The end of another exciting, jam packed, successful year for Oaklands School.

Now into my 6th year on the board, I still marvel at the incredible amount of hard work, dedication and passion that goes into a school in order for it to be the best it can be, and ultimately help create the best well rounded students we possibly can. A huge amount of effort goes into monitoring how our students are progressing and achieving at Oaklands and to ensure we are always adapting to make sure this improvement happens with all of our students no matter where they are at and what their needs may be.

As well as progress and achievement being monitored and adapted within the classrooms we are also constantly working at improving in and around our school and playground and out in our wider community. Our CARE values system helps create well rounded, respectful, open-minded students, who strive not only to do their very best but also respect and take care of others and will stay with our children as they mature, taking them far in life.

This year we have become a positive behaviour for learning school, a ministry initiative we have been lucky to become part of, and I have had the privilege of being part of the team planning and leading this change within the school. When teachers need to spend less time redirecting and concentrating on behaviour issues, the quality of teaching and the engagement and satisfaction in school improves for our children. This programme which has a huge amount of research behind it, is based on a number of fundamentals around the idea that if you want children to be respectful of each other and behave appropriately you actually have to teach them these behaviours (just like any other skill) and continue to positively reinforce them often. The team this year have taken our CARE values system and evolved it into a clear system of expectations right across the school for different areas, which will continue to be taught, modelled, reinforced and rewarded within the school throughout next year and beyond. Obviously this helps to maintain the integrity in the class and playground for a vast majority of children, and allows more students to be more engaged, happy and successful at school.

To all the parents and carers who have invested their precious time and energy helping out around the school this year, be it with fundraising, helping on school trips, camps or within the classrooms, I would like to extend our heart felt thanks. We so value your efforts around the school and would love to encourage this more within the school. It truly does take a community to raise a child. And this relationship building and sharing continues to be a major focus of our school strategic plan. The more the community helps out around the school, and helps share our successes, the stronger the school becomes and the more supported our children feel in their learning, and their belonging within the school.

Oaklands is earmarked for major building re-developments, with master planning in 2017 and building beginning in 2018 and this year we have begun some of the background planning with professional development for all our teachers into collaborative learning-which is a Ministry of Education directive to all schools. We are very aware that we are wanting to develop our own best model for learning and what will work best for us -our students, staff and community here at Oaklands school. This research and development will continue next year and beyond.

Board of trustee triennial elections are also due to be held in May next year, and I would hasten to suggest that the next 3 year term on the board will be a very interesting and exciting time. To help draft and set up the future for Oaklands School for our children and perhaps even our children’s children is an exciting prospect. If you feel you may be interested in getting involved as a parent representative on the board, any one of our current members would be only too happy to have a chat with you and give you more information about what is involved and how it all works, you can contact us via our email address below or you are welcome to attend our meetings to gain more insight. For more information on being a trustee you can visit: http://www.trustee-election.co.nz/becoming-a-trustee

Finally, on behalf of the board, I wish you all a very safe and happy holiday season with your families. For those of you moving on from Oaklands school this year I would like to extend our warmest wishes for the very best of futures, and trust you look back at your time at Oaklands school with some great memories. For the rest of us, coming back after the summer break, we look forward to re-acquainting with you here at Oaklands in 2016.

Marie Hanson

Board chair on behalf of the entire Board of Trustees

bot@oaklands.school.nz