School Staffing Update – Term 3 – Wk8

Kia ora koutou,

I have been principal here for 12 years and this year has been the most difficult in regards to staffing our school. Relievers are very hard to come by, particularly on short notice to cover staff sickness. Even booking ahead for planned teacher release has been a challenge. This situation has certainly made decisions and therefore taking action considerable more time. Now that I have confirmed employment finalised I am able to communicate with parents.

Staffing Update

ROOM 3

R00m 3’s teacher Mrs de Boer is starting her sabbatical study leave on 28^th September, therefore her last day with her room 3 class will be Tuesday 27^th on the last week of this term. Mrs Keona Campbell (Whaea Keona) will start on Wednesday the 28^th and teach the class until the end of the year. Mrs Kiri Kainamu-Wheeler (Whaea Kiri) will be covering one day per week release for Whaea Keona, as she is a Beginning Teacher. This means that quite often room 3 will have two teachers in the room. Beginning Teacher release is used to support new teachers with planning and assessment. Both Whaea Keona and Whaea Kiri have taught room 3 for the children to get to know them.

ROOM 2

Ms Maggie McClune is retiring after a number of years in education, 22 years of teaching at Otaika Valley School. We are going to do something special for her in the last week of this term. Mrs Christine Crooks (Chrissy) will teach room 2 Tuesday to Friday and Mrs Rhonda Compaan will continue to teach one day per week for the rest of this year. This will allow us to continue Mrs Compaan’s relationship with the class and to support Chrissy with knowledge of the children. Chrissy will be teaching alongside Maggie for the last 2 weeks of this term to help with a smooth transition of classroom programme and planning.

Extra teacher for room 2.

Today and all of this week Miss Christina Davis is working alongside Maggie to also learn the classroom routines/programmes and meet the children. Miss Davis will be employed for 0.8 (4 days per week) for all of term 4, as an extra teacher to support literacy and maths in particular. Groups of children will be withdrawn daily from room 2 into room 1 for these group lessons. If end of year staffing allows, this may increase to 5 days depending on the staffing budget.

2023 school enrolments

Our student numbers have dropped down slightly (post covid), which means we have room for extra students. Otaika Valley School has the capacity for 7 classes and we are operating at 6.2ish at this time. An extra 15 students would make our school hum. With a few extra students this provides the school with more finances for our budgets as well as importantly staff funding. A little bit of extra staffing allows our senior leadership team more classroom release, which means more time supporting planning, innovating and implementing curriculum related initiatives. This all translates into better outcomes for children.

To help plan for 2023 please email Terry at principal@otaika.school.nz to confirm any 5 year old sibling starting next year. If you know of anyone interested in attending our school please pass on my details. This will help us with staffing decisions and classes for next year.

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