Korakonui SwitchBOARD:

"LEAVING THE JERSEY IN A BETTER PLACE”

                             Kia ora, I’m Anna Gallien and the new chair of
                                      Korakonui School Board of Trustees

I have 2 children currently at this school, Kate (10) in Mrs Kay’s class and Regan (7) in Mrs Tyer’s. My eldest Ava, just turned 15 and spent 8 and a half happy years at Korakonui. Jade (2) is my little one. I work full-time in school terms as a Governance Adviser for the School Trustees Association in Hamilton and help my husband Pete manage the farm and lease block. It’s fair to say life is very busy so there isn’t much downtime but when I get a chance I love reading, music,     movies, LOVE my sport - and a good trivia night!

For a long time the All Blacks have had the saying, ‘leave the jersey in a better place’. Their task is to represent all those who have come before them – from George Nepia to Colin Meads, Michael Jones to Jonah Lomu, and all those who follow suit.

Understanding this responsibility creates a compelling sense of higher purpose. It's a good lesson for us all: if we play a bigger game, we play a more effective game. It’s because of this purpose that we sit here on the board. The current team of Trustees: myself, Mark Swney, Lance Gower, Ange Fitzgerald, Glenn Morris, Felicity Kay (staff rep) and led by our Principal, Rochelle Inwood; are all driven by our journey towards continuous improvement and leaving "the jersey” in a better place (thanks Richie).

We have a challenging and exciting road ahead with ERO visiting next term and look forward to this process as an evaluation of our strengths and identifying the areas that we could do better. As a board we will be moving through our own professional development as we take ownership of effective governance and what it looks like at Korakonui.

One area that we know we need to improve is our engagement with our community – you. We need to try harder in this area so there will be a few changes, hopefully for the better! We look forward to being your voice.

Ngā mihi, Anna.