Kia ora e te whānau

As New Zealand counts the cost of the COVID disruption, most of us breathed a sigh of relief as we climbed down alert levels this week. This, of course, is not the case for our family, friends, and colleagues in Auckland, who continue to bear the brunt of the challenge. Kia kaha Auckland, our thoughts are with you.

A quick poll of principals at level 2 yesterday, highlighted the buzz and joy of young people getting back to school again. There were a few notable challenges, such as the group of new entrant pupils, unable to start over lockdown, who arrived en masse at the start of the day; and the progressive loss of the mask - eagerly fixed to the face at the start of the day but not to be found by the end of the day.

During all this constant pivoting, inside or outside of lockdown, is your leadership.

Please remember that you are not expected to cope unceasingly. You are human. Smart leaders know to prioritise time out to recharge, so they have the capacity to deliver when it is required.

One of my mental health strategies is my early morning ‘Cup of Joe’ before the household awakes. There is something calming about the early morning - just me, my thoughts, and coffee! I linger, appreciating the creep of dawn, and the promise of the day ahead. I try not to think much beyond gratitude for the good things in my life. In a busy world and busy job, this time is my tonic.

More than ever, we recognise the incredible responsibility and scale of principalship, so please look after yourself.

Progress! Primary Principals’ Collective Bargaining (PPCB)

It exciting to see the applications to join PPCB continue to climb. Thank you. I want to acknowledge those who have taken time to follow through as you indicated in our NZPF June 2021 Survey when we asked you about joining PPCB.

Question 2 - I am most likely to choose to belong to the PPCB if it becomes an established option.

YES 885

NO 191

DID NOT RESPOND 9

The support to belong to PPCB is 81.5% of those who voted.

I also acknowledge those principals who didn’t vote in our June survey who have joined PPCB. Welcome!

Upon receipt of your application, a draft claims survey will be issued to you. Please fill this out by Monday 20 September. The survey will be analysed over the week Monday 20 September to Friday 24 September, so that draft claims can be established and issued to PPCB members for feedback.

In many instances, your sharing of stories about the struggles and joys of principalship has been moving. Thank you for your honesty.

I am pleased that the bulk of NZEI’s draft claims largely reflect your 10 workload and wellbeing priorities gathered on the 2020 NZPF road trip. PPCB is taking a comprehensive view of claims and expects to extend claims beyond those road trip priorities introducing significant new claims not identified to date. Certainly, that is what PPCB’s early feedback data from the survey is indicating.

The best evidence of the importance of joining PPCB is the fact that the current industrial narrative is so clearly focused and energetic on change for principals. That hasn’t happened by chance. I received a clear message this past week from a principal that summed it up nicely, “Also want to tautoko your great mahi with the formation of the PPCB.  Never before have NZEI scrambled to support a pay claim for principals as they have done over the last few months. Thank you and the team for providing the rocket that they obviously needed to start appreciating the very difficult conditions that we continue to work under.”

I think it is a shame that currently there is a ‘we don’t want you to play in our sandbox’ attitude. No one entity has a right to claim a monopoly industrial interest on behalf of principals. The growth in PPCB’s membership is the best evidence that it is no longer a monopoly, and that new ways of working must be forged to reflect a new age – one where collaboration and cooperation is the new normal. The reality is that PPCB is at the bargaining table as a matter of right and I am confident that because of this and the hard work of both the PPCB team and NZEI team, principals will be much better served in this pending bargaining round.

If principals agree that we currently have much greater energy and commitment to bargaining than ever before, then joining PPCB is a no brainer.

PPCB has priced membership at the low cost of $4.50 per week. Many principals joining are members of both NZEI and PPCB who obviously agree that we are stronger when we work together.

The most effective antidote to a reluctance to collaborate in the best interests of principals is a membership that is strong and vital.

Please join PPCB here www.ppcb.nz

NZPF Elections

On Wednesday 1 September when voting commenced, all financial members as at 25 August, received an email from Electionz.com, the company contracted to run the election. The email included instructions, links to the profiles of all the candidates and a unique pin and password to use for logging onto the voting page. The election will close at 12 noon on Monday 20 September.

If you haven’t voted already then please vote today. If you haven’t yet received the voting email, please check all your email folders or contact the NZPF office.

Ngā manaakitanga

Perry Rush
perry@nzpf.ac.nz