From the Board

Kia ora e te whānau,

The year is well and truly back underway with the Board of Trustees having our first meeting for 2024 on Thursday 22 February. This is always a big hui as we look to adopt the budget for the year, any revisions to our strategic plan/charter and hear from Sally and Tony regarding student achievement data for the previous year. The 2023 data is really pleasing to see and we are seeing some great trends emerging across most of our learning cohorts and demographics which provides the board with assurance that some of the investment into programmes such as Structured Literacy are paying off. A shout out to our amazing Kaiako for their contribution to our learners progress at Te Ao Mārama!

This year our Tumuaki (Principal) Tony Grey has been granted a sabbatical by the Ministry of Education. This is an opportunity that all principals can apply for, recognising their commitment to education and allows them to focus on personal and professional growth and development whilst taking a deserved leave of absence from their role. This means Tony will be absent from his role for Term 2 (April 29th to 5th July). Tony will be focussing on further leadership growth during this time. During the sabbatical period Anna and Sally as deputy principals and the broader team will share leadership duties and the staff structure is set up well to manage various aspects of the responsibilities required to keep a school running seamlessly!

Finally, you may notice some construction going on in front of the staffroom. This is a wee project to upgrade the current staff outdoor lunch area and make it more usable. As our school and staff grow, any usable space is absolute gold and I’m sure you’ll agree that our teachers deserve the best! 

Great to see you all back in 2024 and I look forward to meeting more of our new parents throughout the year through our school and community engagements. I hope your tamariki have enjoyed their visits to Hukanui Marae last week, this is a very important and special relationship for our kura and we are fortunate to have Marae Chairperson Ihipera Sweet on our Board of Trustees (since 2018!)

Noho ora mai
Andrew

Presiding member (chair)
Te Ao Mārama Board