Kia hora te marino, kia whakapapa
pounamu te moana, kia tere te kaarohirohi a, ko tou hoa haere, ko te
rangimarie.
May the calm be widespread, may the
ocean glisten like greenstone, may the shimmer of light dance across your pathway
and may peace itself be your travelling companion.
Last
Tuesday we sadly said farewell to Mairtown Kindergarten’s Head Teacher
Susie. Susie has been part of the Mairtown
Kindergarten teaching team for the past 7 years and she will be greatly missed. Susie has chosen to resign at this time to enable her to focus on her recovery, as she undergoes more surgery on her
elbow.
As
most of you know Susie has been a dedicated teacher to the tamariki at Mairtown
Kindergarten and a wonderful leader to the teaching team. Susie is gentle in nature as she is in heart,
and we will miss her wonderful wairua and beautiful smile. We know that this was not an easy choice for
Susie to make, but an important one; ensuring that her recovery goes smoothly
and is unhurried. This will allow Susie to achieve the best possible outcome in terms of returning her arm to its full function.
We
often talk about the importance of the well-being and health of our tamariki. It is
also important for educators to be able to acknowledge that this is just as
important for ourselves.
“Teaching is a challenging
profession. It stretches us as people – physically, mentally, socially and
spiritually. Teaching can test our professional ability at times and sometimes
even test the very strength of our hearts and minds.” (Teaching Council New Zealand).
Susie requested a low key, no fuss event for her farewell – but if you know the Mairtown Teaching Team and our Mairtown Whānau, that is a difficult thing to do! We organised a “Super Day” for the tamariki as a celebration of Susie’s time with us. Susie’s farewell coincided with Te Reo o Te wiki Māori, so for their parting gift the tamariki made Susie a Kākahu – under the guise it would take at least a week to complete. On Monday Tamariki energetically scraped muka from the harakeke to add to the Kākahu.
On Tuesday,
which was Susies last day, tamariki proudly formed the rainbow tunnel as we sent Susie off in our Mairtown farewell ritual. She was presented with her farewell gifts, and her
Kākahu, not quite complete as during her last day each tamariki selected a
feather to be woven into the Kākahu; each adding their personal touch to her farewell
gift. The completed gift was then presented to her again at the end of the day.
Susie, it has been both a wonderful pleasure and a privilege to have you at Mairtown Kindergarten You have been an important part of our community and you are going to be greatly missed by us all. We wish you well on your recovery, look forward to updates on your progress and hope to be seeing you again soon!
