Kia ora koutou,

I want to acknowledge the way principals across the country have pulled together these past weeks, to focus their aroha and support on their colleagues affected by Cyclone Gabrielle. The emergency, and with it, the adrenalin rush, is over now, and the recovery and clean up has begun.  As every Cantabrian will tell you, this is the tough stage, the grind stage. People are still fragile yet must find strength to get through.  I will be visiting affected regions this week to see what else we can do to awhi and support our colleagues as they push through the aftermath of this devastating cyclone.  

I want to share the thoughts of two important people I have met in the past two weeks.  The first is Rachel Bolstad, an NZCER researcher on environmental sustainability. We had an enlightening session, especially in the context of  Cyclone Gabrielle. Rachel and her NZCER colleagues taught me that we must educate our young people in the science of climate change so they have the skills and knowledge to sustain our planet into the future. She says, a key to achieving this is empowering the voice of young people and communities to pressure the Government to implement a low emissions economy, before it is too late. It is a subject so central to our existence, Rachel says, we should be integrating climate change across all our curriculum subjects. Look out for more information from Rachel’s research in future issues of NZ Principal magazine this year.

The second important person I met with is Nancy Bell.  Nancy is one of the Ministry’s Hautu for the South Island and Wellington region. We discussed learning support needs and how to systematize learning support. It has always been a challenge. We never have enough Teacher Aides, behavioural experts, RTLB, specialists, trauma training, counsellors, LSCs and every school would love to have a SENCO.  The other problem plaguing our learning support systems is how inequitable they are. Despite the Government having put in more funding than ever before, it is still not enough. The level and volume of need rises every year. We all want to be inclusive; we just don’t have the resources or personnel around us to do that well. Our Tamariki deserve better.

Highest Needs Review

The ‘Highest Needs Review’ report, which went to Cabinet in November 2022, outlines the direction of the travel for developing the system of support. This includes seven building blocks:

1. A new service delivery system
2. Customised, tailored support.
3. An integrated and inclusive schooling network
4. Learning supports for Māori and Pacific whānau and families developed by Māori and Pacific people.
5. A confident, capable workforce with the capacity to respond
6. A new funding model to support a tailored and flexible approach.
7. Stronger integration with other agencies

The next stage will be to share early thinking and conceptual options so that a business case can be formed.  NZPF will ensure your voice is heard and that the realities we face on the ground are articulated.

Transformational change is required and that is the message I gave Nancy.

We also discussed the Curriculum Refresh and how important it is that Principals have PLD on the Curriculum Refresh before running Teacher Only Days in the second term.  My special thanks to Nancy for responding early by setting up training sessions with Principals and Curriculum Leads in her region. This has been followed up by other Regions offering “Train the Trainers” seminars. More opportunities and resources to support Principals with the Teacher Only Days will be discussed later this week, in a special forum, where I will represent you.

Streaming no longer fashionable

On Monday March 6, I was honoured to visit Te Whare o Te Waipounamu. - the tribal headquarters of Ngāi Tahu in Ōtautahi Christchurch, and meet with the Executive Director, Eruera Tarena, Piripi Pendergast and the team. There were many projects underway, but the most important of the day was Tokona Te Raki - ending streaming. The team has developed a superb model of social change – Te Korekoreka.

Streaming is an ingrained practice in New Zealand’s education system and is now outdated. Research shows that streaming has destructive consequences for many tamariki, particularly Māori and Pacific students. Over the past two years, Tokona te Raki (Māori Futures Collective) has worked with key education agencies, organizations, and stakeholders to develop an action plan to remove streaming from our education system. The launch of this action plan will take place in Otautahi on March 20, 2023.

We have now had our second national executive meeting of the year. Below, each of our four pou report to you on their work progress. 

Ngā Pou E Whā 

To listen, to learn, to act.

Pou Tahi - Leadership Strategy

Jason Miles, Tracy Fraser, Stephanie Thompson, Leanne Otene 

Rāngai Tumuaki, Amo Hauora - National Hauora Campaign Strategy.

