Kia ora Parents and Caregivers,
The Emmanuel Christian School Board is reviewing our current constitution to ensure we continue to meet the needs of our school and remain responsive to our Year 1–10 context.
Following discussions with our Ministry of Education Senior Advisor, the Board is proposing adjustments to the Board’s structure and our approach to student representation.
As part of this process, we are seeking feedback from the School Community. Please read the update below and complete a short survey. It’s important that your views are heard and considered. Please complete the questionaire before Wednesday 25th February.
Board Structure Feedback Questionaire
Student Representation Model
The Education and Training Act provides for a student representative on all Boards of state and state-integrated schools. This model assumes a secondary school context (Years 9–13).
Emmanuel Christian School, as a Year 1–10 school, faces challenges with this arrangement:
- Age and experience: Students in Years 9 and 10 are generally not at a developmental stage where they can confidently engage with complex governance discussions, including strategic planning, policy development, and financial oversight.
- Understanding required: The governance materials presented to the Board often involve detailed analysis of budgets, performance data, property planning, and compliance reporting. These require a level of understanding and life experience that younger students are still developing.
- Confidentiality obligations: Board discussions regularly involve sensitive matters relating to school staff, finance, or individual students. Protecting confidentiality can place a significant burden on a student representative and limit their ability to participate fully.
Importantly, current legislation does not provide for the exclusion of a student representative from any parts of Board business. Once elected, a student representative is entitled to attend and participate in all Board meetings and discussions. This means they are part of conversation related to staffing, budgeting, and sensitive financial or personnel matters. This presents additional practical and ethical difficulties, and we have found this particularly challenging for a Year 9 or 10 student.
In practice, when a student representative has been appointed to the ECS Board in the past their participation has been limited by these factors. The students themselves have expressed discomfort with the nature and weight of the material.
Maintaining Student Voice
Student voice remains a vital component of Emmanuel’s governance ethos. The school values the insights of its students and seeks to maintain meaningful engagement in an age-appropriate way.
The change we are proposing is that in place of an elected student representative the Board will invite student leaders to attend part of two to three Board meetings per year where they can share student perspectives and experiences. This would ensure that student input is valued and considered, without requiring full and formal participation in school governance processes. No changes are proposed to the current parent and proprietor representation on the Board.
These changes align with Emmanuel’s mission to provide a Christ-centred education that nurtures the whole child – academically, spiritually, and socially. It will ensure our governance structure is responsive to the needs of the community and school context.
In 2025 two student leaders attended part of a Board meeting in this manner and this approach was very valuable for the Board and the student leaders.
Thank you for taking the time to consider this.
Ngā mihi nui
Alistair
Emmanuel School Principal
on behalf of the Emmanuel Christian School Board
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