7 August 2017

Newsletter Articles

Principals supporting Principals… Principals supporting Principles!

Kia Ora

Please find this week’s Monday Mailing below.

Thank you to those sending in readings and thoughts related to education issues!

You can access all previous Monday Mailings by clicking here or going to the link below in your web browser.

Kind regards

Tony

Catch up Day

Catch- Up Day Term 3 2017 – Term 2 20

Date: Thursday 7th Sept
Venue: Claudelands Event Centre, Corner of Brooklyn Road and Heaphy Terrace, Claudelands

Programme:

Profile of Keynote speaker

Nathan Mikaere -Wallis has a professional background in child counselling, teaching and social service management.

Until recently he lectured in Human Development at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand and was also a board member and senior trainer with the highly respected Brainwave Trust. In 2010 he founded a private training consultancy, Nathan Wallis Ltd, with the goal of facilitating easy to understand professional development training reflecting the latest neuroscience discoveries and their practical implications for everyday practice.

Since then he has been in hot demand, delivering in excess of 150 presentations every year throughout New Zealand and Australia. He has developed a reputation as a lively and engaging speaker who uses humour and plain language to make this complex topic come to life.

Sponsor note

The next CORE Breakfast is on 17 August with Philippa Nicoll Antipas presenting a seminar and workshop on How might design thinking develop life-long learning?

This CORE breakfast seminar will explore how the inquiry approach of design thinking offers rich opportunities in both process and outcome for schools to empower lifelong learners of all ages.

The workshop will take a deep dive into a design thinking challenge. This will involve playing with a design thinking methodology and adopting design thinking mindsets to explore a self-selected challenge around creating an inquiry for learners or designing professional learning for teachers.

Jo Wilson | Senior Consultant | Expert Partner | Accredited Facilitator
CORE Education Ltd, Hamilton
M: 021 278 0768 | W: 07 949 9513 | E: jo.wilson@core-ed.ac.nz
W: http://www.core-ed.org | FB: http://www.facebook.com/coreeducation

WPA Dates

Rant –

Career Framework

There have been a number of articles in the media recently about real wages and salaries in New Zealand failing to grow and that people are increasingly poorer. I strongly think that the NZEI should be focussing on delivering as substantial increases as possible to all teachers’ salaries, rather than developing a career framework. I think increases for all is the best equity the NZEI can negotiate for the membership.

I cannot see the government now or in the future (of any colour) significantly increasing vote education. Therefore, the cost of such things as a career framework will eat into vote education, decreasing the amount available to substantially increasing real wages and salaries for all members.

We hear about the pressure of finding teachers in Auckland, this is another reason to maximise salary rates for all teachers, to try and keep our teachers in Auckland and indeed New Zealand.

I believe we already have a career structure in education. Schools have positions of responsibility, and units already exist that can and are given to classroom teachers for undertaking leadership in learning and teaching. There are levels for size of school and experience for principals. Perhaps an easier option is to increase the number of units in primary schools to the same level as in secondary schools. This would be a valuable campaign for the NZEI to undertake on behalf of primary teachers.

I am concerned that adding another layer of career structure will further discourage teachers from developing their careers through the existing structure. In the past the NZEI has highlighted the fact that many of our teachers don’t want to take on leadership roles and this initiative will exacerbate this situation in my view. Only lately I have heard of successful schools having difficulty attracting applicants for positions of responsibility. Do we want rudderless schools and a resulting career structure that doesn’t promote leadership and principal-ship?

Aligning a career structure that is transferable from one school to another is only likely to exacerbate the problem above. It may also trap teachers in schools as schools advertising for positions look to employ the cheapest teacher, especially if it is a board of trustees funded position which we are seeing more and more of due to lack of resourcing. Perhaps the NZEI would be better off using our resources to campaign for a greater percentage of vote education reaching schools in the current system (operations funding and teachers’ salaries), I understand from the Parliamentary Library currently around 46% of vote education directly reaches schools (percentage that is falling).

From what I have read to date I fear this initiative would add another level of bureaucracy and increased workloads for those already in leadership positions. I am certain that the Ministry of Education and New Zealand School Trustees Association as agents of neoliberal politicians will require measures, standards and accountability be attached to this career structure and we know who will be made responsible to meet these demands. I ask the NZEI if they will be advocating additional management time to administer a new career structure.

I am very concerned that the career structure concept will be linked to some kind of performance indicators / pay. Can the NZEI guarantee to the membership there will not be some element of performance pay aligned to the proposed career structure?

Further, I am concerned that the career structure may cause new competition between teachers which could well lead to teachers not wanting to collaborate, share resources, ideas and effective teaching strategies to raise student achievement.

I wonder if the career structure might be tied to funding allocated through communities of learning. This would be a very worrying development. Can the NZEI guarantee members that it would not be part of a process that allowed this to happen.

I also wonder about the intent and sincerity of this consultation. Will the NZEI actually listen to the membership? Will the NZEI walk away from it if members aren’t supportive. The NZEI didn’t listen to members when it came to CoLs.

In conclusion I think about what my socialist forebears would say to a union - look after the rank and file, shy away from further developing elitist structures that promote one over another in the workplace, better wages and conditions for all.

Note: Opinions expressed in The Rant are those of a colleague and not necessarily those of the WPA.

Term 3 Bilingual resources available now!

Arahia Books are helping teachers and children all over New Zealand to add value to their Māori language programme. Term 3’s titles are ready to purchase.

This term’s stories are based on two kaupapa: Ngā Tau (Maths) and Te Huarere (Weather). We believe your teachers and students will love the engaging storylines.

E tipu e rea (As we grow) is about ages and stages of education from baby to adult.

Te Huarere (The Weather) is about the different weather throughout Aotearoa.

To see more about these new resources, including some pages from each book, you can visit our website.

Each resource pack includes a big book with teachers’ notes, 10 small books for group work, a set of A4 size flashcards for vocabulary recognition and a downloadable link containing digital and audio files, as well as a template for a mini book version for children to make and take home. You can purchase full resource packs or a combination of the individual items. Details are on the website. We look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks
Sharon Holt

Hmmm…

Hauora… Health & Happiness

A Thought… Leadership

A Laugh

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