As you will have no doubt seen from information around the community and recent Bird’s Eye View newsletters, elections to the Board of Trustees of Muritai school will be held in May this year. Nomination forms will be posted this Friday with nominations closing on Friday 20 May. As Andrew has mentioned, four of the board members are retiring this year and there is a great opportunity to have some fresh faces involved in the governance and direction of our school.
The fact that the retiring members have each stayed on the board for between four and six years is a testimony to what an incredibly rewarding opportunity being a trustee presents. Attached to this email is a brochure produced by the Ministry of Education outlining in more detail the responsibilities of school trustees. In essence the trustees are responsible for the governance in direction of the school and we work closely with the principal and leadership team.
Below are some comments from existing board members about their role and what particularly they have enjoyed.
'one of the main reasons I volunteered to be on the board is also one of the most rewarding aspects of the job - and that is the opportunity to be really involved in the education of my children utilising my skills whilst leaving the actual teaching to the experts. It is also this latter truth, and the expertise of our teaching staff, which I have most greatly appreciated. The various monthly reports and particularly the beginning and end of year student achievement plans and reports highlight again and again the incredible work behind the scenes, and the care and professionalism which go into the educating our children. As a board member, the process of receiving, reviewing and having the leadership team speak to incredibly detailed reports is both an honour and a rewarding process and one which has given me great confidence that my children are in excellent hands” - Stu
'When I became a member I didn’t know what to expect - the learning curve was really steep but so interesting and diverse!!! The Board gets involved in so many aspects of school life – finance (are we on budget – what are the priorities), developing our strategic and annual plans (what the school will look like going forward, what are our priorities for the year ahead) engagement with the community (developing questionnaires, seeking our communities’ views), property (building a new library, earthquake strengthening), student achievement (understanding various assessments, asking questions)….There are also challenging issues as we are part of a community and people have different expectations of the school and its priorities. Ultimately it’s the positive dynamic between the teachers, kids and parents that creates the heart of the school and it’s been immensely rewarding to be a part of it!” - Olivia
'There were 2 key reasons why I became a trustee. The first was a chance to give something back to Muritai School and the community who looked after me so well all those years ago. The second was to play an active part in the schooling of our kids and help ensure the teaching professionals who are entrusted with that responsibility have the best possible support to make it happen. Over the last 5 years, we have dealt with a huge range of issues, achieved some great successes but we’ve also had some very testing times as well, all of which have made my time on the Board fascinating, a great learning experience and a privilege I have thoroughly enjoyed.
Muritai is a special place and I would recommend becoming a trustee to anyone interested in helping continue and improve the strong culture of success, inclusion and citizenship at Muritai .There is not a one size fits all solution to that and it requires a strong cross-section of backgrounds, experience, outlooks and skills from parents interested in making it happen. If that sounds like you, I’d encourage you to get involved. You won’t regret it and Muritai and our kids will be stronger for it.” - Griff
We really urge you to give involvement on the board serious thought. Meetings are monthly though with holidays etc we usually have around 10 meetings per year. Time commitment outside the meetings depends on what you get involved in within the board (there is a committee which focuses on the property, another one on finance, overseeing heath and safety, communications etc so lots of opportunities to do something aligned to your skill-set) and we try to do as much by email as possible to limit or eliminate the need for additional meetings. The commitment is for three years to enable a continuity of leadership.
If you are considering it and would like to discuss further please don’t hesitate to contact any of the board members. Our email addresses are below. It is a genuinely rewarding way to play a meaningful part in the education of your children and all the kids in our community.
Board Members
Phil Fisher - philip.fisher@xtra.co.nz
Craig Griffiths - caltgriffiths@xtra.co.nz
Olivia Paterson - oapaterson@gmail.com
Julie Parker - wattersparker@yahoo.com
Nick Brownsword - the.brownswords@xtra.co.nz
Stuart Stock - stu.stock@mac.com
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
Board of Trustees
Newsletter
1
Naumai e te whanau o te kura Muritai
Tena koutou katoa
Welcome
to this Board of Trustees newsletter that aims to bring the school community up
to speed with some of the things that the Board has been addressing as part of
its governance role of Muritai School. We welcome Sarah Richardson to the Board
as staff representative replacing Melissa Coton who served for 2 years.
Property
Construction has finally begun on
our new Library building. We had hoped to begin construction earlier this year
but were held up by both the council and Ministry of Education consent
process. Because the library project
involves an alteration to the ‘middle’ block, the council required us to bring
that building up to current code, which has meant the installation of new
ceilings. Some of these were installed
during the holidays and the remainder should be done during the next break. The
builders are working to the following timelines:
· end of November – the new
building completed
· Christmas holiday 2014 - stage
2 (the refurbishment of the old library and the large deck off the 2 story
block) completed.
· beginning of 2015- all
building works completely finished.
Once again our sincere
thanks to the Carnival Committee and all who have contributed in any way to the
three Eastbourne Carnival’s which provided over $170,000 towards this work. We could not have done it without your
generous support.
