September 2019 Board of Trustees meeting

Kia ora koutou

The Board of Trustees meets once a month to discuss how our kura is performing and what our goals and priorities should be.

The Board has five parent representatives, our Principal Dave Lamont, and Deputy Principal, Gillian McPeake who is the staff representative.

In our September meeting we spent time discussing two important policy documents, an amended Restraints Policy and a Complaints and Concerns Policy. All schools are required to have these policies.

The Restraints Policy explains when restraint can be used to ensure students’ and staff members’ safety. It also includes information about our kura’s responsibility to report all such instances to the Ministry of Education. The Board is provided with full descriptions of each time when restraint is used. This usually involves a staff member needing to hold back a student from hurting another tamariki or separating them from other tamariki while they calm down.

The Complaints and Concerns Policy provides a process to follow when a complaint is made. A flow chart about this policy was in the 17 September school newsletter. and is also available in the school office.

We also spent time taking a careful look at achievement data broken down by Te Puawaitanga o Te Kakano and students from our other classes. This highlighted a need to lift writing achievement across the school. It also highlighted the crucial importance of working with local early children education provides to equip new entrants for the transition to school.

Another significant discussion was about the new Donations Scheme. The Board decided to sign up to the scheme. This is a government policy which provides funding for decile 1-7 schools in place of school donations. Joining the scheme will be positive for our finances. It will provide considerably higher funding than what we have raised through school donations. Our kura will need to use this funding for costs, such as bus strips and outings, that have been previously been covered by gold coin charges. It will also need to be used for other activities previously funded through out-ofpocket charges. Information about what is covered by this scheme is provided in the ‘examples’ section on this linked form. More information about the scheme is available at this link on the Ministry of Education website.

In our meeting we were also informed that Bob Wickham, husband of long-standing staff member Jill Wickham, was seriously ill. Bob has now passed away. The Board wishes to extend its condolences to Jill and the Wickham Whanau.

Please contact a Board member if you have any questions. Member’s contact details are included in the school newsletter.

Ngā mihi nui Craig Press, Board Chair