Newsletter - Term 2

What a happy day it was for one and all when the boiler was functional and the heating was turned on. I may have gone a little bit overboard with my excitement when our contractor Clem Munro came into my office and placed his hand over the radiator to test the temperature. Of course, when I told him that I had grown up in North Queensland he fully understood my enthusiasm for proper heating in our school. There is still ongoing work to finish off the boiler project, but hopefully, this will be completed before the end of term.

I am pleased to let you know that at a meeting last week the board approved a project to upgrade the school tennis courts. This project is currently in its preliminary stages, and still requires final approval from the Ministry of Education. Once this approval has been received, I will be asking for members of the Owaka community who are or have been involved in tennis, netball or basketball to provide input into the project. So have a think about whether this is something you are keen to be involved in.

I really enjoyed watching our year 9-12 students compete in the Otago Secondary Schools’ Netball Tournament in Dunedin on the weekend. There were significant and noticeable improvements by the team every game. A special mention to both Sarah Cairns (teacher in charge) and Hayley Mitchell (coach) who supported the team at this tournament. Your commitment to our students and the high level of support you provided was critical to the success of this tournament for our students.

Lastly, I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge our amazing support staff. Last week was Support Staff Week and it was great to celebrate our caretakers, cleaners, office staff, and teacher aides. These taonga (treasures) of our school embody the TCAS Way in everything that they do, and the school wouldn’t be the same without them.