Kia ora koutou
The reports presented by Mr Congdon, our Tumuaki and our Student Representative, Misipeka Ana at our last Board meeting were a reminder of all the wonderful activities happening in the school. After 2019 and all its Covid related disruption, it is so good to see participation in a wide range of arts, cultural and sporting activities, including Shave for a Cure, inter-school and regional sporting competitions, and our recent school Production “Into the Woods”. A special thankyou to everyone who participated in, supported or helped in anyway with this production – it was a huge but successful undertaking and it was great to see our young people perform so well. Thanks also to all parents who came out to watch the various performances too.
Last meeting Mr Congdon reported on progress towards our annual goals contained in the school charter. We are focusing this year on the identification and sharing of excellent teaching practice across the school in order to produce engaging and relevant learning in the classroom. We are also reviewing our student behaviour management procedures and consolidating our culturally responsive teaching to build relationships with our students. The final annual goal revolves around communicating the essence of who we are at Horowhenua College to our stakeholders, particularly through developing relationships with employers and organisations in the community. Each time we meet, we are encouraged to learn of specific actions which have been undertaken in order to achieve these goals.
Most of our last meeting was spent discussing student achievement. Our deputy principals Ms Moerkerk and Mr White presented data on our school leaver’s achievements, with the data separated by year levels, gender and ethnicity. We also discussed research around class composition and how this facilitates student achievement, and as a board we agreed to embark on consultation around this. The board is motivated to providing equitable opportunities for all our students to succeed. We believe having high expectations of all our tauira and provided differentiated teaching in classes is an important part of this. We are keen to make informed decisions in the context of educational research and feedback from our community, so we look forward to future discussions around how our classes will operate in 2022.
Ngā mihi
Juliana Mansvelt