2018 FINANCIAL REPORT
This is a link to the PDF of the Newlands College Financial Statements 2018.
NEWLANDS COLLEGE BOARD OF TRUSTEES ANNUAL REPORT TO THE COMMUNITY AS AT 31 DECEMBER 2018
The Board of Trustees is pleased to report the progress that the College made in 2018. This year the Board of Trustees retained its membership throughout the year that gave it stability and continuity. Shani McMullan was elected to be the student representative for 2018 and the Board also co-opted Janhavi Gosavi (the outgoing student representative from 2017) to strengthening the “student voice” on the Board. This arrangement worked effectively. The Board has shifted its planning cycle to an April 1st to March 31st year to accommodate the incorporation of the NCEA results that are published in January into the Analysis of Variance. The Board also decided to retain its strategic goals given that there will be Board elections in 2019 and the Ministry of Education has flagged changes to the way schools plan and report in 2020.
Academic Results
The way in which the overall NCEA results are reported changed in 2018. Some of the changes included: students being able to be counted for 3 different ethnicities, achievement required students to be in the school for at least 70 days, international students were excluded from the results, and results were reported cumulatively rather than for a single year. Our results when compared to similar schools as ourselves i.e. state, co-education, decile 9 are as follows:
|
Newlands College |
State, Decile 9, Co-Ed |
|
|
NCEA Level 1 |
75% |
77% |
|
NCEA Level 2 |
86% |
80% |
|
NCEA Level 3 |
75% |
69% |
|
University Entrance |
63% |
56% |
We enjoyed outstanding scholarship results with 22 in total. Shine Wu achieved 7 and Emily was the top scholar for Media Studies.
Success
At the end of 2018 we celebrated the academic and personal success of the following students:
Dux Literarum Shine Wu
Proximae Accessit Emily Hollis and Chelsea Jane Kah
Year 12 Overall Academic Excellence Amber Zhu
Year 11 Overall Academic Excellence Brandon Ru
Year 10 Overall Academic Excellence Laura Stone
Year 9 Overall Academic Excellence Rosie Meyer
Co-Curricular Activity
The co-curricular programme offered in our College is one of our strengths and it is always pleasing to see so many students participating in a wide range of activities. Some of the stand-out efforts included:
Sports Awards
Junior Sports Person of the Year Tui-Aroha Fransen
Male Sports Person of the Year Alex Thompson
Female Sports Person of the Year Milly Mackey
Performing Arts Awards.
Media Person of the Year Toby Harding
Actors of the Year Issac Andrews,
Musician of the Year Matt Jay and Jason Vinod
Kapa Haka Person of the Year Matua-Kore Ratana
Pasifika Person of the Year Christina Vaka
Visual Artist of the Year Danielle Mendoza
College Roll
The Ministry of Education predicted that our roll for 2018 would be 866 with a Year 9 intake of 180. Our confirmed roll as at March 1st ended up being 918 with a Year 9 roll of 212. Year 13 returnees were as expected at 160. The downward trend in student numbers appears to have “bottomed out” and the roll is now growing. Newlands Intermediate is seeing a growth in its numbers and the local primary schools are also experiencing growth. This should flow into the College in the next 2-3 years and this is already being evidenced with our expected year 9 intake for 2019 of 195 being exceeded and is now 222. In addition the College had an average of 63 international students throughout the year. Their origin countries varied with students coming from Japan, China, Vietnam Thailand, Chile, Brazil, and Germany. Our Learning Support Centre contained 35 students which is consistent with recent years. The end of the year though saw the end of our deaf class. These students had now reached 21 years of age and left the College. With more students now having cochlear implants the demand for sign language has diminished.
Personnel
There have been a number of changes in the College, mainly through promotions and retirements. Ms Symonds, Ms Swanson and Mr Staite moved to different Wellington schools as they were promoted to head of faculty positions. Ms Mckay retired, and long serving member Morag Featherstone who had been with us since 2001 also decided to retire.
Annual Highlights
While there were many highlights throughout the year, the following are a small taste of what was special.
- Active Learning and Wa Ako continued to be embedded in the College. Some stunning projects were produced including three students organising and running their own TEDX conference.
- Our junior Social Studies examination was again held on-line and other faculties have begun trialling their own on-line assessments.
- Our year 10 students won the Wellington Mathex competition against all other schools. Year 9 won the plate division.
- Our Pasifika group had an outstanding year performing to the highest standard at the Northern Polyfest.
- The school trip to Japan, the Arts trip to New York and the basketball trip to the United States gave the students wonderful insights into other cultures and practices.
- The school production, Catch Me if you Can played to full houses each night.
- The year 9 and 10 students performed a farewell haka to year 13 as they left after their final assembly which is now starting to become a tradition.
Health and Well-Being
Health and well-being while not a new issue has become much more publicized. The issues around health and well-being impact on both staff and students and they manifest themselves in a variety of ways. The College has a variety of programmes in place to address some of these issues with the Board of Trustees employing an additional guidance counsellor for 30 hours a week, reducing credits in student’s workloads, providing semester courses which allow students a greater range of choice and freedom to choose contexts they wish to study.
In terms of our staff we have introduced more restful spaces, trying to accommodate the staff in ways that reduces their workload and providing additional support activities such as yoga classes and providing free flu injections.
The difficulty is though that much of the stress and anxiety that we try to alleviate is beyond our control, e.g. what is happening in the student’s life beyond school and various Ministry compliance activities. The College however continues to work with students and staff to improve health and well-being
Finance
At the time of writing the 2018 Financial Report shows an unaudited surplus of $130000.
Property.
Other than routine maintenance, little of excitement happened on the property front. The College still works with the Ministry (now in its fourth year) to try and find a viable solution for the library, the administration block, technician room and technology storage room, all which have water tightness issues. There are plans in place for 2019 to address these issues, however funding approval is still required. The College continues to work with the Ministry of Education to deal with the issue of increasing rolls and shortness of space.
Conclusion
2018 was yet another successful year for the College. This is an enduring result of the ongoing vibrant and supportive teaching and learning environment that exists at Newlands College.
It is great to see the high levels of achievement gained by students at all levels across both academic and co-curricular domains. We particularly note and celebrate that NCEA results continue to exceed national averages and that scholarship results were again the best ever for the College.
The Board would like to thank the staff whose commitment, ability and professionalism is a key factor in making the College the success it is today.
The Board would also like to acknowledge the leadership provided by our Principal, Grant Jones, who with the support and commitment of the senior management team, continue to raise the achievement benchmark for our staff and our students.
A key theme of almost every Board discussion is “how can we enable better educational outcomes for our students?” and it is deeply rewarding to see the results flowing from this focus.
Gavin Knight (Chairperson) Jane Temel (Deputy Chairperson)
Tom Logan James Maulden
Brian Norris Ben Lau (Staff Representative)
Glenn McStay Shani McMullan (Student Representative)
Michelle Mako