Star Board Term Two Week Three

Principal's Message

Kia Ora Koutou

This has been a busy week but a productive, constructive, and learning week.

Sorry that I am telling you this again that Monday 23 May is a Teacher Only Day for all Wairarapa Secondary Schools. As part of the school’s academic and engagement construction this day is where our focus is on developing the curriculum to meet the needs of our learners. The review we have undertaken has in its initial stages discovered key growth areas. We have had approximately 240 degrees of feedback and we will soon reach out to parents to get your commentary to assist our improvements for our learners.

Today I also want to perhaps enlighten you about how Stand Down, Suspension, Exclusion, and Expulsion works as there has been some confusion about what these mean. Students’ attendance and engagement are critical factors relating to student achievement, so every school’s endeavour is to keep student’s in school. However, on occasion schools can utilise the disciplinary measures of Stand Down, Suspension, Exclusion, and Expulsion.

A state or state integrated school principal may consider the formal removal of a student through a stand-down from school for a period of up to 5 school days. A stand-down, for any student, can total no more than 5 school days in a term, or a total of 10 days in a school year. Students return automatically to school following a stand-down.

While stand-downs impact on a student’s actual opportunity to learn they are also a response to a wide range of concerning behaviours that could disrupt the learning of the individual concerned and could be disruptive or unsafe for peers and adults in the school community.

Stand-downs offer an opportunity to reduce tension and reflect on the action which led to the stand-down. As such, if used in appropriate circumstances, a stand-down can be a positive mechanism for preventing escalation. However, its use should be part of a proactive approach to address behaviour issues and should be kept to a minimum due to the disruption to student’s learning which is inherent in the mechanism.

A suspension is a formal removal of a student from a school until a school Board of Trustees decides the outcome at a suspension meeting. Following a suspension, the Board of Trustees decides how to address the student’s misbehaviour. The Board can either lift the suspension (with or without conditions), extend the suspension (with conditions), or terminate the student's enrolment at the school.

Exclusions and expulsions are consequences of a suspension where an enrolment is terminated following a suspension meeting. If the student is aged under 16, the Board may decide to exclude the student from the school, with the requirement that the student enrols elsewhere. This decision should be arrived at in only the most serious cases. If the student is aged 16 or over, the board may decide to expel them from the school, and the student may or may not enrol at another school. Again, this decision should be arrived at only in the most serious cases.

What happens if a boarder breaches a hostel rule?

The law does not set out specific disciplinary processes for boarding hostels. Each hostel will instead have its own disciplinary policies and processes.

The hostel has a contractual obligation to follow the policies and processes it has adopted as part of the hostel’s contractual relationships. However, parents and students can also rely on an implied term of their contract that the hostel will behave fairly and reasonably.

If the hostel rules are breached this can result in the student being suspended, excluded or expelled from the hostel, and the student is given a fair hearing, the board may be justified in cancelling their contract with the student and expelling them from the hostel.

Can a student be disciplined by the school for breaking hostel rules?

The hostel and the school are separate institutions, and each will have to follow a proper process for dealing with misbehaviour according to their own rules. A student cannot be automatically expelled from school simply because they have been expelled from the hostel. Unfortunately, being expelled from the hostel often means the student will not have a suitable place to live and so will not be able to continue at the school.

Being safe is being content, or better, being happy. Eight schools later I can state with authority that St Matthew’s has a very well-behaved community of students- in fact they are pretty darn fantastic. Jesus Christ was a carpenter and one of the tools of this trade is sandpaper. The days of our youth sometimes creates rough edges and with the sandpaper we can smooth those edges and learn from the experience that created them. Our greatest hope, my greatest hope is that each of us and our students lives out the school vision and is ‘empowered and guided to be the best they can be’.

Nga Mihi

Kiri

Around School

Boarding Note from Jo Booth

With this week being National Bully Free Week, the Year 7-10 boarders focused on inclusiveness in prep. Each student was given a paper hand and asked to consider what they can do to be more inclusive of others. Some of the response were- choosing a new girl to be a buddy with for an activity; actively listening to others; and invite others to watch a movie in the common room. Great work girls. Now the challenge is to actually step up and action those ideas.