December Newsletter 2013
The end of the year is upon us and as we head
into the silly season we are left wondering where on earth the rest of the year
went.
It's been a frantic but very interesting
year for the school Board. We are privileged to have an excellent management
and administrative team who continue to deliver a calm and structured learning
environment, enabling the Board to focus on major developments in funding,
property and school logistics.
SPG funding (Special Property Grant)
The biggest and most exciting news is the
additional $895,000 property funding we have been allocated from the Ministry
of Education to bring our non teaching space up to par with other schools
around the country. This is welcome
money, as we have for some time juggled the challenges of accommodating an
increasing role within existing space and trying to use every square inch of
the school.
One of the key priorities for the
additional funds is the conversion of the existing library back into a
classroom and construction of a new purpose built library. This project has
been underway for some years with delays in its development caused by the
considerable and varied challenges of cost escalation, earthquake readiness
investigation and strengthening works, and what is perhaps best described as
fluid Ministry funding priorities. We
had just received tenders to build the new building at the beginning of term
three when we were notified of the additional funding from the Ministry. This funding enabled the Board to add some of
the design specifications we had previously been forced to trim in an effort to
meet our limited budget.
The wider library project involves
converting the existing library back into a teaching space, renovating room 15
beside the library and developing both a covered exit way to the south of the
middle block and a spacious deck in front of the middle block classrooms. The
revised plans are now with tenderers, the plans are with the council for
consent and we are expecting to be able to award the tender before the end of
the year with building due (hopefully) to start before the start of the 2014
school year. The visuals for the wider project can be viewed by clicking here .
Playground
The first project for the library is to
dismantle part of the playground as part of the construction of the new
library. This dismantling and
reinstatement will be done in late January as close to the beginning of
construction as possible. The playground will be rebuilt in two separate
locations around the school with some safety improvements added to the
turbo.
Earthquake strengthening
Arranging the strengthening of the middle
block has been difficult for the Board as it carries a significant cost and we
are dependent on the Ministry for the money. Crucially it is also the
Ministry’s building and their decision as to whether and when additional
funding is to be made available to strengthen it.
Added to this is the classification of
the building as a ‘lightweight wooden frame building’, which means that it has
a lower priority for funding compared to heavy weight masonry buildings, or
recently constructed modern design buildings. The Ministry is the biggest owner
of wooden framed public buildings in the country and has undertaken significant
testing to identify the real strength of this type of building in a
catastrophic event. You may have seen
reports of this testing in the news in the last month or so. The Board has paid particular attention to
this research and obtained updates from those conducting the testing. Critically we note that the tests have been
conducted by an independent group of some of the largest engineering firms in
the country, providing for the independence of the results .
The Ministry has indicated that based on
its research to date the risk of our two-story building collapsing as extremely
low. We have attached the Ministry’s public communication on this type of
building and hopefully this gives you information (and relative comfort) of the
building being a low risk structure. This can be viewed here.
At this stage Muritai School does not
qualify for any additional funding for earthquake strengthening and we are not
permitted to spend any of the additional SPG funding (noted above) as it is
tagged for construction of non-teaching spaces.
Community survey
As a Board we are always keen to hear
your views on Muritai School. In term three we undertook an online survey and
were pleased both with the number of responses and with the overwhelming
endorsement of the current direction, management and culture of the school. A summary of the results of the survey are
attached to this newsletter and are available on our website and can be viewed here.
Health Survey
We are also conducting a community survey
into school health issues and PE, as we are required to do annually by the
Ministry of Education. We have kept this as brief as possible and should take
less than a couple of minutes to complete.
Please follow this link to complete it.
Enrolment zone
As you will have seen in Bird’s Eye View
we have now put in place an Enrolment Zone for Muritai School to control our
rapidly growing role. It has taken a
good part of the year to work through the regulatory, consultation and
notification requirements and the zone went into effect on 1 November.
The zone is helpful to the Board as it
allows us to help control our role and distribution of students throughout the
school year-groups. The Board will
advise if there are any out of zone spaces available in year one twice a year
and at he end of each year for all other year groups. These will be published in a newsletter and
the Hutt News. It does not affect anyone
living within zone nor existing students with priority given to siblings of
existing students. Full details of the
operation of the scheme can be found on our website here.
To enable the scheme to function most
effectively it is important that we have advance notice of enrolments for the
following year. If you have children at the school in 2013 (other than in year
8) that are not going to be coming
in 2014 could you please let the office know as soon as possible. Also if you or someone you know is intending
to send their child to Muritai in 2014 even if within zone can you please let
us know as soon as possible.
Ultra-Fast Broadband Network Upgrade Project
The School Network Upgrade Project (SNUP)
is a Ministry funded project to ensure that schools nationwide have a strong IT
backbone to service ultra fast broadband. The Ministry funds most of this cost
but a proportion has to be contributed by the individual school through its
normal five-year property grant.
