Update 22 March - We're back

He mihi matakuikui ki a koutou katoa.

We're back and we're underway - and it's great. It's not perfect, but it's still great to have the children back at school and to be able to reconnect with our parent community. I really enjoyed having a coffee with a number of our parents yesterday morning and having a chat.

What's not perfect? Our water supply is still a bit iffy and we have been losing it off and on since we started back. This has affected our toilets and our children have, for short periods, had to use the portaloos. They are far from perfect so we want to minimise that necessity as much as possible.

To that end we have had plumbers, drainlayers and City Care on site trying to get to

the source of the problem.

Part of our issue yesterday was that the contractors who are putting in the relocatable classrooms kept on nicking the water pipes with the auger they were using to drill holes for the piles. Now that the holes for the piles have all been finished we are hopeful that today will see a more reliable water supply.

We were told that the relocatable classrooms would take 20 days. Then we were

told that they would be ready on the 29th of March. They are now on site and

due to be dropped on to their piles shortly, but I can't see them all being ready for the 29th. I hope that I will be pleasantly surprised. As you can see from the photos they need a bit of work before we can put children into them.

Demolition of Rooms 5-8

This work is well underway although I had hoped that the building would have been down before the children returned to school. The power lines outside the front of that car park and entrance are causing a complication as they have dropped and the demolition contractor is unable to get his digger in until they are tightened.

In the meantime they are ripping everything out of that block that they possibly can.

We are still waiting to see what will happen with the Library to Room 4. A report is due in today so we should have an indication either today or tomorrow about what will happen there.

The Best Day Ever

On a good note we were stunned by the generosity of Postgate Primary School in Porirua who sent an individual gift pack to every child in our school yesterday. This made a huge difference to the our children and lifted their spirits immensely. We were a bit worried bout the children coming back to school and what their reactions might be. To have children describing their first day back at school as "the best day ever" was a huge relief. All our children send a huge thank you to the staff, children and community of Postgate School. Tau kē!