BOT Newsletter – March 2018

Tena koutou katoa

It’s been a while since our last newsletter and we hope you all had a lovely summer holiday and are settling in well to your 2018 school year.

The Cornwall Park District School Board of Trustees had its first meeting for the year last Tuesday evening. It was a packed evening and this is a brief update of what we discussed, as well as other Board issues going forward into the year. The minutes of the Board meeting are also available from the school office and on our web page BOT Minutes

To begin we were introduced to our new Associate Principal Shanthan Naidu. He informed us that he is settling in well and feels very supported by the staff and students at Cornwall Park District School. Our Principal also said that they were impressed with Mr Naidu and were pleased to have him on the team.

The Board then nominated and elected the Chair and Deputy Chair, Treasurer and members of the various committees. This is the first order of business at the beginning of each year. It is with pleasure that I inform you that once again I have accepted the position of the Chair, Jamie Galloway has accepted the position of Deputy Chair and Sarah Sutcliffe has continued as Treasurer.  The other trustees have taken positions on the Committees – Personnel, Policy, Finance, Property and Community.

Finance Report

We learned that the Code of Compliance for the renovation of Rooms 8 and 10 was almost complete. And that work on the space under Room 27 was well on track and could be completed before the Fair. We then ratified a previous (pre-meeting) decision to commit some of the 2018 Fair proceeds to completing this work. We approved the budget for the next year and considered requests for funding for projects around the school.

One such project is the carving and placing of a Pou on the school grounds. This has been under consideration since the felling of a Kauri tree on the school property to enable the development of Rooms 27 and 28 and the Discovery Centre. The Kauri has been in storage and a carver has been sought. The Board decided to discuss this with the schools Whanau Hui before proceeding any further.

Charter, Strategic Plan, and Annual Plan

The Board are responsible for reviewing the Charter and Strategic Plan annually. These provide the basis for the Annual Plan which the Principal is responsible for. All of these are required to be reported to the Ministry in March. We believe that the reviewed Charter and Strategic Plan reflect our school and its values and direction. We value our learners and we support the staff to enable all of our students to achieve to the best that they can. The Annual Plan ensures that the Charter and Strategic Plan can be achieved at the classroom level by ensuring funding is available to undertake relevant and justified programmes/ developments.

2017 Achievement Report

This looks at how our students have progressed after a year of learning. It is important to note that no two students are the same, and that not all students enrol at Cornwall Park District School at the beginning of the year, or stay for a full year. Yet again, the school results show that the vast majority of students achieve At or Above expectation. With many variables affecting it, the data collected has to be considered carefully and the patterns scrutinised to ensure that they fairly represent the situation. We were pleased to note that due to the scrutiny and robust collaborative work of our teachers that the occurrences of under achieving or ‘slipping backwards’ by a small group of children has reduced since the last report. We were impressed to hear of the techniques that the staff had engaged and developed which were proving to move students forward in their academic achievements and their confidence. We were particularly impressed to hear of how the dispositions are being successfully embedded in the academic experience of our children.

The Board also discussed the Annual School Fair for 2018. The Board actively supports the school fair which is the main fundraiser for the school. We are proud of the developments around the school that are able to happen because of the money that we earn at this phenomenal event. We urge you, the school community who benefit from this fundraising event, to support it. Please consider volunteering for a role in the Fair – no role is too small. Refer to the newsletters and emails and please contact the office if you can assist in any way.

Policy Review

On an administrative note, the Board received the SchoolDocs Policies and Procedures Update and the Term One Review. SchoolDocs is a “comprehensive core set of policies and procedures applicable to all New Zealand primary schools that is tailored for each school”. The new policies that are due for review this term are:

• Home Learning – open for review by the Board, staff and parents – refer to our webpage for details, and
• Financial Control and Expenditure – to be considered by the Board

We welcome any feedback on these and you can review these policies here

Community Liaison

The Community Committee were then tasked with initiating discussions with the various groups within our school community to say hello and seek feedback on their learning experiences. Groups such as Pasifika, Indian, CANN (Children with Additional Learning Needs) and GATE (Gifted and Talented learners).

Personnel Committee

The Personnel Committee were tasked with the job of creating questions for a 360 survey for feedback on the role of our principal. Respondents will be selected randomly across the school community and the survey will be looking at identifying areas of good practice and areas that Janine can continue to develop.

Principal’s Leave

The Board is pleased to inform the school that we have supported Janine in an application for sabbatical leave – and this has been successful. Each year the government offers a number of sabbaticals to Principals around the country to ensure that they get the opportunity to step back from their day to day work to refresh and reflect on their role and to undertake a study of a matter that is relevant to the school to assist the school in moving forward. Principals are able to apply once every five years and this is the first time that Janine has applied after her 10 plus years of being a Principal.

Janine will be looking at the impact heterogeneous grouping has on student achievement when compared to homogeneous grouping, and the Board will be looking forward to her findings on her return. In her absence Dawn Wood will be Acting Principal and we know she will have positive support of Shanthan, staff, BOT and parents during this time.  Congratulations Janine on your success in securing this sabbatical.

Finally, the Board would like to thank the PTA for all their hard work fundraising the new playground that has been installed by the tennis court boundary.  This is proving to be very popular with our children and is another good example of how fundraising benefits all. We would also like to thank Dawn Wood for her hard work designing a structure that maximises a very challenging and limiting space.

