Board of Trustees

The Hamilton West School Board of Trustees has a strong record of governance since boards were established in 1989.

The Board of Trustees work collaboratively with the educational professionals in the interests of the children at the school.

The Board of Trustees as governors are focussed on supporting the Principal in providing the students at Hamilton West school with the best possible education with the resources available. In board deliberations the question is always asked ”is this good for our kids?”. If the answer is “Yes” based on research then the board will focus on making things happen in the interests of the students and their families.


The board is very aware that their success as governors is greatly influenced by the relationships that exist within the board - including with the Principal, between the board and the staff and with the community. These relationships are strong, they are not taken for granted but worked on to ensure they are best able to guide our work.


The board is committed to to supporting the development of our local school curriculum which incorporates  a wide range of learning opportunities for students across all subjects, the key competences and school values. This is what parents have told us is important to them on many occasions - an expansive curriculum acknowledging a wide range of skills, talents and attributes. The board is also committed to developing our cultural dimension representing the multi-culture nature of our school today.


The Board is very efficient in carrying out its administrative role so it can focus on what's important - finding ways to further develop the opportunities and support we provide for the children. An example of how this happens is when parents and students attend goal setting meeting at the beginning of the year, the teachers and teams feed this information back to the Principal who provides it the board who discuss how some of these ideas can happen.


Each year the Board of Trustees has a number of obligations to the Crown to meet. This involves submitting an annual Charter and Annual Plan, submitted audited financial accounts and providing data on the roll and student achievement.


Self-review is an important part of the Board of trustees operation and a number of self-reviews are undertaken annually. These reviews inform the work of the board and how it allocates resources. Reviews are completed in the areas of student achievement, policy, finance and how Charter goals have been achieved.

The board, teachers and community have a very positive record of external reviews carried out by the Education Review Office. The latest being in 2016.

The board is committed to incorporating student voice in its decision making, as a result students are invited to attend board meetings to present their ideas about their school and their learning. In 2019 the Board will invite the student council to attend a meeting to hear their ideas about how we can make Hamilton West School even better.


Cameron Old

Chairperson - Board of Trustees.

Our Board members in 2019 are:

Cameron Old - Chairperson
Mark Penman - Principal
Ritesh Chandra - Parent Rep
​Nathan Cox - Parent Rep
Ethan Kaaka - Parent Rep
Vijendrah Reddy - Parent Rep
Alex Till - Parent Rep
Tammy Williams  - Staff Representative
Vic Stone Pearn - Secretary

Policies

Attendance
Swimming Pool
Student Management
​Complaints
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Recent BoT News

At the Board of Trustees meeting last week a number of things were discussed.  We decided we would like to share these with the community.

1. Sun Safety Policy - the board reviewed the shade protection policy and the policy was ratified. The policy requires the school sun hat to be worn in Terms 1 and 4 (after Labour Weekend), as per Cancer Society Sunsmart hours are: 10.00am – 4.00pm.

2. Term Dates 2020 - the board set the term dates for 2020
Term 1
Tuesday 28 January
Thursday 9 April

Term 2
Tuesday 28 April
Friday 3 July

Term 3
Monday 20 July
Friday 25 September

Term 4
Monday 12 October
Friday 11 December

3. IT Strategy - the board received a draft plan of an IT strategy for the school. It is work in progress and includes aspects such as Digital Citizenship, Safe use of IT, Collaboration Tools, Efficiency and Productivity Tools, IT Governance, Education Leadership, and Change Management. The Strategy was presented by Alex Takacs, IT consultant and parent of the school.

4. Student Achievement - Deputy Principal Susan Lindsey presented a student achievement report in relation to writings levels at the school, and ESOL Teacher Margot Atkinson presented a report to the board on ESOL 2019.

5. Roles - the board decided that members of the board should adopt roles to support the principal in his work on behalf of the board. Roles included finance, student achievement, human resources, cultural responsiveness.

6. Financial Systems - a self-audit of a number of invoices confirmed them to be accurate