July/August 2024 Update

Kia ora koutou,

The School Board has had two meetings since our last newsletter update; 2nd July and 6th August, with the school holidays in-between the two.

Over the two meetings the Board has:

●      Reviewed, requested updates to, and then approved the year 5 & 6 camps and the school ski programme proposals plus associated health and safety documentation.

●      Started investigating the installation of a dividing wall in part of the Pikopiko block (work in progress)

●      Approved the installation of replacement lights in the school hall - they look wonderful and the place is now much better lit with no flickering.

●      Seen and discussed the following reports:

○      Structured Literacy Lead - Mrs Warman

○      SENCo (Special Education Needs Coordinator) - Mrs Tebbett

○      SEN (Special Education Needs) tracking - Mrs Tebbett

○      PB4L (Positive Behaviour for Learning) - Mrs Tebbett

○      Principal reports for both meetings - Mrs Devonald

○      Darfield High Five (DH5) student behaviour reports

○      Well Being Survey results - Mrs Devonald

●      Checked spending progress against the annual budget

●      Reviewed term 2 policies in SchoolDocs

●      Received confirmation of compliances for term two from Mrs Devonald

It’s been an incredibly busy time for Mrs Devonald over the last few weeks with some of the senior management team helping her prepare for our Education Review Office (ERO) visit.

The Board are aware of how much work Mrs Devonald has done to prepare for the very intense two day visit from the ERO auditor (Mr Murray Overton), and would like to thank her for going the extra mile. Myself (as Presiding Member) and Amanda (as a parent trustee) joined Murray and Meredith at the beginning and end of the visit and were very pleased with the positive feedback and encouraging comments that were made. We will have to wait several weeks for the report to be published, but are confident that the school will receive a good review. This is credit to the work our Principal and the team at Darfield Primary School have done, and do every day.

The Board would also like to acknowledge Les Mintrom - our wonderful School Caretaker. Les has advised us that he will retire at the end of the year. He will be greatly missed and we appreciate everything he has done for the school over the last nine years.

Now that the ERO review has been completed the Board and Mrs Devonald can turn our attention to some other key areas of work:

●      the building/renovation projects (Ministry are dictating the timeframes)

●      the school play ground redevelopment project

●      mid year student progress reports

Nga Mihi

Celia Tymons on behalf of the Darfield Primary School Board of Trustees

Celia Tymons (Presiding Member & Parent Trustee), Jason Clemens, Amanda Fallow-Pender, Aaron Henderson, Sarah Rickard (Parent Trustee’s), Hannah Mazey (Staff Trustee), Meredith Devonald (Principal) and Nicky Bell (Minute Secretary)