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PRINREPFebruaryWebsite2015/BOT 1

PRINCIPALS’ REPORT TO THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

25 February 2015

NAG 6: ADMINISTRATION

Roll Statistics Report:

2014/2015 2013/14 2012/13 2011/12

End of year rolls 672 644 615 593

Less Year 6 Leavers: 88 98 98 82

Less Year 0 – 5 Leavers: 36 26 23 29

Plus New Enrolments: 52 68 63 64

Roll as at 17/2/15: 600 591 551 549

Note: The number of new enrolments is less than at the same time in 2012 -2014

Our starting roll is higher by 9 students than at this time in 2014, and 40 students

higher than 2013.

Where Have They Come From?

As at 17 February, 52 new children have been enrolled.

2015 2014 2013 2012 2011

New entrant 5 year olds: 25 31 27 29 22

Children from Franklin schools: 10 14 15 17 14

Children from other NZ schools: 14 21 20 15 8

Children from overseas: 3 3 1 3 0

Total Enrolments: 52 68 63 64 44

NAG 1: CLASSROOM AND SCHOOL CURRICULUM REPORT

Prizegivings 2014: Thanks to Trustees who were able to attend one or more of the

3 School Prizegiving celebrations at the end of 2014.

At the Intermediate Prizegiving, it was gratifying to note so many ex Hill students

receive awards in general academic and curriculum areas, class academic awards,

school service awards, sports awards, and class effort and attitude prizes.

It’s also worth noting the number of ex Hill students who were acknowledged at the

High School Prizegivings in 2014 in both academic, sporting, cultural and service

areas. This year, ex Hill student Daniel Wilson – son of our support staff member

Mele Wilson – is Head Boy at High School, and a number are also senior prefects.


Virtues in 2015: The virtues programme will continue throughout the year with 8

virtues linked to each term’s Concept. The initial virtue is “Unity”, and an outline

sheet is included in the appendices. This virtue is a good fit for our Community

inquiry concept to start the year. Teachers also have an activity sheet as a resource.

The aim is to promote each virtue through informal teaching situations,

consolidation and promotion at assemblies, in Pipps reports, and newsletters.

Pipps Reports: Each week, classes receive a Pupils in Positive Playgrounds

report, usually in both paper and e.mail format. Having data projectors/large screens

in all classrooms means that teachers can easily display these reports. The first two

weeks of school have seen an excellent start with only 3 junior students having

been entered into the Consequences book by a duty teacher and therefore 23 of our

24 classes having a “100% Consequence Free Week” record for the first 2 weeks

of school

Education Outside the Classroom - EOTC: Chosen Valley Camp: This camp is a major focus for Rooms 14-16, 18, 19, 26

and 29, with 2 three day camps held at Port Waikato from 9-13 February. A

detailed programme has been arranged, and a Risk Analysis Management system

form was signed off by the Board Chair last year. Overall student attendance levels

were high with only about 8 students not attending for financial, religious or other

family reasons. The Year 5/6 camp is an excellent opportunity to give children a

range of EOTC experiences. Over 40 wonderful parent helpers were involved.

Special thanks to camp organiser Malcolm Laurence and the commitment of staff

and parents which contributes to this very successful EOTC experience.

Auckland Zoo Visit: As part of their Community concept inquiry, our Junior

classes are travelling to Auckland Zoo on 24 February.

Clarks Beach Visit: Our Middle Syndicate classes are travelling to Clarks Beach

as part of their Community inquiry on 25-26 February.

School Chaplain: Chaplain Tarni Witter joined us towards the end of 2013 and

works under the supervision of the Churches Education Commission. Children who

meet with the chaplain mainly refer themselves by putting a note in a box in the

office or are suggested by staff and caregivers. The role of the chaplain is to be a

listening adult who helps children to work through their concerns and in some

situations other members of staff or groups may become involved.

Project Energise: After the Board signed a memorandum of Understanding with

Counties Manukau Sport in late 2012 we are now in our third year of this physical

activity and healthy eating programme, and most classes are involved. Trustees will

notice occasional newsletter spots on healthy eating provided by Project Energise.