In term 3 we had the fibre-optic cable
connected and have experienced 5-10 times faster download speeds. Our IT consultant has reviewed the Ministry
plan and now we can begin the process of connecting up the rest of the school. Whereas initial estimates put our
contribution in excess of $60,000, the cost is much lower ($7,000 - $23,000)
due to our
Reading Recovery
We are delighted to be able to offer the
Reading Recovery programme in 2014. The
primary aim of Reading Recovery is to prevent literacy difficulties at an early
stage before they begin to affect a child’s educational progress. This
specialist one-to-one assistance to children in most need is an effective
prevention strategy against later literacy difficulties and provides a boost to
student achievement overall.
Unfortunately, due to its intensive,
one-on-one structure it is very expensive and notwithstanding its success,
remains underfunded by the Government.
At Muritai, principally because of our decile rating, we are funded for
only 1.4 children to go through the course annually and we were unable to offer
it in 2012 and 2013.
In 2014 we have the opportunity of a
one-off funding increase for the programme and are pleased to reinstate it next
year. We remain committed to providing
the programme available where resources allow and will annually review our
ability to provide it.
Learning Support and M.A.T.CH
(Muritai Able and Talented Children)
Muritai School
strives to provide an inclusive environment for all. In a
manner which is now being adopted by the Ministry as the standard, Muritai
school has, under the guiding hand of Sarah Richardson, for some years now
adopted a somewhat unique inclusionary approach to assessing,
tracking and reporting on the learning and development of children with special
education needs at both ends of the spectrum.
Our inclusive structure
enables all children, whatever their particular need, to be part of a
supportive environment and our staff work hard to support these needs in many
different ways. Sarah presented an
excellent paper to the Board, titled 'Accelerating Achievement' which is reproduced here and which outlines
the support structure and systems adopted by the school. Sarah is a nationally recognised educator and
Muritai is privileged to have her skills and commitment at our disposal.
Student Achievement
The Assistant Principals presented the
Student Achievement Results and National Standards Analysis for 2013 at our
December meeting and the Board were equally delighted with the results and
impressed at the degree of analysis, awareness and attention which goes into
the continual monitoring of our children’s progress. A summary of the results can be found on the website shortly. The results show Muritai School performing
exceptionally well in comparison with both the national average and with other
decile 10 schools in the region. Statistics such as 93.3% at or above the national standard for reading,
and 90% at or above for both writing and maths are exception are reflective of the commitment of the
staff and the wonderful learning environment which has been fostered throughout
the school. With the national average of 77% at or above the national standard in reading, 73.6% in maths and 70% in writing our results we pass on our congratulations go to
the staff and management and also to the children for another wonderfully
successful academic year.
Professional development
The Board’s key focus is raising student
achievement and this is the major driver when considering resource allocation.
We constantly monitor the latest reports and research on where we get the best
“bang for our buck”, particularly when looking at class sizes, homework and
teaching resource. Overwhelmingly
research indicates that the two major drivers in student achievement worldwide
are parental involvement in the learning process and the quality of the
teaching staff.
We are privileged at Muritai to have an
exceptionally capable, professional and experienced teaching staff and it has
been the Board’s commitment to retain, train and (when necessary) recruit the
very best teachers available. As part of
that process we have spent over $32,000 in 2013 on staff professional
development and have made a significant provisions in the 2014 budget. Our staff’s enthusiasm for developing their
skills as professionals is encouraging and mostly during school holidays they
have been engaged in some way either developing their teaching practice or
working together to improve systems around the school. Most professional
development this year has focused on refining practice on writing and maths but
behaviour management, addressing bullying and integrating ICTs into learning
are also key areas of development.
Personnel
In keeping with our goal of retaining the
best staff it is again pleasing that for the second year in a row we have no
teachers leaving us in 2014 (other than on maternity leave). This stability is vital and reflects well the
positive culture within the school.
We are disappointed however to be losing
our beloved Sue McCormack on the front desk who leaves us for the sunny shores
of Waiheke Island. Sue has been the
smiling face of the school and a wonderful support for parents, staff and
children alike since 2005. She leaves
with our sincere thanks and best wishes.
We are excited that 2014 sees Richard
Dobson move from AP and classroom teacher to focus on assisted learning and
take Reading Recovery. We thank Richard
for his input into the management of the school for the last couple of years
and are excited by his enthusiasm and passion for developing the Reading
Recovery programme. We also congratulate Jess Savage on her appointment, in the
face of some very impressive competition, as Associate Principal and leader of
the year 3-4 syndicate. Jess brings both
excellent teaching practice and a keen understanding of wider educational
strategy, which will compliment well the management team.
Finally….
The Board’s thanks goes out to all our
staff, teaching, management and support.
We have an extremely dedicated and skilled team and are constantly
impressed at the degree of awareness and focus given to the needs and pathways
of the individual students making up our wonderful little school.
Our thanks goes particularly to Andrew
and his leadership team for the culture of excellence and acceptance they
continue to build and refine which is evidenced in our outstanding results in
student achievement on an academic, sporting, artistic, cultural and social
level.
To our families that are leaving us in
2013 we thank you for your input into the school over the years and to all
parents we thank you for your support and your contributions to the school and
school life.
Have a wonderful Christmas and restful
break and we look forward to seeing you in 2014.
