Kia ora tātou
It seems like the months are flying by – we are now well into term 3, and already looking toward to 2018 with our focus on charter review and the recent Open evening and day for prospective year 9 students. In preparation for our last board meeting we received summaries of all the feedback from parents and caregivers obtained from the questionnaires administered by our trustees at parent interviews and Open night. We are interested in what is working well for you and your child, what might be improved and what parents would like to see as part of their young people’s education. It was suggested that we also place the survey we administered on-line, so expect to see this in the next couple of weeks. We want to hear from you and would really encourage you to write down your thoughts and ideas, whether you have spoken to us already or not!
At the start of the last meeting we moved into committee (the publicly excluded section of the meeting which is used to discuss matters pertaining to personnel, discipline, and other matters which warrant privacy for the individuals/organisations) as we had our external Principal Appraiser come and talk to us about how Mr Congdon’s appraisal process was going, and to gather our opinions for his appraisal report. Staff appraisal is an important process within a school as it provides guidance on what is working well and it identifies next steps for professional development. Mr Congdon is responsible each year for ensuring the appraisals of all staff in the College, and the Board is accountable for the appraisal of the principal. While as a Board we know (and see evidence) that our tumuaki is doing a wonderful job, it great to have evidence of this and to gather information about how best we can support our principal going forward.
At our last meeting we also reviewed our new Theft and Fraud prevention procedure. Having revised our all our policies, we continue to work through a raft of procedures. This process will be ongoing through the rest of 2017, but is great to feel we are making progress and that when completed we will have a clear and comprehensive governance framework which provides a foundation for good decision making and the sound implementation of practices within the school.
Mr Congdon presented an NCEA credit report at the meeting, and we spent some time reflecting on it. It is at this time of year that the Board and teaching Staff are now able to get an overview of how our students are tracking towards NCEA. This is the point at which teaching staff are able to recognise areas (and students) who might be in need of more support and to develop interventions to help lift student achievement. As a Board it is fantastic to see this kind of tracking as we want all our students, whatever their capability to make progress and experience success in their learning.
Again in this newsletter, we continue our series of ‘getting to know’ our trustees. This month I would like to introduce Mr Dylan Kiriona. Dylan is a parent elected representative and an active supporter of Rangatahi Ora. He is also on the finance committee and spends a great deal of time putting the financials in graphical form which provide us with clear visuals. A teacher himself, Dylan also brings a strong sense of the diverse needs of learners to the Board and I so value his insightful contributions.
Tēnā koutou katoa,
My name is Dylan Kiriona and I descend from Ngāti Raukawa and Ngāti Huia. I am a Parent Representative on the Board of Trustees as well as the Finance Committee and am an active whanau member of Rangatahi Ora. My wife Laurae Broughton-Kiriona and I have 5 children with 2 of them currently attending Horowhenua College. I am currently a Primary School Teacher at Levin East School and am actively involved in Kapahaka as well as coaching a range of sporting codes.
It has been a pleasure to represent whanau on the board and work with an amazing and committed team under great leadership. The range of skills and experience that each member brings to the table ensures that issues are viewed from a variety of perspectives. We focus on providing the best possible resourcing so that teachers can be effective in their roles to facilitate a quality education to ensure our students excel. We are proud of the school’s many achievements and wish to acknowledge the dedication and generosity of so many on a day to day basis because as we all know, it takes a village to raise a child. Our role as a board, is simply to share the load with management and staff, and to pave the way for our future generations to be successful young men and young women. Ko ngā rangatahi o te rā nei, Ngā rangatira mō āpōpō.
Nāku noa
Dylan Kiriona
I will be in touch again after our next meeting in September!
Nga mihi
Juliana Mansvelt (BOT Chair)