He aroha whakatō, he aroha ka puta mai.

If kindness is sown, then kindness is what you shall receive.

Kia ora e te whānau

This week I am in Adelaide attending the Australian Primary Principals’ Association Conference. It has been great to meet a number of New Zealand colleagues at the Conference. Maintaining relationships with our international colleagues has always been mutually beneficial to us as an organization.

Through our connections with the International Confederation of Principals (ICP) in the 1990s, we were able to support the Irish school principals to form their national organization of principals, the Irish Primary Principals Network (IPPN). Just last year they were able to share with us the structures for their Leadership Centre which will help us as we begin to establish our own Leadership College.

Through our connections with the National Association of Head Teachers in the UK, we learned about the establishment, growth and direction of their Academy (Charter) schools and their grouping of them under a Multi-Academy Trust (MATs) system which has seen the decimation of the public schooling system in the UK. We were able to see the parallels and the threats to our own public education system and warn of these, as Charter schools began to spring up in our own country.

Connections with our Australian colleagues meant we took an NZPF delegation to New South Wales in 2015 to examine their leadership advisory system which we were able to use as a basis to establishing the Principal Leadership Advisory that we now have operating through Evaluation Associates.

I do not doubt that by the time I return from Adelaide, there will be more learnings to share.

Learning Support Coordinators (LSCs)

Since the announcement of the first LSCs allocation, many of you have expressed your concerns that the allocation was not by greatest need.

Many have also complained that the LSC funding is not being distributed as staffing, so that you can fund your own existing SENCOs.

All of these objections have reached Minister Martin, who is responsible for the LSC initiative.

She has now written to me and to the PPTA and NZEI presidents to explain.  I will summarise her main points:

1. The Minister is committed to the decisions made.
2. The LSC role emerged from the Select Committee Inquiry into identifying support for young people with dyslexia, dyspraxia and autism spectrum disorders.
3. The committee identified the need for a dedicated, funded, full time learning support role in schools (funded separately, not through staffing entitlement). This decision was further reinforced by the Education Conversation last year and feedback on the Learning Support Action Plan.
4. LSCs will identify and plan for the learning support needs and bring in specialist help to support classroom teachers. They will be responsible for the school’s learning support register.
5. The allocation of the first 600 LSCs was made in the context of the Learning Support Delivery Model.  
6. The Learning Support Delivery Model is a collaborative model designed to identify local needs, plan support based on what works and make best use of resources available in each community to meet the learning support needs for all students.
7. The allocation of the first 600 LSCs was made on the basis of clusters that had made the most progress in the Delivery Model at the end of 2018, along with other important factors such as achieving the right mix to enable us to thoroughly test this role in a wide range of settings.
8. It was never intended that this first tranche would provide coverage for 2,500 schools at a ratio of 1:500.
9. This is a high trust model and she asks that Boards and principals to make decisions collaboratively for their local communities. She wants to minimize compliance obligations on schools and clusters.
10. Before the second tranche she will be seeking feedback and insights on experiences gained from this first roll-out including allocation processes
11. She does not intend to pause the implementation of this first tranche of LSCs which would lead to delays in learners receiving the benefits LSCs will provide

I hope the points that Minister Martin has made help clarify both the purpose of the LSCs and why they were allocated in the way they have been.  You may not all agree with the process, but there will be an opportunity to give your feedback before the next tranche is allocated.

As the daylight hours begin to stretch out, so also comes the promise of Spring and new beginnings. I hope you create many opportunities to immerse yourselves and your young people in the wonders and hope of this new growth surrounding you.

Ngā manaakitanga

Whetu Cormick
whetu@nzpf.ac.nz