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Let Novopay be a lesson I once worked on an influenza journal that was struggling for content – so much so that when news first broke of bird flu, my first reaction was journalistic glee ... and then horror at myself for delighting in such a grim topic. I remember feeling much the same way about Novopay in its infancy. From the editor’s chair, at first Novopay was – to be brutally honest – simply a good story. Not good as in ‘feel-good’, obviously, but it was a story with grit and relevance to the entire education sector. But as the months rolled on, the more I spoke with teachers, principals, and school administrators at the suffering end of the payroll debacle, the more the situation frustrated me. Like the 90,000 something people on the Ministry of Education’s payroll, I wished Novopay would just go away – story or no story. Minister Steven Joyce’s recent announcement for a Government-owned company to replace Talent2 in managing a new operating model for the school payroll system appears to offer a glimmer of hope. Let’s hope the change of management brings an end to the problems. True, Novopay has been operating better recently, but issues remain with the start-of-year process and the service desk support, and there are still reports of bizarre inaccuracies creeping in. The Government’s fix-it plan aims to address these things and simplify the system overall. But equally importantly, surely under Government control, there will have to be more transparency than the previous set-up – hopefully an end to the finger-pointing and buck-passing that cloaked Novopay, particularly in those early days. Novopay has now cost the taxpayer $110 million – $45 million more than budgeted. Nothing less than a silver bullet will do. Novopay, and all its troubles, presents an interesting metaphor for the use of technology in education. It is all very well having the latest systems, gadgets, devices, and programmes, but if they don’t serve their fundamental purpose, their raison d’etre, then perhaps we are better off without them. It is all very well aiming to have a device in the hands of every student, but if this does nothing to enhance learning or to raise student achievement, then what is the point? Within this issue of ICT & Procurement we meet some wonderful educators who are using the available technology to their very best advantage. From Minecraft, to 3D printers, to video-conferencing, to Facebook, to 1:1 device programmes, to cloud-base student management systems, we look at the many ways that technology can make a real difference to education. Jude Barback, Editor editor@educationreview.co.nz

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TWITTER FEED About 730 new graduates have successfully found places on state-subsidised new graduate programmes Proposed tougher standards for overseas nurses rejected as discriminatory 28 January 2013 The Nursing Council has rejected its proposal that nurses trained in India and the Philippines sit an exam and face tougher English language requirements to nurse in New Zealand. Financial stick raised over new grad places13 Ex-president wins back

• Education in Review: reflections on 2012 • NovoPAIN • The silver lining of cloud-based learning • Bulk buying: the pros and cons of Government procurement reforms • Paving the way for future growth • The Teacher Brain Drain • Charter Schools: answer to underachievement or mad experiment? • Town & Gown • Decile decisions • Early childhood education in 2012: a round-up • The Christchurch conundrum • Failure to launch: postgraduate initial teacher education • The big u-turn on class sizes • Public property: schools’ achievement

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EDUCATION REVIEW series

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School funding shake-up

IES: a sector divided

School of the hour: a journey of continuous improvement

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Bringing 3D printing to the classroom

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Funding

School funding shake-up O

f the 1939 Beeby/ Fraser statement, Beeby was later to say: “the principle did lay down a general direction of desirable change and … any proposal to raise the cost to parents … would have offended against it.” It was a good principle and served parents well. Schooling was free and deservedly so. Schools were funded to the extent that their needs were met from taxation paid for by parents, amongst others, with no requirement or expectation that parents would pay a second time around directly to schools. Those days are gone, and not for the better. The state no longer pays its full share to the funding of schools but has progressively reduced its contribution even as costs rose. In turn, to make up the shortfall, schools have increasingly

Associate Professor JOHN CLARK from Massey University’s Institute of Education suggests the Government has lost sight of free education and that there are more appropriate methods than parent donations to fund schools.

turned to parents to help them out. And so we have donations. Or are they donations? We are very familiar with what donations are. Collectors for any number of charities and organisations are regularly seen standing on the street seeking donations in the form of notes and coins popped into a bucket or box. We, the passersby, decide whether we will make a donation and how much we will donate. One person may put a two-dollar coin in the SPCA container and another may give a five-dollar note to the RSA poppy appeal. In short, the donation is freely given and gratefully received and no offence is directed to those who, passing by, donate nothing. No collector would ever dream of chasing after a non-donator and putting undue pressure on them to pay up. School donations are a rather different matter altogether. The school makes it very clear that every parent ought to make a donation – even if they do not quite bring themselves to say that parents must

pay up. Moreover, the school determines exactly what the donation shall be. It might be a very small amount, or at the other end, quite a large amount. Very little room is left for the parents to decide how much they will pay. Parents who do not pay are not left alone but are reminded that they have not made their voluntary donation of X dollars, even to the extent that some schools have regarded the donations as debts that have been passed on to debt collectors to collect. Since state schools are not permitted to charge compulsory fees for general educational and curriculum activities (although fees can be extracted for extracurricular things such as school balls and school uniforms), then they dress up the demand for money as a donation – but this fools no-one. School donations are not donations at all and should not be described as such. Interestingly, some schools (but not many of them) often the poorest schools in the poorest

Political Party Responses National Party

The National Government spends a huge amount funding schools to make sure kids get the opportunity for a great education and to achieve the very best they can. Despite tight fiscal times, we put more than $10.1 billion into education in 2013/14, the highest spending ever in education. We know schools face increases in costs. That’s why National has increased schools’ operational grants by more than $600 million over the past six years. These increases, on average, have kept pace with inflation over that period and have allowed schools to keep up with real costs. The Government puts in significant funding to run schools. Donations are not compulsory and no parent is compelled to pay them. But boards can also decide if they want to ask for donations for additional activities or projects. That’s up to each school and their parents. They need to be talking about those expectations. The latest data, from 2012, shows that donations amount to 1.8 per cent of government grants.

Labour Party

Affordable, quality education is a value that Labour and all New Zealanders hold dear. Increasingly, schools are putting that value under threat. The pressure being put on parents on to provide ‘voluntary’ donations to schools has reached unacceptable levels. Donations effectively become a fee to attend state schools that just puts more burden on squeezed family budgets. Demanding donations consumes a significant amount of principals’ and teachers’ time, and strains the relationship between schools and parents. When one school used school bag tags to identify kids whose parents had paid donations to shame other kids and parents, it was the last straw.

ICT & Procurement 2014 Education Review series

Labour wants principals to spend their time running schools and teachers to spend their time teaching, not pressuring parents for money. Labour will offer schools an alternative to demanding donations, because it is the right thing to do. Labour will make sure that schools have enough money to meet their growing costs. In the past six Budgets, under the current Government, real spending in education has dropped four times. Real spending on education is now 2.3 per cent below the level the current Government inherited. With the real value of spending guaranteed, teachers and parents will know that additional education policies we announce constitute a genuine increase in investment, not a cost adjustment in disguise. This measure will support schools and mean they don’t have to turn to their parents for money so much. Labour will tackle school donations head on. State and integrated schools that agree not to solicit donations from their parents will be given an additional $100 a year of funding per student. For most schools, the $100 payment will be more than they receive on average per student in donations. On top of that, they will save the costs associated with soliciting, banking, and accounting for donations. Lower decile schools will benefit significantly from this policy. Decile 1–3 schools receive an average of $60 per student in donations. Taking the $100 per student payment instead of asking for donations will increase their funding by nearly $7million a year. Not all schools will choose to take this offer. Decile 10 schools receive an average of nearly $300 in donations per student. Those schools may decide they would rather collect those donations than accept the $100 per student in additional government funding. This policy is costed at $50 million a year on the basis that all state schools in Deciles 1–7, 30 per cent of schools in Deciles 8–10 and integrated

Funding

communities with the poorest parents have done the right thing and abolished donations altogether. The response to the idea that schools should not require parents to make donations is that without the additional income that parental donations bring, the school would be worse off. Possibly, but not necessarily. There are other ways of generating revenue that rely more on the generosity of parents and others to give in a voluntary way. To be sure, they may be more time-consuming, but where these involve the participation of students and their parents, there is likely to be a far greater sense of community and commitment than forced donations could ever bring about. A measure of innovation and entrepreneurship in practice would certainly sit comfortably alongside expressions of innovation and entrepreneurship contained in The New Zealand Curriculum. Would this be enough to satisfy the needs of schools? Probably not. So how are schools to make up the difference? Well, a return to the Beeby/ Fraser position would be a good starting point of reasserting the principle of free public schooling and living in accordance with it rather than paying it lip sevice. That the state, in the form of the present Government, sees fit to pare back the funding

of schools from an earlier, more generous time, certainly sits unhappily alongside its ‘finding the money from somewhere’, to the tune of $359 million, to cover the costs of its Investing in Educational Success initiative. To pay selected teachers and principals from between $10,000 and $50,000 on top of their current salaries to do things that just may raise student achievement seems to be a gross waste of taxpayer funds. Going into the election, any party that promised to divert this money directly to schools so parents would no longer be required to make donations because donations were made illegal would surely get their support. How might the funding be distributed to schools? Well, here is a thought. Let one state school seek parental donations, the wealthiest school in the country. Let total donations for that school from all sources, divided by the number of students enrolled, set the benchmark for the distribution of state funding to all other schools. If, for argument’s sake, the per-student amount was $2000, then every

school in the country would receive an extra $2000 per student. Now, that money could be used to make a real difference in so many schools across the nation, rather than it going into certain teachers’ bank accounts. Think what your local school, which your children attend, could do with this extra money. Think how it could be used to the benefit of all the children at our schools in raising their achievement. So, why don’t we do it? Good question. Ask your local candidates contesting the forthcoming election. 

