Principal's Message - T4 Wk8
Tēnā koe
There has been lots of activity at school over the past few weeks at school. Last week Mr. Knops and I visited the Year 7 students while they were on camp at Woodend. There was a very relaxed and positive vibe and it was great to see our young learners enjoying themselves and keeping busy without a mobile device in sight!
NCEA exams finished this week and our Year 12 and 13 students can now breath a sigh of relief and enjoy the rest of the summer. Congratulations to students who attended their exams (we have had a much higher attendance rate this year) and we look forward to seeing the outcomes for these students in the new year.
Yesterday the annual Performance Afternoon took place. Students have been busy co-designing their performances and have worked hard developing skillsets of collaboration, teamwork, creativity and pushing themselves outside of their normal comfort zones. It was a fantastic event and I was very proud of performances of our students. Well done to everyone involved!
Our final Exhibition Evening of the year is on Monday. I am looking forward to seeing the work of our junior students and it would be fantastic to see more parents and community members attend. It is important that the parents/caregivers of all junior students attend and celebrate the work of their children. Staff have been busy supporting students to ensure that they complete work which is of a high standard. Next week there are trips for the junior students which enables the students to finish the school year on a positive high.
Along with all of the normal activities occurring in the run up to the end of the school year, my focus has also been on staffing and the school redevelopment. There is some very important information below which all members of our community need to be aware of:
Summer School
The Summer School programme, which runs for only 5 days, is an initiative which is being implemented to support current senior students in Years 11 and 12 to ensure that they are set up for success in the 2024 academic year. It is an opportunity for students who have been identified through attendance data (have more than 5% unjustified absences), low engagement data (have an average less than 2.5 out of 3 on their weekly engagement reports from across the year) or have not achieved Level 1 Literacy and/or Numeracy to be provided extra support to ensure that these issues do not become an ongoing barrier to achievement.
Staff are providing extra lessons, time and support for the small number of identified students in order to help set them up for success prior to regular classes commencing next year. Parents/caregivers and students have been able to track their learner's engagement levels, which were updated weekly, across the year with 24/7 access to this information via our Parent Portal. The year level Kaitiaki also sent this information out on a termly basis. Many schools across the country use weekly engagement reports to parents in order for them to be able to track their learner's level of work and engagement in learning.
Most schools across New Zealand request students to come back to school prior to the actual year starting if they have not achieved NCEA Level 1, 2 or 3 (depending on their year level) in order to help get them "across the line" so that students can work intensively on core generic achievement standards to gain credits to help them achieve the qualification their have worked towards achieving.
Staffing Update
New Zealand has never been in the position it currently finds itself in with such a huge shortage of teachers. Schools are actively poaching teachers from other schools and never before have schools been in the position of trying to find teachers so late in the school year. I have written and spoken about the teacher shortage on multiple occasions over the past 3 years and it is a very real and highly stressful situation. There also have been numerous media articles about it in recent times (see below). There are currently 7 pages of adverts for secondary teachers in Canterbury currently advertised in the Education Gazette. Never before have there been so many vacancies at this time of the year. The cost of travel is having a direct impact on our staff and potential staff we are trying to recruit.
Over the past two weeks the following has occurred:
Mike Pearce was appointed to start teaching at the College next year in the Technology Department. He has resigned (without ever actually starting the position) having been appointed to the Head of Faculty position at Darfield High School
Caroline Aindow (Head of Art) has been appointed to a position at Shirley Boys' High School after her husband has been appointed to his dream position in the City
Krystal Boland (Japanese Teacher) has resigned
Joseph Conway (Art Teacher) has been appointed to his dream position at Hagley College
Tessa Collins (Food Technology Teacher) has resigned and will not be returning after being away this year on refreshment leave
All of these positions are currently advertised and we have over 140 hours of teaching we need to find staff for. We have had few/no applicants from teachers in New Zealand for each of these positions and we are having to go on a global search for staff. Due to the late resignations of a number of these staff (some on the last day they can legally resign in order to give sufficient notice under the Secondary Teachers' Collective Agreement) it is highly likely that we may not be able to cover some of these positions at the beginning of next year. It also means that timetabling will be delayed to the beginning of next year, normally our timetable would be nearly finalised by now. We are developing contingency plans in order to try to mitigate the impact of teacher shortages as much as we possibly can and will continue to always try to find the best possible teachers we can to teach our learners. However, parents, caregivers & whānau do need to be aware that the ongoing teacher shortage will have direct impacts on our kura next year. We don't currently know what those impacts may be until we have more information about where staffing holes may be.
Newshub - Secondary school principals warn teacher shortage to worsen - 27th November 2023
RadioNZ - More secondary teachers needed to keep up with demand - 27th November 2023
RadioNZ - Teacher shortage set to worsen as few students sign up - 27th November 2023
Stuff - Principals fear teacher shortage will add to school pressures - 23rd August 2023
The Press - Job ads for teachers up 31% since 2019 - 20th July 2023
RadioNZ - Principals facing teacher shortage say some regions in 'staffing crisis' - 17th July 2023
Newshub - Schools warn of more 'time off' for students amid dire teacher shortage - 17th July 2023
NZ Herald - Secondary Principals report 'unprecedented shortages' of teachers across New Zealand - 5th May 2023
One News - Fears of worsening secondary teacher shortage in 2023 - 15th June 2022
Other Staffing Updates
Following the resignation of Bert Knops (Deputy Principal) a leadership restructure of the Senior Leadership Team has occurred with a flat structure being implemented. Tanya Prout and Antony French have both been promoted from Assistant Principal to Deputy Principal, while Rebecca Rupp and Craig Anderson both join the SLT permanently as Deputy Principals. Congratulations!
Congratulations to the following staff who will be taking up new positions next year:
- Anita Collett (who is currently on maternity leave) will take up the position of Head of Science on her return
- Jasmaine Martin who has been appointed as Year 7 Kaitiaki and Team Leader
- Quenette Jonker who has been appointed as Year 9 Kaitiaki
- Chris O'Connell will move with his cohort of students from Year 9 to Year 10 Kaitiaki
Redevelopment
Despite what the local rumour mill might be transmitting, our redevelopment is happening! On Monday, the Ministry of Education, representatives from Selwyn District Council, Soutbase (our builders) and members of the Board of Trustees Property Sub-Committee met and had a round-table discussion about the consenting processes and issues which effectively are preventing the redevelopment from starting. There was some robust discussion regarding this and it was positive to have all parties around the table. Consenting processes have been frustratingly slow with most of the consents for the redevelopment lodged between 8-12 months ago with the various agencies concerned. It was positive to have local Councillor Elizabeth Mundt at the meeting who helped facilitate the meeting occurring. A new business case for funding the redevelopment has been finalised by the Ministry of Education and is awaiting sign-off by the new government. We are hoping that this is rubber-stamped by the new government over the coming weeks.
It has been a non-stop term and I am looking forward to the fast approaching end of the school year. However, things will not stop there as I spend the summer trying to find staff. If you are aware of any teachers looking for a position or looking to relocate please let me know!
Ngā mihi
Ronan Bass
Tumuaki/Principal