Kia ora koutou

Miramar North School had 5 candidates and 5 vacancies for our Board of Trustees election that was planned for 7th September. This means we do not go through a voting process, and our candidates are duly elected. Welcome back to Cherida Fraser, who will be acting as chairperson until the new Board has their first meeting and elects a chair, and to Robyn Moriarty and Alistair Mason who joined the board at the 2021 by election. A warm welcome to the two new Board members Alison Herft and Jay Nielson. Joyce continues on the Board as the School Principal, and an election will be held for a staff representative. 

It has been a privilege to chair the MNS Board for the past year and I wish our new Board the very best. I made the decision not to stand for election following a very full 12 months in my professional life. I work in the health sector which has a number of changes underway currently, and because of this I did not feel able to commit to the three year Board term. 

Reflecting on the past 12 months (and noting the significant amount of work by the previous boards and school leadership team on these projects), it is exciting to see our new playground in place and the driveway project underway. The student wellbeing work that has occurred over 2021 is great to see - looking at different ways to measure wellbeing that suit different age groups and work around emotional regulation. MNS celebrated Pride Week for the first time in 2021 and again 2022 which links in with our school values of acceptance and respect. There are two significant full school professional development programmes underway, one in mathematics teaching and another called positive behaviour for learning. School polices have shifted onto the School Docs website and are available for the community to view. 

A big thank you to our school leadership team, teachers and all staff for the amazing mahi that you all do. Covid has added a layer of complexity to an already busy school environment, and the extra work that this has created is seen and appreciated. One of the biggest privileges of Board is listening to the student achievement presentations from the leadership team twice a year, and I am so impressed by the amount of care, consideration and expertise that goes into forming the overall teacher judgements (OTJs) which form the basis of school reports and comments on how children are achieving compared to curriculum levels. So thank you all once again for all your mahi. 

Nga mihi nui 

Louise Poynton