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

Chair: Lee-Ann Lucas – llucas@cpds.school.nz
Jamie Galloway – jgalloway@cpds.school.nz
Treasurer: Sarah Sutcliffe – ssutcliffe@cpds.school.nz
Michael O’Brien – mobrien@cpds.school.nz
Nicki Taylor – ntaylor@cpds.school.nz
Gowan Duff – gduff@cpds.school.nz
Lou Dennis – ldennis@cpds.school.nz
Janine Irvine – principal@cpds.school.nz

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亲爱的家长们大家好

距离上次发出的简讯已经有一段时间了。希望您有一个美好的夏日假期，也希望您也已经适应了新的一年的到来。

Cornwall Park 学校董事会在上周二晚上举行了第一次会议。董事会议记录可以从学校办公室和我们的网页BOT 会议记录中获得。  BOT Minutes

首先，我们介绍了我们新的副校长 Shanthan Naidu. 他告诉我们他非常适应学校的环境，教师员工和学生都非常支持他。校长也表示 Naidu 先生的能力很强，很高兴他能够加入我们的团队。

董事会随后提名并选举了主席，副主席和各委员会的成员。这是每年年初的第一件任务。我很高兴地通知大家，我再次接受了主席的职位。Jamie Galloway 接受了副主席的职位。Sarah Sutcliffe 继续担任财务部长。还有其他董事会的会员担任人事，政策，财务，财产和社区委员的职位。

然后我们讨论了财务报告。我们了解到，8－11号教室的改造准则已基本完成。27号教室的空间改造工作进展顺利，而且可能在校集会前完成。然后，我们批准了之前的决定，将运用 2018 年校集会的收益来完成此项工作。我们批准了明年的预算，并且考虑申请资金用于学校有关的建设。

其中一个项目是在学校放置雕刻艺术品。自从27号和28号教室前的 Kauri 树被砍倒后，我们一直在考虑这个问题。贝壳杉一直在学校仓库里，我们也一直在寻找雕刻师。董事会在进一步处理之前将和学校的家长们沟通。

接下来我们讨论了宪章。战略计划，年度计划和差异分析报告。董事会每年负责审查。这些为委托人负责的年度计划提供了基础。这些都需要在三月份向教育部报告。我们认为，经过审查的宪章和战略计划反映了我们学校及其价值观和方向。我们重视学习者，并且支持员工，使我们所有的学生都能尽其所能。年度计划确保宪章和战略计划能够在课堂上实现，并确保资金用于相关和合理的计划/开发。

差异分析报告着眼于我们的学生在学习一年后的进步。重要的是，没有两个学生是相同的，也不是所有的学生都在年初入读 Cornwall Park 小学，或者入读一整年。由于影响的因素很多，我们必须仔细考虑我们所收集的数据，仔细审查模式以确保它们能够公平地反映情况。我们很高兴地注意到，由于我们教师的仔细审查和强有力的协作工作，自上次报告以来，发生＂落后或倒退＂的情况有所减少。教职员工的参与和教学技术提升了学生们学习成绩和信心。我们更高兴听到这些学习方式成功嵌入我们孩子的学习经历中。

董事会还讨论了2018年的校集会。董事会积极支持校集会，因为这是学校的主要募基金来源。因为校集会筹款活动募集到很多金钱，才能让我们发展学校的计划，我们为此感到自豪。请支持学生校集会活动，因为所有的学校社区都是受益者。请考虑帮忙或者赞助学校活动，角色不分大小。如果您能以任何方式提供帮助，请参阅通讯，发电子邮件给我们，或请联系办公室。

在一份行政通知中。董事会收到了第一学期的学校文件政策和程序更新。School Doc 是针对每所学校量身定制的，适用于所有新西兰小学的全面核心政策和程序。这学期需要更改的新政策是：

家庭学习 — 此项工作供董事会，员工和家长参考。详情请参阅我们的网页，或者使用学校的文档链接到 SchoolDoc 政策。

财务控制和支出 — 此项工作由董事会审议。

我们欢迎任何有关这些方面的反馈，您可以在这里查看这些政策。SchoolDocs Link to policies

然后，社区委员会负责与学校社区内的各个小组讨论，并就他们的学习经历提出反馈意见。其中有岛国社团，印度社团，CANN ( 有额外学习需求的儿童 ) 和 GATE ( 资优和有才能的学习者 ) 等团体。

人事委员会的任务是找到360位被访问者，向他们提出问题，来反馈校长的角色，以及她如何成功完成这个角色。这项调查可以用于校长的年度评估审查。选择标准已经确定，以确保这是一个公平的过程。但是不是每个人都会参与调查。

最后，董事会很高兴地通知学校，我们已经批准了 Janine ( 校长 ) 的休假申请。政府每年都会向全国各地的校长提供一些休假，以确保他们有机会退出日常工作，更新和反思他们的角色，并研究与此相关的问题，协助学校继续前进。校长每五年可以申请一次，这是 Janine 在她担任校长十多年后首次申请。

Janine 将会研究异质性分组和同质性分组对学生成绩的影响。董事会将期待她的分组进行比较和调查结果。在她请假的这段时间，Dawn Wood 将会代理她的职物。我们相信在这段时间内，她将获得 Shanthan, 员工，董事会和家长们的支持。恭喜 Janine 成功获得这个休假。

最后，董事会要感谢家长会为网球场边安装的游楽场所做的努力。这个游楽场非常受欢迎。这也是筹款活动成功，大家都能受益的一个好例子。我们还要感谢 Dawn Wood 为此游楽设施结构设计所做的努力，该结构具有挑战性和极限的空间。

与往常一样，我们欢迎您的意见和反馈，并感谢您抽空阅读此更新。

温馨的问候

Cornwall Park 学校董事会