North Canterbury News: September 05, 2019
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NEWS<br />
4 <strong>North</strong> <strong>Canterbury</strong> <strong>News</strong>, <strong>September</strong> 5, <strong>2019</strong><br />
Exciting times ahead for school<br />
By RACHEL MACDONALD<br />
NewOhoka Schoolprincipal<br />
KateMcClellandis bubbling<br />
with ideas when it comes to<br />
widening opportunities and<br />
broadening the curriculum for<br />
the 163 students in her charge.<br />
Having been acting principal<br />
sincetermtwo,sheisnow<br />
lookingforward to launching<br />
someofthoseinitiativesasshe<br />
formally steps into the<br />
permanent role.<br />
Kate was most recently<br />
deputy principal at Redcliffs<br />
School and, before then, at<br />
Swannanoa.<br />
She sayssheisenjoying<br />
Ohoka and describes the<br />
school as being wellembedded<br />
in an excellent and supportive<br />
community.<br />
‘‘Our parents are 100 percent<br />
behind the school, which is<br />
great.<br />
‘‘When Ifirst arrived,we<br />
held astrategic planning<br />
meeting with themandcame<br />
up withalist of goals, which<br />
we’re now in the process of<br />
implementing. There are<br />
exciting timesahead.’’<br />
Amongthose changesisa<br />
drivetobringmorelocal<br />
relevance to theschool’s<br />
curriculum.<br />
‘‘Historicallyand<br />
geographically,inparticular,<br />
ourchildrencomefroma<br />
really special part of the world,<br />
so we’relooking to put more<br />
emphasis on that inside the<br />
classroom,’’ she says.<br />
She is also in the process of<br />
creating greaterdepth inthe<br />
❛There are great<br />
things on the horizon<br />
and that’s all part of<br />
the thrill of<br />
teaching.❜<br />
—Principal Kate McClelland<br />
Years 7and 8intermediate<br />
programme.<br />
‘‘We’re looking atextending<br />
ourleadership, science,arts,<br />
andsporting elements, in<br />
particular, with afocus on<br />
more selfdirected learning at<br />
this age.<br />
‘‘And we wanttoestablish an<br />
Ohoka School sports academy.<br />
We have our firstteamheading<br />
to Taurangatocompete in the<br />
AIMSGames at the end of this<br />
week.<br />
‘‘To that end, I’ve just<br />
appointed asportscoordinator<br />
who will work<br />
alongsidetheteam to<br />
implement amorevariedand<br />
comprehensive sportsoffering<br />
thanwhatwe’vetraditionally<br />
hadavailable.’’<br />
Avariationinuniformto<br />
differentiate theseniors may<br />
also be on the cards.<br />
‘‘There are great things on<br />
the horizon and that’s all part<br />
of the thrillofteaching.<br />
‘‘It’s all about making a<br />
difference to the children at<br />
the end of the day and Ithink<br />
we’re well on the path now to<br />
delivering that.’’<br />
Changes ahead ... Kate McClelland intends to bring more local<br />
relevance to the Ohoka School’s curriculum. PHOTO: RACHELMACDONALD<br />
Local hazards<br />
under scrutiny<br />
Plenty of interest has been shownby<br />
Waimakariri residents in relation to<br />
natural hazardsinthe district.<br />
Waimakariri District Council<br />
development planningmanager Trevor<br />
Ellissays there was good discussion at<br />
the final two workshops last weekinthe<br />
second stage of consultation into natural<br />
hazards, whilemany have also viewed<br />
the documentsonline.<br />
He says the workshopsconsidered<br />
flooding, inundation,coastalerosion,<br />
liquefaction, faultlines and tsunami risk.<br />
They will inform councillors as part of<br />
the District PlanReview.<br />
‘‘We are trying to informpeople as best<br />
we can and to hear back from them,’’ Mr<br />
Ellissays. ‘‘We talked aboutflood<br />
modelling and there’s been quite abit of<br />
work done since2015.<br />
‘‘While the flood modelling is based on<br />
assumptions, we wereable to show from<br />
the flooding in 2014what the reality<br />
couldlook like.’’<br />
Whilethe existing District Plan was<br />
signed off in 1998, the new one is<br />
expectedtohave alife of 10 years.<br />
But the plan couldnot ignore longerterm<br />
hazards such as sea level rise.<br />
‘‘With sea levelrise, the first impact<br />
will be to groundwater and then<br />
inundation over time,’’MrEllissays.<br />
The council is undertaking an assessment<br />
of likely inundation,orcoastal<br />
flooding, and how it might impactonthe<br />
district’s beachsettlementsand Kaiapoi.<br />
Once complete, the assessment will be<br />
made public. Council staff will consider<br />
all findings and draft natural hazard<br />
provisions for the District Planto<br />
present to the incoming council,<br />
hopefully by the end of the year.<br />
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