Education Review asked political parties for their stance on school donations. Here is what their spokespeople had to say: schools accept the $100 per student payment to stop soliciting donations. Schools will still be able to require activity fees to be paid for the actual costs of extra-curricular activates such as school camps. They just won’t be able to ask for a general ‘donation’ to help fund school operations. The basic right to a free education will be protected by this policy.

Green Party

The Green Party believes in the right of every child to a free high quality education at their local public school. Anything that weakens that right is a threat to a child’s education and so is a threat to the right of every Kiwi child to fulfil their full potential. Ultimately, we believe public schools should be fully funded at a realistic level by the Government, so parents are not required to stump up with donations or fees that are needed to keep the school running. As soon as charges are introduced, even under the guise of a ‘donation’, a barrier to education is erected. So we support ERO reviewing school fundraising policies and procedures. Donations, if they are sought at all, should only be for genuine optional extras, not for the basic running of a public school. Many schools are unable to charge a donation at all and they should not be compromised by this. We also recognise the difficulties that schools are facing, after years of effective funding cuts, including half a billion dollars in real terms shaved off education in the next four years, as Government funding fails to keep pace with either inflation or roll changes. The Green Party is opposed to any moves to save money by short changing our schools. It makes sense to invest in public education because it is the key to our prosperity, and the most effective route out of poverty. Our education policies will be announced closer to the election, but we promise to restore funding cuts to the sector.

Māori Party

The Māori Party believes that education must be fully funded if Government considers it the key to addressing employment and economic issues for families. The Māori Party’s key priority is whānau, so anything that maximises their educational outcomes is a good thing. Fully state-funded schools ensures every whānau has access to high quality education. However, this issue cannot be viewed in isolation. Consideration needs to be given to whether eliminating reliance on donations from whānau is the real problem. The reality is that there are all manner of costs incurred by whānau (uniforms, stationery, transport, resource fees etc.) that impede education outcomes, and eliminating one of those costs does not necessarily solve the ongoing problem for whānau – proactively providing support for their children’s education, the affordability of accompanying costs and having access to the kind of education that enables their children to flourish. Our kaupapa tuku iho dictate that manaakitanga for our whānau and mokopuna ensures a level playing field is inherently the right thing to do if donations are required by the school or kura. If whānau are struggling to pay them, the state should support those in need of assistance to pay these costs. We also consider that in the case of whānau who are struggling, Whānau Ora Navigators may be able to assist in providing advice and support around budget management. Parents who can and do pay the school donation help the school and we should not discourage those who want to contribute. We are investigating the concept of a sustainability planning facilitator to assist schools in looking at how best to manage the operational grant in a way to ensure quality outcomes for every child, irrespective of their parents’ ability to pay. We need to understand how schools have reallocated their income to manage competing priorities.

Education Review series ICT & Procurement 2014

Policy

IES:

a sector divided The investing in Educational Success (IES) initiative has divided New Zealand’s education sector. JUDE BARBACK reports.

he Post Primary Teachers, Association (PPTA) and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa are typically united in their stance on educational policy changes. However, the Government’s $359 million Investing in Educational Success initiative has created division between the teacher unions and other educational organisations. The big ticket item of this year’s Education Budget, which will see the introduction of ‘expert’ and ‘lead’ teachers and ‘executive’ and ‘change’ principals as a means to raise student achievement appears to have gained favour with secondary school associations but not with their primary counterparts.

Primary school sector: money needed elsewhere

NZEI president Judith Nowotarski says primary principals and teachers see a tension between the policy’s objective of increased collaboration and the model being proposed. She maintains there is already considerable collaboration and sharing of skills across and between primary schools in both formal and informal clusters. “Rather than working out ways to better support and resource this genuine ‘bottom up’ collaboration, the IES imposes a top-down model based largely on topping up individual salaries.”

She points out that more than 90 per cent of the investment is going to be going into the individual salaries of only 10 per cent of the teaching workforce. Nowotarski says the union also takes issue with using National Standards data to help select or appraise people for the proposed new roles. “Many believe the IES model of removing ‘executive principal’ and ‘expert teacher’ roles from their schools two days a week is unworkable and could have negative impacts on children's learning and undermine stability in primary schools.” She says NZEI members believe there are numerous ways the $359 million could be spent to directly affect student success, such as smaller classes and more teacher aides to work with special needs children.

More teachers and smaller classes won’t mean more learning STEVE THOMAS comments on Labour’s alternative to National’s IES policy and twhether it is likely to have an impact.

n an attempt to revive its popularity among middle New Zealand voters – rather than the moa – the Labour Party has announced that it will employ 2,000 more teachers. According to Labour, this would enable schools to lower the staff-to-pupil ratio from 1:29 to 1:26 in Years 4 to 8, and from 1:26 to 1:23 in the secondary years, by 2018. Labour will pay for the extra teachers, and a suite of associated professional development measures, by axing the National Government’s $359 million Investing in Educational Success (IES) programme. IES will see communities of schools established, in which expert school leaders and teachers will have more responsibility for school leadership and professional development. It is unlikely that Labour’s proposals will solve the problems that it claims National’s has. Moreover, employing more teachers to reduce class sizes does not necessarily mean that pupils will learn more.

Are Labour’s proposals different from IES?

When it launched them, Labour claimed that its proposals were different from National’s because they would give schools more resources and free teachers from being ‘managed’ by super-principals and teachers. However, both parties’ policies are variations on the same approach, which has gained

ICT & Procurement 2014 Education Review series

popularity among OECD-country educationalists – that the quality of an education system can be improved by improving teaching quality. The strategy is to make teaching more attractive to high quality prospective and current teachers by offering more opportunities to progress as a classroom teacher, to improve teacher quality, and by providing teachers with more professional development opportunities, in order to enhance teaching quality. But Labour’s proposals would increase, not reduce, the amount of control outsiders would have over individual schools and teachers. For instance, Labour would introduce a school advisory service that would ration schools’ centrally-provided professional development spending and be able to second high quality teachers and school leaders for as many as three years, to share best practice. Its proposed school leadership college would also have the power to second 100 school leaders to be mentors. Presumably, these institutions would need some way of identifying which teachers and school leaders should be seconded. Does this mean Labour wants them to use some sort of benchmark or standards-based appraisal scheme to differentiate between good and bad teachers? This might be an issue for the teacher unions, which believe using appraisal schemes this way can turn teachers into managed professionals. The unions are concerned about aspects of the IES for this reason.

In short, under Labour’s proposals, teachers would not be liberated from the alleged managerialism of the IES; in fact, they could experience even more. Schools would be forced to let their best leaders and teachers go for a mandated period and they would have less freedom to decide how to spend money on professional development. This is a worry, because the OECD’s PISA test has consistently shown that education systems that let schools have more freedom perform well. While there are still big questions about how much freedom schools will have under IES, it at least assumes that communities of schools should be free to decide how best to collaborate and use resources.

Will Labour’s proposals improve educational quality?

The degree of central control is an important point because it illustrates a philosophical difference between National and Labour about how they believe New Zealand’s education system can be improved. Labour’s proposals – especially when considered alongside its other recent announcements, including spending $120 million on laptops for every Year 5 to 13 pupil and refurbishing school buildings – show that it believes quality can be improved best by increasing spending on educational inputs that the Government can control. The idea is that if a country builds more schools, employs more teachers, or reduces class sizes, for

Policy

The New Zealand Principals’ Federation (NZPF) has also signalled its opposition to IES. At a recent meeting in Wellington of around 100 principals and senior teachers, it was discussed that the increase in salaries was not the best use of the money.

Secondary school sector: an end to competition

Meanwhile, the PPTA takes a very different view on IES, perceiving the initiative as part of a wider solution to end the competitiveness that has permeated the secondary schooling sector in New Zealand. President Angela Roberts says the PPTA is confident that secondary teachers and principals and their members in intermediates and area schools example, it will have a better education system. This is attractive to politicians, since expanding inputs shows voters they are doing something concrete to improve education. It may also be easier for them to show success. Politicians can claim their country has a higher quality education system once every school has more inputs. But this logic only follows if there is a strong link between the inputs that have been funded and what is most likely to improve pupils’ learning. There are two factors that will determine whether funding more of an input will improve pupils’ learning: the likely effect size and the scope for expanding the input. Whether reducing class size has a meaningful effect is a disputed area of educational research. It partly depends on whether researchers mean a reduction in the staff-to-pupil ratio or how teachers choose to teach when they have smaller classes. Econometric research, such as Eric Hanushek’s, does not find a statistically significant relationship between reducing the ratio of teachers to pupils and better educational outcomes. That said, teachers may be able to teach different pupils better in smaller classes if they change their practices. Pupils’ age and stage may also affect whether they benefit from smaller classes. For example, average to good secondary pupils may not benefit as much, if at all, as new primary school pupils with poor literacy and numeracy. All things considered, John Hattie’s 2009 metaanalysis found the effect size of a reduction in class size, from 25 to 15 pupils, could be between 0.1 and 0.2 standard deviations, or between one and three months’ worth of learning, per year. Labour’s policy would see class sizes fall by three pupils, depending on how each school decides to allocate its extra teachers. A rule of thumb estimate, based on the expected effect above, means an impact of between 0.03 and

