Tēnā ra tātou katoa e te whānau o Mangakōtukutuku, warm greetings to all the family and friends of Mangakotukutuku College.

It is my pleasure to provide you with an end Term 2 report since my start with the school 10 weeks ago.  It has been a highly productive term as the college ends its second term of existence.

I want to start by acknowledging the recent loss of esteemed community elder Tutu Ormsby, his service to the school and community will be missed by all who knew him.  The school board, staff and students were privileged to attend his funeral in Te Kuiti recently.  E te pāpā, moe mai ra koe.

The board has been extremely active in its journey of self-improvement.  An independent Board secretary has been appointed and the Board uses BoardPro systems for managing itself effectively.  Our knowledge of roles and responsibilities has been significantly improved and it has been a pleasure to appoint a staff and a student rep to the board.  In term 3 we will look to co-opt two parent reps to the board.  We are wanting people who can operate at a strategic level, add value to the aspirations of the school, can work as a member of a team, can maintain confidentiality and have high emotional intelligence. If this is something you might like to volunteer for please keep a lookout for the call for registrations of interest.  Board profiles and minutes of meetings are available on the new school website with open access.  Additionally, all school policies and procedures are available to parents, staff and community through the school website. 

Student conduct has been a focus for term 2 and the Board and staff have had to address some significant behaviours resulting in necessary disciplinary meetings and actions.  The board continues to set high expectations of behaviour for students at the college and will continue to apply the Ministry of Education rules for student behaviour.  

There have been some improvements in external communication and the standard practice of email, web page and Facebook communication has been normalized with whānau.  This will continue.

I wish to acknowledge senior and middle leader staff who have led the school over term 2 with the principal on leave.  Special thanks goes to Samantha Farook.  She and her senior leader colleagues return to their substantive roles in term 3 and this will provide greater consistency for them and the school.  We now have 4 Deputy Principals on board and have appointed 13 new staff in term 2.  Remaining vacancies will be filled through Term 3.  I wish to thank staff who did additional hours to cover staffing gaps over Term 2.

The last two weeks has seen the years 7 and 8s complete reading and maths assessments while Year 10 and 11’s have been doing Common Assessment Activity (CAA) tests to assess where our learners are at and need to go to progress their learning.  It is a pleasure to see a focus on learning, assessment and progress.  

Term 3 will signal important changes in the structure and organization of the school.  Students will have 2 breaks and not 1 per day.  Year 7 and 8’s will have a ‘Home Room’ with a home room teacher to provide greater relationship and connection to their home teacher and then have options they select into.  Year 9 and 10’s also have a home room with two homeroom teachers and also go out for options.  Year 7-10 learners will be primarily based at the Collins Road campus in their year group clusters and year 11-13 will have the use of the Mountview Road campus.  The requirement for 3 languages for years 7-10 has been dropped and students will have more choices and may still choose to take 3 languages if they wish.  All senior classes will have study periods to finish assignments and focus on gaining NCEA credits.  I wish to thank colleagues from the Ministry of Education who have facilitated the new timetable with management and staff. 

These changes represent a significant change to focusing on settling the school and a focus on the schools core business, the quality education of New Zealand’s young people. 

Alongside these changes will be significant improvements to ensuring the health and safety of our learners. Gating will be installed between the underpass and the school boundary and gating will be installed at the main entrance to the school, investment in CCTV will be increased to cover previously blind areas areas of the school will be marked out of bounds to learners, including in front of the Collins Road Reception and entranceway. Staff will be on rostered duties before and after school to guide children into school and home. From Term 3 any visitor to the school who is not an enrolled student or an employed staff member must report and sign in to reception. No members of the public will be permitted on the school site without having first signed in. Staff members will be identified through staff badges that will be issued to staff before Term 3 starts. 

The final part of my report is to thank all of you that contributed to the recent survey that was circulated.  There were very clear reoccurring themes with comments and ideas repeated by people highlighting a clear direction to the school.  The overwhelming thought that went into the replies and genuine ideas was incredibly constructive. In working with the school senior management they have been able to use the themes that came through and plan for some improvements that go some considerable way to positively responding to the thoughts and solutions you provided.  These are shared with you below.