What a difference a day makes. 

Last week, we were at phase 2 of the Omicron outbreak and applying the guidelines to our school planning accordingly. Within a day, we moved to phase 3 with an entirely new set of logistics to follow.  Meanwhile, anxiety levels were rising in communities as were daily cases of COVID.  Leading is easy when things are going well.  The test of leadership is how we cope when things are not normal. Being thrust into  a constantly changing COVID ‘learning pit’ tests every facet of our leadership skills.  Kia kaha to us all. 

With each new Omicron phase has come a new layer of bureacratic compliance. This means more paper work, anxiety and frustration. To protect your wellbeing, Peak Body leaders, including myself, have requested that the Ministry urgently removes the less relevant tasks or gives smaller schools additional administrative support.

The Omicron wave has not yet peaked. Our immediate challenge is how to ride it out without getting swamped.  To all those principals who have checked in on colleagues and shared some advice or plans, thank you.  

Quality leadership; quality teaching

In any number of education forums this week the focus of dialogue has been centred on quality teaching and learning.

The Teaching Council of Aotearoa: 

For two years the Teaching Council of Aotearoa has been developing a ‘replacement for principal appraisal. It is called ‘professional growth cycle’. You and your Board Chair agree on an area of professional growth (PD) specifically for you,  which relates to the Standards. You then undertake the PD within a network of colleagues, who give you feedback and direction. One of those colleagues will then endorse your practising certificate.  This process will be undertaken annually.  

Rather than being a summative, evidence laden process, it has been designed for the individual’s professional learning, which principals design and develop. Information about how this is to be implemented will be available in the next few weeks.

Initial Teacher Education (ITE):

NZPF has long criticised ITE programmes . We claim they are not preparing graduates who are ready to teach in our schools.

After being reviewed in 2020, new programme guidelines for ITE were developed and implemented in 2021.  ITE programmes have to meet NZQA, QUAC and Teaching Council (TC) quality assurance standards. The TC is now designing a national monitoring programme to evaluate the changes that were made.  NZPF will be requesting principals’ involvement in the development of  the national monitoring programme.

Ngai Tahu Iwi:

The Curriculum Refresh is of great interest to Ngai Tahu education leaders, especially in relation to abandonment of streaming in schools. I recently discussed this and other issues affecting Maori education, with Piripi Prendergast of the Ngai Tahu Trust. Our conversation included equity and how to address it through system change; teaching pedagogy and how to be inclusive and effective without streaming; and iwi aspirations.
 
Educational leaders of Ngai Tahu iwi have a vision. They are quite clear about what they want to achieve for their people by 2040.  They recognize it is school leaders and teachers who can help them achieve their goal of  equitable outcomes for all tamariki. 

The Education Review Office:

In a recent meeting with ERO’s CEO, Nick Pole, I discussed the ERO PLD programme for principals, the impact of COVID on schools, relationships with parents, the digital divide and how ERO proposes to support quality teaching and learning, post-covid. 

During 2021, ERO ran intensive PLD for principals, to prepare them to join established ERO school review teams. The PLD was delivered by ERO facilitators and principals generally worked with a school ERO review team for three weeks.  Principals found the PLD exceptionally good.  They learned more about school evaluation and capacity building from both the practitioner’s view and a systems’ lens.

We discussed what it would take to expand the PLD programme so that principals could be seconded into ERO for longer periods of time. This way, ERO review teams would benefit from principals’ practice experience and knowedge while principals would benefit from building their knowledge of the system.   

Systemic Silos ...

The conversations I’ve had this week were all great. I was humbled by the selflessness of people working on their various projects, each doing their best to make a positive difference to improve our education system.

The flaw in all of this is that they work in silos. There are no strong, systemic connections between one organisation and another; between one pocket of work and another; between one level of the system and another. This makes integration, alignment and transparency hard to achieve and communicate clearly.

Within the new Ministry structure (Te Matua) we, as leaders of learning, need to be the boundary spanners that build the bridges across the silos.

PPCB and NZEI – Stronger Together

Last week, NZEI appointed a new General Secretary. We extend our warmest congratulations  to Stephanie Mills on her appointment.  It comes as we enter our third year of COVID. Principals have been stretched to their limits. They have earned reward and thus deserve the strongest representation possible at the collective bargaining table.

 In 2021, members expressed concerns about collective bargaining outcomes and so the Primary Principals’ Collective Bargaining Union (PPCB) was born.  The link to join PPCB is now live and we encourage you to take two minutes to follow the link and join up.

PPCB’s intention is to strengthen the bargaining process by joining forces with NZEI, just as PPTA does with SPANZ. It is a given that both unions want the very best outcomes from  the 2022 bargaining round. 

Both unions have canvassed members to develop claims that now need to be shared and sharpened in preparation for bargaining.  Our PPCB Head of Union, Denise Torry, has extended an invitation to meet with the new NZEI General Secretary, NZEI President and Head of Negotiations. 

As we have seen over 25 years with our secondary unions PPTA and SPANZ, our chances of success in collective bargaining will improve when NZEI and PPCB work together. 

Good times coming

If you thought the NZPF Rotorua Conference in 2021 was spectacular then it’s time to get planning for Conference 2022. The date is 14 – 16 September 2022. Conference will be held at the newly completed Te Pai Conference Centre in Christchurch. 

If cost is a problem and you fit the criteria, NZPF offers a number of awards/grants for principals and regional assocations each year. Some are exclusive to U1-3 schools only and others are open to a wider group.  Check out the NZPF awards offerings HERE.

Because you have all been consumed with staying afloat through waves of COVID, we have extended the deadlines this year for Don Le Prou awards and the Tauri Morgan Memorial awards.  Follow the link HERE to the application form(s). 

You will recognise it is very different from most forms you are filling out at present because this one is exclusively for your benefit!

 Take care, keep calm and let us hope that by the end of March we will find ourselves in less turbulant times.