Queenstown Times: Why did you want to become a WHS board member?
Oded Nathan: "I am passionate about education and am keen to make Wakatipu High School the best school it can be. "I have been involved with education all of my working life, both in the role of teacher and administrator and now look forward to being involved in the governance aspect of a school."
QT: What changes do you envision making to the way the school operates?
ON: "My focus is on developing systems that enable teachers to focus on teaching and learning and students to focus on achieving outcomes that will prepare them for future education and life outside of school."
QT: What is the biggest issue facing WHS pupils?
ON: "The biggest issue facing WHS pupils, and many of our future leaders, is the variety of activities that they partake in and the various expectations that are associated with these activities, whether it be school, part-time jobs or extra-curricular activities.
"The pupils at WHS seem extremely busy with all that Queenstown and the Wakatipu basin has to offer and yet seem to find the balance between these responsibilities and school, thus developing into some outstanding well-rounded individuals."
QT: How is the structure of mixing age groups in classrooms working?
ON: "I think you'd be hard pressed to find a classroom outside of new entrants that does not have a mixing of age groups."
QT: Where do you see the future location of the school? Where it is, or at Frankton and if so when?
ON: "I think staff and students alike would like to be going to school in a location that gets a bit more sun."
QT: How would you describe the school's financial situation?
ON: "We have a couple of building projects under way and average class sizes are below 26 students, which is good. However, the reality is that schools are under-funded and, by being a decile 10 school, we are more severely under-funded.
"There seems to be quite a few opportunities to develop some public-private relationships in the basin that could possibly alleviate some of the financial pressures that are felt in schools around the country."
QT: What feedback have you had from the community regarding priorities to focus on?
ON: "We are in the planning stages of developing our strategic plan and the first thing that we will do, prior to developing this plan, is to ask the school community and its stakeholders - staff, students, parents/caregivers - for honest and frank feedback as to the perceived strengths and weaknesses of Wakatipu High School.
"We hope to have concrete, quantitative and qualitative data from which we can identify issues and prioritise our plan."
QT: Do you think the school communicates effectively with the community?
ON: "This is the first school that I've worked at the sends a newsletter home to parents every week providing the community with valuable information about Wakatipu High School.
"This newsletter is also available to the community on our website. In addition, the board has recently developed a communication task force that aims to further improve the schools communication with the community.
"Check out Wakatipu High School on twitter.com."
ASK THE BOARD
Do you have questions for the Wakatipu High School board of trustees, or have issues you want to raise? Email your queries, with "Ask the Board" in the subject heading, to news@queenstowntimes.co.nz.
Send them, or drop them off, with the address Ask the Board, Otago Daily Times, PO Box 774, Queenstown 9348.