Franklin Cultural Festival: This festival, being held at Intermediate on Sunday 29

March began as a fundraiser for Puni School several years ago, and now features in

the Te Huarahi plan and has financial support from Te Huarahi Trust. Students from


Hill will take part in both the sports section and in kapa haka. This will be quite a

challenge for our kapa haka students as senior leaders have moved to Intermediate.

Kapa haka: Kapa haka is led by the Enrichment class support staff member Sylvia

Patu, Rm 14 teacher Jade Chamberlain and the Principal. The kapa haka group

reached a high standard in 2014, and with the Year 6 leader having left is now

rebuilding with an early aim being to represent the school at the Cultural Festival

later this term. It’s intended to continue with a “performance” group and a younger

training group, totalling about 100 students with initial “trials” being held last week.

Swimming: Class swimming lessons began in the first week of school.

This year, Health and PE leaders Rick de Kock and Rachael Shaw have also

arranged a series of up to 10 lessons per student being provided at the Rec Centre

by their staff. There is now no funding from Water Safety NZ and so we have

committed the Kiwisport funding identified in the Operations Grant for these

programmes, which means funding is not available for other sports initiatives.

Classroom Highlights: This month’s reports come from Carolyn Fraser, Leah

McNaughten and Rick de Kock.

“At Pukekohe Hill we are a community of lifelong learners committed

to achieving our best and making a difference”.


Room 8 Classroom Highlights

Room 8 is a very busy and very vibrant class. Room 8 has 25 clever little Monkeys

who love learning and always strive to do their best in everything they do.

The Room 8 learning theme this year is Monkeys. The children have already swung

into their learning in Room 8 and are showing that they are bananas about learning.

Each clever little Monkey in Room 8 is starting to climb their learning tree to

success. In Room 8 we have talked about what great learners do and all the children

were able to come up with something e.g. Great learners participate in their

learning.


The children in Room 8 are a great bunch of children who like to do the right thing

and follow not only the class rules but the school rules as well.

Our concept this term is Community. We have already talked about what we think a

Community is? Room 8 has enjoyed learning about Animals and really liked

playing the “Who am I guessing game”. Room 8 is looking forward to visiting the

Zoo next week where they will be able observe all the Animals and will be able to

classify Animals into different groups.


Room 8’s learning intention for Writing, is to write a description. The children have

all written a description about Lions and most of them were able to follow the

success criteria to write a description and self-assess their own writing.

It has been a busy start to the term but already Room 8 has done some fantastic

learning.

We look forward to a successful learning year and achieving our best.


What a great start we have had to Room 17 in 2015. We are 29 enthusiastic and

excited year 3s who have made the big step up to Middle school. It has been quite a

challenge working out our new areas that we can play in, eat in and work in.

Our motto this year will be

to shoot for success and

reach high for our goals.

Hence the children had fun

searching through lots of

sports photos looking for

goal posts in Hockey,

Netball, Basketball,

Rugby, Soccer and more.

We have spent the first

two weeks sharing our

stories about our families

and ourselves and what we

wish to achieve in 2015.


Learning to belong in our new learning

community and share our knowledge has

been the main focus of our concept study.

We are now moving into our study of the

Sea shore and we are all looking forward to

our trip to Clarks beach in week 4. We are

going with the other year 3 classes so this is

a nice way to spend some time with our

friends from other rooms. In week 2 we

started our first middle syndicate sports

rotation which was enjoyed by all as we get

to meet other teachers and be in a mixed

house group. We also began our reflection

time and looked at ways in which we can

help ourselves learn.

The virtue at the moment is Unity. There have been many discussions on how this

will work in our classroom this year. Here is a photo of some of the children joined

in unity.

Room 17 is looking forward to

a positive and productive year

in all aspects of school and are

ready to take on the risks and

challenges awaiting us.

Mrs McNaughten and

Mrs McDowell.



The year started with a class full of nervous and excited learners. They quickly

settled into the Room 18 classroom routines and expectations. The pupils have

shown a great willingness to learn and have a great existing knowledge to the

Assessment for Learning approach.

The learners seem to get along with each other really well.

