Kō Rob tōku ingoa. I have recently been elected as the Presiding Member on the School Board here at West Rolleston Primary Te Kura O Te Uru Kōwhai. It is my privilege to serve our community in this role, along with our wider Board Members; Sam Forward, Shannon Spencer, Simon McDermott, Lee-Ann Irving and Megan Murray (Staff Representative).

I wish to extend a special thanks to Sam Forward, who previously held the Presiding Member position, for his mahi and contribution to our school, along with thanks to our outgoing Board Members, Steph Hautler and Tegan Dawson-McMurdo.

Welcome to our new learners, their whānau, our new teachers and support staff. Term 4 is always a busy period for our School, and this is no exception for our Board. This term we have three scheduled meetings, one of which forms our annual strategic review and planning session. As we approach this, we will be engaging with our community to ensure our learner focus continues to reflect our communities’ goals and aspirations, both from an ako education outcome, but also from the way we embrace our vision and values.

A key focus of our School board involves ensuring our kura remains culturally responsive to the needs of whānau. We believe that it’s important that our tamariki understand our world from different perspectives, have tolerance to our differences and build upon our many similarities. This includes ensuring our school governance acts with consideration to Te Ao Māori and that we provide opportunities for our learners and community to gain awareness to Māori worldview.

For me, bringing these concepts to life simply means a focus on relationships. It is through connections with our people (past and present), our place and our purpose - and the way these elements co-exist that makes West Rolleston Primary School so unique.

It has been a challenging time over the past couple of years for our community. Within our School, the impact of lockdowns and covid levels, has impacted the interactions we have between our learners, teachers and community. It was wonderful at the end of Term 3, to see all our learners together, along with members of our community, for the first time this year, as we opened our impressive bike park, Te Ara Eke Panuku. As a Board we will be focusing on ways we can help grow these interactions and community engagement again.

One such engagement was held this week, with a joint meeting held with representatives from Waka Kōtahi, Selwyn District Council, Ministry of Education and the Project Managers for the SH1 upgrade. We know that this is a key concern for our community, and I assure you our School Board and the Leadership Team is equally concerned about how this may impact our children’s safe travel to and from school. While there is a long way to go before this project is finalised, I came away from the meeting optimistic that all the parties recognised the impact of roading changes and were proactively looking towards solutions to reflect the feedback they had been provided. I want to thank everyone in our community who did provide consultation feedback, as it has made an impact. Until such safety measures are implemented, our School Board will continue to seek urgent interventions from Selwyn District Council to make our wider school environment the safest it can be.

On that note, we all have a role to play, and one intervention our School Board took last year, was to implement hi-vis vests as a compulsory addition to our School Uniform. Sylvia and our teachers in their studios regularly remind our learners of the need to wear these vest (or bag covers), and your support in encouraging this is really appreciated. Increased visibility of children on their travel routes is a significant way to help ensure their safety.

I look forward to communicating with you regularly on the activities of our School Board and welcome you to participate in our ongoing policy and procedure reviews. All the best for the Term ahead.

Ngā mihi,

Rob and the School Board