Board of Trustees Report - September 2023

Kia ora koutou,

The Cotswold Mātāhae Board of Trustees for their sixth meeting of 2023 last Wednesday night.

Firstly, we would like to thank the staff for their hard work and dedication throughout this Term. We appreciate that you have been busy providing many opportunities for our tamariki as you always do, and from the Board we thank you.

The Board would like to welcome Emily Sefton to Cotswold Mātāhae. Thank you Emily for your commitment to setting up an engaging and organised space in Room 16 to welcome the new ākonga and whānau into our kura. We look forward to seeing our ākonga grow and develop under your care.

We would also like to thank Dani Clarke-Dempsey, Samantha Cade and Saskia Sandford for their considerable time and commitment to providing excellent opportunities and teaching to the Jump Jam and Dance NZ Made tamariki. We are proud of the success these groups have had and especially enjoyed seeing them perform recently for the school. We wish the Cotswold Mātāhae Monsters well at the South Island National Jump Jam Competition.

Mālō lava to Nina and the Pasifika Group who put in a wonderful performance at Sau la Festival. We were so proud to see Cotswold Mātāhae showcasing their talents at what sounds like a very successful event.

The Board have agreed to partner with Kelly Club to start a Before and After School Care Programme for our tamariki which will get underway from the start of Term 4. We know there many parents excited about having on onsite program here at Cotswold Mātāhae School.

The Board received very positive feedback from staff on the staff professional development sessions held last week with Joy Allcock. Joy held separate sessions for the senior school teachers, junior school teachers, literacy leaders Jean-Marie Cain and Paula Fleming-Connell, and then a full school session for all staff after school. We received extremely positive feedback from team leaders who are super keen to implement Joy’s recommendations around teaching literacy.

Room 14-15 cebus classroom upgrade - Casey Delaney and Chris Smith met with Tracey Saunders from School Support, and Maguire and Harford Architects, who are still finalising their concept designs and hope to have them ready for approval by the end of September. The Board is very excited that very soon the entire school will have been refurbished!

Another term has almost flown by and we want to thank the staff for what they do for the ākonga and whānau of our school. We know that Term 3 can often feel long and challenging and your unwavering dedication is greatly appreciated.

To all staff, students and their whanau enjoy the rest of Term 3 and we wish you a relaxing and revitalising term break where you can spend time with those close to you. We know that Term 4 is often demanding so we hope you are able to recharge and get ready to hit the ground running.

The next board meeting will be held on Wednesday 1st November followed by the final board meeting of the year on Wednesday 6th December.

Ngā mihi

Casey Delaney on behalf of the Cotswold Mātāhae Board of Trustees.