Board of Trustees 25 August

Kia ora e te whānau

It was great to see everyone at the recent Matariki celebration. It has been a long time since we have been able to have our community together in one place, what a treat! Whilst winter ailments are still playing out there is a general decline in sickness and we are hoping this will provide us with increasing opportunities to connect around school occasions. We really appreciate parents' support for keeping your kids home if they are unwell and following the school's mask wearing policy and other health initiatives. It has been a long winter but these actions remain important.

One of the amazing stories of the pandemic for our school community is that our kids' achievement levels across reading, writing and maths have remained very high and maintained the pre-pandemic years standards. This is quite remarkable considering the challenges that households and the school have had to navigate. This is unique across the country and is a testament to the school leadership, engaged staff, resilient kids and supportive whānau.

Our PAT testing (standardised testing across schools), across all years and areas of learning sits well above the country averages. It is worth taking a moment to celebrate these amazing results.

As we have discussed before, most southern and eastern schools in Wellington are facing falling rolls including Seatoun School. The roll size has an effect on funding and the number of classes run at each syndicate. Added to this, we have the introduction of a new Ministry of Education funding framework, The Equity Index, which is replacing the decile system. This index rates our school in the highest 1% of schools, making it highly likely we will see a drop in operational funding in 2024. We are inevitably going to need to raise more money to run the same wide range of programmes we currently offer. We continue to explore different funding options. For example, do we have any parents in our community who have the capability to apply for grants? Please contact John if you are able to help.

One way you can help at the moment is to pay your enrichment fees, activity fees and your voluntary donations, if you are able. Every bit helps and is appreciated.

There remain a number of site improvements on the go. We are excited to announce that contracts have been signed for the upstairs classroom modernisation project which will be completed this summer. Our ventilation system is serving us well and new heating will be installed, with phase one during our next holidays. Our fire alarm system is in the middle of being upgraded and the contract has been confirmed for new automatic doors into our school. The Ministry is also working on a fencing project to improve student safety.

Finally, a big thank you to those board members who have come to the end of their term - te kino kē hoki. And thanks to those who have put their name forward for the election - good luck.

Noho ora mai

Charlotte, Lloyd, Nick, Justin, Melanie, Justine, Catherine and John