24 April 2023

Newsletter Articles

Kia Ora

Welcome to Term 2 of the Monday Mailing. As we move into the second term of our year, I hope this message finds you well and you are energised for the exciting term ahead.

In this edition of the Monday Mailing, we have some important updates and news to share with you, from upcoming events to useful resources, we aim to provide you with the information you need to help your schools and students thrive.

As always, we value your feedback and input and we encourage you to reach out to us with any questions or suggestions you may have.

Thank you for your continued support and we wish you all the best for a successful term!

Nga Mihi
Chrissy Wakeman
Orini Combined School

From our WPA President

Ngā mihi nui i tēnei te wiki tuatahi o te wāhanga hōu. Greetings to you all in our first week of the new term.

I hope you were able to enjoy some well-deserved rest and relaxation over the holiday break.

The Waikato Principals' Association website is about to be updated. This work has been done by Steve Meertens and his team at Website Angels, a Silver sponsor of the WPA.

We look forward to sharing the new website with you.

Registrations are now open on the website for the June Connections Day with Aaron Ironside and the Study Tour to Brisbane from the 2nd to the 5th of August.

Some information about both of these events is available on the WPA website.

In a new series, a WPA member (preferring to remain anonymous) will be sharing various tricks and tips to assist us in our work.

We are sure that you will find the information helps to support the work that you are doing as school leaders.

Finally, a reminder that WPA subs are now due for the 2023 year.

Ngā manaakitanga,

Lesley

Important Dates 2023

Aaron Ironside: Connections Day – Term 2

Lead Counsellor Aaron Ironside has over 5000 hours of counselling experience, drawing on his Masters Degree in Psychology and a range of counselling modalities. He also leads a team of Welfare Officers at the Ports of Auckland.

Hundreds of clients have experienced the transformation found in discovering the truths that heal the pain and brokenness of our past.

Aaron is a diehard fan of the Warriors, American-style BBQ, and Professional Wrestling!

Hundreds of clients have experienced the transformation found in discovering the truths that heal the pain and brokenness of our past.

When things aren’t going well, it’s tempting to think that “the problem is me”, “maybe I’m broken or a bad person?” At Bridge The Gap we don’t believe that’s true. We think the issue is that the gap, between where you are and where you want to be, has become too big.

Most of the time we think that we should be able to handle all of life’s issues by ourselves, but it turns out that sometimes we need a professional counsellor or coach to help us close the gap.

Our team are not guru’s with all the answers. We think you are the biggest expert on your own life, but we might know a thing or two to help you move forward.

Tips & Tricks

The Yin and Yang of Principalship – Balancing management & leadership

It may just be semantics to some, but I believe there is a key difference between management and leadership for school Principals.

Nobody could have said it better than Rear Admiral Grace Hopper (or “Amazing Grace” as she was called).

She said “You manage things; you lead people.”

For principals, we have some key management responsibilities regarding finance, self-review, property and personnel.

Within these managerial areas we can also show real leadership, to ensure we are maximising our resourcing ($$ and time), to then be able to better lead our people, and ensure our staff and tamariki have the best possible resources.

Over the coming weeks/months, I will look to share a few tips and things to consider.

Disclaimer: some info may be telling you how to “suck eggs”, but with close to half our members being within their first few years of principalship I don’t want to assume anything….

The Dark Magic of Banked Staffing

Right…let’s start off with a complex one! Will look to share various tips in this area in “bite size pieces”

Common query – should we charge/code all relievers to Teacher salaries (TS/MOE) or Bulk Grant (BG/school cost)?

The answer is….it depends! We need to look more closely at the maths involved…

Most relievers currently earn $346/day. If you pay them from BG for 10 days it will cost you $3,460

However, it could well be cheaper to code them to TS instead.

This would lead to a staffing usage of 0.1368* per day (rounded to 0.14 on banked staffing reports)

The 10 days @ 0.1368 = 1.368 staffing use

*why 0.1368 staffing usage? – 0.1368 x 190 days that a reliever can work = 26FTTE (to match what our teachers use for staffing)

The cost of balancing this staffing usage could be offset by selecting your “cheapest teacher” and coding them to BG. You can do this using a NOVO21 form.

Currently our “cheapest teachers” are our 3rd year teachers who earn $61,794/year (Q3plus/step 5). They earn $2,376 per pay period.

If we pay them for 1.368 pay periods (to balance the 10 days of reliever usage) then it equals: 1.368 x $2,376 = $3,250 (saving you just over $200, compared to the $3,460 above))

With larger schools using 100s of reliever days, the savings are considerable.

Why don’t we pay our 1st or 2nd year teachers who have lower salaries?

If you pay these teachers from BG (school funding), then you also lose the corresponding 0.2 or 0.1 beginning teacher release time, and you also have to board fund the cost of the mentor teacher. For this reason, our 3rd year teachers are “cheapest”

Other things to consider:

• if your “cheapest teachers” earn a unit, then that is an extra cost
• if you have relievers on a much lower pay rate, then it will still be cheaper to pay them from BG e.g. if they earn less than $320/reliever day
• Keep an eye on the current teacher negotiations. I would anticipate that the reliever rates will also increase alongside our teacher salary rates, so assume that this will cancel each other out.

As mentioned above, banked staffing is complex, and I will look to share further tips over time. For more general guidance, please see these links below:

Brisbane Study Tour 2023

The WPA would love to invite our members to attend the National Education Summit in Brisbane from Wednesday 2nd August - Sunday 6th August. This conference allows our members the flexibility to cater to their own PLD needs, from STEM initiatives in schools, further developing our capacity with Diverse Learners and/or leading Well Being for Future Focussed Schools

If interested please register via the WPA website now. Confirmation of costs will follow shortly.

Some suggested flights for you are:

• Depart Auckland Wed 02 August 9.20am: NZ0145
• Arrive Brisbane 10.55am
• Depart Brisbane Sun 06 August 9.50am: NZ0144
• Arrive Auckland 3.00pm
• Depart Auckland Wed 02 August 4.10pm: NZ0147
• Arrive Brisbane 5.55pm
• Depart Brisbane Sun 06 August 12.10pm: NZ0146
• Arrive Auckland 5.25pm

Brisbane Study Tour U1+U2 Scholarship Applications

Keen to head to the conference and from a U1 or U2 School? The WPA wants to support you to get there!

Please take the time to fill out this google form to apply. We will be in touch as soon as possible.

2023 Subs

2023 Subs are now due – please head to our website to become a financial member.

Remember our sponsors, support those that support us

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