Aoraki Mount Cook School

These photos were given to me by a friend whose dad worked on shifting the old building from Oamaru to Aoraki. The first shows the building ready to leave Oamaru and the second is the building onsite where it was until 2022.

Calendars for sale! $20 each plus postage if needed.

All photos kindly donated by local photographers.

You can order through here, on messenger, or emailing [email protected] or [email protected].

I am happy to drop off in Twizel.

Meet Snappy the Snowman. He was created by the snow team!

Those crazy kids! Loving it!

My amazing mum has been furiously knitting slippers for the kids to wear in the classroom!

They are very special as they have wool in them that my nana spun over 30 years ago. The sheep were raised and shorn by my dad, carded and spun by my nana, and knitted into slippers by my mum! Lots of love in each pair.

We will all have warm feet this winter in our new classroom!

Thank you, Mum!

Will try and bring some Twizel Updates up to school tomorrow if I can get hold of some.

You can go here to read the article about the opening.

#928 15032022.pdf Shared with Dropbox

Just a reminder that school is open tomorrow as per the notice on Class Dojo.

I am not on strike tomorrow as I am a member of a different union and we have opted not to strike at this time.

However, if you wish to know why teachers and principals are striking, then I am happy to chat about it! Just ask.

Feedback Time

The openings on Friday (for schools) and Saturday (for the public) were part of our Strategic Plan so we would love to feedback from those who attended. It can be positive and contain suggestions for next time, but please be kind!

If you are happy to supply feedback you can comment on this post, email me at [email protected] or send me a message in messenger.

It will all be part of my report to the Board, but if you wish to remain anonymous, please let me know.

We would also like to hear your thoughts on the new building. The strategic initiative is: We will have a building that is fit for purpose and enhances learning, teaching and a sense of turangawaewae at our kura.

So, if you have any comments or thoughts on this, we would also love to hear them!

Ngā mihi nui in advance!

Hi All,

If anyone has photos or video from our building opening on Saturday that they are willing to share, could you please share them with us on messenger or by emailing me and requesting a link to a Google folder.

Thank you.

BIG thank you to all of you who came and celebrated with us. You all made the day so special.

Hi All,

Putting together a few photos for the opening on Saturday and we have no photos from the 70s for the boards.

EDIT: We also only have one photo from the 80s. So, could do with some of those too!

Anyone have any they could send us?

HUGE thank you to everyone who registered to come to the grand opening next Saturday!

We have about 120 people coming and that was exactly our catering numbers, so we guessed well!

Hoping for fine weather! Showers forecast, so be prepared for any eventuality! We had snow last night on the mountains and today is warm and nice. Autumn!

Just a note that there is limited shade available on the day, so make sure you bring a hat and some sunscreen! Might pay to bring an umbrella too! Who knows?!

We are very excited to see you all and are now counting the days

Huge thanks to our Board, parents, DoC, school staff, and children for all their hard work to get it all looking amazing!

Travel safe and see you on Saturday at 1pm!

I would like to thank Daniella for all her amazing work on the new logo! It looks amazing and I am trying to use it wherever I can in the right way!

Also a HUGE thank you to Mike for getting our pool back up to standard. He has worked long and tirelessly so that we could finally swim in it yesterday!

The grand opening draws near! Please share this information with past pupils, staff, families, Board members and anyone else you think should join us!

Please RSVP to the email or phone number below, or fill out this Google Forms link:

https://forms.gle/ceToi9QSS7oHyFVz6

Hi All,

School starts again on Wednesday 1st of February at 9am.😍

We are so excited for the year ahead! 🤪

If you are needing to enrol a child or have enrolment questions, please contact me at [email protected]

We are moved in !!

Building Update

The flooring and autex are done and it is looking amazing!

The deck is being upgraded and will hopefully be done in the next few days (weather permitting).

Today the plumbers are here putting sinks, toilets and other bits in!

This week we are also expecting electricians, mechanical installers and concreters. It is all very exciting.

MARK THE CALENDAR

Our grand official building opening will be on Saturday 11th of March 2023.

If you have been a part of this school as a student, teacher, principal, cleaner, caretaker, teacher aide, parent or Board member then we would love to have you here to celebrate with us.

There will be more information and details over the coming weeks/months but we wanted to give you plenty of notice!

Please spread the word.

Today is concrete day and it is a hive of industry here at school!

The kids took these photos of the action!

Mystery solved on the opening date! According to NZ archives the school opened on the 23rd May 1960!

It also closed on the 31st Jan 1967, reopened on the 4th Sept 1967 and again on the 1st Feb 1973.

I am guessing this is when our correspondence school overlap happened with roll numbers fluctuating.

This building, we are currently in, was completed in February 1978.

Your next is to work out when all of the principals were here. I am sorted from 1975 but before that (except for 1972 - Beverley Harwood) we just have names and not dates.

So, if you were at the school prior to 1974, tell me who the principal was when you were here so we can get all the dates sorted from 1960 up!

Thank you again for your help and support!

Kia ora,

We are on a mission to find out the date/year that the school changed over from being a correspondence school to a ministry funded school. We are thinking it was between 1960 and 1963 based on old newspaper reports.

Was anyone here during that time that might remember?

Would appreciate your input as we are keen to bring out a history of the school booklet in time for the opening of the new building at the beginning of next year.

We would also love blurbs or quotes from past pupils, staff and parents about their time at the school. Make sure you add the date/s you were involved with the school. Please send them to [email protected]. We want to make the history booklet something to treasure.

Thank you in advance!

Today is SUPER exciting as the joinery goes into the kitchen and library of our new building. The colours look so cool and it is like watching a big jigsaw come together.

It is about time I did a building update. There is so much happening on-site at the moment, so we are getting pretty excited!

Bathroom items arrived today and the pool decking is all being redone. Looks amazing.

No move-in set date as yet, but we are getting closer every day!

Our ski dates for 2022:

1. Thursday 4th August
2. Wednesday 10th August
3. Wednesday 17th August
4. Thursday 25th August
5. Thursday 1st Sept - Mackenzie Ski Race Day
6. Thursday 8th Sept

Anne, our awesome teacher aide, took these up at school today. Bit of snow then?

Ata mārie!

Been a while since I have shared photos of the new building with you, but I am making up for that today by posting many!

Please comment or ask questions if you have any!😁

Anne sent me this a few minutes ago. Sad I missing it, but snow here in Twizel so I am happy.