CPDS Board of Trustees Newsletter - 16 March 2017

Dear School Community  

The Cornwall Park District School Board of Trustees held it’s first Board meeting of the year on Tuesday night 28th February. This note provides a brief update to parents, whānau and caregivers on both that meeting and any other key Board issues. The minutes of the Board meeting are also available from the school office.

The Chairperson welcomed the Board and the Board accepted both the apologies and the minutes of the previous meeting in December 2016. Lee-Ann Lucas was unanimously re-elected as Chair for 2017 and Jamie Galloway was elected as Deputy Chair. Sarah Sutcliffe was re-elected as Treasurer.   The Board then progressed through their action register, noting that many of the items had been completed and closed, for example the communications brief has now been finalised and discussed with two providers. The confirmation of this project, which includes better communication channels and a new website, will occur this week.

As previously reported, the primary aim of this project is to ensure that parents and caregivers feel connected, informed and engaged in their child’s learning and feel part of the CPDS community. Under the Principals Report, we discussed the National Standards Report for 2016 and the movement of students between standards. We were pleased to note the number of children who are moving from Well Below and Below to At Standard or Above Standard. The Senior Management Team is committed to continuing to focus on those pupils who are achieving Below the Standard but increase the focus on our pupils who are either At or Above Standard to ensure that they do not move backwards. Overall, we noted a slight improvement in Writing in 2016 compared to 2015 and a slight improvement in Maths is 2016, compared to 2015.  There was a slight drop in Reading in 2016, compared to 2015 and a proportion of this drop can probably be traced to the pupils who have had only 1 year of schooling.  This data will be available for parents, whānau and caregivers in May, so please contact the office if you would like to receive a copy of it.

We also considered the draft Charter which was to be submitted to the Ministry of Education in early March and reviewed annually. As always, parental input is welcomed to the chartering process.  Under general business, we acknowledge the ERO report that we had received and the positive outcome of the review process. To read the report, please click here  – http://www.ero.govt.nz/review-reports/cornwall-park-district-school-08-02-2017/.

As part of the review, we have had the following feedback from one of the educational experts, which is encouraging: “We would like to acknowledge the work that you are doing and the actions leaders and teachers are taking to accelerate children’s progress and achievement and the commitment of the board and leaders to further building and strengthening community partnerships and trust”. 

We also confirmed that the Fair proceeds would be used towards transforming the under-utilised space beneath Room 27 into innovative, flexible, multi-purpose learning spaces. The new development will allow us to cater for both small and large learning groups across all areas of the curriculum adding another dimension to our existing facilities.  This will be important as the Ministry of Education only funds capital improvements to Innovative Learning Environments, which can result in losing break-out rooms which have a variety of different uses.

Under the Policy Committee Report, we noted that our document on “Recognition of Cultural Diversity” is to be reviewed in Term 1 and we would love as many parents as possible to provide input into this document. If you would like to read the document and make any suggestions, please use the link below:

1. Visit the website http://cornwallpark.schooldocs.co.nz/1893.htm
2. Enter the username (cornwallpark) and password (CPDS).

Under the Finance and Property report we noted that the refurbishment of classrooms 8-11 is progressing very well and is currently ahead of schedule and on budget which is pleasing. The estimated completion date is 15 April 2017.  The Committee and Board also noted that the sun shade has been installed in the swimming pool area and we expressed our thanks to the PTA for funding this project.  The playground modifications required because of the external playground audit have also now been completed. As always, we welcome your input and feedback and appreciate you taking the time to read this update.
Warm regards.
Cornwall Park District School Board of Trustees

Nga mihi
Lee-Ann Lucas, Sarah Sutcliffe, Nicki Taylor, Michael O’Brien and  Jamie Galloway
Cornwall Park District School Board of Trustees