Fifth parent representative joins the Board

We are pleased to announce that Alastair Wright has joined the board to fill the parent representative vacancy. Ally and his family moved to Devonport last year and he brings school governance experience having chaired the finance and audit committee of a UK academy trust. His day job is as a chartered accountant in the finance team at Southern Spars. We welcome him to the board and look forward to working with him. The board is grateful to all the parents who came forward in order to support the school.

Community

Thank you to all the parents who attended and helped organise the playground opening and special assembly this term. It was wonderful to see the community celebrate the new playground in such a special way and it has been enthusiastically received by our students.

Thank you to Friends of Stanley Bay (FOSB) who delivered another successful Quiz and Auction Night last weekend. The event raised an astounding $40,000 thanks to the generosity of parents, businesses and organisations who supported the school by donating and buying auction items. Along with the Stanley Bay Stampede, this event contributes most of the funds needed to meet the fundraising target. The money raised goes directly towards teaching and learning at the school.

The school has a long history of successful fundraising and changes in the team mean that FOSB are looking for one or two new committee members to continue the work of the current team. It’s a supportive group and a fun way of making a difference to the school so please get in touch if you have some time to offer.

Teaching and Learning

Term 4 Technology Inquiry - the school continues its integrated curriculum approach and we hope that the parent information evenings and news bulletin articles about this have been useful. The term 3 Arts inquiry is closing, and the teachers are busy planning for next term’s technology focused inquiry. The school is always looking for parents with skills to support our local curriculum so if you can offer some time and technology skills in term 4 please contact your child’s class teacher.

International Students

This term we welcomed twelve short-term international students from China. The students were part of the school community for 4-6 weeks and took part in English, Kiwi culture and normal class lessons. We had excellent feedback from our visitors, and we aim for this to be a positive experience for our students who were able to find out about another culture and pick up some language skills. A review is being carried out to determine the effectiveness of the program and how we can use future short-term visits to best benefit our students.

Finance

The board has begun to work on next year’s budget and will share this next term. The school continues to be heavily reliant on parental donations to meet its running costs, in addition to fundraising income, so we thank those who have contributed so far. A reminder that the donation is tax-deductible so please contact the office for a school donation receipt.

Property

Plans for the next property project are well underway and once a contractor is secured work will begin to modernise rooms 4, 5 and 6. 

From the Chair

If you are also interested in contributing to the school through your professional networks, skills, interests, passions etc, we do need support from time to time with specific projects falling out of our strategic plan, so please reach out if you are keen to be involved.

Next term will be a busy term for the board as we review the strategic plan and begin to prepare the annual plan and associated resourcing in preparation for the 2020 school year. Please lookout for opportunities to meet with the board and for us to hear your views next term.

Enjoy the holidays. If you are heading away safe travels, and if you are juggling kids at home, I hope you will manage to get some rest time too.

Kind regards

Tracey Ryan

Chair, on behalf of Board of Trustees

Email: ​bot@stanleybay.school.nz​