In
other property matters you will have noticed the repositioning of the
playground to make way for the library and the painting completed in the
holiday break. The School Network Upgrade team has also completed their work
and updated all cabling and essential network tools. This will assist the
school to take further advantage of ultra fast broadband connection. At the end
of this term we will be replacing the hall roof, which has served its time so
close to the sea.
Student Achievement
The
Board has held five meetings so far this year and is steadily working on
keeping everything moving forward. Our
April meeting was devoted to student achievement. Teaching staff spent much of the last term
sifting through student achievement data gathered in term one and what it means
for our teaching and learning landscape. The management team is pleased with
where the children are at, but acknowledges that hard work is required to
maintain and improve on our high standards.
The Board supports the teaching staff’s belief that the growth in our
children is displayed in so much more ways that just a standardized test.
However, as a measure, these tests are useful and when the management team
formally reported to the Board our student achievement information shows some
excellent results in reading and writing, and some definite school-wide gains
in maths over the last 12 months.
Our
2013 school-wide average results using National Standards show we are in a
strong position. In reading, writing and maths we average 90% at or above the
standard, which comparatively puts Muritai in the top echelon of schools in
Wellington for student achievement. Coupled with our consistent success in zone
sport and the arts the Board is confident that Muritai continues to be ‘the
best that it can be’.
Well Below Standard
|
Below Standard
|
At
Standard
|
Above Standard
|
|
Reading
|
2%
|
5%
|
32%
|
61%
|
Writing
|
2%
|
8%
|
46%
|
44%
|
Maths
|
0%
|
10%
|
45%
|
45%
|
You
can find the full student achievement result on the school website under the“Our school-School Information” link and the Ministry of Education has
published our results along with other schools at http://www.educationcounts.govt.nz. Whilst there are well-documented
difficulties with using this information for comparison purposes given the
complications of the national standards process we are delighted that Muritai
School stands out as a leading school.
Towards 2020
Last
month we were again joined by the management team who shared their vision for
2015 and beyond. The Board is shortly to
begin a strategic planning process which we are calling “Towards 2020” and will
be canvassing the views of our community as to your hopes and aspirations for
Muritai School. We encourage you to
engage with this process.
Finance
One
of the real challenges for any Board of Trustees is managing school finances. The
school continues to run extremely tight margins but got through 2013 in a sound
financial position. We would always like to be able to offer more to our
children. We are only able to match our
expenditure with our revenue by relying on the parent donations which supports our
current staffing level and provides smaller class sizes. Your donation enables
Muritai to run two extra classrooms across the year than the Ministry of
Education funds. A reminder that your
donation is tax deductible and it really helps us plan for the following year
if this is received by us sooner rather than later.
Staffing
We
were thrilled to learn Barbara Ryan has been awarded the Primary Science
Teacher Alumni Award, one of three awarded annually in NZ. This is an extension
from her Royal Society sabbatical that she took a couple of years ago and
recognition of the difference that she has made to our school and local science
teaching community. Barbara continues to be a real force in science teaching at
Muritai. The Board also acknowledges the excellent work of Raihania Chadwick who continues to put huge energy to our tikanga and te reo Maori programmes at Muritai. Our first ever performance at the 'Polyfest' was excellent.
We
were disappointed to lose Kirsten Berry and Hayden Ray last term and the Board
thanks them for their contributions to Muritai over the last few years and
wishes them well on their next journey at their new school. We welcome their
replacements Annette Borgonje and Briana Lee to the Muritai family.
Roll
The
roll remains strong at 440 pupils and we expect the school to have a December
closing roll of 472. Room 1 opened at
the end of last term and the next new entrants class opens later during term 4,
while the Y5-6 class, currently in room 16 transfers to the old library until
the end of the year. The enrolment zone
that was implemented late last year is working well to ease pressure on class
sizes. Other than year 8 parents, if you
have a child who will not be
attending Muritai next year please let us know as soon as possible. A quick email to the office will be fine but
we are already planning for 2015 and looking at staffing and funding
requirements so this information is critical to our planning. Equally if you know people who are planning
to start at Muritai in 2015 please ask them to also get in touch. The better informed we are the better
decisions we can make.
Carnival and Home and School
The
Carnival team met recently to get things up and going for carnival this year.
They have settled on a date for this year of November 23. Please lock this onto
your diaries and have a think about how you might contribute to supporting the
team on the day. As already mentioned
your contribution to recent carnivals is the reason we have been able to build
the library and fund IT development in the school. We really need everyone to
get behind this year’s Carnival.
Finally....
As
you can see its been another busy year for the Board but a rewarding one as we
start to see the realization of some projects that have been in the pipeline
for many years. The Board has
appreciated meeting with the management team of Andrew, Stu, Dean, Jess and
Maureen at two of the meetings this year and it served to reinforce to us that
the school is fortunate indeed to have such passionate, capable and
professional leadership. Please continue
to give them your support and a reminder that they and we as your Board of
Trustees are always available to listen to your comments and thoughts on the
life and direction of our wee community.
na matou na,
Muritai School Board of Trustees
Craig, Olivia, Nick, Julie Dave, Sarah, Stu, Andrew
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