School board challenge a huge responsibility
School Trustees Association people are truly stars and I count myself fortunate to be able to make my small contribution as one of them.
This country girl flew down to the big smoke to be with 1000 STA members enrolled at the Dunedin conference.
Unfortunately winter weather disrupted many travel arrangements including my flights from Nelson with storms and fog.
Some speakers I missed, but I attended many useful sessions about meetings with focus, wisdom and decisions; health and safety at schools; effective governance, and most importantly student achievement which is the primary function of any school board.
Now the challenge is how to bring all this valuable information back for the benefit of our board, school and students. The value is also from talking with other trustees who share the common commitment of genuinely caring about our students.
The Education Act states that a board’s objective in governing the school is to ensure that every student at the school is able to attain ‘‘his or her highest possible standard’’ in educational achievement.
That’s a huge responsibility and every school is different.
Some have challenges of rapid roll increases, earthquake recovery, and shortage of relievers while others confront concerns of disputes, property development, diverse language and culture.
We, at Collingwood, deal with more rural issues like access to
The value is also from talking with other trustees who share the common commitment of genuinely caring about our students.
specialist support, distance to events, and school buses. Our health/safety worry is that students not eligible for school bus travel are at risk when biking or walking along our dangerous open roads.
All school BoTs face financial constraints, changing expectations, discipline issues and how to really ensure that every single student is nurtured to reach his/her potential.
Student ‘‘success’’ is not just about credits, top-of-class and kudos but also about character, consideration and kindness culture.
Instead of sending out selfcentred insensitives at the end of schooling we want to create respectful contributors.
Bullying in NZ schools was the final speaker’s topic with shocking stories and alarming statistics. New Zealand’s record is the worst of any OECD country with reports of 20 per cent of students being bullied – a thoughtprovoking presentation leaving many conference attendees pondering what can be done on their return home.
The awful reality is that it’s not just New Zealand schools with these problems, and not just students needing to learn how to treat others as they would like to be treated.
TV advertisements use putdowns, interviewers employ less than respectful tactics to get a ‘‘story’’, ill-informed lobby groups name-call and label, politicians throw insults.
Changing ‘‘culture’’ is not just schools and boards of trustees. Calling someone ugly doesn’t make you prettier, calling someone dirty doesn’t make you clean. To really be ‘‘stars’’ we must, as Ghandi advised: ‘‘ Become the change we want to see’’.
Joyce Wyllie is a sheep farmer at Kaihoka in Golden Bay.