Pupils shared their holiday

experiences and showed eagerness to

participate in the swimming

programme and looked forward to

going on Chosen Valley camp in week

two.

Camp The pupils arrived at school with tired eyes but eager anticipation for the next 3

days of camp. Some had clearly

not slept the night before due to

nervous anticipation. This was

all put behind them when the

buses pulled into camp.

Our students had an amazing

time and learnt lots of valuable

life lessons. The need to

persevere, share space, follow

instructions, give things a go

(take risks) and encourage

others were but some of the

virtues and skills on display.


Both teachers and parents were very

happy with the level of commitment the

pupils showed on the camp. The Chosen

Valley camp manager said that it was the

best organised and pleasant camp she had

ever had to oversee. She particularly

mentioned how dedicated the parents were

in doing their jobs and the encouragement

they gave ALL the pupils.

We got back to work the day after camp, and the

pupils wrote thank you letters to the parent

helpers. It was really interesting the personal

thank you messages they were able to give, to

incidences that parents had helped them on camp,

e.g. “thank you for pushing me beyond my

goals”, “ for sharing our fun camp with us”, “for

boosting many pupils confidence”, etc.

This shows the appreciation felt by all

the pupils and the enjoyment and

learning they had.

We now look forward to a very

challenging year, as we work together

as a class to help each other achieve

both personal and class goals.

Room eighteen has lots of potential

and now the work begins to

collaboratively tap into the pupil’s

strengths and potential and then start

to celebrate all the successes that will ultimately follow.

We are up for the challenge and looking forward to a GREAT year.


NAG 2: DOCUMENTATION AND SELF REVIEW

Self Review from 2014: All the Self Review reports have now been collated into

spiral bound Self Review 2014 booklets which can be viewed at the office and

staffroom.

Charter and Strategic Plan 2015 – 2017: A draft Charter/Strategic Plan and

related Action Plans were prepared by the Leadership Team, and Trustees for 2015

– 2017 and tabled at the December Board meeting. An additional section on student

achievement and analysis of variance has now been included and a spiral bound

copy is included with these reports.

At tonight’s meeting, Assistant Principals Wendy Bates and Malcolm Laurence will

meet with us regarding the overall encouraging achievement data and variance

section and outline the suggested targets for 2015.

Policy Review:

This year, our scheduled policy review covers all Nag 1 and 2 policy statements.

This month, a Nag 5 policy: Health and Safety: Pupil is brought forward for review

outside the schedule. It follows a review by the Leadership Team and Health

Promoting School leader Shirley Smart of our “sunsmart” approach.

Please let

me survive

this

challenge!


PTA in 2015: The first PTA meeting was held on Monday 9 February. Trustee

support is always welcome as we continue what has been an excellent relationship

between the PTA – Staff –Board – Community. The AGM will be held on 2 March.

An active PTA is an important complement to the Board and staff and assists

resource development, student support and curriculum opportunities throughout the

school.

Information Evenings: This year it was decided that all Syndicates would offer

information evenings for families and a meet the teacher opportunity. A copy of a

flyer for families is included in the appendices. It’s hoped that the changed format

across the school and the “catch ups” that will follow for families that did not attend

will promote a higher initial turnout and wider engagement with families and

whanau.

School Community Family Picnic: After the success of recent Community

Family Picnics, this event is being planned again for Tuesday 3 March, with the

aim of providing an informal time for the school community to meet, enjoy a picnic

type evening meal, and enjoy being part of a community. There will be a variety of

activities, student stalls, outside food providers and our PTA sausage sizzle and

drinks.

Te Huarahi Trust and Te Huarahi: The Te Huarahi Trust has already met several

times this term and has developed an Annual Work Plan, appointed a new secretary,

and initiated several events such as the successful meeting led by Marcus Akuhata

Brown with over 500 local teachers and whanau and a Treaty of Waitangi

workshop attended by about 50 staff and community members including over 20

Hill School staff.

A key initiative for Te Huarahi over this year is to develop a new Strategic

Pathway.

Community Partnership

prinrep feb website2015

Documents

year olds

new children

school service awards

high school prizegivings

end of year rolls

students higher

number of ex hill students

junior students