Message from the Board of Trustees

New Board Members

For the next year, the Board of Trustees has two new parent representatives. We welcome Natasha Austin and Angela Dowty and thank them in advance for serving our school community in this way.

Natasha was selected as a parent representative after the resignation of Paul Bridgman. Angela was co-opted to boost our numbers and the range of views around our board table.

Principal's Sabbatical

We wish our Principal, Neil Haywood, all the best for his sabbatical next term and his research on student voice. 

Neil will be investigating how student voice can be utilised effectively in the co-construction of curriculum and in the enhancement of students’ overall experience in a multicultural school. We look forward to hearing his findings later in the year.

Our school community is really fortunate to have fantastic staff and in Neil’s absence our excellent senior leadership team will have everything in hand. 

We have appointed Deputy Principal Lisa Heald as Acting Principal for term three: Assistant Principal Carole Lake will step into the vacancy of Acting Deputy Principal for this time. Shane Morrow remains our other Deputy Principal. Mike Seddon, the Leader of Learning for Science, will become Acting Assistant Principal. Remco Baars will be Acting Leader of Learning for Science. Thank you to all of our senior leadership team.

Orohaki

The year 9 and 10 camps at Orohaki were a wonderful success by all the students’ reports. I even heard one story about some fun in the snow at the mountain top. 

While the camp is used less frequently over the winter months, the Board is busy planning the future governance of our new facilities and how to make the most of potential bookings outside our school community. 

Our new board members Tash and Angela will be involved in this work on our Orohaki Committee.

Learning Support

Many Riccarton students need help from our Learning Support team to assist with their studies. 

The team roles vary from assisting students with ADHD to organising special assessment conditions for exams and counselling students who are experiencing difficulties at school or home. 

We really appreciate the work of everyone in this specialist team who nurture our learners every day, including their Leader of Learning, Michelle Hemmingsen. 

The Board has recently funded a learning support co-ordinator to help Michelle as she leads this team of amazing staff.

School Invoices

As always, we appreciate your prompt payment of school invoices for activities such as the Orohaki camp and sports. Thank you. 

Please contact the school office to discuss alternative financial arrangements if you are having any difficulties with your payments.

Janine Ogier (email contact janineo@xtra.co.nz)