The Board of Trustees met on Wednesday 19th May for their fourth meeting of 2024.

Kia ora koutou Cotswold Mātāhae whānau

The Board of Trustees met on Wednesday 19th May for their fourth meeting of 2024.

The Board sadly received and acknowledged Andrew Simpson’s resignation effective in after the 2024 year. We want to also briefly acknowledge here the legacy Andrew developed in his 25 years serving our school whanau in all the roles he has undertaken in his tenure. His knowledge, skills and leadership will be sorely missed. 

Following last week's Education Review Office (ERO) visit they have indicated very positive early reviews. We know we have highly skilled and committed staff that often go far above and beyond to ensure our ākonga have a high-class education experience. The board really appreciate the preparation and guidance Chris, Paula and Andrew provided both our staff and ERO staff.  We also want to extend our gratitude to everyone who was involved throughout ERO’s time onsite from those who were observed, were involved in meetings, and those who supported others. We look forward to the final report from ERO once it has gone through several checks and moderations.

The board are impressed to see Chris leading from the front through initiatives like engaging in an independent 360 degree appraisal process to help him gain feedback on his approach and performance from students, parents, staff and the board. 

 It is positive to see our school role is currently tracking similarly to the same stage last year.  Following no feedback during the consultation period the Board also moved the implementation of a minor amendment to our current schooling enrolment scheme (zone) from the MoE that will commence from 1 January 2025.

It was great to hear of the excellent learnings regarding literacy from Joy Allcock's time teaching and modelling to staff innovative ways to support our ākonga. A big thank you to Paula and Jean-Marie for organisation of this staff professional development.

 We were proud to hear of the feedback that the kura received from the International Antarctic Centre regarding the way that the Cotswold Mātāhae ākonga conducted themselves while engaging in this valuable offsite learning opportunity. A big thank you goes out to Paula for organising and coordinating these visits across the school and to the staff for ensuring that these visits ran smoothly. A special thanks to all the parents who supported this trip, without your input such trips could not happen.

It was wonderful to experience another successful community Matariki evening. We would like to also acknowledge the huge amount of work that went into this and to see the learning from last years first event reduce the load on the school staff! We know this has been driven by the team of Chris, Paula, Dani, Anna and Marie along with the support of many others. We understand the extra workload this places on staff and we want you to know that we appreciate the additional effort you put in for this to be a success for our community.

The board was also lucky to get a sneak peak at the PTA's latest fundraising initiative to offer branded products to our students; including house coloured t-shirts, school bags and drink bottles. So watch that space!

Since the meeting it has been wonderful to see the fruits of Saskia and her ShowQuest teams labour in representing our kura in an amazing day and performance resulting in awards including; Winning the ShowQuest School Spirit award for their values shown throughout AND Winning the grand prize across Canterbury primary and intermediate schools. 

As term 2 comes to an end the Board of Trustees wishes you all an enjoyable winter break and wants to thank staff and ākonga for their hard work and dedication during the first half of 2024. Likewise, all of you supporting your children to be ready for school and learning and assisting where you can with our learning and sporting experiences. 

We look forward to seeing you all rearing to go in Term 3.

Ngā mihi nui

Nathan Gillespie on behalf of the Cotswold Mātāhae Board of Trustees