As we have outlined previously, one of the first priorities to support our Rāngai Tumuaki, Amo Hauora - National Hauora Campaign Strategy is to gather baseline data on Tumuaki Hauora. NZPF has already sent you a link to a short survey to measure your ‘wellbeing temperature’. Specifically, we are looking to find out how supported you feel in your principal’s role.

To those who responded to the survey, thank you. To those who haven’t, here is the link again. It will take you less than five minutes to complete the survey.

Alongside the regionally based leadership advisors in schools, Iona Holsted has announced the appointment of a Chief Advisor, Tim White, to provide a strong link between these kaimahi and the central Ministry. He will help coordinate and develop the leadership advisory service. Tim has been Principal of Frimley School in Hastings for the past eight years. NZPF is confident that as Tim is a recent Principal and his team are our colleagues they will make a significant difference in supporting Principals’ leadership development.  Leanne will meet with Tim regularly to discuss the work of his team.

Pou Rua - NZ Curriculum refresh - Te Mātaiaho

Heidi Hayward, Karen Brisco, Jen Rodgers, Blair Dravitski 

In February, the NZPF Executive met with key members of the team implementing the rollout of the Curriculum Refresh | Te Mātaiaho. They fully understand the need for fidelity and a sensible pace around the rollout of the new documents. Heidi Hayward has joined Stephanie Thompson on the Curriculum Voices Team to ensure that NZPF is well represented in this space. 

We can provide you with some updates hot off the press. Te Mātaiaho | The Curriculum Refresh has been signed off today (March 14) and hardcopy will be in our schools very soon, potentially as early as next week. The very clear message from the hui today is that the first teacher-only day is intended as an opportunity to at least open the document and explore WHY we are refreshing our curriculum. There will be MOE resources coming before the end of the term that we can use to deliver mahi on the teacher-only day. We are not expected to be experts by the start of term 2. It is important to also remember that the release of the document signals the start of the next engagement and feedback phase, which is mid-March to mid-May, so it's really important that you let us know what you think so we can continue to feed back to the MoE team.

Pou Toru- Students / Ākonga / Inclusive Education

Shane Buckner, John Bangma, Phil Palfrey, Gavin Beere

Positive Behaviour for Learning (PB4L) “initiatives help parents, whānau, teachers, early childhood centres, schools and kura address behaviour, improve children's well-being, and increase educational achievement.”  

Executive members attend the PB4L Sector Reference Group and recently attended the PB4L School-Wide cluster days in Rotorua. The goal of the day was to have attendees share their ideas on how their schools were developing systems and approaches at either the Tier 1 or Tier 2 level. 

While recognising the challenges, Principals / SLTs and Boards whose schools are involved in PB4L are encouraged to lead and support their PB4L teams. The PB4L Conference will not be held this year but NZAIMS is likely to be coordinating this in 2024. 

To gain an oversight to the background of  PB4L - School Wide and the Seven Essential Features of the framework refer to the manual

Pou Wha- Policy, Constitution and Legal

Hayley Read, Julie Hepburn, Cherie Taylor-Patel 

During the recent weather events, Civil Defence has had a huge role in helping schools navigate unforeseen disasters.   We are currently focused on advocating for more systemic support for principals dealing with emergencies. A representative from Civil Defence has been invited to attend an NZPF Executive meeting to share what they have learned from the recent ‘State of Emergency’ events.  This, and discussions with regional principal groups, will inform our advocacy for national disaster toolkits for schools. This could include generators or simple communication systems, for example.  If you have any suggestions about civil defence resources that you believe should be mandatory in all schools, please email office@nzpf.ac.nz.

Leanne sent the Secretary of Education, Iona Hosted, an extensive list of actions on how Principals, their staff and communities could be better supported in an emergency. These covered staffing, wellbeing of principals and tamariki, property, resources, financial aid, on the ground supports and ongoing assistance. We thank Iona for responding so positively to these suggestions. We know that we can all learn from the experience of natural disasters. It is what we do with that learning that counts.

Principal workforce research on principal workload, completed in 2022, has recently been shared with the Australian Primary Principal Association Executive and the New Zealand Ministry of Education leadership team.  How to use the findings to inform the next steps in advocacy for changes to principal workloads will be explored in the coming weeks.