Kelburn Normal School
Ngā Tātarakihi o Ahumairangi
Image - Jason Mann Photography
Board of Trustees
The school is governed by a Board of Trustees comprising parent representatives, a teacher representative and the Principal.
The Board focuses its governance on the 6 National Administrative Guidelines.
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Student achievement and curriculum
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Self review and policy
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Personnel
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Property and finance
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Health and safety
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Administration / legal compliance
Representative members are generally elected through Board elections, which are held every three years. The next election will be in 2025.
The new Kelburn Normal School board members are:
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Nickie van der Beek (Chairperson - Parent Rep)
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Andrea Keenan (Parent Rep)
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Fiona McLean (Parent Rep)
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James Tipping (Parent Rep)
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Michael Fraser (Parent Rep)
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Nicola Stigley (Parent Rep)
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Andrew Bird (Principal)
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Susie Brown (Staff Rep)
Role of the Board
Some key roles of the Board are to:
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Ensure that the school provides a safe environment and quality education for the students.
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Set the strategic direction of the school, in consultation with staff, parents, and students.
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Approve the school's annual budget and report its operation to the community.
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Govern the management of personnel, property, finance and administration.
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Liaise closely with the Principal as the Professional Leader and Chief Executive Officer of the Board.
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Liaise closely with the community, particularly through key groups such as the school’s Parent Teacher Association.
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The Principal and staff are then responsible for implementing the strategic plan, as the overriding guide to the management of the school.
The New Zealand School Trustees Association (NZSTA) has some good information for parents and caregivers regarding the role of boards of trustees.
Be involved
The Board encourages parents to become involved in the school. If you have questions or complaints, please follow the process of taking them initially to the teacher or staff member involved. If you don’t get a satisfactory response, the matter needs to be escalated to the Syndicate Leader, Assistant Principal, Deputy Principal, Principal and, if necessary, the Board of Trustees.
Issues related to the day-to-day management of the school need to be discussed with the Principal, but the Board welcomes communication from parents in relation to the overall governance of the school. We will review and respond to any correspondence regularly.
Parents are also welcome to attend Board meetings, held monthly at the school. Check the school calendar or ask the office staff for meeting dates. Copies of minutes are available at the school office or from the Board secretary Loraine Best.
Information on the annual voluntary school donations set by the Board can be found on this page.
For any Board related documents including all Minutes please click here (Important Documents).
School Policies and Procedures
KNS policies and procedures are maintained via SchoolDocs. You can access using the credentials below:
Username: kelburn
Password: normal
Copyright: Except where stated, the content on this site is the copyright of SchoolDocs Ltd. It may not be reproduced without written permission from SchoolDocs Ltd
School Voluntary Donation
Each year the Board of Trustees need to determine how much money it will need to run the school and sets a budget accordingly. Costs associated with running a school generally fall into four categories - staffing, curriculum resources, property and administration.
The school’s funding comes from a combination of operational grant (government funding), parent donation, international student fees and fundraising. The operational grant only covers the basic administration, teaching and property running costs of the school, not any of the additional resources and equipment that parents expect to be available for their children and which enable effective teaching and learning.
In addition, as a Decile 10 school, the government considers our students to be from the most well resourced communities so we receive the lowest operational grant per student than lower decile schools.
Our community has historically supported a focus on extending students, through extension classes and a school wide focus on performing arts. We therefore provide extension English in the upper middle and senior areas of the school, as well as additional arts programmes with specialist teachers for all classes. In addition, we have made a commitment to prove a high level of support to our special needs students and to try to keep our teacher/pupil ratio low.
All of these factors benefit all of our students at different times by reducing class sizes and enriching their learning opportunities. Without the voluntary donation, the Board would be forced to have to considerably review what we could offer.
The Board of Trustees believes that parents accept the need to make a contribution towards the cost and the significant majority of parents contribute a donation. It is also worthwhile remembering that the donation is tax deductible – claims need to be made through the Inland Revenue.
Parents will be sent information about the donation and payment options at the beginning of each year.
Please refer to the BOT documents here (BOT folder/ annual documents) for the current year's donation information. This amount will contribute to:
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extra teaching programmes, such as reading assistance, additional teacher (to lower teacher/pupil ratio) and second languages
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curriculum resources and equipment, such as library books, computer software, musical instruments and sports equipment.
We appreciate your support of your child’s education, through the donation. If you have any questions about the donation, please talk either to the Principal or directly to a member of the Board of Trustees.
BOT Newsletter
Minutes are under important documents.