support the union’s engagement in IES. “We have been in close contact with our members throughout this, taking every opportunity to share information and test their views.” Roberts says their members are looking forward to having the chance to put the new IES roles, and the resourcing that they bring, into the collective employment agreements. Similarly, the Secondary Principals’ Association of New Zealand (SPANZ) strongly supports the IES initiative. President Tom Parsons believes sector organisations would be better working together to support the policy. “I agree the funding for this initiative has been unexpected – the times they are a-changing – is it so hard to put effort into what will be the best thing that has happened to New Zealand education in over a century? “Let's not waste our energies on negative responses but put our energies to better use by 0.06 standard deviations, or less than a month’s worth of improvement in their child’s learning, could perhaps be expected. That is not very much gain for $340 million of spending over four years. Further, these figures probably overestimate the impact, since a teacher teaching 29 or 26 pupils is unlikely to teach a class with three fewer pupils much differently. Class sizes would have to fall below 20 pupils before teachers could make a difference. This means there would be little scope for Labour’s class size reductions to have much of an impact. The true effect could be miniscule or no difference. Given the evidence – that Labour cited in its own policy document – that smaller classes can have a positive impact on lower socio-economic status pupils and ethnic minority group pupils, Labour would have been better to propose larger, targeted reductions in class sizes at low decile schools, for example, rather than small universal reductions. This would mean lower decile schools would not have to fund more teaching positions than their normal entitlement from their operational funding, as they appear to do. Labour is also promising to spend $25 million over three years on teacher professional development. But this is only 13 per cent of what it would spend on reducing class sizes over the same period. National is spending money on educational inputs too, such as $111 million of operational funding in Budget 2014 for school property development and maintenance. However, it has made developing teachers and school leaders throughout all schools a major priority. National will also invest part of the $359 million for IES in financial incentives to help attract and retain excellent teachers. Again, PISA results have shown that, among wealthier countries, those which invest in improving teacher quality, rather than smaller classes, tend to have higher performing education systems. Given that the effect of a high quality

building trust and transparency with each other, and in turn, with the Ministry. This is our best chance to make absolutely sure we take the biggest possible part we can in being the most vital change agent in this whole exciting scenario,” says Parsons.

Why the differing stances over IES? So why are primary and secondary groups so divided over this policy? Angela Roberts says she can’t understand why the policy would affect primary schools differently from secondary schools. “I don’t see why that would be the case. Really good research from New Zealand and overseas, such as the Best Evidence Synthesis, shows that robust, supported, and sustained collaboration between schools and teachers helps at all levels of Continued on page 6 >> teacher could be as much as half a year to a year’s learning, improving pupils’ access to excellent teachers is more likely to improve educational quality, in terms of effect size and scope, than spending money on reducing class sizes.

Conclusions

Labour’s proposal to employ more teachers to reduce the staff-to-pupil ratio is popular among teachers and some voters. It appeals to what politicians think intuitively makes sense. Having more teachers should improve the quality of New Zealand’s education system and outcomes for their children. However, just spending money on expanding educational inputs will not necessarily lead to major improvements in the quality of teaching or learning. Smaller classes would not make a difference unless teachers take the opportunity to better tailor their teaching to their pupils’ needs. The effect should be greatest for pupils earlier on in their schooling or those who have difficulty learning in larger classes. Moreover, Labour’s proposal is unlikely to make much of a difference, as the marginal decrease in pupil numbers would be small. This would make it a poorer investment of taxpayers’ money than IES or targeted decreases in class sizes. Labour’s proposals indicate the perils of spending more on educational inputs without fully considering the likely impact on pupils’ learning. As polling day approaches, it would behove all political parties to explain well what the likely impact of their education policies would be on pupils’ learning. That way, New Zealanders could see the links, if any, which may exist between spending on inputs and educational quality. Steve Thomas is a New Zealand PhD Scholar at The Australian National University’s Crawford School of Public Policy, studying the impact of New Zealand educational entrepreneurs.

Education Review series ICT & Procurement 2014

Policy

<< Continued from page 5 schooling. Both the primary and secondary sectors have been arguing the case for better career pathways for teachers for many years. Roberts says the PPTA’s approach to IES from the outset has been based on longstanding PPTA policy, but she cannot say why the NZEI is taking a different stance. “I don’t want to speculate on what NZEI’s reasoning is, except to say that they, like us, will be doing what they think is best for their members and the students that they teach,” says Roberts. In a recent opinion piece in Scoop, Martin Thrupp, education professor at the University of Waikato, discussed how the primary sector was less infected by the ‘managerialism’ that has crept into secondary schooling. He describes the secondary school sector as competitive and likens secondary school principals to chief executives of large businesses. “The environment of collaboration implied by IES is also seen as a good thing by the PPTA, given the competitive climate within their sector. In contrast, the membership of the NZEI will see little merit in IES for the culture of the primary sector. Their concern will be its potential for being controlling and divisive and many will see it as yet another blow to the work they are committed to.” Meanwhile, Rose Patterson, research fellow at New Zealand Initiative, shares a very different opinion in her piece on Stuff. “This is all symptomatic of a broader issue in New Zealand education: the NZEI wants to have their cake and eat it too. They want to ensure that the allocation of education funding is controlled centrally, and they want to have control over education policy. Yet, they are not the ones accountable for education funding, so they shouldn't be expected to make those hard decisions.”

Consultation – a contentious point

Part of the NZEI’s and the NZPF’s opposition to IES stems from issues with the consultation process. The Ministry maintains it has undergone clear and fair consultation with the sector. The PPTA has stated that they have found consultation over IES to be “comprehensive, robust, and genuine”. However, the NZEI sees it differently. “IES was suddenly dropped on the sector fully formed. While there has since been confidential consultation with sector groups over details of the policy, NZEI does not believe that being invited to have input into minor details of the biggest change to public education in 25 years counts as genuine consultation,” says Nowotarski.

Relationships intact

The difference in opinion between the unions does not appear to have weakened their relationship. “Although our views frequently align, there will be instances when we see things differently,” says Nowotarski. “The leaderships of the two unions are in frequent contact and the relationship is stronger than any single divergence of views.” Roberts agrees. “We’ve had our differences in the past, too, but they have not got in the way of working together on what we hold in common,” she says of the PPTA’s relationship with the NZEI. “What people often fail to see is that while we may be taking a strong stance against one policy – charter schools, for instance – we continue to work productively on something like the Positive Behaviour for Learning Action plan. This is how we try to work with all the organisations and agencies that we deal with.” There has been some speculation that NZEI has lost members as a result of its stance on IES. However, the union’s Member Services team has advised that no members have mentioned this as a reason for resigning. Similarly, the PPTA reports that its membership is stable, with no reported changes on the basis of the union’s position on IES. 

ICT & Procurement 2014 Education Review series

Awards

School of the hour:

a journey of continuous improvement JUDE BARBACK visits Otumoetai Intermediate School, the supreme award winner of the inaugural Prime Minister’s Education Excellence Awards, and discovers the secret to the school’s success lies in an “unrelenting focus on quality”.

rincipal Henk Popping gives a wry smile when I ask to see Otumoetai Intermediate School’s application document for the Prime Minister’s Education Excellence Awards. He knows I am not prepared for the enormous wad of paper that demonstrates his school’s success. As I thumb through the hundreds of pages outlining the Tauranga school’s journey to excellence, I am blown away. Popping, along with a selection of staff and students, attended the awards ceremony in Wellington in June. Of the five award categories, Otumoetai Intermediate was a finalist in excellence in engaging, excellence in teaching and learning, and excellence in governing. But taking away the $30,000 supreme award was the icing on the cake. The awards were introduced this year to highlight the combined effort needed to achieve improvement, equity, and planned innovation; they focused on engaging, leading, teaching and learning, and governing – areas that the Best Evidence Synthesis (BES) programme has shown are critical to the quality of education. I had expected Popping and deputy principal for learning, Lynne Hutchinson, to share with me one new initiative, perhaps, or maybe an innovative programme, or possibly one area of learning that they had turned around – something concrete that had earned them the award. However, it quickly becomes apparent as we chat and wade through the vast application document that the school’s accolades are not the result of a single project, but rather many linked initiatives, and a deep, holistic approach to continuous improvement under focused leadership. Popping says it is difficult to simply show people what they are achieving at Otumoetai. “You almost need to be an intern at the school for a few weeks to understand what we’re doing here,” he says. Even without the luxury and benefit of time, a picture quickly emerges of a school that is in tune with the needs of its students, staff and the community, and has a clear vision of how to go about meeting those needs. Otumoetai Intermediate adheres to seven strategic goals. It is goal seven, which focuses on being ‘innovative and developing a culture of continuous improvement’ that seems to encapsulate the way the school is run. Popping describes the school as being on a “journey of continuous improvement”. This is perhaps why it is difficult to define the parameters of the school’s success; there is no clear beginning or end point, no defined, before and after, shots – instead, what I am getting is a glimpse of where the school is at on this journey.

Awards

Otumoetai Intermediate School wins Prime Minister’s Education Excellence Awards.

