Marriene Langton Principal/Tumuaki

Marriene Langton Principal/Tumuaki
Tēnā koutou e te whanau. This is my 17th year as tumuaki of our lovely kura. I am one-eyed when it comes to providing the very best education for all of our tamariki, strong connections to whanau and applying Attachment Psychology so every child has a champion adult at our school who believes in them unconditionally. I just can’t see past it. Our kaiako and kaiawhina go the extra 50 miles to give our children the best chances to succeed. My family is number one. After 20 years of camping holidays in Kaiteriteri, Graham and I are recidivist “glampers “ and ready for new adventures in our latest caravan. It’s brilliant when our family joins us too. I've had the privilege of being part of the design team so we could build a new school after the earthquakes and now we are full-on working with architects to design a new hall. That's a dream we never thought that we would see. Watch this space.

Thursday, February 12, 2026

2026 Off and running, biking and swimming

 Triathlon Triumph

If you thought that we were off and running last week we are literally off and running, biking,and swimming in week 2. It was fantastic to see so many whanau at school supporting their children. We had very few no-shows from our students and nearly everybody gave triathlon a go. It is a challenging event and it’s fabulous to see our school values in action.If you want  examples of Attitude, Adventure and Achievement, there they are.  Maybe next year Coast to Coast (I did hear a local radio announcer say this morning that he had just received a text from a local listener saying “I’m just confirming that I am not competing in the Coast to Coast for the 44th year in a row.”)


A standout for me was the way that our new leaders and some of our senior students supported other students. They were like old souls cheering them on, encouraging them and helping them. We talk often of the values of whanaungatanga, awhingatanga and manaakitanga and they were right there front and centre. As always some of the staff ran with the children to make sure that they could be included.  Despite the contrary weather it was a truly heartwarming day. Congratulations everybody. Excellent organisation from the Sports Team and all of the staff.