Kia ora e te whānau

Welcome to term 3! To say I am excited is an understatement. On Monday 2 August, we kick off the NZPF National Conference in Rotorua. Over 700 delegates, business partners, sponsors, and special guests will descend on the Energy Events Centre for a very special 3 days of learning, networking, and celebration.

The privilege of principalship is immense. The gift of working with young people provides principals with the impetus to keep leading - it is important work! However, only this past week I was speaking with a newly appointed principal who commented that she hadn’t realised how lonely principalship was.  

The antidote to isolation is connection and relationships - being part of a community of like-minded professionals who experience the same challenges. Sharing the problems of practice, the successes, the frustrations, and ideas for change and growth is critical. In a schooling system as decentralized as ours, connections are vital.

We are in a period of significant educational change. Pedagogical, curriculum and cultural change assert themselves forcefully and we need to be clear about what all this means in our leadership of schooling. This conference is packed with information that will highlight current issues and encourage you, as the educational leader in your community, to be bold in charting the pathway forward. Such a goal reflects the kaupapa we have been growing over the past few years - to be muscular in our leadership, as a connected community of practice-based leaders.

If you are unable to make it to conference this year, then look out for the presentations and papers post conference. We will make these available to all members.

If you are attending, I look forward to seeing you soon.

Ngā manaakitanga

Perry Rush
perry@nzpf.ac.nz