Kia ora,
I hope that you had an opportunity to enjoy the long weekend.
On Tuesday we held our Sports Awards evening via live stream. I was extremely proud of the students for the respect in which they treated the occasion, and grateful that we could share this with our community given our current circumstances. Congratulations to all our winners, inclusive of students, staff, and community members. I would like to thank to the Student Tech Team whose highly capable skills in this area enabled the live streaming to take place. I would also like to acknowledge and thank all those people, through numerous and various ways, for supporting sport in our school.
On Wednesday and Thursday late afternoon, as part of the ’early works’ of the rebuild, the trees in the school’s memorial garden were moved into the area between B Block and the Library. As part of the process, when the temporary prefab is removed, a paved walkway and garden features will be added. This space will become a peaceful and special area in our school.
On Wednesday next week, the school will celebrate the Service Awards for students who have given a significant amount of their time in the service of others. In fitting with this acknowledgement, from Thursday through to the following Thursday, the Service Council will be running its annual City Mission ‘Can Collection’. Once again the events of this year has contributed to a greater need across our community, and we are very grateful for your contributions. All goods are donated to the City Mission.
Two other events in the coming week include the Concert Band Festival this weekend, where the Papanui High School Concert Band will be playing at Cashmere High School on Sunday. And, Thursday will see the Māori and Pasifika Awards evening, again live streamed.
Covid-19 Update
It was with sudden realisation that would the Delta Covid variant reach Christchurch, and when, has now happened. I can appreciate the concern that this raises particularly with cases in our local community area. As I am sure you are, we are keeping a very close watching-brief on this, and should things change we would look to communicate any impact this has from our school’s perspective as quickly as possible. Given the current situation, including that we are currently operating under Alert Level 2, it is important that if students are feeling unwell, I would encourage you to seek advice from Healthline.
As of 11.59pm on Monday 25th October, the Covid-19 Public Health Response Order for mandatory vaccinations for Education came into effect which the school must comply with. Please click the link below for more information:
Find the COVID-19 Public Health Response (Vaccinations) Amendment Order (No 3) 2021 here.
As mentioned last week, I was hoping to share with you a 3D fly-through link, that gives a fairly reasonable representation of the new buildings, and potential landscaping. Unfortunately we’ve been waiting on the updated version that hasn’t arrived - I am expecting this to be available to share next week.
Ngā mihi nui
Jeff Smith
Principal