Tēnā koutou katoa
If you are new to the school – welcome! It’s great to have you as part of our Horowhenua College family! Term 1 is well underway, and we are almost into parent conferences where you have an opportunity to discuss with whānau teachers and your young person, their academic goals for the year. We encourage you to come along, as a board and a school we are wanting to continue to develop exciting and relevant learning pathways which lead into employment and/or further education and training. We so appreciate when our parents engage with us our students learning journeys, and parent conferences are just one of a number of ways we endeavour to build relationships, encourage responsibility and lay a foundation for success (our core NUA values).
In 2019 we again we have a full complement of school trustees on our board, I am always in awe of their skills and expertise – which extend across finances, governance, education, youth justice and social and cultural areas. Your Board of Trustees representatives are Dylan Kiriona, Nikki Simpson-Tukapua, Garry Good (Deputy Chair), Sam Anderson (Student rep), David Tate (Staff Rep), our Tumuaki (Grant Congdon) and myself (Juliana Mansvelt, Chair). As a Board we are responsible for formulating the strategic direction and overall goals of the College and creating the policies which support the academic achievement and the social, cultural and physical wellbeing of our staff and students.
At our first meeting of the year we signed off our school charter and looked at the extent to which we achieved our 2018 annual goals. Attendance of students will continue to be a significant goal in 2019, and we are also looking to upskill our levels of teaching pedagogy, consolidate academic mentoring practices, to facilitate effective transitions into, through and out of Horowhenua College, and finally to use a range of measures to enhance student and staff wellbeing. Later in the year we plan to engage in consultation with our parent community to develop our goals for the next iteration of our strategic plan.
The start of an academic year also provides an opportunity to thank you our parent community, our students and our staff for all their hard work and commitment in achieving academic success in 2018. As a board our aim is to continue to find ways to lift academic achievement and to provide opportunities to grow successful young men and women through our other pillars – arts and culture, sports and service.
Thanks again for your trust in us as a Board of Trustees, it is a privilege to serve you in this capacity!
Ngā mihi
Juliana Mansvelt
Board of Trustees Chairperson