Kia ora e te whānau

I was treated to some wonderful southern hospitality this week as the NZPF road trip progressed to Christchurch, Dunedin, Invercargill, and concluded in Queenstown.

Traversing the length of the country over the past few weeks has proven what I already knew. Principals are inspirational and aspirational. Inspirational, because you commit your working life to nurturing the wellbeing and success of young people and aspirational, because there is no deficit in your hopes and dreams for a better resourced and better enabled profession.

That bodes well for young people.

From the huge gathering of principals at the start of the road trip in Te Tai Tokerau  to the straight-talking southerners in Southland, we share a frustration that decisions are frequently taken about our work by those who are disconnected with the reality of schooling.

Our message to Government and to our Ministry of Education is that we are proven leaders. We are trusted leaders. We are professional and we know what we are doing and what we need to do better.

We do not need more advice, more systems imposed on schooling, and more compliance!

We need to be trusted.

Trust is Government engaging with the profession about what we require so that policies that make the biggest impact on young people’s wellbeing and success can be funded. 

Trust is our Ministry of Education collaborating with principals. Collaboration is not consultation. It is two entities having genuine and equal opportunity to influence outcomes.

Trust is having the most serious and difficult issues, solved by Government and the profession in a timely manner.

Trust is backing principals to succeed.

It is a strange anomaly of powerful decision-makers that the more powerful and influential they are, the more disconnected they become from those they serve. Humility is a powerful leadership trait and we look to our political masters for their open and genuine interest in principals’ practice-based experience.

As the national election looms, we look to the next three years to achieve important outcomes and with the promise of a redesigned and revitalised Ministry of Education, principals are well-placed to partner with Government to make progress at pace on the issues that matter. We invite politicians and the Ministry of Education to build on the positive relationship established with principals through the COVID-19 crisis and genuinely work to change the broken, tired, top-down, low-trust modus operandi of the past.

As we close off the most extraordinary of terms and the most extraordinary of circumstances, I would like to thank you for your outstanding leadership. I am proud of your achievements and your mana. You are certainly due a rest so please take these two weeks to turn the noise off and recharge.

I look forward to picking up the issues again in term three and continuing to advocate for you in Wellington.

Let’s be ambitious for the young people in our care: He mate kāhu kōrako-desire the hawk with white feathers.

Ngā manaakitanga

Perry Rush
perry@nzpf.ac.nz