Kia ora Papanui Primary school whānau

I hope you are all doing well as well countdown to the festive season.

With the 2025 school year coming to a close, it is a time to reflect on all that is happened over the past 12 months. We have all grown a little older, hopefully a little wiser and our tamariki are all growing up so fast. As a dad myself, this year really hit home as my son Charlie finishes Primary school and heads off on the next chapter at Intermediate school. It just feels like yesterday he was starting as a wee 5 year old. No doubt you are all feeling a bit like that. The Christmas holidays are a chance to reconnect and spend some quality time together making memories, hopefully over a long hot summer!

There have been so many highlights this year, from the big day out, to our matariki breakfast, the colour run, cultural celebration day and book week just to name a few. As always the highlights for me are when we have our community at school.

Yesterday we farewelled our year 6 leavers at a special assembly. We are so proud of this group of tamariki, they have been fantastic role models, demonstrating our values on a daily basis. We are very sad to see them go but wish them all the very best for their futures.

Today we are posting your child’s end-of-year reports. You will find this on your child’s HERO page under 2025 Report. Please take time to read through it with your tamariki and celebrate their learning this year.

Earlier in the year, I shared some information regarding the changes with the curriculum and reporting. When looking at your child’s report it is important to know that the changes from the Government have set higher expectations for student achievement at earlier year levels. Many concepts and skills previously introduced in later primary or intermediate years are now expected to be mastered sooner. All children are now expected to achieve the same learning at the same age.

If you do not see the same level of achievemnet this year it is not an indication that your tamariki are falling behind, or that our teaching has declined. Instead, it reflects a recalibration against a more rigorous and clearly defined set of national expectations. It’s like the goalposts have been moved further down the field, requiring more effort to reach them.

In your child’s report we will be clearly stating what the expectation is for them to be achieving now and how your child is doing in relation to this expectation. E.g. if your child is a year 4 learner, the expectation that they are working to achieve is the “End of year 4” expectation. We will be saying that either your child is At this expectation, is Below or Well Below this expectation or is Above this expectation and what year level they are working at.

The HERO reports are made up of the following.

  • A graph showing the NZ curriculum year level your child is at for Reading, Writing and Maths as well as progress made so far this year.

  • A Living our school values page – detailing how your child is doing developing our school values of Atawhai -kindness, Aumangea -resilience, Ākonga – being a courageous learner and Eke Panuku – doing our personal best.

  • A learning sample for Māori  – Te Reo/Tikanga

  • A learning Sample for Technology

  • Attendance data

As this is the final Newsletter for the year I wanted to say a huge thanks to all of the amazing people in our school community.

Firstly to all of our whānau who have supported our school this year, with things like road patrol, school trips, coaching basketball or touch rugby or just being a friendly face at the school gate. It is really appreciated.

A massive thanks to our School Board; Mark, Mileesa, Nicola, Sam, Erin-Kate, Sharon our staff Rep and Lynne our Board Secretary. Although the Board term has just started you have already shown that you are a thoughtful and thorough team who put our tamariki at the centre of our decision making. Mark our Presiding Member makes time every week to come in and catch up with me, which is hugely appreciated.

To the Friends of Papanui team led by Heidi and Kurt ,what a fantastic effort you have put in running events and raising money for our school.

We are also sad to be farewelling Anita Smart from this group, who has been such a champion for our PTA and has brought so much energy and effort towards our school. You will be hugely missed! We are having a special morning tea for our whānau helpers next Tuesday at 10:30am to say thankyou for everything so If you have helped out and are able to come please let us know on the HERO post.

Secondly, to all of our amazing tamariki. It has been really great to see your progress this year as you develop those key life skills of of Atawhai -kindness, Aumangea -resilience, Ākonga – being a courageous learner and Eke Panuku – doing our personal best. We are really proud of the progress you have made this year!

To my amazing team of support staff and teachers. You are such a great team to work with. You are all so passionate, fun, focussed and extremely skilled at what you do. Special mention to Jo and Debbie our two Assistant Principals who not only lead their teaching teams but also support me in the leadership team. Massive thanks to Maree,Sarah,Hannah,Amanda, Sharon, Anna L, Anna G, Kate,Miranda, Marian,Rachel, Paula,Lissa ,Lisa T,Lisa B and Lisa S, Penney, Lynne,Erin, Bronwyn,Jackie, Megan, Jennifer,Heidi,Patrick and Kay. You are all fantastic human beings!

We are also sadly farewelling some key people in our school. Firstly Lisa Thompson is finishing up in her SENCO role, which she has done with so much passion over a long number of years. Lisa will be returning in a release teacher role next year, which we are very happy about. We are also farewelling two of our Teacher Aides, firstly Patrick Cook who has been with us for a couple of years and has been such an integral part of our pastoral care team, is off to complete his thesis in Child Psychology. Also Heidi Aarsen, who is absolutely amazing at her role, is off on maternity leave. We hope to see Heidi back at some stage! We wish these guys all the very best.

What’s coming up….

  • Monday 15th December – Christmas singing concert -2pm

  • Tuesday 16th December – Whānau helpers morning tea 10:30 am

  • Wednesday 17th December – School finishes for the year at 12 pm

  • 2026 

  • Tuesday 3rd February – Drop in and meet your child’s teacher day

  • Wednesday 4th February – First day of school

  • Friday 6th February – Waitangi Day

  • Friday 20th February – Big Day out at Jellie Park

  • Wednesday 25th March – An evening with Rob Cope – Our kids online

Finally, I was very happy to call Chandall Beardsley (Maia-Jade, Zariah and Josiah’s mum) today to let her know that she had won the $200 Woolworths voucher for providing us with feedback on our recent Community Consultation. Thanks to all who gave us feedback on what we are doing well and what you would like to see going forward.

From the whole Papanui Primary team, we wish you a fantastic summer break with your whānau, spending time doing the things you love. We look forward to seeing you all in the new year!

Hei konā mai (bye for now)

Ben Galletly