Posts tagged admin

iPhone Site Viewing

We’ve just upgraded our website to allow for iPhone friendly viewing. This will also work on iPod Touch and most other smartphones. Viewing through a normal computer browser you will see nothing different, but if you view through an iPhone you will see the mobile site.

If you add a link to your home screen, you will even get a proper App Icon.

NZEI Stopwork Meeting Postponed

Today’s newsletter contained a notice about an NZEI Stopwork Meeting planned for Tuesday March 23rd from 1:00pm till 3:00pm to discuss National Standards.

THIS MEETING HAS NOW BEING POSTPONED.

Please disregard this date and apologies for the confusion.

Board of Trustees Election 2010

Every 3 years a postal election is held to elect a new Board of Trustees. Any parent of caregiver is eligible to stand for election (with some conditions relating to bankruptcy, mental health or criminal background). Board members meet monthly and receive a $55 meeting attendance fee per meeting attended.

Board members should not have a particular personal agenda but be committed to supporting the overall vision and direction of the whole school. In house training is provided. More specific information will come later, but the key dates to look ahead to are:

March 15th – Nominations open

April 23rd – Nominations close

April 28th – Voting forms posted out

May 7th – Voting closes

May 13th – Votes counted and results declared

Bi-annual Parent Survey Results

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There were 76 responses.  Several responses indicated they had no idea what ‘syndicate’ meant – these are the three divisions of the school – junior, middle and senior.  When we put ‘good’ and ‘average’ numbers together we get generally high satisfaction

  • 99%  for school communication
  • 100% for facilities and appearance
  • 97% for meeting children’s needs
  • 99% for achievement standards
  • 100% for extra curricula
  • 97% for ‘is your child happy’
  • 97% for ‘would you recommend this school to others’.

Syndicate and class communication falls down a bit and homework is the area of greatest concern.

I will undertake to get each area of the school to provide a short statement about homework provision early next year.

A number of people made general comments but there was no commonality to them.  But some specific replies;

  • there is a ‘new pupil’ enrolment handbook for new entrants
  • senior homework under review
  • yes, we should have used the shelter during cross country
  • year 1 children should be getting a book each night
  • Parents are encouraged to be involved in classes and school.
  • End of year fundraising done earlier – fair point
  • List of events for term are included in newsletters
  • any school trip requires at least 7 days notice in advance
  • we have ran an email list for the newsletter for some years, or you can subscribe to our RSS feed.
  • more I.T. – we’ve spent hundreds of thousands over the years, and our current spend is done in a managed fashion.

New Fax Number

We have just installed a revamped phone system, and along with this we have a new fax number, which is 09 834 8439.

2009 Overview

Welcome to the 2009 year. The world economic crisis seemed to come out of nowhere and its impact is likely to intensify over the next 18 months. The school will do all that it can to limit financial demands on parents.

There are no building plans or projects this year, just regular maintenance such as painting.

We will be using the refurbished dental clinic (Parent Centre) for our monthly “one-stop-shop” clinic (first Tuesday of each month) with J.P., budgeting service, Tough Love, Health Nurse and a lawyer available for brief consultations.

Our School donation is still $60 per child/$90 per family. It is voluntary, tax deductible and, if paid by the end of term one, puts you into a lucky draw for an air stepper fitness machine.

School email addresses are can be found on the Contact page.