Kia ora e te whānau

Central King Country Principals
Yesterday the wonderful folk of the Central King Country Principals’ Association warmly welcomed me to Taumarunui. Thank you for hosting me and sharing your local school concerns with me.

Just as the Green Party Leader was championing the allocation of $11.7m to expand the private fee paying Green School in rural Taranaki,  I was listening to the story of a public school in the King Country that has been waiting 2 years to have roof leaks fixed. The incongruity of this did not escape me, nor the many Taranaki principals pinging emails off to Ministers to vent their outrage.

We all know of overcrowded schools with students in halls, in broken, cold, and mouldy rooms. The Central King Country Principals tell me they are struggling to get the most basic of property projects attended to. Aside from the paucity of property funding, especially for small schools, they simply cannot find contractors to do the work, so property improvement grinds to a halt.

There are many isolated, rural schools in our country where principals don’t have access to the investment that larger population centres enjoy. It is our job to point out that the children in these schools are no less deserving of a healthy school environment than young people being schooled in larger urban regions.

The Government has noted the need for investment in public school property and earlier in the year funded additional money for property, based on roll, up to a cap of $400,000.

For the Government to be approving property investment of $11.7 million of public money to a fee paying, private, profit making business, when we have such high property needs in our public schools, does not sit comfortably with principals. No wonder there was such a visceral howl of outrage!  Every public school in the Taranaki region could have fixed their leaks, mould and overcrowding for that money and replaced their coal fired boilers for a cleaner version of heat. Now that I would expect the Green Party to support.

Student Wellbeing in the Digital World
The NZPF Executive recently met with two amazing parents, Rob Cope and Zareen Sheikh-Cope. Rob and Zareen are filmmakers who have self-funded a powerful documentary on the impact of pornography on young people. The documentary is honest, confronting and moving. As parents, Rob and Zareen have acted on a conviction to do something about the digital porn culture so prevalent in our society. They are quite simply, impressive people. This meeting prompted an opportunity for the NZPF Executive to discuss the challenges our young people confront online and identify our responsibilities as teachers and adults to ensure our students are safe.

As a consequence, NZPF in conjunction with Linewize are hosting a free roundtable webinar discussion for School Leaders on Tuesday 8th September 2020 @ 3:45pm.

Presented by NZPF & Linewize, this free webinar will bring together key stakeholders and experts to discuss the issue of student wellbeing in the digital world.

School leaders will come away from this event equipped with a better understanding of how to identify and respond to areas of concern related to digital wellbeing, and practical ways to engage and support their school community in cyber safety.

The roundtable discussion will feature:
Perry Rush – President NZPF
Paul Engles - Principal, Kohimarama School
Jordan Foster - Clinical psychologist and founder of ySafe, cyber safety education
Rob Cope & Zareen Sheikh-Cope - Parents and creators of the documentary 'Our Kids Online: Porn, Predators & How to Keep Them Safe'
Saunil Hagler - NZ Education Director of Linewize by Family Zone

Please follow this link to register for this free educative webinar.

Constitution Change
From 7 August to 24 August, NZPF financial members voted, in a binding electronic ballot, on a change to the NZPF constitution.  The change allows a dedicated position on the NZPF Executive for a Tumuaki Māori, endorsed by Te Akatea Incorporated Executive (the New Zealand Māori Principals’ Association Executive).

I am proud that you, as school leaders have recognised the appropriateness of this change and voted in favour of the motion. Whilst a constitutional change requires two-thirds agreement, your votes exceeded that proportion with 860 in agreement and 104 disagreeing.

The NZPF national executive also endorsed the motion which is consistent with upholding our obligations under Te Tiriti o Waitangi and ensures that a Māori voice is heard in our deliberations.   

Choosing to formalise structures for NZPF that honour tangata whenua demonstrates a point of growth and maturity for the Federation.

Thank you for your support for this important change to our constitution.

Survey Reminder
Earlier this week we sent out a special flyer with a link to the post Road Show survey. The survey should take no longer than six minutes to complete.  Please add your voice to the survey which will give weight to our advocacy on your behalf.

In case you have overlooked the flyer, here is the link again.

We are well into the third term now. Remember to take care of yourselves and your staff as we continue to learn how to live with the challenging COVID-19 virus.

Ngā manaakitanga

Perry Rush
perry@nzpf.ac.nz