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Nau te rourou, Naku te rourou, ka ora ai te tamariki.
With your contribution, and our contribution, the children will be well
We have heard a lot about potholes in our roads lately. Some, we are told, are caused by lack of maintenance; for others, it’s the road surface; or the terrain the roads were built on; or the increase in the capacity of trucks to carry heavier and heavier loads. The fact remains, we have a lot of potholes to fix.
In education we have a ‘pothole issue’ too. The potholes are learning support. For some it’s lost learning time through covid; for others it’s neurodiversity; some are traumatized; others have learning disorders or syndromes. There has been huge growth in the volume of need over time. The fact remains, we have a lot of potholes to fix too.
Unlike the potholes in our roads, learning support needs a complete system overhaul. There are systemic equity issues that predate COVID by many years. Individual schools do their level best to fight their way through the red tape and the gatekeepers in the Ministry, to access meagre pots of funding that never come close to meeting the growing needs in their schools. They tap into additional support through community agencies, where they are available, but rarely are the full resources needed to ‘dig these youngsters out of their learning pit-holes’, easily accessible. Schools already advantaged through the generosity of their school community, that can afford fully released SENCOs (for example), are likely to do better. Smaller schools in less affluent communities, with fewer resources, are likely to have a higher proportion of students requiring learning support. They cannot possibly meet the increasing needs. The inequities are profound.
Linked to the lack of funding is the lack of specialists and specialist programmes. This is not a new problem either. The sector has been shouting about the lack of educational psychologists, speech language therapists, specialists in dyslexia and dyspraxia and a host of other learning issues, for years. As a country we have simply not trained enough of these people, nor have we provided enough specialist training for registered teachers wanting to work in these areas.
COVID brought a new category of learning support needs. These needs relate to the less advantaged young people, who, during lockdowns and home-learning periods, did not have access to digital devices and other resources and are now woefully behind. They now need catch-up learning support.
As we look ahead, our first step is to employ more Learning Support Coordinators in schools. These have been promised and we look forward to the next tranche addressing some of the equity issues. Secondly, is the Te Rito National Special Needs data base. Only with the database in place will we know the real extent of learning needs across the motu and be able to more accurately target resources.
One way to speed up this process is for the Te Rito team to share the database they have developed with all schools now. If all schools were using a database that has consistent criteria definitions for different types of learning need, schools could then provide the numbers needed to identify the extent of the need across the system. Together we can then get our students out of the ‘learning pits’ and onto smooth roads of learning.
Grant Applications for Rural Principals' Groups
It’s a busy time for you all but it is also time to apply for a rural grant. The process is simple and well worth the $1,000 you will get for your next rural seminar or conference. Applications close on 1 November so apply today!
A new date for Nelson Roadshow and the Final ZOOM Webinar
Last term, the Nelson mathematics roadshow seminar, led by Rob Proffit-White (MOE), was cancelled, due to weather affecting travel. It has been rescheduled for Term 4:
Date: 29 November 2022
Venue: Beachside Conference Centre, Nelson
Time: 9:00am – 1:00pm (approx)
Please RSVP, for this new date and time, even if you had already done so for the Term 3 seminar.
RSVP: office@nzpf.ac.nz
Rob Proffit-White's final instalment of his ZOOM Hui's complementing the key messages of the recent NZPF Maths roadshow will be held on Monday 7th November. Details and the ZOOM link are below.
Monday 7th November 3:30 – 4.15pm – Using big ideas to create low floor/high ceiling tasks
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85133109112?pwd=NFBTZDNoR2RtY0VEdXh4dFhqUm5ydz09
Wondering of the Week:
To what extent has your school been able to develop specialised learning programmes throughout the year, to address ‘gaps in learning’ and address the needs of neuro-diverse students?
Results of last Week's poll:
Ngā manaakitanga
Cherie Taylor-Patel
cherie.taylor-patel@nzpf.ac.nz
NZ Principal Magazine also Online
You and/or your team members can easily access the NZ Principal Magazines online, as an e-magazine or as a PDF. Additionally you can search for a previous issue, an article by title or by the author of the article. All magazines back to Term 1 2012 are available in this format. To view or search click here.
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