KEY POINTS:
Selwyn College's new Commissioner Collene Roche starts today and says she is looking forward to presenting a fresh-faced school to the community.
Mrs Roche replaces the board of trustees, which was widely criticised by the school community as well as the Education Review Office.
This week the school
invited members of the local community to put their names forward if they were interested in hearing about Selwyn's new direction.
"I felt it was time for us to go out into the community at large and let them know what the changing face of Selwyn College was all about," Mrs Roche said.
Meetings with those interested will be held early in the first term.
Students and the local community will see freshly painted buildings, new school uniforms and fencing around the perimeter when school resumes but there will also be a behind-the-scenes shift in academic focus and school governance.
Mrs Roche's focus will be on improving the school's quality of education, governance and community engagement.
"I will be scoping out the role and working out an action plan over the next two or three weeks," she said.
Mrs Roche said she was looking forward to working closely with principal Sheryll Ofner, who in her three terms at Selwyn had already introduced a number of worthwhile initiatives.
The ERO report particularly commended Mrs Ofner's full-school assemblies and implementation of a set of school values and expectations called The Selwyn Way.
Mrs Roche said she firmly supports the Mrs Ofner's focus on student learning and achievement and "can assure parents and students that the goal for 2009 is a positive and high-achieving year at Selwyn College".
Mrs Roche was last year appointed Specialist Adviser to schools by the Ministry of Education.
She has significant experience in secondary schools including 12 years as principal of Carmel College and nine years on the executive of the Auckland Secondary School Principals Association, two as chairwoman.
Her new role will be challenging but hopefully rewarding, she said.
"I feel experienced but that doesn't mean I won't come across things that I find difficult," she said.
Education Minister Anne Tolley dissolved the school board on Tuesday following a supplementary ERO report which deemed it incapable of governing the school in the interests of all students and the Crown. Former board members and a lobby group called Vision Selwyn had been calling for the appointment of a commissioner for a number of years.
