Principal's Report

The students and staff at Royal Oak Intermediate School never cease to amaze me. We recently held a cultural show which epitomises the basis of Royal Oak Intermediate. When students heard there was going to be a show some formed their own groups and asked for teacher support. Teachers gave willingly of their time and energy to help these young people explore their identity as emerging adolescents. In other cases teachers and teacher aides offered opportunities and the students stepped way outside their comfort zone to be involved. This co-operation and co-construction of learning and growing opportunities is a feature of our great school.

Academic endeavours are an important part of all schools. This year we set challenging Reading and Numeracy goals. We set ourselves high targets and while we reached them easily in Reading we fell a little short in Numeracy. This has given us cause for reflection, which is not a bad thing, as it allows us to focus on where to next and look at what we need to do differently. In other academic areas we have continued to hold our own. We were involved in a wide range of extra programmes from Mathex, Science Primary Research Project, Kids’ Lit Quiz and International Exams to name but a few. Royal Oak Intermediate also featured in Auckland sport. We had students competing in Interzone Cross Country, Gymnastics, Kilikiti, Orienteering, Rugby League, Soccer, Tag and Touch. This is a tribute to the hard work of both teachers and students. This year, for the first time, we ran a Home-School Partnership project in Numeracy. This involved teachers, teacher aides and parents working together over four evenings to support parents in understanding how the Numeracy Project works.

While we had sincerely hoped to have the Interchallenge and Astroturf in place before the end of the year this has not happened. I always knew bureaucracy was slow but… never mind, we will see these items in place for 2009 as well as an internal upgrade of the main block.

The school receives huge support from the community; foremost from our Board of Trustees. This dedicated group of people govern the school and support myself in many different ways. I would also like to acknowledge the work that volunteers and support staff do in our school. Without the parental support on school trips and the organisational skills of our administration team, many activities simply could not take place.

2009 will be challenging and exciting. There will be major developments in property that will begin to bring our school very firmly into a 21st Century learning environment. Academically we will remain focused on improving students’ Reading and Numeracy achievement levels. Finally, I appreciate the support of the Board of Trustees, staff, parents and students. From the first moment I stepped into the grounds of Royal Oak Intermediate mid 2008 I knew this was a great school – it is even better than I thought possible. Have a safe and enjoyable break.