2017 Funding and Staffing Structure

Looking ahead to 2017

2017 School Funding Changes - How does it all work?

With the information (based on July 1 student numbers and predictions) being received from the Ministry of Education arrives the time to begin the planning process for the next year. Every child in zone comes with three elements of funding. They are: dollars; staffing; & classroom space. Out of zone children come with two of three elements - dollars & staffing. Hence maintaining our student roll for the actual footprint (classroom space) we have is a balancing act. By not taking in large numbers of out of zone families we maintain acceptable class sizes that fit into the space we have. The flip side of this is that you can't always have your cake and eat it too. By maintaining our school roll around 500 students the predicted number of students we will have for the next year ends up lowering operational and staffing funding. At the same time the government is again not even adjusting public school operational funding for inflation.

What does this mean for 2017?

We therefore have to plan for a new year, with the fixed elements of running a school (eg heat, light, water, cleaning, support services etc) slowly increasing in cost, with the same amount of money. We also have to staff our school in 2017 on a predicted roll that has reduced our staffing by just over one and half teachers. That's one full-time teacher and some part time hours (which are used to support the full-time teachers through learning support, release time etc). Some of this change can be absorbed through natural attrition (ie individuals own choice) and some change means an employment process has to be completed. For our school, this has resulted in the following. Kim Colebrook (R19) has decided to follow a different job direction in 2017 and won't be returning. Following Kim's decision the school had three positions that we could maintain for the beginning of the 2017 school year with five current fixed term teachers who were interested in applying. Following the process completed with the five internal applicants (Jodie Appleton, Ian McCabe - NE team; Mel Lee - R14; Jen Maloney, Jo Dundas - R17&18) three successful applicants were confirmed (Jodie, Ian, Jen). Mel and Jo, unfortunately, were unable to be retained within the 2017 staffing restraints. This was a difficult decision to make as all applicants bring different strengths to our team and all are valued and invested in by us as a wider team and school. 

Staffing changes for 2017 also include the return of Chanelle Wootten from extended parental leave to a classroom teaching job and Kristin Mason who returns from a years leave to the position of Deputy Principal alongside Judy Nepia, while Sarah Sherriff returns to a team leader's position.

What does this mean for the strategic direction of our school?

With staff returning from leave and teaching positions confirmed the leadership team then spent considerable time looking at the teaching and learning environment our school is developing and the strengths and development needs of our staff.

This development is are centred around our four key initiatives that drive the professional learning and development of our school:

• Initiative 1 - developing collaborative teaching practice to enhance teaching and learning
• Initiative 2 - developing a connected and enriching curriculum so learning happens in context not in subject silos
• Initiative 3 - developing authentic use of digital tools within the learning process - the right tool for the right job!
• Initiative 4 - Teacher Practice / Professional Practice - further develop the culture and ability to critique our practice within and across our teaching teams
  
  

 These key initiatives all give context, and bring to life, the overall strategic aims of the school which are:
​

• Aim 1 - Developing an enriching curriculum - using Science, Technology, Social Sciences, Health & PE, The Arts;
• Aim 2 - Give context to foundation curriculum - English and Maths brought to life with enriching context;
• Aim 3 - Enhancing our Environmental and Cultural connections across our school and community
• Aim 4 - Develop our Learning Environments to match our practice

So what is the teaching structure for 2017?

With all that whole school development in mind the leadership team (senior leadership and team leaders) looked across our team and planned out what structure could take our school to the next level and share and grow the innovation that is apparent across our teaching teams. We wanted a structure that was professionally rewarding to our teaching staff, while at the same time being personally challenging. 

The team leaders themselves proposed their own challenge of where to teach and lead. With this 'leading by example' we confirmed the following structure for 2017. This was presented to staff at the end of last term.

New Entrant Teaching Team
Team Leader: Beth Wills teaching with: Jane Lowe, Fiona Griffin

Junior School Teaching Team (Year 1&2)
Team Leader: Jeff Diack
Teaching Teams and partnerships for this level are:
Jeff Diack & Susan Palmer (2); Deb Garrett, Jodie Appleton & Kylie Parkes (3)

Middle School Teaching Team Year 3&4
Team Leader: Amanda Wilson
Teaching Teams and partnerships for this level are: 
Amanda Wilson & Lisa Birchenough (2); Kim Stevens & Jeni Shekell (2); Hilary Sutton & Ian McCabe (2)

Senior School Teaching Team Year 5&6
Team Leader: Sarah Sherriff
Teaching Teams and partnerships for this level are: 
Sarah Sherriff & Holly Morrell (2); Jen Maloney & Kylie Barbour (2); Pam Kerr & Chanelle Wootton (2)

Obviously the overall class level year structure (eg Y3&4 etc) listed above may adjust as numbers, names and needs of children are sorted for final class lists. This is a process that takes some considerable time over the next several weeks. However, whatever the final iteration of that is, the main overall theme is that teachers are changing levels as we look to strategically grow and challenge our team as a whole.