Board of Trustee's Chairperson,
2022 End of Year Prizegiving Speech
Tēna tatou e nga rangatira, kaiako, tamariki ma, e te CPS whanau, nau mai haere mai.
Greetings to our leaders, teachers, our children and to you our CPS family, welcome.
Ko Kate Paine tōku ingoa.
Good evening to you all and welcome back to normal programming where we can gather together and celebrate the successes of our school and our students.
Success isn't just receiving an award here tonight. Success is measured in many ways. For those of you that this year tried a new sport, challenged yourself in your learning, made a new friend. We are proud of you all.
As you know the current CPS board was elected in October and I would like to take this opportunity to publicly thank the outgoing board. Our students and community should be incredibly grateful for your strong stewardship.
I know that there are great things to come from your new board. We are enjoying working alongside Mrs Douglas to help make good strategic decisions for our school moving forward.
At Cambridge Primary we aim to offer you a holistic primary education through our CPS motto of Creating powerful students through quality, tradition and innovation.
2022 has been another year of challenges and rewards. We are excited that we are now able to get back to some normality and are able to invite our school community back onto school grounds and into classrooms.
Garden to table was a new initiative that Mr Pettit dreamed up and then worked tirelessly to achieve. The design ideas also came from former Year 6 CPS students. This is just another example of what makes CPS so unique and to see the programme thriving is really special. Garden to Table ties perfectly in with our green gold enviro status. If you haven't already taken the time to visit this classroom please do so.
Four Peaks continues to be a valuable aspect of our wider community.
It has had another successful year and with the new offering of the adventure school it is probably an important reminder that alongside our school coffee canteen all profits go directly back to enabling all students of CPS to be resourced effectively in the classroom. Thank you to Hayley and the Four Peaks out of school programme staff and Grant for all that you do.
In 2023 we will hopefully welcome back international students to Cambridge and also our mandarin language programme. Something we haven't had since 2019.
We are very fortunate to have a very passionate and proactive PTA at Cambridge Primary. The fundraising through events such as the gala has enabled an upgrade of the court in front of the hall, along with the installation of the basketball hoops. I know I was in awe of the inaugural wearable arts fashion show and all the hard work that went on from the PTA and staff to achieve this. In 2023 we will see our school gala being a main focus of the PTA and we thank the PTA for your continued hard work this year.
It is fabulous to see the school buzzing again and the courts are now an integral part of this. Seeing the new basketball hoops and astro turf being complete and being used by the students and wider community is great to see. CPS is uniquely placed within Cambridge township, something that as Cambridge continues to grow we need to acknowledge and use to our advantage as the ministry changes their zoning and growth requirements. Zoning will be something that we will play an active role on as a board in the upcoming years with the development of Cambridge West Primary.
We received a very positive ERO report and as a board in recent weeks viewed our student achievement data for Reading, Writing and Numeracy, demonstrating that the hard work throughout the year is reflected in positive student progress in these core areas. Thank you to the senior leadership team for your work supporting our Charter and strategic development and for the in-depth data analysis around student achievement from which we can make informed decisions. This stands us in an exceptional footing for 2023 and beyond.
I think it is important to acknowledge that this year we can say that every CPS student was invited and able to attend an overnight EOTC experience. This is an offering that is special to Cambridge Primary and in the climate of covid a feat that has been expertly managed by the school staff, and those of you from our school community that have attended as whanau helpers. As a board we are very grateful for everyone's effort to achieve this.
To the year 6 students still yet to go on the Year 6 tramp prior to departing from CPS for your respective schools for year 7. We hope you have a safe, fun and wonderful time. Thank you for all you have contributed to Cambridge Primary. Please remember to come and visit and celebrate your future successes with us.
To our incredible staff. This year has been another year when you have been required to be adaptive, collaborative and nimble. You are an incredible group of educators and support staff. Thank you for always giving the best of yourselves to our school and students. Your dedication has not gone unnoticed.
To our students continuing on in 2023 and new students and families that have just started your CPS Journey with us. Hopefully, we can use the resilience we have developed in recent years and look forward to a year of healthy challenges and exceptional rewards.
Just quickly before I finish. There are some short lyrics from a current Six 60 songs that resonated with me.
Run before you walk
Sing before you talk
Look until you see
Fly before you leave
Have a fabulous night and a wonderful and safe holiday season ahead.
Kate Paine, BOT Chairperson, December 2022