BOT Newsletter – May 2018

Tena koutou katoa

The Board has met a couple of times since our newsletter in February and this is a catch all for both those meetings – Tuesday 27 March and Tuesday 8 May. The minutes of our Board meetings are also available from the school office and on our web page click here.

Of particular note in our March meeting we welcomed our new Associate Principal Shanthan Naidu in his newly elected role as Staff Representative to the Board. Following on from our February report we can only assume that his uncontested nomination was a further vote of confidence in his placement within our school staff. The Board also recorded the resignation of Lou Dennis from the Board. Ms Dennis was co-opted onto the Board last year to represent our Pacifica community. Due to personal reasons Ms Dennis has chosen to step down from the Board. At this time the Board is not looking to co-opt in her place.

Of particular note in our May meeting, the Board were presented with a report from Ms Hooper regarding her role as an Across School Leader (ASL) in our Auckland Central Community of Learning (ACCOS). Ms Hooper informed us of the progress she and other ASL’s from the other schools had made since its formation in 2016. The group are now trialling a number of initiatives within the schools in ACCOS and sharing the learnings with each other (this is further explained in Ms Hooper’s report attached to the minutes of the May Board meeting). Ms Hooper will report back to the Board in July with the outcomes of this work. To support this work Ms Hooper and Mrs Irvine recently attended a conference in Sydney. The information that they brought back is exciting and has pushed them beyond their comfort zone. Mrs Irvine will be keeping the Board abreast of changes to be made to reflect this learning.

With regard to the remainder of the March and May Board meetings, as is the norm we heard from the Principal on the achievement of students and the pedagogical practices of staff to support and develop this, and then from the various Board committees regarding how the Board supports the principal in achieving this (as stated above the full set of minutes can be located on-line or viewed in our office).

The Board were impressed to note the focus on education around Bullying and the introduction of the Dispositions Passports. We hope you have taken some time to discuss these with your learners. We were also pleased to note the support around the up and coming Years 5 and 6 camps. We know you value these camps and without your contributions and support they will not be able to happen – so thank you.

The Finance Committee reported the completion of a number of projects including the school perimeter fence. We were impressed to note the savings made on the overall spend on Rooms 8-11 due to the management skills of our Property Manager – Shane. These funds have already been earmarked for the new space under Room 27. Thank you Shane. Shane also received the March ‘skitebite’ award from the Board for his efforts.

The Policy Committee discussed the policies that were reviewed last term and the current policies for review on Schooldocs. This term these are – Protected Disclosure, Reporting to Parents and Visitors. You are invited to review the policy on Reporting to Parents. The link for this is here. Please take the time to review and comment.
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The Community Committee reported back from the recent Whanau Hui. It was decided at the hui that due to the relocation of the proposed carver of the Pou that this would now be placed on hold until the school could find a replacement carver. It is important that the carver is able to reflect the story of the school and the tree in the carving of the Pou so we are prepared to wait.

The Personnel Committee are underway with their surveys of the Principal. The survey from Board members and staff has just been completed and the results are being tallied.

The Board then discussed the outcome of the Annual School Fair. This was another amazing effort and was rewarded with another amazing result. It is important to realise the efforts of all our amazing volunteers in making this happen….and to remember that they are all volunteers – including the staff. As always we lose some key people each year as their children move on from our school on their education journey. And as always we find people to move into their roles. The Fair Committee had its final meeting in May and a key message from that meeting is to seek volunteers to replace and build the team for next year. We, the Board, in support of the Fair committee encourage you to volunteer for these roles. No doubt you will be hearing more on this in the coming terms (it is never too early to plan such successful events), so be ready for the call.

On a final note, the school has also lost and will be losing some teaching staff. It is significant to note that teachers are becoming very rare and schools all over New Zealand are seeking staff. In the coming weeks Mrs Irvine will be using new and exciting ways to try and attract new teachers to our school – including social media and she will be asking you to help spread the word. Look out for these developments through the Principal’s blog and notices.

