1. Chairperson’s Annual Report
Pukekohe Hill School Board of Trustees 2014
Welcome to my 2014 report for the Board and as I said in my report last year it is incredible how quickly the
past year has disappeared. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of my fellow Board members for
their hard work and dedication over the past year. Our first year was a steep learning curve with so many new
faces at the Board table and everybody has worked hard to understand and tackle the wide range of governance
issues that face Pukekohe Hill School. Without parents willing to be involved and
help out at every level our schools would struggle to function. Every bit we can
do to help makes our school a better place and allows our children to be part of a
“community of lifelong learners”.
I would also like to acknowledge the wonderful work done by Graeme Rix and
his leadership team and all of the teaching staff. As a community we are very
fortunate to have a strong, dedicated and committed teaching team at Pukekohe
Hill School, backed by sound governance. We should be proud of the school and
the opportunities it offers our children.
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the PTA. The Board and PTA
have had a close relationship and the work of a number of people within the PTA
help raise funds that are used for a number of activities and facilities around the
school. As people are probably aware, the school must operate on a tightly
controlled budget and the Board must be fiscally prudent in how the funds are managed. The work the PTA
does in helping raise funds for the nicer aspects of school life (helping with camps, school trips, playground
activities etc.) is much appreciated.
The school roll continues to grow. When I wrote my report last year the roll was steady at close to 600 pupils
and by March this year that had risen to 615, the highest it has been at the same time in any year. This is a
reflection of the popularity of the school and the general growth in Pukekohe and the surrounding areas. This
growth continues to put pressure on the existing facilities and the
Board need to balance the growth in the roll against developing
our facilities. Many will be aware of the proposed growth in the
Belmont area of Pukekohe and how this may affect the roll at Hill
School. There is no definitive time frame for the development of
this area, or the additional schooling proposed, so the Board
continues to liaise closely with the MOE and manage our facilities
as best we can with the budget available.
Champion Runners
When I wrote my report last
year I noted our
disappointment that the school suffered two separate acts of arson
resulting in significant damage to the school playground and lesser
damage to the Sizemore block. Whilst these incidents can be distressing
and it is sad to see facilities badly damages, it also presents an
opportunity for renewal and with fantastic support from a number of
groups it was heartening to see the development of the new playground.
There has been some frustration around getting our 10 year property
plan through the various processes with the MOE, however the plan is
now in place and the property committee can focus on delivering the key
maintenance and upgrade projects in that plan.
As with many schools and private residences around the country over recent years, Hill School has not been
immune to the leaky buildings syndrome and a number of our classrooms were identified with various weather
tightness issues.
Top Franklin Cricket
Team

2. Fortunately these were identified and work has been undertaken to
complete the repairs to these rooms. This has resulted in a number of
logistical problems for the staff and children in relocating to other
classrooms whilst the repairs have been undertaken. Despite these
inconveniences everybody has “mucked in” and just got on with it and
my thanks goes to everybody for the way that they have dealt with these
issues.
Aside from the day to day governance and strategic issues that the Board
has to deal with, we are fortunate to be invited into a number of classrooms
to meet with teachers and see how they are motivating our children to be
lifelong learners. I am always taken by the enthusiasm and
imagination of the teaching staff in developing new ways to capture the children’s imaginations and spark their
learning.
The Board regularly reviews the Strategic Charter and key policies do ensure that we are constantly doing our
best to deliver our key goals and monitor our continued performance against the requirements of the various
National Assessment Guidelines.
In line with the Ministry of Education’s focus on priority learners, the
school continues its efforts in addressing the needs of Maori and Pacifika
student achievement with continuing involvement in Te Huarahi and our
own Whanau Hui. The Board regularly reviews the progress of priority
learners and all students against the national learning standards and also
against historical information to try to work with the senior leadership team
to achieve continuing improvement.
As I said in my report last year, we are proud to be a part of this great
community and openly welcome your engagement and support. If I could
make one plea to everybody, it is to get involved with your school because
it is “your” school. Any little thing that you can do to help makes a
difference, like helping with the school crossing points, cooking the
sausages at the sausage sizzle, helping on school trips or at school camps, helping the PTA with fundraisers
etc. If we all did a little, imagine what we could achieve.
There will always be issues to deal with in governance, particularly with a school the size of Hill School, but
the past year has still been one of great positivity. Hill School has always been, still is, and will continue to be,
a great school that the community can be very proud of and it is a great privilege to be able to contribute in
some way to that.
As Chairperson of the Board, it has been a true pleasure to be associated with my fellow Board members;
Andrew Morgan, Amy Nicholson, Nigel de Maine, Julie Brooks, Rob Davis, and Principal Graeme Rix. My
deepest thanks to the team and I look forward to another positive and challenging year ahead.
Greg Saunders
Chairperson of the Pukekohe Hill School
Board of Trustees“The beautiful thing
about learning is that no one can take it
away from you”
B.B.King
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