The strategic action plan has been guided by many factors, including research, data, and input from the community. A survey conducted in 2011 revealed that the community valued the school’s engagement with whānau, that it wanted the school to continue to be innovative and progressive, and that they felt strongly about students’ literacy and numeracy outcomes. The school’s strong engagement with the community extends to its governance. Popping says the school has experienced a growth of expertise from drawing on the experience brought to the table by its board of trustees members. He describes how board meetings are mainly devoted to discussing student learning. The use of story boards and a traffic light system – whereby green reflects something is going well, amber means it needs work, and red highlights it as an area of concern – helps the board to focus on the aspects that need attention. Engagement with the wider community also ties in with the intermediate’s strong relationships with its feeder schools and neighbouring Otumoetai College. Collectively, the schools strive to promote a seamless journey for the student, whom they refer to as “the Otumoetai learner”. The intermediate’s focus is on how it can add value to the learner in a two-year window on the course of his or her learning journey. Value is certainly being added here, as evidenced by a number of graphs in the application document that highlight how much students have progressed over the two years they are at Otumoetai Intermediate.

for many students, as well as bringing about a change in students’ attitudes towards maths. Even though hard evidence might lie at the heart of every decision made, my feeling is that the award was won on the merits of the school’s culture, which hinges on being completely student-focused. While this might be an intangible and immeasurable notion, the focus on the learner appears to have permeated every aspect of the school’s operation – from its governance to its engagement with community and neighbouring schools, and to its approach to improving teacher practice. It is difficult to define a school’s culture and articulate what factors have influenced it. However, Popping believes it is there by no mistake. “It is a deliberate act of leadership,” he says. “We have an unrelenting focus on quality.” It is an approach that has paid off, and Popping and Hutchinson are clearly delighted to have received the supreme award, although they admit that since returning from Wellington, it is certainly business as usual. I can detect a frisson of excitement in the air, however. Cameramen walk through the school and visitors entering the reception area offer their congratulations to staff. The trophy is expected to arrive at the school later that day, and Popping says certificates will be awarded to every student and staff member. While I hope the school takes time to enjoy its moment in the sun, I can already sense the eagerness to continue improving. Hutchinson says they are keen to work on the areas of student voice and self-reflected learning. Popping says they will continue learning from other schools, although I rather suspect other schools will be looking to Otumoetai Intermediate as the example. 

It is a deliberate act of leadership,” he says. “We have an unrelenting focus on quality. The school started to see a lift in student achievement when it shifted focus from curriculum content to teacher capacity and teaching practice. There is no room for rookie teachers on Popping’s staff. He acknowledges that parents are always going to want their child in an excellent teacher’s classroom, and to that end, he strives for consistency in the quality of teaching. A number of initiatives have been used to achieve this, including a teacher inquiry and development model that helped to dispel the notion that experience alone equates to effectiveness. It also revealed the importance of timetabled learning opportunities for teachers and regular professional appraisal discussions with senior management. Hutchinson points to the Learning Detectives initiative that also supports teacher development, whereby a group of Year 8 students work in pairs in classrooms across the school to observe the ‘movers’ and the ‘blockers’ to learning. Their findings are fed back to the teachers in order to help them improve their practice. The Learning Detectives programme was adopted from research originating in Cornwall. “Everything we do is embedded in solid research,” confirms Hutchinson. Indeed, there are countless references to educational researchers in the application document and there has obviously been a large amount of collaboration between the schools and high profile educationalists, such as Professor John Hattie and Dr Kevin Knight, the latter having worked closely with the school in a consultant role for some time. In another example of a research-based learning initiative, Hutchinson shares how the school has utilised a BES Exemplar that focuses on developing communities of mathematical inquiry, and as a result, has accelerated learning

Who should lead our professional body? NZ Teachers Council Elections open for voting on 3 September Visit our website for more information.

Make your vote count! www.teacherscouncil.govt.nz Education Review series ICT & Procurement 2014

Safety

Fire protection for schools

ecisions around the procurement of fire protection solutions for schools should not be made lightly. In the event of a fire incident, an appropriate and well-maintained fire protection solution can mean the difference between a small fire and a devastating, possibly fatal, blaze. Fire is a very real risk for New Zealand schools. According to the New Zealand Fire Service, there were 427 fires in education buildings between 2007 and 2011, which accounted for 10 per cent of all non-residential fires. Along with posing a risk to the safety of students and staff, a fire can have costly consequences. The economic cost of fires in education facilities totalled $33.7 million dollars between 2007 and 2011, with each fire incident costing an average of $78,936. Boards of trustees face a myriad of decisions when procuring fire protection systems, including considerations around funding, equipment, providers, maintenance contracts and costs. It is important that boards approach these decisions with a big-picture mentality. Each decision should be considered in the context of the school’s unique fire protection requirements, which can help to ensure a suitable fire protection solution is installed. This includes legislative requirements, the school’s fire hazards, and existing fire protection systems.

Conduct a detailed fire risk assessment

Conducting an assessment to identify fire hazards is an important first step for procuring a fire protection solution that adequately meets the needs of the school.

DAVE HIPKINS discusses the importance of procuring the right fire protection system for your school.

A fire hazard assessment is not a DIY job. Boards are encouraged to consult a reputable fire protection specialist with experience in the education sector to conduct an assessment. This can help to minimise the chance that something is missed. It is important that boards familiarise themselves with common fire hazards, as the responsibility for fire safety ultimately lies with the school. Hazards will vary depending on the facility but may include electrical equipment, kitchen or heating appliances in canteens or staff rooms, chemicals in student laboratories, or combustible waste material, such as paper recycling bins. Fire escape routes should remain clear at all times. Regular hazard assessments will help to identify gaps in fire safety as the school changes or grows. An assessment should be conducted every time a new building is added to the campus or existing buildings are upgraded.

Selecting fire protection equipment

Selecting a fire protection solution is a significant decision and cutting corners to save on costs is not recommended. Schools undertaking a new build or refurbishment should commission a fire engineer to undertake a fire report. This report will be the blueprint for the installation of a fire protection system, and will include details on the type of system and the standard to which it should be installed to. Executive officers are reminded to pay careful attention to quality, suitability, and warranty details when selecting fire protection equipment. It is important that the equipment is suitable for the environment in which it is installed; for example, outdoor heat detectors should be able to withstand

wet weather. Though short-term savings may be appealing, poor quality equipment may require ongoing maintenance or replacement, resulting in unexpected costs in the longer term. Existing fire protection systems are also an important consideration. Integrating new fire protection systems with existing ones can help to ensure the two systems work together seamlessly, streamlining fire safety procedures. A broad range of fire protection equipment is available, from basic fire extinguishers or hose reels, to passive fire solutions or advanced fire detection and suppression systems.

Be familiar with legal requirements

Though a fire protection specialist can provide advice on legal requirements, compliance is ultimately the responsibility of the school. Boards should consider all relevant legislative requirements and standards when procuring a fire protection solution. These include the Ministry of Education’s Guidelines for Fire Safety and Design for schools, the Building Code of New Zealand, and the Fire Safety and Evacuation of Buildings Regulations. Section C/AS4 Acceptable solution for buildings with public access and educational facilities (Risk Group CA) of the Building Code of New Zealand specifically relates to fire protection requirements for education facilities, including fire systems, means of escape and prevention of fire.

Consult the experts: how to choose a fire protection provider Fire protection specialists can provide professional advice, assistance with mandatory fire audits, and a comprehensive maintenance and testing service. They can also ensure the building complies with the strict standards, regulations and reporting requirements surrounding fire protection. A reputable fire protection provider will adhere to stringent and rigorous codes of practice, have a high level of public and product liability insurances, and hold necessary licences or certificates. When engaging a fire protection specialist, ensure the provider is performing their obligations as per the service contract and in accordance with applicable standards and legislation. Executive officers are also reminded to enquire about the providers’ systems and processes. A reputable fire protection specialist will have technologies and routines in place to streamline the process of keeping buildings safe and ensure equipment is serviced regularly.  Dave Hipkins is national technical manager for Wormald New Zealand, a leading provider of fire protection solutions. Wormald is responsible for servicing fire protection equipment and systems at over 2200 of New Zealand’s government-owned schools.

ICT & Procurement 2014 Education Review series

Devices

One school’s 1:1 journey

CRAIG KEMP outlines the major stepping stones his international school took in embracing a 1:1 device programme and the ups and downs experienced along the way. February 2012

It all started when we tabled the idea of developing a truly innovative technology programme (at the time this sounded impossible, considering where we were at). We set off to come up with a plan and did our research into why/how will this help the learners in our school. We narrowed our initial ideas down to running a BYOD programme or a schoolowned and leased 1:1 device programme. After much debate and research into other schools programmes, we decided that a 1:1 device programme was more suitable to our setting. But which device? Our school is a PC school so we enlisted the support of Microsoft Singapore. From day one, we knew this partnership was going to work. Microsoft supported us with every spanner we threw in the works and provided on-site service whenever we had questions. The process began when they brought in a team of staff and a bucket-load of device options – from laptops to notebooks to tablets. None of which tickled our fancy. They just didn’t seem right; I just didn’t feel comfortable promoting a truly innovative technology programme if we were to choose an outdated device. Then it happened: the announcement of Microsoft’s Surface device. We had to try this, and within two weeks, we had a sample shipped in via Microsoft from USA. What a device! It had everything we wanted and ran MS Office products that would support our school network, and our IT technicians could see all sorts of possibilities. However, after many weeks of excitement, we found out that the Surface Pro was not going to be available in Singapore in time for us to launch our 1:1 programme in February 2013.

October 2012

The search was on again for that one device we knew was cutting edge. At last, we found it! Dell had just announced the upcoming launch of the Dell Latitude 10 tablet device. Slim design, light, Windows 8, durable, USB connection, touch screen, interactive technologies – it had it all. December rolled around and all of our documentation was starting to come together. We had gained the support of our school council and our very supportive community of parents. Working in partnership with Microsoft, we got a sample in and immediately placed it where it mattered: in a classroom. We wanted to see first-hand if it was easy to pick up and use and if it was everything we hoped it to be.

The research flowed, ideas were shared, decisions were made (thanks to the support of Microsoft) and the devices were implemented. Devices were purchased by the school, set up by our ICT support team, based on my recommendations for what we required, and we aligned expectations to match our Year 5–8 students’ needs.

