Bay Harbour: March 15, 2017

PAGE 4 BAY HARBOUR Latest Christchurch news at www. .kiwi Wednesday <strong>March</strong> <strong>15</strong> <strong>2017</strong> News Better communication – principal • By Noah Graham LYTTELTON Primary School’s new principal is aiming for better communication between the school and community. Brendan Wright has been at the school since January but feels like he is already at home. Mr Wright’s appointment followed former principal Diana Feary’s resignation last year, after a number of complaints from parents about management, communication, teacher morale and the impact on children’s education. Mr Wright said being the new principal will be challenging, something he is looking forward to. His major goal will be to build a better relationship between the school and the community, “You’ve got such a mixture of people in the community. A variety of people with different jobs and roles,” he said. The school was “close to people’s hearts.” Mr Wright said he is aiming for the pupils to learn more about the place they live in, the environment and the eclectic nature of Lyttelton. “There is always challenge with change and for each school the challenge is different.” Before his new role, Mr Wright was the principal at Hanmer Springs School for six years where he saw the school role increase from 75 pupils to 130. He said he feels at home in Lyttelton and the school because it is a similarly “close-knit” community like Hanmer Springs and having a good relationship between them both is a crucial part of a school running well. “There’s been a lot of changes in education since I started. In particular, technology is a huge factor in why it has changed.” Mr Wright said when he first started teaching they had an old computer in the corner of the room, now the pupils are using iPads. His main goal is to ensure the school is working with the community and making use of the place they are living in and the extraordinary populace. Mr Wright said pupils had to be taught to be adaptable and prepare them for change, rather than directing pupils in one direction. “They are going to have to cope with change and we have to help them to continually think about change.” However, he said reading, writing and mathematics are still the important basics pupils need to know to go forward. “(There’s) changes in what people see the purpose of a COMMUNITY: The new Lyttelton Primary School principal Brendan Wright started at the school in January and is looking to build a stronger relationship between the school and the community. PHOTO: GEOFF SLOAN school is. It’s time for us to rethink how schools are.” SELL YOUR HOME THIS SUMMER! Sit back and let me do all the hard work Demand is high in the Seaside Suburbs so if you are thinking of selling call Chris today for a free appraisal. 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Wednesday <strong>March</strong> <strong>15</strong> <strong>2017</strong> Latest Christchurch news at www. .kiwi BAY HARBOUR PAGE 5 Repairing damage to the Port Hills • By Noah Graham IT WILL take years and potentially millions of dollars to rejuvenate the Ohinetahi Reserve. More than 83ha of native plants were lost when the Port Hills fire raged through the reserve last month along with 1.3km worth of fencing. Now the Summit Road Society is looking for funding to help restore the reserve. The society has set up a Givealittle page, which has raised more than $5300, to help ease the pressure of the potential cost, society president Bill Woods said. Mr Woods said it would cost more than $16,500 to repair the fencing, and hiring a contractor to re-plant the reserve would cost more than $8 million, money the society does not have. “It’s a staggering amount of money.” However, Mr Woods said they were going to have to be creative with trying to restore the land by aerial spraying flax seeds, which the society has collected, over the reserve, followed by handplanting eco-sourced plants around the perimeter. It is expected the cost of aerial spraying followed by hand planting will cost $50,000, he said. He said, if the society had the SCORCHED: More than 80ha of the Ohinetahi Reserve was burnt in the Port Hills fire last month and it is a race against nature to try and rejuvenate the land. perimeter line planted, they hoped maybe nature would take over and spread native seeds into the reserve area to help rejuvenate the scorched land. He said it was also important for the fence to be repaired as soon as possible to stop neighbouring animal stock from wandering onto the land and eating the young trees when they are planted. Mr Woods said they want to get a recovery programme under way quickly before the risk of erosion and sediment could affect nearby creeks and the harbour basin if there is heavy rainfall. It was also important to try and get as much of it done before winter sets in and before grass and weeds take hold, making it difficult for indigenous species to establish themselves more easily, he said. “We’re already losing that race – there are weeds growing in the reserve already.” Mr Woods said it will be a 50- year project to get the reserve to how it was before the fire. The Summit Road Society was the hardest hit landowner from the fire, with a huge loss in native biodiversity in Ohinetahi Reserve. Volunteers help replanting • By Noah Graham MORE THAN one million flax seeds have been collected so far to help rejuvenate the Ohinetahi Reserve. Two flax pod de-seeding meetings have taken place in the Governors <strong>Bay</strong> Community Centre over the past two weeks to collect flax seeds which will be spread over the Ohinetahi Reserve. Summit Road Society member and organiser of the deseeding meetings, Tony Edney, said more than 20 volunteers were at each meeting. “I’ve calculated it to more than 30,000 seeds collected per person. They’ve done really well.” Mr Edney said it was important for the society to collect the seeds as the flax plants could be the reserve’s lifeline if sprayed over the area. He said the plants grow quickly and don’t burn easily, but they would need a lot of seeds because of the low development rate. Mr Edney said the flax pods were collected from neighbouring areas. The group needed to start DEDICATION: Volunteers have been working hard collecting and de-seeding flax pods to help rejuvenate the Ohinetahi Reserve. The seeds will be aerial sprayed over the reserve. work on the reserve as soon as possible before weeds took over the land. “Right now gorse seeds are starting to germinate. They’ve had a good head start. We don’t want to be a year out,” Mr Edney said. He said there would be more de-seeding meetings this month. 20% off all * * Conditions apply. SPEND $50 ON LINDEN LEAVES AND RECEIVE A FREE IN BLOOM PINK PETAL NOURISHING HAND CREAM SPECIAL PRICE! Anti-Flamme Original 90g Anti-Flamme Joints 90g Anti-Flamme Extra 90g $18 99 EACh passport photos See us for digital photos •Ski passes • CVs • ID cards facebook.com/ •Visa applications • International licenses Redcliffs PHARMACY 87 Main Road, Redcliffs. Phone 384 1037 www.redcliffspharmacy.co.nz Holly, Kirsty, Daryl, Catherine & Sandi