- Audience:
- Education
- Parents
- Schools
- Topics:
- Improvement
- Stewardship
- Resourcing
- Evaluation indicators
- Video
- Improvement in Action Te Ahu Whakamua
Summary
“What I’m trying to do is give these children every facility, every resource, every opportunity that any other child in New Zealand has.”
At Manurewa Central School, careful financial management over many years has enabled the provision of high quality facilities and resources that enhance the school environment and learning opportunities available to students and their families and whanau and the community.
Key messages:
- Equity and opportunity is a stated objective of expenditure
- A prudent approach to expenditure is taken to optimise costs and benefits
- Investing in quality can provide a better long term return on investment
Things to think about:
- How do you ensure resources are strategically used to support equity and excellence?
The evaluation indicators this video illustrates
- Domain 1: Stewardship
- Evaluation Indicator
- The board scrutinises the effectiveness of the school in achieving valued student outcomes
- Evaluation Indicator
This video is part of a series
This video is part of the series Improvement in Action Te Ahu Whakamua. We created this series to inspire schools with examples of success in action. These examples highlight the benefits of fulfilling the evaluation indicators we use to review schools.
Our playground is equipment rich, because if we want an active playground our philosophy is let's keep the children engaged.
To keep the children engaged we have to have the gear out there so that they're challenging themselves physically all the time. So we do.
We have unicycles, and scooter boards, and balls everywhere so that there is equity and opportunity for all children to gain those skills.
What I'm trying to do here is to give these children every facility, every resource, every opportunity that any other child in New Zealand has, no matter what school they go to.
If there's one thing that you wanted to do that you couldn't do it, because it was all taken up or something, there's heaps of other options to do. And there's lunchtime activities that the whole school can participate in.
When it comes to money, the philosophy is simple really. Always spend less than you earn. When you do purchase or build, always know where the money's coming from. Always build up a reserve for the rainy day. When you do spend, try to spend other people's money first.
Build the best. Buy the best. Look after what you have got. In the long term, that will last. That's value for money.
We need to give the hockey in the school somewhere where they can train. And somewhere where they can play, instead of having to go to other people's fields to play. And we also have a need to have an all-weather facility for the phys-ed programme in the school. This has been there now ten years. And it's still in excellent condition, because it's well maintained.
I like to think of the school as offering a Decile 10 experience in a Decile 2 school. And that everything we do is focused towards that.
Well done.