May 2014

Almost 18 months into the introduction of our 1:1 device programme, we have had many ups, downs, and challenges, but we have persevered and come out the other side. Would I change what we did? Absolutely, but technology changes so quickly that the right device is always changing. Some of the highlights of our 1:1 programme: »» Students, engagement levels are higher »» Uptake by middle school staff – perfect! »» Quality of produced work – excellent »» Changing culture from theory to creation – students are now makers and doers, they use their devices to learn, teach and make »» A wider scope (depth) of learning, including coding, video production, and digital photography) »» Parent support and PD programs we have run (very well received) »» Student achievement improvements (no data, however, to relate this improvement to devices as yet) »» IT support and extra staffing to support integration.

suit our needs – we have now created a list of required apps/programs for each year level and the devices must meet the minimum criteria to be considered. All of the meetings, policy documents, discussions, and research were worth it. We are finally here and technology integration has never looked better. The students are loving it: from movie making, digital photography, coding, Skyping, to using Twitter to connect and collaborate. The devices allow more student voice and more freedom of learning. Now in Year 5–6, we have 1:1 Dell Latitude tablets, and in Year 7–8, we have 1:1 Dell touchscreen laptops. We are looking at options for students in Year 3–4 next, who currently are 1:2 with Dell touchscreen laptops. Integrating technology across all curriculum areas to support learning is the main aim of our 1:1 programme, and so far, we are succeeding. Creating and collaborating are key areas of our teaching programme that the 1:1 programme supports.  Craig Kemp is a New Zealand educator and currently head of ICT and learning innovation at an International School in Singapore. This article was adapted from his blog, Craig Kemp’s Professional Reflection Blog: http://mrkempreflects.blogspot.co.nz.

And some of the frustrations: »» Crashing of devices »» Connectivity battle (which has now been resolved) »» More paperwork and documentation required »» Insurance of devices »» Time spent dealing with issues, clarifying job descriptions – who deals with what problems? »» Gamification – poor graphics card that reduced the quality of products we could use »» Carefully selecting specs of the machine to

February 2013

Needless to say, it was a hit, and on 1 February 2013 we launched our 1:1 device programme for Year 5–7 students.

Education Review series ICT & Procurement 2014

New schools

Sustainable schools, but at what cost? All new schools are built to meet the required Green Star rating, but is the same attention being given in the construction and design of these schools to the ability to teach and learn? JUDE BARBACK considers the merits and limitations of the Green Star rating system.

ewly opened Pegasus Bay School in Christchurch is the first school in New Zealand to generate as much energy as it uses, thanks to the installation of over 557sqm solar electric panels. The school joins a club of 13 other energy-efficient schools: those that carry a 5 Star Green Star rating.

What is a Green Star school?

The 14 schools – with another four expected to join the club next year – are built to the New Zealand Green Building Council’s Green Star Education 5-Star Standard, which is now the Ministry of Education’s policy for all new schools. The Ministry requires new schools to follow environmentally sustainable principles for design and construction as assessed by the New Zealand Green Building Council’s Educational Tool: the Green Star – Education v3 Design and Built rating tool. The tool allows the Ministry to determine where its funding will be spent and provides an independent evaluation of a project’s energy efficiency and sustainability credentials. The Green Star rating tool evaluates the environmental initiatives and/or the potential environmental impact of new or refurbished whole schools, school buildings, tertiary buildings, and childcare centres, including their fit-out. It considers a number of environmental attributes, including energy and water use, materials, indoor environment quality, land use and ecology, emissions, transport, and building management. Schools gain or lose points on the basis of how well they meet these criteria.

Design principles trump teaching functionality

The initiative to incorporate sustainability into the design of our new schools is commendable. However, on closer inspection, there appear to be several problematic aspects with the process. One issue related to building new schools under the Green Star framework appears to be the conflicting goals of the Ministry-contracted design team, and the board of trustees and principal. For new schools, the Ministry typically contracts a team to undertake the design and construction of the building in accordance with the Ministry’s

ICT & Procurement 2014 Education Review series

guidelines to achieve Green Star rating. Meanwhile, an establishment board of trustees is formed, but by the time the two groups eventually start collaborating, the construction team has already made most of the core decisions about the building. The principal is appointed later down the track again, and his or her involvement appears to come much too late into the process. Steve Lindsey, principal of Papamoa College in the Bay of Plenty, which achieved its 5 Star rating, says he would like to have been involved at an earlier stage of the design process. “All parties should definitely be involved, but the process is the wrong way round,” he says. He says the pressure to achieve the star rating meant that it was difficult to make changes to the design. A straightforward request to have one less window and more wall space in a room was vetoed by the construction team because the window was needed to meet the light requirement to achieve the star rating. Melanie Taylor, principal of Golden Sands School, also in Papamoa, agrees that the process for building the school felt restrictive around functionality and design. She says that if they wanted to make changes to the design part way through, this had implications for the whole design in order to keep the design on track to achieve the Green Star rating. She says adherence to the Green Star rating system meant their choices were restricted. For example, there were only two carpet choices. Taylor says they were keen to get solar panels, but to get these, they also had to get rainwater tanks, for which she didn’t perceive a lot of use. So this meant they couldn’t get the solar panels. Lindsey points out aspects of the school’s design that adhere more to energy-efficiency principles than suitability for teaching. For example, most of the lighting is controlled by sensors. While this may be good from an environmental perspective, Lindsey points out that a teacher can’t control their environment – they may wish to darken the room. He says the teacher response was to block out the sensors, but the rooms have now been retrofitted with light switches.

New schools

Another example Lindsey provides where functionality has been compromised by design is the school’s lift. It has been made with transparent materials to expose the parts, giving students a chance to see how it works. While a good idea in theory, the reality is that it lets in a lot of sun and Lindsey anticipates that they will have problems with the lift in a few years due to sun damage. He suggests the money spent on the designer lift would have been better spent on creating a learning space for students. Neither Taylor nor Lindsey are aware if their schools’ experiences are passed back to the Ministry to help inform the building of new schools in the future. “We provide feedback to the construction team but whether they pass on details like that to the Ministry’s New Schools group, I don’t know,” says Lindsey.

Finger touch interactive projector. No pen required!

Cost of being green

Another concern voiced by some new schools is related to the maintenance of some of the technology involved in the build. Many of the, bells and whistles, used in the construction of a green school are expensive and high-tech and subsequently require specialist maintenance. New schools are not entitled to any capital funding for ten years. So, if, for example, the solar panels need fixing after three years, the school would need to go back to the Ministry requesting they are fixed – otherwise, the panels will sit there dormant for another seven years until they have the money.

Bringing awareness of sustainability

Aside from some minor frustrations with the process, both Lindsey and Taylor support the philosophy behind the Green Star rating. “We have a responsibility to teach students about sustainability. You don’t learn these things through theory but rather through seeing it being done,” says Lindsey. He believes the school’s energy-efficiency and sustainability has an indirect effect on the school’s culture and values. Part of the Green Star rating system involves the school designing lesson plans around environmental issues and incorporating energy efficient aspects of the building into the curriculum. The school has panels explaining how things work. Lindsey says some schools have gone one step further and opted for a cut-away in the wall to show the pipes and so on. Lindsey says many of the students do projects on aspects of the school’s energy efficiency, such as the rainwater tanks to store water, and the solar panels to heat the water. Taylor says some of the things they were already doing at Golden Sands, such as their Kids on Feet and recycling programmes, helped them to gain points to meet the Green Star criteria. The Green Star rating system is more than just a nod in the right direction; it is a clear commitment to making our schools – and by natural extension our education system – more focused on becoming energy efficient and environmentally conscious. However, it seems apparent that a little more could be done to accommodate design elements that will benefit teaching and learning as well. 

Green star schools are designed and constructed to: »» Use less energy in operation through energy-efficient building design »» Demonstrate high indoor air quality leading to improved learning outcomes »» Eliminate toxic materials from places where children learn and play »» Employ day lighting strategies and improved classroom acoustics »» Conserve fresh drinking water and help manage storm water runoff through the use of rainwater collection »» Decrease the burden on municipal water and wastewater treatment through water recycling and water-efficient appliances and fittings »» Encourage waste management efforts and recycling through separation opportunities to reduce demand on local landfills »» Provide interactive environmental education with an emphasis on sustainability and resource »» Reduce maintenance costs in the long run.

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3D printing

Bringing 3D printing

to the classroom

Education Review considers the viability and impact of 3D printing for New Zealand schools.

n the United Kingdom, the Department for Education ran a 3D printing pilot in which 21 schools were provided with funding to purchase a 3D printer, consumables, and support. The aim was to investigate the potential of 3D printing in particular reference to STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) and design subjects. The pilot found many advantages to putting 3D printers in classrooms. Not only did students take to the technology, but it pushed teachers to explore new ways to teach their subjects and encouraged cross-curricular work. Here in New Zealand, 3D printing is also making its way into many classrooms. Paul Francois, product manager at Comworth Technologies, says that 3D printers are now an affordable option for Kiwi schools. Comworth recently launched its range of 3D printers at the Future Learning Environments conference in Auckland. Among the devices on display was the XYZprinting da Vinci 1.0 – an example of how affordable and user-friendly 3D printing can be. Retailing at under $900 means the device is in the grasp of every school. The consumables are also inexpensive; a 600gm cartridge retails at around $45, which equates to 9c a gram, and results in a cost for most printed models under $5. The printer is capable of producing models of up to 20 cubic centimetres and has a 600gm cartridgebased consumable that is as easy to exchange as printer ink toner. “Low cost also allows schools to have multiple printers, instead of a single one under lock and key,” says Francois. Operating the da Vinci 1.0 requires no special expertise. “Any class or teacher can operate it. Simply convert a 3D design in the printer software, plug-in via the USB and press print.”

