Ko Tāne pupuke.
Tāne is welling up.
Designs, thought and plans are springing up in profusion

We have just celebrated Queen’s Birthday weekend and with it the Queen’s Birthday honours.  My warmest congratulations to all educators who received awards and special congratulations to Patrick Walsh who receives the honour of Member of the Order (MNZM).  Patrick is currently Principal of Sacred Heart College in Auckland, and was briefly an NZPF national executive member. He also serves on the Governance Board of the Teaching Council and has been a former President of SPANZ. 

Today regional presidents and cluster leaders from across the country have descended on Wellington for the NZPF annual MOOT.  A tradition begun in 1993, the MOOT is more of a discussion than an adjudicated Moot.  Education Ministers of the day are invited to address the Regional Presidents, to share their priorities for education and Regional Presidents have the opportuity to ask questions of the Minister(s). Much of the day is spent discussing education issues and feeding back regional views, aspirations and ideas.

Looking back, the same issues are raised again and again.  But this year, there is a sense that while issues are the same, there is a possibility that we can make progress; to work with the MOE and other organizations and co-construct solutions to better support our tamariki.  Why?

We are rebuilding - 

Through the disruption of a pandemic, we have changed how we work at school.  Because of logistics, time, energy and COVID, principals continue to prioritize what is most important and focus on that.  Lots of layering of ‘other stuff’ has been stripped out, has fallen away, has been buried and is ‘gone’ – at least for now.  Principals have been focused on how to support learning – at school and at home and on supporting teachers and staff to support learning – at school and at home.

The MOE are engaged -

At the same time the MOE has significantly shifted its ‘modus operandum’.  Across the country, MOE regional leaders have become real people, who have shared information through ZOOM sesssions.  They have listened to principals’ questions and concerns and then looked at how best to address them.  Not being ‘miracle workers’ they have done what they can with the resources they have.  But, what has happened is they are facing the sector.  They have engaged with the sector.  They have worked hard to be responsive to the sector.

What to drop – what to keep -

As we look ahead, we need to make sure we are not too hasty in picking up all the missing pieces and shoving them back into the jigsaw that represents how schools worked ‘pre-covid’.  We need to carefully review the pieces that fell away and decide whether or not they are still ‘fit for purpose’.  From what we used to do, what has enough value to stay?  If we have different learning priorities now because of COVID, do we need to build a new jigsaw that better meets the needs of our staff and students?

True collaboration works best -

At a systems level, the pandemic has accelerated our understanding of collaberative models that can be used to develop new knowledge.  To share knowledge is one thing.  To use the knowledge of the practitioners, the MOE and expert providers to create new knowledge together could create a stronger, truer and more enduring collaborative way of working.  We have created the blueprint with COVID.  We now need to apply this collaborative, co-constructed template to the ‘Curriculum Refresh’, leadership PLD, principal wellbeing, special needs, learning support, reengaging students in learning and mental health initiatives.

Could this be the taonga that comes from the legacy of a global pandemic?