Leadership/Liaison >
Board of Trustees

Students have a direct input into the running of
the school through their representative on the Board of Trustees.
This election was held early in Term 4, 2008. The successful
candidate holds office for one year and must be elected from Years
10-13. The student representative this year is Jessica Arnold who
replaces Steven Christodoulou
The Board of Trustees Report for
2008/9
2008 has been a year of
positive progress for Hawera High School.
Programmes of work on Maori
achievement, numeracy and literacy implemented in 2007 have shown
strong positive trends, which can be attributed to the programmes of
work established by the school’s senior management team and
implemented by an increasingly motivated group of teachers.
From changes to the Year 9 term one induction model, literacy
support with an emphasis on Maori achievement, to a successful 80
plus club, these and many other initiatives have seen the school
progress. This progress is the building block we need to promote our
vision of “School of Choice”.
In October we were the
subject of a three-yearly audit review by ERO. This was our first
review since Paul Ryan became Principal. The Board requested that a
priority for the review be “improving student achievement”.
The ERO report noted areas of good performance in teaching
strategies, initiatives (e.g. Year 9 transition and targeted
teaching) along with improvement in assessment and evaluation
practices. This was supported by positive comment on student
engagement and the learning environment.
The school’s financial
position will never be one of great strength, due to funding
shortfalls, but prudent expenditure has ensured our 2008 accounts
are within budget limits.
The school’s physical environment continues to improve with steady
progress against our five year property plan.
A brief summary of key
points to note from each committee convenor follows.
Curriculum
Hawera High School continues to offer a wide range of subjects at
all levels to students. It is very pleasing for a rural school like
ours to maintain such a broad range. This is able to continue to
happen through the positive input of our Heads of Department and
teaching staff.
The academic results of the school are showing an upward trend over
the last four years (see table below). This is due to a number of
initiatives being implemented by staff, most recently being the ‘80+
Club’ at Year 11 (Level 1).
This programme identifies and targets a group of students who are
likely to finish the year within the range of 60-79 credits (80
credits needed to pass NCEA Level 1) and aims to assist them to
reach at least 80.
NCEA % RESULTS – HHS/NATIONAL
CO-ED COMPARISONS 2005-08
|
|
2005 |
2006 |
2007 |
2008 |
|
|
HHS |
National |
HHS |
National |
HHS |
National |
HHS |
National |
|
Level 1
(Year 11) |
41.8 |
61.5 |
50.6 |
65.3 |
71.5 |
68.8 |
60.5 |
67.3 |
|
Level 2
(Year 12) |
62.1 |
68.5 |
59.8 |
70.7 |
83.3 |
72.5 |
78.3 |
71.7 |
|
Level 3
(Year 13) |
65.6 |
65.3 |
68.0 |
67.4 |
68.6 |
69.2 |
80.8 |
67.1 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Level 1
Literacy |
49.4 |
68.4 |
58.3 |
72.4 |
76.4 |
73.7 |
69.0 |
74.1 |
|
Level 1 Numeracy |
65.6 |
75.8 |
81.7 |
80.6 |
90.4 |
82.4 |
91.8 |
82.9 |
An ongoing challenge for
the school is to maintain a full complement of trained/qualified
staff. There was some turnover during 2008, but not on the scale of
the previous year.
Finance
2008 saw the challenge of ensuring a small surplus occurred in the
school’s end of year result. After two years of small deficits we
had received correspondence from the Ministry requesting greater
scrutiny on our expenditure. It is pleasing to report that following
a deficit of ($24,495.00) in 2007, in 2008 we have a surplus of
$101,741.00. The surplus was assisted not only by a slight increase
in funding and agency but good control on expenditure.
Key areas of expenditure to hold against budget were:
07 08
Personnel ($95717)
($2237)
Property & Maintenance ($37713) ($5178)
This result has put the
school’s balance sheet on a more secure footing.
Thanks must go to the Senior Management staff and Executive Officer
for ensuring control of expenditure.
Also in our second year of accounts from Education Services we are
able to better analyse our income and expenditure at a cost centre
level.
In the second full year of our 7 year property plan, we were able to
complete a number of the projects listed therein. In addition to
completion of the projects in progress at the end of the previous
school year, the following projects (listed with their plan value)
were either complete or well on their way at the end of the 2008
year.
|
Laurenson Block Stairwell
Upgrade |
$ |
40,000 |
|
Food &
Nutrition Upgrade |
$ |
172,500 |
|
Gray
Block Boys Toilet |
$ |
30,000 |
|
Endeavour Centre Upgrade |
$ |
190,000 |
|
Endeavour Deck Safety Matting |
$ |
9,500 |
|
Main
Switchboard / Cabling Upgrade |
$ |
23,500 |
|
Gray
Block Girls and Female Staff Toilets Upgrade |
$ |
40,750 |
|
Transitions Upgrade |
$ |
193,000 |
|
Power
Supply / Mains upgrade |
$ |
82,500 |
In order to achieve our heating and IT project goals we discovered
we needed to upgrade our power supply from a 300 to a 500 KVA
transformer. This done, we had to upgrade our mains power feed and
some block switchboards. Without this, we would not have been able
to make use of our equipment without overloading our system.
The power upgrades meant we had to place a hold on some of our other
planned projects, but placed us in a sounder position from which to
move forward and enabled us to future-proof our power requirements
as best we can.
People / Staffing
Hawera High school continues to have an excellent range of staff
(teaching and non-teaching) that work positively to ensure the
smooth running of the school and the best possible education for the
students.
We had eleven new teaching staff arrive at the start of 2008. This
group of new and experienced teachers have made a fantastic
contribution to the life of the school – Mr Archer (Maths), Mr Chand
(Maths), Mr Cressingham (English), Mr Smeaton (English), Miss Elston
(Science), Ms Meyer (Science), Miss MacGilloway (Science), Mr Owen
(Computing), Miss Williams (Japanese), Mrs King (Maori), Mr King
(English, Social Studies, Farming).
At the end of the year we had a small number of staff leaving – Mrs
Williams (French), Mrs Frengley-Vaipuna (Drama/English).
At the end of term 3 a long-standing teacher/Guidance Counsellor Mrs
Luscombe left after many years of valued service to the students of
the school.
This year we have established another joint-HoD role in the school
within the Mathematics department (the other is in the Technology
Dept).
We had some movement within the ranks of our non-teaching staff
also. Mark Winter replaced Steve Coombe as caretaker, Renee Anderson
and Denise Mouat replaced Cushla Fevre and Fiona Dilworth in the
Gateways department. Michelle Taylor left her positions of careers
assistant and office assistant.
The staff of Hawera High School continue to perform to a high
standard to ensure the school operates at the best level possible.
Mike Corbett
Chairperson
Hawera High School Board of Trustees
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