Whakatane High School ICT manager Niall Pearce is a convert to 3D printing. “Creating a 3D printed object from scratch is an opportunity to follow the technology process from brief, through design and prototyping, to finished article,” says Pearce. “So any project that has that approach and needs a physical outcome may find 3D printing useful.” 3D Printing Systems, which serves New Zealand and Australia schools and businesses, agrees there are many uses for working in digital 3D in education. It gives engineering as an example.

“Rather than starting prospective engineering students off with abstract theory and math-based problem solving, why not expose them to the joys of product design by enabling them to experience, first-hand, an entire product design cycle in less than a week? Students interacting with 3D at an earlier age will open doors to get them interested in engineering and thinking out of the box, so to speak.” It also suggests Minecraft as a good place to start, allowing students to play, create, and learn in a digital 3D world that can now be brought to life with 3D printers. Myles Webb, deputy principal of Auroa Primary School in Taranaki, says he used Minecraft at his previous school as 3D modelling program. Now he is using 3D design programs to design threedimensional models of classrooms and material that can be 3D printed. Webb, Pearce, and other advocates for 3D printing in the classroom are likely to see many more join their passion for this growing technological trend in New Zealand education. The arrival of low-cost, user-friendly devices will serve to further drive this growth. 

3D Modelling in practice: Auroa Primary School, Taranaki Auroa Primary School’s Year 7 and 8 students have access to 3D design programs like Tinkercad and are able to produce material for the school’s 3D printer, which were purchased from MindKits NZ. Deputy principal Myles Webb says the students have access to the programmes in the classroom full-time to enable the students to develop the ideas. “It’s great to see the students driving the learning with practical problems to sort out, and as a rural community, they have the potential to be practical engineering items for the farm.”

One student is building a clip for his father’s spray gun and another is looking into a handle for an electric fence. One of the first projects driven by the students was a replacement hinge for a cupboard in the classroom. The blog outlines how Michael identified a problem, sketched design ideas and put together a possible solution. He then worked with Logan and James to create a virtual design of a replacement hinge using Tinkercad. The boys then printed off their original design, modified it to see if it would work, and then conducted

ICT & Procurement 2014 Education Review series

repeated print runs until they were able to reach their conclusion. The entire process was documented by the students involved on their blogs as a way to show the learning progression. They created three separate possible designs for the hinges so there were five in total and then were able to identify what worked best, including seeing what modifications were needed. Myles Webb’s blog about 3D printing experiences can be found: http://mrwebbauroa.blogspot.co.nz/ p/3d-printing.html

Software

Making the most of

Minecraft

KASSEY DOWNARD describes how her Year 7 and 8 students at Mokoia Intermediate School, Rotorua, have benefited from Minecraft.

y acquaintance with Minecraft was made approximately three years ago when my oldest son started with it. Over this time, his fascination with it has not waned; if anything, he is more into Minecraft than he has ever been!

What is Minecraft?

Minecraft is an open sandbox game. The graphics are rather crude, and many people compare it with an online version of Lego as it is mainly made up from square blocks. Once you start looking into it more deeply, the comparison with Lego quickly fades from your mind as Minecraft offers much, much more. In addition to the original ‘vanilla’ version, a multitude of modification ‘mods’ and ‘mod packs’ are available that offer endless variations. It is available on multiple platforms, with the PC/Mac version being the most versatile. Minecraft can be played offline and online on servers, and MinecraftEdu is a version especially created for use in schools. Players have a 3D figure, the skin (texture) of which can be modified (the default skin is called ‘Steve?’), and in its simplest form, they mine blocks, gather resources, and build structures. Depending on what mode they are playing (creative, survival, adventure, spectator) they have to cope with hunger, scarcity of resources, battle hostile mobs etc. You can use redstone logic to create many things such as logic gates, farms, mine carts on tracks, even down to calculators etc. Using Java, it is possible to modify the game to create ‘mods’; because you are dealing with the code here, it is possible to create anything you want. Groups of mods are called ‘mod packs’ and these are usually designed in a way that they provide a unique experience per mod pack – one may focus heavily on automation, while another focuses on magic. You might encounter different-looking blocks,

tools, creatures – or they might have different properties or functions. It is not out of the question for students to create their own mod packs or even their own mods.

Minecraft as a school tool

My experience with Minecraft has mainly been observing my own children. My oldest son, now 14, has taught his youngest brother, now nine, how to use Minecraft. Together they can spend hours collaborating in their shared world – not many 14- and 9-year-olds would find anything constructive to collaborate on for any length of time. In overhearing their conversation, I can observe their application of our five key competencies: thinking; using language, symbols and text; managing self; relating to others; and participating and contributing. My observations of my own children have led me to do some research on its use in the classroom, and in November last year I was able to put this to the test when I ran a Minecraft option at one of the local schools. Students (only boys in this instance) had opted in; therefore, the high engagement was to be expected. The language of collaboration within the room was incredible; students asked for and offered each other help, made suggestions, solved problems together, and so on. It was interesting to see how not all of them had developed sufficient maturity to continue collaborating like this when we explored a survival world. This in itself could provide a very powerful lesson to go through with students.

concerned about her son participating on the day, she was concerned that her son might need to install the software on his laptop, and she did not want him to have Minecraft at home. It is important that we take parents’ concerns seriously, and in this instance, it was not necessary for this boy to have the software on his machine anyway. However, I did talk to her about the positive aspects of Minecraft, and I think having provided her with this information helped her to see how Minecraft can be educational when used well.

Advice for teachers

For teachers who are considering the use of Minecraft, think about what your

vision is: what is the learning in your context? Minecraft could be one of many tools that help students access an area of learning. It might provide engagement with a topic or it could be a way for a student to demonstrate their learning. Being a completely open-ended tool, there is much scope for using it in almost any context at school. Don’t discount the value it might add to your classroom programme. However, ensure that the learning is what matters first and foremost, with Minecraft being just one of the many useful tools in your kete.  Kassey Downard’s blog on Minecraft can be found at http://missdownard.blogspot. co.nz/search/label/Minecraft.

Parent perspective

Like many parents, I worry about my children spending too much time in front of the screen. I am somewhat reassured, though, when I listen in and observe what they are doing – creating, collaborating, applying and practising numeracy skills, learning about coding, and so on. One of the option students’ mothers called me prior to the session and expressed concern. She was not

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Education Review series ICT & Procurement 2014

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Procurement

AoG contracts gain

momentum

Education Review has been tracking the progress of All of Government (AoG) contracts with schools over the past few years – more recently looking at the launch of the Gas for Schools contract. Here it looks at the growing popularity of the IT Hardware contract and the benefits and savings that participating schools are seeing.

he Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s (MBIE) AoG contracts are really starting to gain momentum in the school sector, with 14 contracts now available to schools and great interest from schools in eight of the contracts that are presenting real value for schools, including air travel; office consumables; vehicles; IT hardware; mobile, voice and data; print devices; reticulated gas; and rental vehicles. The contracts establish a single supply agreement between Government and approved suppliers for common goods and services in an effort to reduce costs for those participating in the agreements, making it easier to do business with Government and boosting productivity for the suppliers involved in the agreement – ultimately saving taxpayers money.

Growth, savings and trends

Schools’ participation in the contracts has risen consistently over the last 12 months. MBIE reports there are now 326 schools participating in at least one or more AoG contract. The objective of AoG contracts is to achieve greater savings for schools, and it would seem that schools are now becoming savvy to this, with MBIE figures showing increased savings year on year. For the year ending March 2014, participating schools saved more than $900,000, which equates to an average saving of 17 per cent. The Gas for Schools initiative was the most recent AoG contract tailored to schools and has been gaining momentum over the past few months. MBIE says there has been interest from almost 100 schools of varying size from all over the North Island. MBIE and Genesis Energy are now in the process of transitioning a number of these schools over to the contract. The Gas for Schools contract has produced an average saving of 20.5 per cent schools’ their annual gas bills. With a contract term until September 2017, the savings will continue to grow for these schools. However, the two most popular contracts for schools continue to be IT Hardware and Office

ICT & Procurement 2014 Education Review series

Consumables, with both of these contracts having over 160 schools signed up. Over the last 12 months, the growth in the sales of tablets to schools has grown significantly. While desktops are still one of the top three most popular items purchased by schools, iPads and Chromebooks have now joined them. Those participating in the IT Hardware contracts have seen average savings of up to 21 per cent for desktops and thin clients, 15 per cent for tablets (excluding iPads), and 13 per cent for laptops and monitors. MBIE’s schools account manager in the Government’s Procurement Branch, Jan Barnett, says they have created a more structured approach to increase the awareness of AoG contracts within schools. “We have promoted AoG contracts for schools within education-associated forums and education events. We have managed to get in front of schools to spread the word and unravel the mystery of AoG. The results show this approach is working to raise awareness, and we are now starting to see schools actively talking amongst themselves around AoG and the value proposition,” says Barnett.

Advantages of AoG

Topping the list of benefits for participating schools is the ability to access great prices, achieved through AoG’s economies of scale. The smallest school can access the same price as the largest central government agency. However, the advantages of AoG contracts extend beyond cost savings. “AoG contracts also save schools precious time and resources. There are many hidden costs associated with purchasing, such as the time it takes to research equipment, shop around, negotiate with suppliers, and draft contracts. Under AoG, these are taken care of and schools can be confident that they are getting top quality equipment at a great price,” says Barnett. To take the popular IT Hardware contract as an example, schools are benefiting from the corporate specifications attributed to AoG equipment; it is subject to minimum standards to ensure a longer product lifecycle, which minimises the replacement cost for schools.

