthough, that's the wonderful people that thrive here daily! – Sarah Z

I can guarantee that every single person in this classroom loves it in here, everysingle bit and we are so grateful that we could be in a new building this year – Ellie.

Downton Abby is just a series. Walls of a building do not dictate what goes on inside.

We have finally given the new build a name.

The downstairs is Te whare o whenua – meaning earth, as it is green, brown and mossy.

Upstairs will be known as Te whare o rangi, meaning sky as it is blue and open.

So year 6's as you leave Mellons Bay school

May your feet always be firmly planted in the ground, and may you always reach for the sky.

By the way, If you want to know more about Downton Abbey – please ask Lady Bell – she's a real fan!

We congratulate all of our year 6's on their graduation and wish them well for their futures. We also congratulate our young teachers on serving their 2 year tenure as provisionally registered teachers to become fully registered. Their graduation was enjoyed by all. I am proud of all of these ladies and all of our year 6 graduates.

We hope that the school reports you have received have been helpful in regard to the learning that happened this year. We will continue with SeeSaw next year and appreciate the ongoing relationship we have with you in regard to your child's learning. We have kept the room numbers the same on the reports but want to give you the heads up that these will change next year so they are in a more logical order.

In association with the Accord that was granted last year we have 8 Teacher Only Days to use by the end of 2022.

We have used one already and wanted to give you the heads up for the dates of the Teacher Only Days in 2021.

Term 1 - Monday 22 February

- Wednesday 7 April (directly after Easter Weekend, Tuesday is school holiday
too)

Term 2 - Friday 4 June ( Friday before Queens birthday)

We realise that these days take organisation and have tried to add two of them on to Long Weekends.

Over the holiday break we look forward to our Covered Outdoor Learning Area (COLA) starting construction. For those of you who have pool keys, we hope that youenjoy our pool and thank you in advance for looking after it. We would like to thank Mr Brunt, Eva's Dad, for very kindly donating a robotic pool cleaner. So don't besurprised if you see something at the bottom of the pool, unless it looks suspicious!

We have a wonderful group of parents that help out in various ways at our school. We thank you all for what you do. We appreciated our Teachers morning tea, not only the lovely goodies but also people being willing to watch our children and ensure their safety. Dawn Gillard will no longer be the PTA chair next year, she will be running the lunch roster which is great. If you like to organise dates and people and could do this for next year, Dawn or I would be happy to talk to you about what the role of PTA Chair involves. You would not have to do everything, we just need to co-ordinate those that do the fabulous events run by the PTA.

The safety of all our children is paramount. I do wish you a safe holiday. May you enjoy time with family and friends.

We look forward to 2021 and all it will bring with it. We are ready!

Ngā mihi nui

ColleenMargison

Principal/Tumuaki

Learning to Navigate our Changing World

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