Board of Trustees Newsletter Term 1 2018

Board of Trustees

For all those who have joined our school family this year, the following people make up the Board of Trustees of our school. Over time, we look forward to getting to know you and welcome your involvement in the school.

Parent Elected Representatives:
Tony Nawisielski, Bradley  Rudsits, David Kenyon, Joanna Petrie,  Vavae Nuia

Bishop’s Appointees:
Philip Cortesi (elected Chairperson), Father Peter Murphy (Parish Priest St Mary’s Papakura), Anna Soo Choon, Apaula Lautua

Staff Elected Representative: Ana Silva

Principal: Peta Lindstrom

As a Board of Trustees we are accountable for student achievement, setting the vision for the school and ensuring the school complies with legal and policy requirements. While the Board is in a governance role, it is the principal who is responsible for the management of the school and together we work in partnership to provide the very best Catholic education we can for all the children in our care.

The Board welcomes feedback from our parent community. Should you have any ideas about how you would like to see our school develop in the time ahead, please let us know.

Staffing

This week we say a big thank you to Miss Jo Petrie who has resigned from her part-time fixed term teaching position in Learning Community Awa.  Jo has made a valuable teaching contribution to our school over this past term, which has been much appreciated. We look forward to her continued involvement as one of our elected parent representatives on our Board of Trustees.

Student Achievement

A Ministry of Education requirement is that schools are required to report to the school’s community on the progress and achievement of students.

Our school’s results at the end of our first year of operation were very encouraging and the staff are to be congratulated on the time, thought and effort that they put in to the learning and teaching programmes for our children.

The following achievement data for the 2017 school year is in  relation to the National Standards as set by the Ministry of Education. (This will change for 2018, with the N.Z Curriculum Levels being the basis for judging expected levels of student achievement and progress).

Reading Achievement in relation to National Standards

83% of students are achieving AT or ABOVE

17% of students are achieving BELOW

Writing Achievement in relation to National Standards

79% of students are achieving AT or ABOVE

21% of students are achieving BELOW

Mathematics Achievement in relation to National Standards

87% of students are achieving AT or ABOVE

13% of students are achieving BELOW

Through the analysis of achievement data, staff have identified students and groups of students who are not progressing as expected and need additional support, children with special needs and children who are gifted and talented in areas of the curriculum. Teachers continue to develop and implement teaching and learning strategies to address the needs of students and aspects of the curriculum that have been identified. We are also mindful that we have an increasing number of students for whom English is a second language and support is being provided to assist these students..

Staff appreciate the on-going support from parents/whanau in the children’s learning and it is essential that school and home work together to ensure the best learning outcomes for all students.

Property and Outdoor Environment

I am sure you will all agree that we are blessed to have such a wonderful teaching/learning facility. We are the envy of many schools.

Prior to Easter, in the absence of a caretaker, we held a Working Bee to give the outdoor environment a tidy up- weeding gardens, trimming edges, washing the deckings, cleaning windows etc. Our sincere thanks go to all those parents who came along and generously gave some of their weekend time to help with this work.

In the latter months of last year, you will remember that the school had to go through major re-cabling work, with all the electrical cabling having to be replaced. I am pleased to be able to say that this work has been completed and the issue has been resolved, with all cabling meeting N.Z Safety Standards.

You will see that there is being good progress made in the development of the school fields. It will be great to have these fields in use- but we need to be patient! By the time the earth works are completed, grass seed sown, we get through the winter months and then have time for the field to get firmly embedded, it will probably be the beginning of next year before the fields can be in full use- worth waiting for though!

The school has been fortunate to have had an adventure playground donated to us by the Auckland Council, who no longer have a need for it. Our thanks to Tony Nawisielski who has put in a considerable time in getting this playground equipment on site. We are now considering how this equipment can best be reassembled to provide our children with some much needed play equipment. Of course, there are Health and Safety requirements to meet in achieving this. We will keep you posted of developments.

PTFA

Parent, Teacher and Friends Association                   

Now that our school is well into its second year of its establishment phase, we are hoping to establish a PTFA- another arm of the partnership between home and school.

The role of a PTFA is to:

*build working relationships among parents/whanau, staff and community in support of students

* encourage parent/whanau and community involvement in school activities                             * engage in fund raising activities to enable the school to purchase additional resources, outdoor playground equipment etc that are not possible through the government grants.

We already have some parents who have expressed an interest in being involved in the establishment of a PTFA for our school.  If you think this is something that you would like to be involved in, please contact Peta Lindstrom.

Early next term, we will have an initial meeting to get the PTFA established and underway.

NZEI –  N.Z. Educational Institute (Teachers’ Union)

You will be aware from school newsletters that our teachers recently attended an NZEI Union meeting. You may have also read about this in the local papers.

The union is campaigning for increased salaries, improvement in conditions and in  particular workload. Teachers are also wanting to discuss career pathways. Our teachers are under increasing stress. The teaching situation, particularly in Auckland, is in crisis. Student numbers are increasing in the midst of a teacher shortage and declining numbers staying in the profession. Between 2010 and 2016, the national number of primary teacher trainees dropped from 5,740 in 2010, to 4,065 in 2016, and numbers of teachers considering teaching as a career continue to drop. If this situation does not improve, it will be our children who suffer.

Our Board of Trustees is very appreciative of the great work our principal and staff do and the many hours they put in to providing the best Catholic education they can for the children. We are supportive of their endeavours in trying to get some positive changes in regard to their conditions of work, workload and salaries, in the hope that teaching becomes a more attractive career option, resulting in continued positive outcomes for our children.

Conclusion

On behalf of the Board of Trustees, thank you again to our parents, whanau and friends of the school, for your on-going support, as together we work in the best interests of our children’s education.

May God continue to bless us all, as together we go forward on the exciting journey of Holy Trinity Catholic Primary School.

Kind regards and blessings

Philip Cortesi
Chairperson