This newsletter will outline some of the things the Sherwood Primary School Board of Trustees (BOT) has been working on.

It has been a year since we took over our lovely new buildings and they are working out well for the main part. However, there are a few niggly issues that we are still working to address. The groundfloor windows were somewhat unhelpfully designed to be at the perfect height to bang on little heads when they are open. We are still working with the Ministry of Education to replace them with sliding windows. The temperature in the new teaching block was a problem last summer with temperatures reaching in the high 20 degrees Celsius, making it a very unpleasant and sticky experience for everyone. The Ministry of Education has been working on this, albeit at an ironically glacial pace, and we have been putting pressure on them to resolve this promptly before it gets too hot. In the interim, the BOT have discussed that if temperatures exceed the recommended safe temperature of 24 degrees Celsius, that we may need to consider evacuating the teaching block. 

Another issue that we are working on, relates to our safety plan in the event of a security issue or lockdown. The downside to a largely glazed, sunny and light teaching block/PAC is that there is little room for the children to gather where they are not visible from the outside. We are likely to resolve this with a combination of window films and/or curtains/blinds and are costing this up currently. We will then start running regular lockdown drills.

As you know our School Principal has resigned and the BOT have started the process to recruit and appoint a replacement. As appointing the right person is so important, we are going to engage an external consultant to help us write a suitable job description, find and screen candidates and to manage the recruitment process. This is common practice for Principal appointments. We will, at some point, be seeking feedback from children, staff and the wider school community to help us decide what we want in a new Principal as we believe we have a fabulous school with a unique culture and we want to maintain this in the future. I would, therefore, urge you to make sure you give us feedback about what you want in a school Principal when we start this process. As previously stated, Carolyn Crow has kindly agreed to continue as Acting Principal until the new candidate starts. She has done an amazing job and we are lucky that she was able to step up this year and she has steered the ship competently and effectively. She has decided that she will not be applying for the Principal’s position at this time. She will of course be helping the new Principal settle into Sherwood School alongside stepping back into her Deputy Principal role.

Finally, a word about school donations. There has been a lot written about school donations and activities fees, some of which do not apply to us and some of which are incorrect. I will attempt to summarise the facts.

 As a decile 10 school, we are NOT eligible to apply for the $150 per student government grant that then requires schools not to ask for donations.

 We ARE allowed to ask for donations but we are not allowed to compel parents to pay it. This is essentially the same as it has always been.

 That said, our budget relies on the majority of parents paying the school donation.

 We use the school donations to staff above the recommended Ministry of Education levels currently, because this meets the learning needs of our children. Therefore, if a large proportion of parents were to stop paying the donations, then we may have to adjust how we structure our teaching ratios, which could impact on class size, teacher aid support and our specialist programs such as PE and music.

 Our activity fees cover activities that support the curriculum and sometimes include aspects from the curriculum such as Education Outside the Classroom (school camps etc). We have never stopped children from participating in activities based on fee payment at SherwoodPrimary School and this will continue.

 However, we DO budget for parents paying the activity fees and if parents were to stop paying the activity fee, then the school would need to adjust the activities that were offered accordingly.

 We appreciate that parents have historically, supported the school by paying the activity fees and most parents DO pay the school donation. We hope that this continues. We will continue to offer flexible payment arrangements to make this easier to budget.

 The new guidelines do direct us that we are no longer able to offer early payment discounts, as this is seen to disadvantage those who are less able to pay.

 We also appreciate that this is an expense that some families cannot meet and we will continue to offer the same school experience to ALL children, regardless.

 Some parents have even generously paid additional activity fees to allow another child to attend camp (for instance) and again this is something we are very grateful for.

 Another result of the new guidelines is that ALL activity fees will now be classed as a“donation” and are therefore tax deductible.

 If you have any questions or concerns about donations or activity fees please contact PaulineFoster paulinef@sherwoodprimary.school.nz.

Thank you for reading

Jane Key

Chairperson of Sherwood Primary School BOT

botchair@sherwoodprimary.school.nz