4 April 2016

Newsletter Articles

Principals supporting Principals… Principals supporting Principles!

Kia Ora

Please find this week’s Monday Mailing below.

You can access all Monday Mailings by clicking here or clicking on the Link below:

Kind regards
Pat

Help! Discretionary Leave

I am currently reviewing our school procedural guidelines on Discretionary Leave. I wonder what Policy documents others have around this that they may be willing to share... Has anyone else recently reviewed these procedural guidelines with staff?

What are the guiding principles that you use to make a decision on discretionary leave without pay, given that we are charged .14 for a teacher being absent for a discretionary day?

How has this been communicated with your teachers?

Any help would be greatly appreciated and can be e-mailed directly to me on: principal@vardon.school.nz

Nga mihinui kia koutou

Myra Paton
Principal

WPA Dates

Other Dates

Linc-ed

Welcome to Linc-ed, new bronze partner of the Association

LINC-ED was created by Paul Sibson, a New Zealand Principal who wanted to make it easier to share, analyse and communicate learning. LINC-ED is a unique web app for NZ schools that is designed to be simple, secure and stylish.

Health & Safety

This week we have had our first visit from Worksafe New Zealand. The focus for this visit was school pools. We were all ok in terms of the “normal” checks, pool fences, gates, Hazardous Substance Register etc….the thing they have given our school a “Compliance Order” around is “Safety Data Sheets” for all our Hazardous Substances. We need to have these on file in case of a fire etc so we know what is stored in the school and what chemicals the Fire Department maybe dealing with. Apparently the wording is in relation to be being able to access this information within 10 minutes of being asked. To be clear, having the chemicals listed is on longer good enough, we have to have the Safety Data Sheets that go with the chemicals on file.

Hope that helps people with one of those “hidden” gems our STA/Ministry packs doesn’t highlight. If everyone could share their experiences in regards to “Compliance” I’m sure we can get on top of these “hidden” requirements soon.

Regards

Hamish Fenemor
Principal
Cambridge East Primary School
(07) 827 7651
027 4508 774

NZEI Principal Council

Novopay Inclusion Trial and Test Phase

Approximately 200 Schools who have been selected at random across the sector and have been assigned a single payroll officer who will handle all school matters and will be contactable via a direct dial number. (very similar to how Multiserve functioned)

If your school has been selected as part of this trial and test phase, I would love to hear from you on behalf of the NZEI Principals Council. What I would like to know is number of Waikato schools participating in the trial, School size e.g. U3, U4 etc. and over time receive feedback from participating schools that can be collected and used to share with Principals council at both a regional and national level.

If you are comfortable in sharing your involvement in the trial please email; swilson@puahue.school.nz

NZEI Principal Conference scholarship draw

Congratulations to the lucky 2 recipients;

• Steve Dunsmore - Kaipaki School
• Linda Larsen - Te Poi school.

AP DP Association

We had a great turn out at the first AP/DP Association session at Te Kowhai School last week.

We are pleased to be holding the premier of Screenagers at Pukete School. This doco is open to all members of the community and as overuse of screens is becoming more of an issue we think it will prove popular.

Kind regards,
Carey Huria and the AP/DP Exec and Committee.

NZ Principals Facebook Page

If Principals type in "NZ Principals Closed" in Facebook they can then apply to be part of this group. It has been operating since November last year and currently have about 150 members including a good number from HPA and many others from all around New Zealand and a variety of settings and school sizes.

It is a closed group for Principals only (no consultants or other edu-types!) and one of the group admin (myself or Rachel Boyd from Paparimu School) will make contact to check identity before approving anyone joining.

It is a great way to network, share resources and to have tricky questions answered almost instantly (the one regarding discretionary leave in the last HPA mailout was discussed in some depth recently on the group).

Danny Nicholls
Principal
St Patrick's Taupo
principal@stpatstaupo.school.nz

2016 WPA Subscriptions

You can pay your 2016 WPA subscription by clicking here or going to

Footsteps!!

Rant – Assistive Technology

If a child enrols at your school and requires “assistive technology” such as an iPad or hearing aides, the school must ensure the items are covered under their insurance policy.

In the event the item needs to be replaced, the school then applies to the Ministry of Education for reimbursement of the insurance excess… less $100.

Why should the school pay $100 each time the items gets lost or damages beyond repair, through no fault of the school? Strange policy.

Retiring Principals

Do you know of any Principals retiring in terms 1 or 2? Please email their names to principal@deanwell.school.nz.

Hmmm… What we don’t see!

Hauora… Health & Happiness

A Reading… Rules for Great Teaching – Agree of Disagree?

A Thought – Leadership

A Laugh

Q: What did the buffalo say to her child as he left for school?
A: "Bison!"

Three football teams (Arsnel, Liverpool, and Hartsfield) are flying from England across Egypt for a match in the Middle East. Their plane crashes in the desert and they survive. After days of wandering, they are really hungry so when they come across a camel, the footballers decide to kill it and eat it. The Liverpool team says, "Because we play for Liverpool, will we eat the liver." The Hartsfield players decide, "Because we play for Hartsfield, we will eat the heart." Arsnel says, "I think we might go hungry..."

There were four final year senior students taking chemistry and all of them had an 'A' so far. These four friends were so confident that the weekend before finals, they decided to visit some friends and have a big party. They had a great time but, after all the hearty partying, they slept all day Sunday and didn't make it back to Florida State until early Monday morning.

Rather than taking the final then, they decided that after the final they would explain to their professor why they missed it. They said that they visited friends but on the way back they had a flat tire. As a result, they missed the final. The professor agreed they could make up the final the next day. The guys were excited and relieved. They studied that night for the exam.

The next day the professor placed them in separate rooms and gave them a test booklet. They quickly answered the first problem worth 5 points. Cool, they thought! Each one, in a separate room, thought this was going to be easy ... then they turned the page On the second page was written...

For 95 points: Which tire?

Please support our WPA Business Partners

Please support our WPA Business Partners