18 February 2019

Newsletter Articles

Principals supporting Principals… Principals supporting Principles!

Kia Ora

Please find this week’s Monday Mailing below.

Thank heavens for school swimming pools. Having to put up with this heat is not easy (unless of course your school is fitted with air conditioning).

There has already been a big response to the Wairakei Retreat. You must book by Wednesday so we can confirm bookings.

Kind regards
Tony Mangan
Glenview School

WPA Dates

Wairakei retreat

Wairakei Retreat - Connection Day Term 1-

After a successful Retreat in 2018, we are offering a similar experience for Principals only as our first Connections Day in 2019, this event will also include our Annual AGM.

We are lucky enough to have Andrew Jones from Melbourne University and Huddle Systems working with use around 5 different themes. For those who haven’t heard Andrew before, here’s his Bio and you will see he comes from a Principal background and really does know his stuff when it comes to leading education.

A full copy of the draft programme (timings won’t change) is attached to help with your planning. Please make sure you book for the Friday lunch if you wish to stay, there is no extra cost for this but we had many people disappear before lunch on Friday and we were charged for this. Please help us out by booking for Lunch if you are intending on staying.

Please choose between Shared or Single accommodation. We have 50 Rooms booked at Wairakei and it is a first in first served basis.

This year the cost for this event is;

Single $450 Twin Share $350

Delegations of Authority

A reminder from your President;

Every year I include into my first Board Report a schedule of Delegations of Authority, these are from different policies and procedures within our school and may look quite different in your setting. This list also includes the suggested ones from NZSTA. Feel free to use, change put in the bin but I do think it’s necessary for the board to understand that these roles are set out to the Principal as part of their role as the School “CEO”.

Hope this helps.

Hamish Fenemor

Report on Tomorrows School’s

Please find attach a copy of the Report on Tomorrow schools which contains the 32 recommendations that have been forward to the Minister for consideration. We need to have an idea of what is being put forward as there will be a consultation period once the recommendations have been considered.

Below is the summary from Bali Haque who was the Chair of the Tomorrow's Schools Independent Taskforce

What we heard

Over the last six months we have identified a number of common themes, particularly to do with the variable capability of school boards, the roles and capacity of our education agencies, how we need to better support educational leadership, the growing challenges with our education workforce (both in terms of quantity and capability), the importance of listening to student voice, workload issues for principals/tumuaki and teachers, and the importance of supporting communities to participate more fully in schooling.

We know that the system is not working for a large number of Māori and have been reminded about the fundamental importance of Te Tiriti o Waitangi in this country. Under the promises explicit in this document we have the obligation to redress past and current inequalities of provision for Māori children and young people. We understand Te Tiriti o Waitangi is grounded in a foundational bicultural relationship between iwi Māori and the Crown. Pākehā and Tauiwi (new migrants) sit together under the Crown.

We also heard about the importance of community representation on school boards, as well as critically important issues related to the provision of support for those with disabilities and additional learning needs, resourcing, collaboration between schools and other parts of the system, enrolment schemes and zoning, school choice and competition.

We are grateful to everyone we met with, to all those who took the time to contribute their voices and views to this process, and to our Ministry of Education secretariat team. We have gathered and analysed a rich resource of views, ideas, information and evidence which we know will continue to be used in the next phase of this important work.

Next steps

In this report we make a number of recommendations to the Government. We understand that the Government will take these to further public consultation and undertake more detailed work, before making final decisions on any changes to our current system. Equity and excellence are at the heart of this review, and you will see that this report is focused on how we can best achieve these important aims. We want to ensure that every child, and we mean every single child, in Aotearoa New Zealand receives the best quality education possible. Our future depends on it.

Please take the time to read the report, along with distribute to your Board as this could a major influence on their involvement within schools moving forward. I have included it as part of my first Board Report for 2019.

Cheers

Hamish

Do you need desks?

Student Desks

Price negotiable. Must be collected

Thanks

Christine Jessop
Principal
Forest Lake School
p:07 849 2256 m: 027 443 4075
a:Storey Avenue Hamilton 3200 New Zealand
w: www.forestlake.school.nz e: principal@forestlake.school.nz

Laugh

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