AoG suppliers are leading IT hardware companies in New Zealand, representing market-leading brands. Schools represent core business for some of the AoG suppliers who have a history of working with and delivering IT solutions for schools. Suppliers offer a standard three-year warranty on equipment purchased under AoG and a one-year warranty for tablets. There are agreed service levels in the AoG supplier contracts, including things such as warranty repairs and delivery of orders in full, on time and without problems. AoG IT hardware product catalogues are updated every quarter with new equipment, offering a range of equipment to meet school requirements, from small form-factor desktops to all-in-ones, Chromebooks to high-spec laptops, Android, Windows 8, and iPad tablets, monitors and accessories. AoG pricing is secured for three-month periods, so schools have time to secure funding and order equipment at great prices without the pressure of ‘limited time offers’. Schools are also kept up to date with a regular ICT newsletter covering ICT developments, supplier updates and market share information across the field. Schools participating in the IT Hardware, Print Devices and/or Mobile, Voice and Data contracts, are emailed this newsletter quarterly.

Next steps

MBIE will continue to work across the sector to raise awareness of AoG contracts in schools and promote the value they can deliver for them. As we return to the market for a number of AoG contract solutions, we are in a much better position to deliver solutions that meet the requirements of schools. We are focused on working more collaboratively with the Ministry of Education to raise awareness of some of these initiatives. We have been pleased with the momentum we have gained so far and look forward to future success through the development of more tailored solutions for schools. 

Social media

Facebook and

whānau RACHEL BOYD, deputy principal of Waiuku Primary School, discusses the relevance of social media for engaging with a school’s community and its role in transforming home-school partnerships.

here’s no denying that social media is here to stay. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Plus, the list goes on! But do social media have a place in our schools? Could utilising tools like Facebook and Twitter be the key to unlocking the hallowed homeschool partnership? We are charged to build trusting and learning focused relationships with students and whānau, yet our students spend just over 15 per cent of their week with us at school. Building relationships with our whānau and community is important for the wellbeing and culture of our school. When the community engages with the school in a partnership, there are benefits for all. At Waiuku Primary School, we dipped our toes into social media in October 2010 by beginning our Facebook page trial. We worked with a keen, core group of parents, many of whom were from our PTA, and learned from their feedback and suggestions. We knew Facebook was used prolifically among our community and wanted to meet them where they resided already online. Our focus was to bring

the information to them, rather than have them seek it out on an ad hoc basis. Our school had the frustration most schools experience – the newsletter and school website were becoming redundant and ineffective. They were not informing and engaging our community. A school Facebook page has provided a great two-way and one-to-many communication avenue for our school. We currently have 356 ‘likes’. The page has allowed for borderless boundaries of distance and time. We are able to publicise school events, celebrate achievement, direct traffic/ audience to our class blogs, as well as canvas and get community views and ideas. Responsive engagement with whānau is enabled, in an online format that is easy to access and already part of their daily life. Twitter was less successful, due to this not being a popular social media tool with our school community. However, we have utilised Twitter to power our daily text messages to whānau. These mainly morning-scheduled messages are quick 140-character (or less) summaries of the day ahead

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and are great as reminders of school events. The power behind this system is that almost all of our community owns a cell phone. This has proved transformative to ensure families are ‘on board’ and knowledgeable of events and happenings around the school. As whānau digital confidence has grown and our online presence has become just part of ‘how we do things around here’, the Facebook page is becoming more popular. This has hugely assisted the school to build relationships with our community online. Parents and caregivers are beginning to post regularly to the page, send private messages with questions to us as a school, and are becoming more involved in commenting on our featured posts, articles and photos. Recently, the enrolment of a prospective student was arranged entirely via Facebook private message interactions (with paperwork dropped off at school after hours). As a school, we currently still have a purpose and need for our current school website and newsletter. However, all are linked to each other. Continued on page 18 >>

Talk to us about how “All of Government” can help your School make substantial savings and receive “Value for Money” when making purchases across the following areas:

IT Hardware

For More information on contracts and How to Sign up:

Mobile Voice and Data

Print Contracts

Office Consumables

Vehicles

Visit our Schools page at: www.procurement.govt.nz Or contact our Schools Account manager on 07 957 1886 or email Jan. Barnett@mbie.govt.nz

Rental Vehicles

Travel Management Services

Reticulated Gas

Education Review series ICT & Procurement 2014

Social media

<< Continued from page 17 Most importantly, we grow from feedback given to us by our whānau and have been able to tailor our social media use to our unique community. Every school may be different and require different tools depending on circumstances. Accessing social media has transformed home-school partnerships and made school information and engagement a lot more accessible to many of our whānau. Every school’s demographics will differ with regard to access to technology/internet in the home. Some communities may be readier than others to embrace this move to ‘the online’. While our community are largely connected and using Facebook regularly, many still prefer a printed weekly newsletter each week. Our approach has therefore been to allow our whānau a choice in how they engage with the school. The ‘Connect with us’ campaign arose from this idea. We wanted to ensure we provided multiple avenues for communication with our community, all of which deliver similar messages. In this way, whānau can choose how they engage with us, through a variety of online and face-to-face channels. Daily texts to the community (via Twitter) keep whānau informed of the schoolwide things happening. Teachers and whānau regularly send emails to communicate and the school website continues to be a port of call, mainly for prospective families looking to learn about the school. Our school’s digital presence is importantly underpinned by whānau-signed online publication agreements (for student images and work), as well as student and whānau-signed responsible use agreements. These are an important piece of the puzzle when utilising online tools to engage with the community. To be successful, engaging with the community using social media requires a team approach. Multiple administrators are needed to manage a school’s Facebook page effectively and shared information (e.g. username/passwords) to other services used such as Twitter. This way action can be taken promptly if trouble or difficultly arises. In the four years the school has been using a Facebook page, there has been a total of five minor ‘incidents’. These were able to be deleted within 10 minutes of posting and later followed up. The Facebook Pages app is invaluable here, used on a smart phone for the active monitoring of the site. Many schools may have a Facebook page or utilise other social media tools; the challenge is to keep it alive, vibrant and current with regular updates. As we connect with our communities in different contexts and media, this is what will drive their engagement and willingness to participate. Whatever a school does, it needs to be matched to its unique community to ensure a successful home-school partnership.  Waiuku Primary Facebook page: www.facebook.com/waiukuprimaryschool. Others to check out are: Waimari School, Christchurch www.facebook.com/waimairi; Plateau School, Upper Hutt www.facebook.com/plateauschool. Links to other schools with Facebook pages can be found here: www.diigo.com/user/rachelboyd/school_FB.

ICT & Procurement 2014 Education Review series

ICT procurement

Three top tips JONO TOWNSEND and DR SUE BARNETT offer schools some sound advice for technology procurement.

e all know that high budget, complex IT purchases require more than a couple of clicks on Google’s top links and checking a few user-posted reviews to make a decision. With expensive projects, the stakes are higher, the impact on the organisation is greater, the results – good or bad – are more noticeable, and it will be in use for years to come. No one wants to be responsible for spending large slices of budget with precious few results to show for it. But in a potentially confusing world where a phrase containing the words host, server, cookie, GUI (pronounced gooey), Java, and byte aren’t referring to a trip to the local café, where do you start to get an IT project delivered well with low risk? There are a few fundamentals that can make or break a project, and in turn, the person responsible for it. Our work responding to and helping to write tenders for a range of websites, online tools, and cloud solutions has shown us the best and the worst out there. Here are our top tips to get you on the right track for a solid project.

Top tip 1: Use the common formats of RFI or RFP to clearly detail the outcomes you want.

RFI (Request for Information) is where an organisation seeks to understand more from vendors about a range of potential solutions available. This process typically rolls into an RFP process once complete. An RFP (Request for Proposal) is a process where an organisation is seeking proposals (normally with quotes) to deliver a solution to meet a specific set of criteria or to understand how vendors would approach achieving a specific outcome (RFQ, Request for Quote, a tighter set of criteria for vendors to cost, is also used, though less so). The request documents are prescriptive in the format of responses expected and aim to treat all vendors without favouritism or unfairness. The documents typically contain:

an introduction to the requesting organisation and any relevant background information; a timeline of the RFI/RFP process and when due dates fall; legal disclaimers; questions for the supplier to demonstrate experience and suitability; assessment criteria; and then a large, numbered list of detailed, solution-centric requirements and outcomes. At first glance, writing a large, detailed requirements document might seem verbose, and even feel like you are patronising the reader. What is the reason for the recording of such seemingly obvious detail? It’s because assumption is the enemy. On topics of even low complexity, assumption starts innocently but can be fatal. Loose requirements will be interpreted differently by each vendor and any proposals sent back will not be comparable with other responses, rendering an ‘apples with apples’ assessment impossible. Further, a loose set of requirements often leads to a lowest common denominator approach, where competitive pressure causes vendors to assume the bare minimum requirements to provide a cheaper quote or include broad limitation of liability statements – a ‘we’ll charge more if this costs us more’ approach. It is genuinely better for everyone if buyers do some detailed research up front and get a decent set of requirements together to guide the process.

Top tip 2: Understand (at least the fundamentals) of what you are seeking to buy.

