Term 2 Week 4

Term 2 Week 4 Newsletter

Principal’s Message….

Kia ora whānau,

What a busy couple of weeks it has been and a busy couple of weeks to come!

Meet Richard Goodyear – Our new Principal!

Hi everyone. I am thrilled to have been appointed the new principal of Pirinoa School, starting in just a couple of months. I’d like to tell you a bit about myself and then very much look forward to meeting all of you in July and August.

I have been working in educational leadership for quite some years now, mostly in hybrid roles with a blend of teaching and management/leadership. My key role along those lines was running the junior college of Wā Ora Montessori School over in Lower Hutt. So I’m quite used to the juggle of working directly with students one minute and then getting my head in the game for some serious issues like board reports and finances the next. This juggle will be a big part of my role once I get to Pirinoa. 

In the last couple of years I’ve been into a few different things including setting up an educational consultancy business. In this role I’ve got involved in the Wairarapa educational scene a little bit with some work for Wairarapa Earth School Trust and in looking into a potential new high school in Carterton. I’ve also worked as a coach for teachers, one of my favourite things to do. And last year I was Acting Principal of a little independent high school up in Auckland. Lately it’s been back into the classroom working back at Wā Ora but this time with the younger kids. 

My wife and I moved to Wairarapa just over two years ago. We had been set to have a middle-aged adventure in London for a few years but a little thing called Covid came along. So we took on the new adventure of a 10 acre block on the outskirts of the teeming metropolis of Martinborough. It’s just big enough to be difficult to manage but not big enough to make any money, so quite ideal really! 

I’d like to thank the Board and staff for making such an appealing job ad and appointment process. I can truly say I would not have applied if it hadn’t been for the video the kids and Nat made, the warm welcome from Gene and the other staff and general vibe when I visited, and the friendly and committed interview panel. The cafe across the road helped, I have to say.

Looking forward to seeing you all in person soon.

Room 1 News

Room 2 News

This week Room 2 had some fun looking at the different forces of gravity, friction and applied force. We did an experiment to see who could get their car to travel the furthest using a range of different slopes, surfaces and cars. 

Room 3 News

Room 3 have really been enjoying singing a mix of production songs, Imagine Dragon songs and our waiata for Matariki. A group of us are currently organising our Kapa Haka plan for the rest of this year, leading into next year. We are excited to get Kapa Haka underway over the next couple of weeks.

BOT NEWS

Does the Board have any control over what is taught to the kids? 

No – the New Zealand curriculum is set by the Ministry of Education & must be followed.

Schools get some freedom as to how this is taught (e.g. a teacher standing in front of a classroom versus play-based learning).

The Principal is in charge of making sure the curriculum is taught; and the Board requires that children are academically reaching annual targets.

Teachers carry out testing three times a year and report the results to the Board as ‘student data’. The data is presented in 3 year groups – Year 2-4, Year 5-6, & Year 7-8. We don’t look at individual results.

The data tells us the percentage of students who are ‘below’ & the percentage who are ‘at/above’ their year level, across the three core subjects (reading, writing & maths).

We also look at the results for Maori vs non-Maori students (as required by the MOE).

If the data is low overall for one core subject, the Board can opt to have a heavy focus on that core subject for the year.

That is as involved as the Board will get – our teachers are the professionals, we leave them to do the teaching!