Te Kura o Huriawa Thorrington Board of Trustees is establishing a co-opted Māori whānau trustee position to provide school whānau representation and will ensure our Board has an appropriate mix of trustees to reflect the needs and priorities of our school community. This position will be a full BOT member on a three-year term.

Background/Rationale

- Te Kura o Huriawa Thorrington has a strong commitment to providing a culturally responsive learning environment and curriculum, and to meeting its obligations under the Treaty of Waitangi. In our Strategic Plan (2019-2021) there are three core strategic areas of focus and one of these captures this commitment: “Goals, priorities and actions for Māori language in education are integrated across the other focus areas to ensure it has a clear presence in all aspects of a Māori student’s education”.

- Active participation by Māori parents in school governance, planning and development helps to ensure that what we do is appropriate and effective for Māori students, and the staff and board at Te Kura o Huriawa Thorrington continue to seek ways to further develop the working partnership with Maori whānau. Whānau hui is one of the mechanisms for this; providing reporting to parents on Māori student achievement, communicating and receiving feedback about Māori students achieving as Māori, and creating a space for te reo, tikanga and sharing kai.

- Māori representation on boards of trustees is another key mechanism for participation. Over the last nine years our Board of Trustees has had parent trustees who identify as Māori and this has brought a valued perspective and emphasis on ensuring that our education delivery is appropriate and effective for Māori students. However, both of these trustees will not be on the board going forward (with Jono Cleine finishing on the board in 2019 and Karen Vick not re-standing in this November’s BOT election).

- With the upcoming Board of Trustees election in November, the Board have identified the importance of ensuring that our membership has at least one trustee who is Māori.

- Co-opting a Māori representative is a relatively common approach used in New Zealand schools to ensure that their Board has an appropriate mix of trustees that reflect the needs and priorities of the school and its community.

Process for Establishing the BOT Māori Whānau Representative

1. An email to all Māori whānau at Te Kura o Huriawa Thorrington will invite anyone who is interested in taking up this position on the BOT to provide an expression of interest (a paragraph blurb about yourself) to the Chairperson (Melanie Atkinson boardchair@thorrington.ac.nz ) by 29th October 2020.

2. All ‘expressions of interest’ received will be presented at Whānau Hui in Term 4.

3. At this hui a decision will be made about who will be co-opted as the Whanau Representative to the Board of Trustees.