Principals Pen

What does this mean?
You will often hear Woodhill School being referred to as a school of choice - it is a term we use at board level, staff level and when communicating with our community. In simple terms it means that the majority of our students come to our school from out of zone - IE: Woodhill School is not the closest or designated school according to the Ministry of Education zoning framework for approximately 70% of our students.

Does this mean we are better than our surrounding schools? Not necessarily - education is not a one size fits all system...No matter what the government tries to tell us. The current model whereby schools manage themselves allows each school to carve out a unique set of guidelines, principles, values, and philosophy for education. Being a small school with so many families who have deliberately chosen to send their children here makes Woodhill unique from the outset...there are very schools in New Zealand like us. Adding to this we have worked very hard over the past 2 years to be deliberate and definite about what we stand for and how we approach education and the teaching of your children. We have taken what we believe to be the best aspects of the New Zealand Curriculum as well the National Standards framework and applied them to our small, caring, challenging and motivating environment.
To this end we have a really controlled, concise and clear approach to how we do things around here. There is a high level of accountability that runs throughout the school from the BOT to the Principal, from the Principal to the Staff, from the Staff to the Students...all driven by and communicated to our wider community - Whanau/Families.
So whilst we are school of choice you will never hear us say that we are a better school than the ones down the road, we will simply let you know -
What we stand for and How we stand for it as well as the responsibility of home school partnership. Below is some of our front end guiding statements regarding the ‘What's' and ‘How's' of Woodhill School. Let us know how you think we are doing on these in relation to your child's education.

Mission Statement.........To Grow, To Care, To Learn...

Woodhill School will provide a positive and safe learning environment that will stimulate and challenge children to be intrinsically motivated.
To this end students will be proactive in taking charge of their emotional, physical, mental, and spiritual well being.

Our Core Beliefs

Our mission statement is driven by six core beliefs:

• Staff students and BOT are committed to obtaining high expectations of themselves and each other.
• Tikanga and Te Reo Maori are fundamental to the bi-cultural foundations of Woodhill School and Aotearoa.
• We embrace and celebrate all aspects of the individual.
• Within a supported environment - participation, development and contribution is provided and expected of all staff and students.
• We believe Key Competencies are fundamental to life long learning.
• We believe literacy and numeracy are fundamental to the education process.