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
Janine Irvine – principal@cpds.school.nz 
Shanthan Naidu – snaidu@cpds.school.nz

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亲爱的家长们

自2月份的通讯之后，我们开了两次会议，3月27号和5月8号。我们的董事会会议记录可以从学校办公室和我们的网页上取得。（Link）

在3月份的会议上，我们欢迎我们的副校长 Shanthan Naidu, 并恭喜他担任董事会的员工代表。继2月份的报告之后，他是無可争议的候选人。董事会并记录了 Lou Dennis 的辞呈。Dennis 女士去年加入董事会，代表太平洋岛国社区团体。由于个人原因，她选择退出董事会。暂时董事会不想选择其他替代人。

特别值得注意的是，在我们5月的会议上，董事会收到 Ms Hooper 的报告，奥克兰中心学习社区 （ ACCOS ）中的学校领导者 （ ASL ）的报告。Hooper 女士向我们介绍了她和其他学校自2016年成立以来取得进展的情况。该小组日前正在试行 ACCOS 学校的多项举措，并相互分享学习内容 （报告附在5月份的董事会会议记录中 ）。Hooper 女士将在7月向董事会报告这项工作的结果。为了支持这项工作，Hooper 女士和校长最近出席了悉尼的一次会议。他们带回的信息令人兴奋，并将向董事会通报这种学习的变化。

关于3月和5月董事会会议的其余部分，我们从校长那里听取了关于实现学生的规范以及员工的教学实践，用来支持和发展这一观点，然后由董事会各委员会委托人来实现此目标。（如上所述，全套会议记录可以上网查询或到办公室查看）。

董事会对于＂欺凌＂的教育和＂学习护照＂的介绍留下了深刻的印象。我们希望您花一点时间与您的孩子一同讨论这些问题。我们也非常感谢您支持学校的露营活动，没有您的贡献和支持，活动将無法进行，谢谢。

财务委员会报告学校完成了学校围栏项目。我们为我们的物业管理经理－Shane 的管理技能稱赞。因为他替我们省下了不少的支出。这些资金巳经转用于27号房间。谢谢 Shane。因为他的努力，获得了董事会3月份的＂skitebite ＂奖。

政策委员会讨论了上一次审查的政策以及目前关于 Schooldocs 的审查政策。这个学期的重点是－发现需要受保护的孩子，并向家长或者访客报告。您将被邀请参加＂向父母报告＂政策的审查。这里有链接 （Link）请抽出时间来看一下并做出评论。
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社区委员会报告了最新的毛利团体会议。由于雕刻师的搬迁，雕刻工作将暂时被搁置，直到学校可以找到新的雕刻师。重要的是雕刻师必须能够反映学校和树的雕刻故事。所以我们有耐心继续等待。

人事委员会正在继续进行校长评估。目前正在处理员工和董事会调查的结果。下一步是对父母和学生进行调查。

董事会随后讨论了年度校集会的结果。这是另一项惊人的努力，并获得了另一个杰出的成果。所有的志愿者的努力而达到这个目标是值得重视的… 请特别注意，他们都是自愿者，包括所有的教职员工。一如往常，我们毎年都会有家长离开重要职位，因为他们的子女离开我们的学校转而进入另一段教育旅程。我们同时也发现会有新的家长来替代他们的工作。校集会委员会在5月份举行了最后一次会议，该会议的一个重要讯息是寻求志愿者在明年更換或者组织新团队。我们董事会支持校集会，并鼓励您自愿加入团队，担任这些重要角色。毫无疑问的，未来您将会收到更多有关校集会的信息，（计划这样成功的活动永远不嫌早），请准备好学校的呼唤。

最后一点，学校将损失一些教学人员。新西兰的学校面临教师短缺的问题，各地都在寻找教职人员。在接下来的几周里，校长将採用新的方式来招聘新老师。包括社交媒体，也请您帮忙传播。请密切留意校长的博客，将会有更多更新的讯息。

与往常一样，我们欢迎您的意见和反馈，并感谢您花时间阅读此更新。

温馨的问候

Cornwall Park 小学董事会