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Kia ora e te whānau
Only one person holds the ultimate responsibility for what occurs in school and that is you - the principal. No one else experiences, quite like you, the nexus between the beautiful chaos of the human condition and the resourcing and regulations of the schooling model. It is often a confronting experience.
Last week I invited you to wonder about the changes you wanted to see in schooling. Thank you for your prompt and positive feedback and ideas. It is heartening to know that our profession has a strong beating heart.
One wondering that resonated with me came by way of Mary O’Regan, the President of Wellington Intermediate School Principals’ Association (WISPA). Mary questioned the management resourcing applied to primary and intermediate schools as woefully shy of the sort of resourcing required by modern schooling.
Do you remember reading the final report of the independent Tomorrow’s Schools Taskforce?
You might remember reading about the gap between primary and secondary management staffing entitlements in similar sized schools/kura. I had never seen this information so starkly laid bare and it shocked me.
By way of example, a staffing roll of 628 at secondary generates 4.2 FTTE management staffing entitlement compared with 2.5 FTTE in the same sized primary school. I am not bemoaning the level of secondary resourcing, but I am certainly shocked at the significant daylight between the two.
This is what the Tomorrow’s Schools Taskforce had to say about this matter: To achieve equity and excellence, we need all our schools/kura to have effective leadership. Primary schools/kura have not been adequately staffed to provide strong leadership teams.
So, there we go. I agree with you Mary and the Tomorrow’s Schools Taskforce does too!
As the parties to the Ministry/NZEI/PPTA Accord come together to start their work, I expect this anomaly to be dealt with. After all, principal workload is one significant focus of the Accord. Enabling schools to have the staffing resources to meet the challenges of this complex age is a fundamental responsibility of government.
Principals need the support of high-quality leadership/management teams and schools deserve a team that can provide the necessary support and oversight to give our students the best schooling experience possible.
As we start our year off together, remember this. Principals don’t think in grey about how to help kids achieve their dreams, we dream in bright, vivid colours!
Let's work together to make these dreams a reality.
Consultation on the proposed changes to the Teaching Council of Aotearoa New Zealand fees
I met with Lesley Hoskin, Chair of the Teaching Council this past week and amongst other things, discussed the proposed changes to the Teaching Council fees.
Lesley emphasised the importance of understanding the separation necessary from government funding if the Teaching Council is to exercise the full scope of its function as an independent statutory entity. In other words, if the Teaching Council were to continue to be funded in part by government then it would be beholden to the government’s agenda. In this respect there is enormous value in a truly independent Teaching Council to advocate and lead our profession. The degree to which you judge the fee increase to be appropriate is a matter for you however I encourage you to submit feedback using the online survey form by the closing date of 21 February 2020.
I warmly welcome your feedback on any issues. Email me any time to share your ideas.
Ngā manaakitanga
Perry Rush
perry@nzpf.ac.nz
NZPF/APPA Trans-Tasman Conference
The organising committee for the Trans-Tasman Conference met this past week and I am happy to report that New Zealand principals are registering in their droves. This is going to be a great event. I encourage you to register and book up your travel now.
This conference brings together the Australian Primary Principals’ Association (APPA) and the New Zealand Principals’ Federation (NZPF) in Melbourne, 15 -18 September 2020.
The conference theme 'Leading Today For Tomorrow: Creative…Courageous…Connected' encapsulates the joys, challenges and demands of contemporary leadership.
This is a not-to-be-missed opportunity to mix with 1200+ primary school leaders from our two countries as well as international guests.
The conference website can be found here.
Early Bird registrations close Friday 29 May.
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.
Consultation on the Education and Training Bill
You may not be aware that this Bill replaces the Education Act. It is particularly important that you understand the proposed changes and consider making a submission. The Bill is huge with 621 clauses however the section dealing with provision for primary and secondary schooling is Part 3 of the Bill. Much of the Bill is unchanged from the Act. The best way to appraise yourself of the proposed changes is to review this summary.
Submissions must be made by 14 February and can be made here.
NZPF will make a submission on your behalf and we will share this with you in due course. Should you feel strongly about any aspect of the proposed changes then please contact me directly as your perspective will assist us in developing depth and breath as we frame our submission.
My email is perry@nzpf.ac.nz
Digital Technologies Support Tool
The Ministry of Education has recently launched the Digital Technologies Implementation support tool. It can be found here.
NZPF assures its business partners that, as members, you will contact them to have a conversation if you are purchasing products, services or solutions for your schools that a business partner supplies. Please support our partners as their assistance to NZPF means better membership services to you.
