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School Board

Our Board of Trustees is committed to openness and transparency and keeping everyone informed about our school. The links below should provide comprehensive information about our school’s governance and operations.

Board of Trustee Members

To this end:

  • Members of the public are also welcome to attend scheduled Board meetings;
  • We have Board Open Forum meetings at least once a term;
  • We publish our Minutes on this site as soon as they have been ratified;
  • Our documentation is available on this site;
  • We conduct regular community consultation events;
  • We attend as many community functions as possible;

Contact our Presiding Member (presiding_member@opua.school.nz) principal or Main Office for further details.

  • Ty-Ray White (Presiding Member)
  • Sandy Blackburn
  • Juliette Ridge
  • Louise Bergman
  • Raphael Goldsworthy
  • Dan Alexander
  • Sally Grant
Strategic Plan

Click here to view the Strategic Plan

Click here to view the Annual Implementation plan

Click here to view the Māori Education Plan

Our school has worked with SchoolDocs to create a website for our policies and procedures. 

LOG IN DETAILS:
username: opua
​password: awhina

The school works on a subscription basis with SchoolDocs to maintain, update, and review our policies. SchoolDocs provides us with a comprehensive core set of policies, which have been well researched and follow the Ministry of Education National Administration Guidelines. The policies and procedures are tailored to our school, and the school supplies specific information such as our charter, and procedures for behaviour management, reporting to parents, etc.
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SchoolDocs updates, modifies, or creates policies in response to changes in legislation or Ministry guidelines, significant events, reviews/requests from schools, and regular reviewing from the SchoolDocs team. Our School Board has the opportunity to view changes/additions and comment on them before they are implemented. We will advise you when policies are up for review and how you can take part in the review.

Complaints and Concerns

At Opua School, anyone who wants to bring a matter to the attention of the school should follow this procedure for raising concerns and complaints.

Concerns or complaints should be raised with the school in the first instance. Anyone with a concern or complaint may seek advice or support.

Anyone who has a concern or complaint should raise it as soon as possible with an appropriate person at the school. This can be done verbally or in writing and, in the first instance, this is usually with a staff member directly involved.

If this is not appropriate or there is no staff member directly involved, concerns may be raised with another relevant staff member (e.g. a staff member in charge of a programme, a member of the management team, the principal). The person who receives the concern or complaint may refer the matter to a more appropriate person if needed, or involve another person, including the principal.

Click here to view the School Attendance Management Plan

Click here to view the 2025 Annual Report and Final Audited Accounts

The Board usually meets twice per term. The intended meetings for 2026 are as below. Please note that these may change as required. At each meeting, the previous month’s minutes are usually passed as accurate by the Board. Once this has happened, they are released on our website.

Monday 3rd August
Monday 7th September
Monday 2nd November
Monday 7th December

 

From May 7th, 2023, we have a new policy regarding this issue. Our policy is responsive to the new rules and expectations around trying to reduce student distress and minimising the need for any use of Physical Restraint.
The new Ministry of Education guidelines on the Use of Physical Restraint can be found here: Ministry of Education guidelines on the use of physical restraint
Our new procedure can be found here: Reducing Student Distress and the Use of Physical Restraint Procedure
In our school, we have done the online learning module associated with this topic and we are awaiting further training in relation to the safe use of physical restraint.
For our community’s awareness, staff at this school who are, at this stage, authorised to use physical restraint are:

Sandy Blackburn [Principal]
Juliette Ridge [Deputy Principal and teacher]
Camilla Going [teacher]
Elly Vanasche [teacher]
Bronwyn Fulton [teacher]
Debbie Cooke [relief teacher]
Margaret Civil [relief teacher]
Kartini Martin [relief teacher]
Kylie Mottl [Teacher Aide – BoT approved]
Maree Caswell [Office Manager – BoT approved]
Denny Ututaonga [Caretaker – Bot approved]
Ria Bright [teacher]
Gaye Hooper [Teacher Aide – BoT approved]