Welcome to Term 2, 2011 Update

As the Board of Trustees, we want to welcome you back to term 2 of the 2011 school year and thank you for entrusting your children to the care of our school.

Our Children’s Experience:

Our dedicated teachers continue to focus on providing a well rounded education experience for our children.  Between outdoor education camps, kapa haka, swimming sports, energy  sustainability rotations, sports days, art, cooking, the gala etc…what an amazingly rich first term our children have experienced!

Our Community:

A big thank you to our PTA, teachers, and community for the wonderful Gala.  The hard work and effort of this dedicated group was greatly enjoyed by all, and made over $17,000 for our school!  The PTA’s pool committee is also looking at applying for funding for a pool and changing room renovation.   The PTA has an AGM this month, the 24^th of May at 7:30, please come and help out this dynamic group!

Another paki paki goes out to all the parents and volunteers who have assisted our classes, sports days, field trips, camps, kapa haka sleepovers, etc.  You help our children know they are an important part of a larger community.  Thank you so much for your time and support!

Academics:

We have reviewed our school wide assessments and the great news is that our children are achieving and progressing!  At the end of the 2010 school year:

86% of our children are meeting or exceeding their expected level in Maths

90%  of our children are meeting or exceeding their expected level in Reading

74% of our children are meeting or exceeding their expected level in Writing

We will continue to look at our children’s’ achievement and how they are progressing towards national standards throughout the year.

The student led conference at the end of this term will be a great time for parents, children and teachers to meet and discuss each child’s goals and progress.  But as always, if you have any questions regarding your child’s learning please make an appointment with your child’s teacher.

Finances:

We have approved a tight budget for the 2011 school year.   Being a decile 9 school we are not given extra monies to provide additional support or activities at our school.  As such, we are provided approximately $400,000 to run the school with forecast costs of around $415,769.   Luckily through the school fee’s, PTA donations, fundraising and careful money management the school is able to run without a shortfall.  

Along this line, this term we applied & received partial funding from Southern Trust to overhaul & update our computer infrastructure.  Further fundraising will occur throughout the year.

We also had an excellent independent annual audit of our finances.

Property:

Our school still faces some significant leaky building and site drainage issues.  Fortunately, we have been granted a reprieve from renovations for now from Minister Tolley as we pointed out several flaws with the Ministry addressing our building issues piece meal given the floods last year, the age of our buildings, and that many of the classrooms are situated in a drainage valley.  We will update you on any building developments as soon as we are informed.

Tony has also begun forging a positive relationship with our landlords, the Ngati Awa.  Environmental Manager, Bev Hughes has been instrumental in supporting our school in our pursuit of ensuring a healthy and safe learning environment for our school with the Ministry officials.

Reviewing where we have been and where we are going:

As part of ensuring we have a safe and well run school, we have reviewed our operations plan, school charter, many policies, our previous strategic plan, and have begun a SWOT analysis of our school.  As a Board of Trustees, we will continue with this review throughout the year and will ask for your input and guidance in developing the next strategic plan for our school.

We look forward to working with you:

We thank you for your time and consideration of our BOT update.  Please feel free to contact any one of us if you have any questions, suggestions, or concerns.  We thank you for being such a wonderful community invested in our children’s future. 

Ohope Beach School Board of Trustees:

Dean Finlay           Chairman                         312-6081

Wendy Gatward      Vice Chair                        312-5746

Paul Singh             Finance                           312-5528

Richie Miller          Property                           312-5545

Cindy Lee              Communications               312-5569