Dear Parents

A couple of administrative things this week.

Finding a venue for the whole school to have prizegiving has proved problematic. Unfortunately Baradene aren’t able to let us use their auditorium again this year. Poor Anne Bridgman has tried a number of different venues and options but with no luck finding a suitable one.

Therefore we are going to have two prizegivings, both held in the VAS hall. We are mindful of parents, particularly parents of year 6 children, coming along on a couple of occasions for the various end of year assemblies. This is especially true for those parents with a child in year 6 and a child in years 0 – 3. They would be coming along to three different assemblies!

With this in mind, we are going to have a years 4, 5, 6 prizegiving combined with the leavers’ assembly on Tuesday 15 December at 9am. We will also have a years 0, 1, 2, 3 prizegiving on Tuesday 15 December at 2pm.

We are not going to lose any of the great VAS traditions for our year 6 leavers. The format of the prizegiving programme will be as follows:

1. Speeches from board chair and principal
2. Years 4, 5, 6 class awards
3. Valedictory speech, video presentation and leaver’s certificates awarded
4. Cups awarded
5. Year 6 leave the prizegiving and go through the human arch

The programme for the years 0, 1, 2, 3 assembly will be:

1. Speeches from board chair and principal
2. Class awards
3. Video presentation

We are going to look for a more permanent solution to prizegiving early next year because the ideal is that the whole school celebrates success together.

We have all been waiting a long time for the work to start on remediating the subsidence issues around rooms 16 – 21 and the subsequent internal renovation of rooms 19 – 21 as innovative learning spaces (formerly known as modern learning environments!). The work will also include the outdoor plan that was shown to the school in 2013.

The great news is that we are underway. The engineer’s report is in, the architect was on site yesterday, drainage is being investigated and paperwork for Auckland Council is being prepared. We are expecting the work to begin early next year with the work expected to finish in June. We have enough spaces in the school in the first half of the year to accommodate three classes so no learning compromised. We can’t wait!

Kind regards

Janice Adamson