Muritai School Board of Trustees Newsletter June 2015

Muritai School Board of Trustees 

Newsletter June 2015

Naumai e te whanau o te kura Muritai

Tena koutou katoa

5 months down in 2015 and time continues to fly by.  Term 1 was a frantic but action packed term with all the usual beginning of year events packed into a short 8 week term.  The Board once again thanks and congratulates our amazing staff for providing such a variety of engaging learning experiences for our children. The Board has had four meetings focusing on such things as reflecting on the ERO review, 2015 Charter and calendar, 2015 student achievement plan and 2014 review, property completion and ICT expansion, 2015 budget and our Towards 2020 plan.

SPACES

Our new spaces are working very well in the school .  Our library is a very popular spot and room 16 and our new spaces around here are working well. Next steps include renovating room 15, placing backs on the back of the seats on the deck and accumulating a stock of outdoor bean-bags to enable our learning deck to be put to full (and comfortable) use.  We are thrilled with our new completed spaces and once again extend our thanks to all the past and present students and families who put so much effort into the raising of the funds which have made the developments possible.

ERO

As you may recall the school was visited by ERO in December last year.  They delivered their formal report during term one and the Board was delighted to receive an incredibly positive assessment.  When the Board met with the ERO team we were encouraged not only by the praise for all aspects of Muritai School but importantly that they confirmed that the high quality management and teaching practices identified in their 2011 review had been maintained and developed and that they endorsed the future direction of the school. This feedback has been formalised and the full written report can be read by clicking here… 

ERO summarised their findings as follows:-

• Students at Muritai School achieve well. 
• Strong leadership drives ongoing improvement. 
• Student leadership is a feature. 
• Students' strengths and interests inform the curriculum. 
• Teachers continue to develop their teaching practice through high quality professional learning and development. The collegial teaching teams are making good progress towards individualised learning for all students.

We congratulate our management team and teaching staff on an excellent review which endorses the high quality of the teaching and clear direction which we are so fortunate to enjoy.

TOWARDS 2020

On the subject of the direction of the school the Board’s focus in 2015 is the development of a 5 year strategic plan to take Muritai School towards 2020. ERO has affirmed the school in its current form is of a very high quality but we can't rest on our laurels and we need to continue to hold onto what is best at Muritai and develop and change the things we need to, to make sure our children are prepared well for the world that they are entering into once leaving school in 2020 and beyond. Our process will engage the parent community as well as children and teachers over the next few months to form some common themes to focus on and strengthen. We will communicate these opportunities to you and would encourage you to take them up even (and even especially) if your child is nearing the end of their time at Muritai.  Your experiences over the years, your wants, wishes, delights and dreams are all relevant as we look to shape the direction of the school over the next 5 years.

STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT

At the February Board meeting we reviewed the National Standards data from 2014 which sees Muritai maintain its consistently high standards of academic achievement.  A full copy of the report sent to the Ministry of Education can be found on the website here but a quick summary sees 91.3% of our students at or above the national standard in reading, 87.8% at or above in writing and 87.3% at or above in maths.

For the April Board meeting the board were joined by the Associate Principals who presented the student achievement data gathered in term one and their plans for teaching and learning in 2015. Their reports and data demonstrate that Muritai School continues to show high levels of attainment. We have large numbers of students achieving very well for their age level.  Naturally we have some students who are working at a level below the expected norm for their peer group. The associate principal reports show that there are strategies in place to try to raise their achievement level to ensure they have the skill-set to succeed for secondary school and beyond and a clear plan school-wide to raise the student achievement for the end of 2015.  

A copy of the student achievement goals for 2015 incorporating these plans, and which form part of the 2015 Charter can be found here by clicking here.

Our Muritai School Charter 2015 - our guiding strategic document can be found by clicking here. 

In closing just a reminder to look out for communications in the coming months relating to our Towards 2020 planning and start thinking now about how your family would want the school to look in 5 years time.

Nga mihi nui

Muritai School Board of Trustees