Kia ora e te whānau

I am proudly wearing my pink shirt today to support the message of Kōrero Mai, Kōrero Atu, Mauri Tū, Mauri Ora - Speak Up, Stand Together, Stop Bullying!

Celebrated annually around the globe, Pink Shirt Day began in Canada in 2007 when two students took a stand against homophobic bullying, after a peer was bullied for wearing a pink shirt. 

Let’s all commit to our schools being places where young people, staff and community, feel safe, valued and respected.

Reported rates of bullying in our schools are high! We have to call out bullying and create safe school environments that celebrate difference.

I know principals care deeply about this, so let’s keep pushing hard and work for change.

Yesterday I attended the Budget Lockdown at Parliament followed by the Secretary of Education’s briefing at the Ministry of Education. I was keen to learn about the Government’s response to NZPF’s strong calls for support for young people in crisis.

At the NZPF Moot 2021, Minister Tinetti committed to short, medium, and long-term solutions for behaviour.

I was pleased to note the following in the Vote Education 2021 Budget:

• $24.3million to provide intensive support for our most vulnerable young learners at risk of disengaging with their learning
• $17.7million of reprioritised funding to support young learners with wellbeing and behavioural needs that may be challenging to others
• $4.4million to support alternative education services

The $24.3million provides additional funding to improve provision of services in communication, behaviour and early intervention. This funding increase will have impact on more young people.

The $17.7million will provide for a targeted increase in the number of places for the Intensive Wraparound Services (IWS). This is a direct short-term response to the call for more immediate help for behaviour. I was pleased to learn that the Ministry had completed a close analysis of the concern’s principals had raised over the past few months through their examples of challenge and crisis with students. This analysis sought to drill down on the issues so that an immediate response could be generated that would provide the best targeted support. I am pleased to report that the Ministry recognises we need a referral pathway into IWS, that occurs at pace, when our most challenging young people are building to a crisis. To this end the Ministry will be working up an urgent referral process.

I am also pleased with the Ministry’s commitment to stabilising the current alternative education options while the whole alternative education system is redesigned. I asked Minister Tinetti if the redesign would include alternative education options for primary and intermediate students and she confirmed, it would.

This is wonderful news. Principals have been calling for young people to have education options outside of the classroom so that we are not forced to suspend or exclude seriously traumatized young people displaying violent behaviour.

Minister Tinetti indicated that a further rollout of Te Tupu Managed Moves was being considered but that she needed more time to work through the redesign of alternative education.

I am pleased that Minister Tinetti has acknowledged the problem of dealing with complex young people and violent behaviour. I am pleased that this Budget shows the Government is listening, has provided a short-term response and has a plan for a more significant system response.

I acknowledge Minister Tinetti’s integrity in responding to the concerns we have raised on your behalf. As a former principal, she understands the challenges of serious behaviour.

We now shift our focus to working with Government to further increase short-term resourcing for behaviour and progress the urgent redesign of alternative education.

Further provision of Learning Support Coordinators was not supported in Budget 2021. This is a glaring anomaly and inequitable. Ensuring this inequity is remedied is a major goal.

Also of significance for principals is the implementation of the Tomorrow’s Schools recommendations to overhaul the Ministry - so it can refocus on serving schools through Education Service Agencies (ESA) - and institute a curriculum centre. 

With a curriculum refresh underway, the work of this new curriculum centre will be pivotal. I am however less excited about the ‘online curriculum hub’.

What we most need for schools to deliver a world class quality curriculum, is a team of expert curriculum advisors on the ground, not another website resource.

We have excellent curriculum subject experts working in our profession now, and they are the people who can make the curriculum refresh work. A curriculum centre staffed with practising educators who can lead in each curriculum discipline is key. We need to solve the plug-in between curriculum leadership and professional learning. Currently that link is broken, and we have a free-for-all PLD market-place.

At the Ministry of Education briefing yesterday we were informed that it is the intention of the Ministry to employ 48 new Advisors in the Education Service Agencies (ESA), at this stage they have yet to be designated ‘curriculum’ or ‘leadership’ and will be appointed by mid-2024. The exact detail around their role and relationship to professional learning is yet to be understood. We know the Ministry of Education has signaled the building of the ESA model in partnership with the profession starting in the second half of 2021 so we look forward to participating in this process. We want to once again establish a curriculum advisory service that provides the professional leadership in curriculum and pedagogy that our profession so sorely needs. 

We look forward to learning more from the Secretary for Education. Waiting until 2024 before the provision of advisors is not a timely response to the urgent need for expert curriculum leadership and we urge the Government to provide the funding to establish these services at pace.

Ngā manaakitanga

Perry Rush
perry@nzpf.ac.nz