We IT types are proud of our craft and how we can understand complex things. Although we won’t admit it, we also tend to feel rather important when we use terms and concepts that others don’t fully understand (refer to the café visit example earlier). Not wanting to sound like the only person in the conversation who is unsure what the latest jargon means, many clients don’t halt the proceedings to ask for a simple explanation. But to buy well, you must. If an IT provider cannot give you the why and fundamental workings of a solution in a way you can grasp, they are not doing their job.

ICT procurement

(to help you keep your job) when spending big money on IT Understanding is needed when deciding who to distribute the request document to. A closed tender (a finite list of those you invite to bid for the work) requires that you know a range of companies well positioned to deliver the right solution, whereas an open tender allows anyone in the market to bid on the project (sometimes distributed through the newly re-launched GETS, the Government Electronic Tenders Service). Vendors will ask questions to clarify the request document (these questions are typically shared, along with answers, to all vendors to keep things fair) and you will need to be able to get answers back fairly quickly. Fight for this fundamental understanding and don’t let jargon or complexity get in the way to remain in control of decisions and the projects. Of course, when in doubt on the detail, Google it. To write the document that defines in detail the criteria for a solution, more than a fundamental understanding of the subject matter is required. There are cases when it makes sense to hire a business analyst (BA) to create this document for you. A BA will gather requirements through consultation with your team, and having considered a great many things, will collect these in a nice, neat document that can be sent to vendors. An experienced BA will give confidence and shoulder some of the burden, but may charge heavily if a large amount of time is required to get to know your organisation. Another option is to use RFP templates (a large range of Word documents to start from are available from a quick Google search).

Top tip 3: Be realistic and think long term.

We all want projects to be completed quickly. But it is not typically the buyer that causes the delay. On the basis that most responses will be roughly the same number of pages as the request, sending out a 100-page document that is responded to by 100 proposers will result in 10,000 pages of night time reading for the buyer! This will take much more than a week to properly read through (as many request timelines we have seen imply). Similarly, budgets, if stated, need to be realistic to get serious attention from the experienced vendors in a market. Expensive IT projects are inherently long term. They take a long time to deliver and should have a fairly long use life to justify the spending. Be sure to get pricing that covers upfront build costs and all other operating and support costs for the next five years to run the solution. With an eye on the future, solutions must be extensible to support future needs not yet known. In an increasingly automated and connected world, solutions need to be able to integrate (via an API or other connectors), passing or

retrieving information from other systems in an organisation without manual downloading and uploading. We also strongly recommend vendors look for options with multiple strong providers, as opposed to a proprietary solution offered only by one or two vendors. We have seen too often a client tied to a solution that is no longer supported after the provider goes out of business. Ouch. Well-delivered IT projects have the power to bring great progress and benefit to an organisation. The right vendors responding to considered requirements will result in the best proposals and ultimately, the best solution delivered. 

Jono Townsend and Dr Sue Barnett are CEO and ‘tender handler-extraordinaire’ respectively, at Kudos Web, an online tools, cloud infrastructure and website provider delivering custom, specialist solutions for the New Zealand tertiary education sector.

kudosweb.com/edu

Education Review series ICT & Procurement 2014

MLEs

Multi-teacher approach:

one school’s experience JUDE BARBACK asks Hautapu School teachers about the benefits and challenges of moving from single cell classrooms to an open-plan, multi-teacher approach to learning.

aikato primary school Hautapu School warranted a visit from the Minister of Education when it opened the doors to its new Pohutukawa Pod. Actually ‘doors’ are a scarce commodity in the new pod, which features an expansive open-plan layout as currently favoured in most modern learning environments these days. Principal Marilynn Jones’ exposure to the openplan classroom began at the beginning of her teaching career. As a new teacher, she was placed in a teaching hub – essentially three classrooms with the walls knocked out – for 120 Year 7 and 8 students with three other teachers. She credits this experience as giving her the readiness to embrace change and new ideas. “My colleagues were very skilled practitioners, so I was immersed in a rich environment of teaching practice and pedagogy. This de-privatised my practice and allowed me to become open about my teaching, with year-long professional development. Along with this came many skills like being open to change, flexibility, cooperation, collaboration, sharing, seeking help, and helping others!” It wasn’t until many years and schools later that Jones was faced with the opportunity to create an open plan teaching space at Hautapu School, with the two new entrant classrooms in need of refurbishment. “After many meetings, drawings, and discussions with the architects and Ministry approval, our plan came into fruition. We had created the plan to connect these classrooms together by knocking out two walls and adding the space in between which is now known as the ’Pohutukawa Pod’.”

ICT & Procurement 2014 Education Review series

Jones and staff members were able to link and formulate their ideas for the new pod through visits to other schools, including to Whitiora School in Hamilton and Stonefields and Hingaia Peninsula in Auckland. They also gleaned much from Core Education’s Mark Osborne’s research on Modern Learning Environments. A multi-teacher approach would be one of the key features of teaching and learning in the new pod. The school had prepared itself accordingly by actively promoting student self-regulation, encouraging students to take responsibility for their learning and developing their competencies. Before the students could move into their new environment, the teachers and students worked in the school hall for the first term of this year, giving them an opportunity to work together collaboratively.

Leadership in multi-teacher setting

A criticism of the multi-teacher approach is sometimes that teachers clash as they all strive to lead, or conversely, that all shy away from leading. However, Jones says that in the new Pohutukawa Pod, while overall leadership is provided by the senior teacher who takes responsibility for curriculum, school reports, and budgets, generally leadership is shared between the three teachers. At times, there are deliberate acts of leadership – for example, when a lead teacher for a new learning programme will introduce and implement said programme; at other times, intuitive acts, if a teacher is busy with a parent at roll time, for example; and at other times, leadership is planned around the strengths and particular interests of a teacher, like visual art or singing. Jones says while teachers certainly retain their own style of teaching, they also need to be adaptable and remain consistent. “There are multiple opportunities to model teaching styles and learn from other teachers,” adds Tina-Maree Thatcher, assistant principal and senior teacher for the Pohutukawa Pod. “We plan our topic work and key competency and health/PE work together as a team. We plan individually for our targeted learning groups for maths, writing, and reading. We collaborate over the content of the learning, its relevance for the learners, trends we are noticing, schoolwide foci areas, and particularly students who may have transferred into our groups from another teacher. We share assessment information so all teachers share the responsibility of each student.” Another benefit Thatcher notes is if a teacher is absent, having two others already with working knowledge of the Pod and students on site to assist a reliever is a definite advantage.

MLEs

The effect on students

Thatcher dispels the notion that new entrants need the reassurance of having the familiar face of one teacher. She points out that in early childhood education, children have several teachers, so school is just an extension of this. “We recognise that students form bonds with different teachers for different reasons and we monitor this. We see this as a positive thing because it gives the child choice as to whom they connect with.” She says that in terms of ‘playing favourites’, the teachers aim to achieve consistency with expectations – for example, the behaviour required when they come together at mat time and with positive reinforcement, such as sticker charts that encourage and acknowledge progress using the key competencies. Thatcher says for the new entrants, they tend to have a smaller group to establish regular and stable morning routines. The teacher for this group will be the same teacher these students have for news, writing, and reading – “a literacy group that we keep together to provide stability in the first term of schooling at least.” Beyond the new entrant group, the pod operates small and targeted learning groups focused on the needs of the learners, with students moving between learning groups based on individual progress. Thatcher says the children are flourishing under the multi-teacher approach, with evidence of smooth transitions from early childhood education. She says it has also increased students’ autonomy. “We have deliberately provided students with opportunities to develop genuine ownership and autonomy of their learning environment, to improve learning, engagement and belonging.” She cites many examples: student selection of cubby holes for bags and belongings, freedom to choose how to use furniture and where to put it,

My colleagues were very skilled practitioners, so I was immersed in a rich environment of teaching practice and pedagogy. and choice of which learning space to work in at selected times. Jones adds that the teachers benefit too, with more opportunities for sharing expertise, modelling and collaboration and day-to-day professional development.

Not without its challenges

Inevitably, there have been a few teething problems with the move to a new learning environment. Thatcher says it is a challenge for teachers to fine-tune their intention for learning. “If the intention for this writing lesson is for the child to draw a picture that corresponds with their news sharing, then does it matter if that child is lying on the floor writing, on a cushion, or kneeling at the table? “But if my teaching is explicit teaching for letter formation, I might require the children to be at a table on a chair with back supported. It comes down to truly allowing the physical environment, the furniture, and other resources to truly support and enhance the learning and for the teacher to actively consider the purpose of the lesson.” She says there is definitely more noise from the furniture and increased movement. “It’s important to notice this, recognise that it is an example of the need for students to move, and work with it,” she says. The pod is divided into three zones, which can be closed via sound-proof sliding doors and teachers make deliberate decisions to close the doors to support learning. For example, at phonics

time, students watch a video clip, which may be distracting to children in the next zone, so the doors are closed for this. “We are aware that we don’t want to be competing with teachers for engagement! We are sensitive to and respect each learning group.” Thatcher says they are having trouble naming the three ‘zones’ because they don’t want to assign a teacher-name. One enjoyable challenge has been the trial of new furniture, a departure from standard desks and chairs. The children now have a wonderful learning environment with bright, colourful furniture purchased from Furnware.

Rolling out to older students

Based on the early success of the Pohutukawa Pod, Jones says she is keen to roll out the multiteacher, open-plan approach to older students. “We already cross group between our classes and our teachers would jump at the opportunity to move into an environment similar to the one we have created,” she says. She says older students’ increasing ability to self-regulate their learning means they would be well-suited to such an environment. “We have been trialling ways in which to allow the students genuine autonomy so that they have a fully developed sense of belonging in their learning environment,” says Jones. 

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