Committed board members work for our school

NZ School Trustees Association conference held

The first term is at an end and I write this article at the start of the school holidays, some 11 weeks after our students all walked back into school on Monday, February 1. It always amazes me how quickly time goes and, when the time comes to reflect, how much we always manage to pack into a busy term!

We ended our term as we often do, with a celebration assembly. In actual fact, we are now having to run separate assemblies as we can no longer accommodate the whole school in one sitting. Like a number of schools and businesses in Levin, we are experiencing roll growth and our current roll is fast approaching 700. If you are reading this and have recently arrived in Levin or the wider Horowhenua, a very warm welcome to you. This is a fabulous part of Aotearoa that we are all lucky enough to call home.

We often talk of student success in these Heads Up articles, but this time around I want to focus on the amazing work of our board of trustees. They are all current parents or have had children at Waiopehu in the last few years, and they are deeply committed to ensuring all

students at this school receive the very best education possible. They are also committed to their own professional learning and growth, and it was a pleasure to spend last weekend at the New Zealand School Trustees Association conference with Jacqui Kerins, Gareth Marshall, Heke Niu, Lavalea Fonoti (student rep) and a member of the Taitoko School Board, Jody Taplin, who is also a parent at Waiopehu. We were amongst 1000 other delegates from Kaitaia to Bluff and even as far afield as Pitt Island, all of whom were inspired by amazing speakers and school leaders. We are

lucky at Waiopehu College to have a bunch of such talented and committed board members and I would like to publicly thank them all for their hours of service and dedication.

Finally, we are at last making progress on a major building project, which will see the renovation of our school canteen into a modern new cafe´ space, complete with a new commercial kitchen. This will enable our already successful free and healthy school lunches programme to move to another level when the work is complete.

With every best wish to you all.

Waiopehu board, from left, Jacqui Kerins (deputy chair), Heke Niu, Lavalea Fonoti (student rep), Jody Taplin (board member at Taitoko School), Mark Robinson (principal) and Gareth Marshall (chair).

The student board reps who attended from schools around New Zealand. Lavalea Fonoti, our student rep, is the third student from the right. The conference host is Pio Terei.

A general shot of the conference delegates at the Energy Events Centre in Rotorua.