14 August 2017

Newsletter Articles

Principals supporting Principals… Principals supporting Principles!

Kia Ora

Please find this week’s Monday Mailing below.

We are 4 weeks in, hope the term is going well!

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

Kind regards
Tony

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WPA Dates

Rant and Rave…

Isn’t it great someone decided that the decile system has been a blight on the education horizon for many years and it needed changing. Thank you Minister of Education for putting the final nail in this coffin and we can bury this for good.

Having attended a primary school where the majority of students from the close neighbourhood attended (likewise for the other surrounding local schools). I hope this is the first step forward to get back to what an equal opportunity society is all about. Then, it did not matter which side of the economic divide your parents came from, we all attended the local school and every school was seen as a great school.

The school I attended was in an area with a large state housing block (social housing in todays’ terms) on two boundaries and owner occupied on the others. Today unfortunately the area is not seen so desirable. The council having only compounded this by allowing firstly infill housing thirty years ago and now average quality high density housing. However, the biggest influence is always the decile rating, once allocated, and lower than surrounding schools, the perception for parents is the school down the road must be better.

It is upon us as educational leaders to make sure the system that replaces the decile system does not lead us down this path again. It still concerns me that the Government will be looking to ERO to inform the public on how well the local school is doing. I feel their focus is so narrow it does not really give a true picture of what a school is all about. Perhaps we should just ask Real Estate agents. (They must spend their spare time visiting all the schools in the area and critiquing the teachers, programmes, ERO reports, etc).

It has taken us many years to get into this mess that the decile system has caused and I imagine it will now take many years to get out of it. Is it now only aspirational that every child should attend their local school? This will only happen when every school is funded equitably so no matter where a parent sends their child they have the same educational opportunities.

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

Hmmm…

Hauora… Health & Happiness

A Reading…

A Laugh

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