NZ Principal Magazine Term 4 2012

November 2012 Volume 27, Number 4

ERADICATING GERMS BURNING THE MYTH ABOUT ARSON | CELEBRATING MĀORI SUCCESS

Editor Liz Hawes Executive Officer PO Box 25380 Wellington 6146 Ph: 04 471 2338 Fax: 04 471 2339 Email: esm@nzpf.ac.nz

CONTENTS

NOVEMBER 2012

2 EDITORIAL 3 PRESIDENT’S PEN 6 NZPF ELECTION RESULTS 7 MĀORI ACHIEVEMENT IN A MAINSTREAM SCHOOL

Editorial Board Paul Drummond, NZPF President Geoff Lovegrove, Lytton Street School (Feilding) Liz Hawes, Editor Advertising Stephen Tuck, Sales & Marketing Manager

Bruce Jepsen

11 PUBLIC INTEREST THREATENED BY PRIVATE GAIN Sue Street, UK

For all advertising enquiries contact Komal Mathur, Michael Lynch, Stephani Ozawa, Sonia Payne Cervin Media Ltd PO Box 68450, Newton, Auckland 1145 Ph: 09 360 8700 or Fax: 09 360 8701 Production Dan Mesnage, Stuart Sue Note The articles in New Zealand Principal do not necessarily reflect the policy of the New Zealand Principals’ Federation. Readers are welcome to use or reprint material if proper acknowledgement is made.

Subscription Distributed free to all schools in New Zealand.

For individual subscribers, send $40 per year to: New Zealand Principals’ Federation National Office, PO Box 25380, Wellington 6146

14 ERADICATING GERMS: The Lead Message From The Trans-Tasman Conference Liz Hawes and Helen Kinsey-Wightman

21 State OF THE NATIONS REPORTS NZPF and APPA reports 23 APPRAISAL THROUGH TE ARIKI LENS Dr David Stewart 27 BURNING THE MYTH ABOUT ARSON Peter Wilding 30 school lines Lester Flockton 32 rural ramblings Baabaara Ramsbottom

New Zealand Principal is published

by Cervin Media Ltd on behalf of the New Zealand Principals’ Federation and is issued four times annually. For all enquiries regarding editorial contributions, please contact the editor.

ISSN 0112-403X (Print) ISSN 1179-4372 (Online)

PHOTOS FOR THE MAGAZINE: If you have any photos showing ‘New Zealand Schools at Work’, particularly any good shots of pupils, teachers or leadership staff, they would be welcome.

The appropriate permission is required before we can print any photos.

Technical details: Good-quality original photos can be scanned, and digital photos must be of sufficient resolution for high-quality publishing. (Images should be at least 120 mm (wide) at 300 dpi.) Please contact Cervin Media Ltd for further details. Phone 09 360 8700 or email education@cervinmedia.co.nz

Cover artwork courtesy of Annaliese Lines (Year 7), Somerville Intermediate School

Proud to be Gold Business Partners of New Zealand Principals’ Federation

Editorial Liz Hawes

Editor

Another day, and another Novo-no-pay story flashes for the past three months, Ministry staff, including the Secretary across the nation’s television screens! The volume and diversity for Education, have been in denial, despite the daily reports of of problems that have emerged from the new education sector escalating issues with Novopay. payroll system is quite unbelievable. It is now over three Further, Ministry staff have been passing the system failure months since Novopay was launched. During that time the onto schools by suggesting that more training was needed. NZEI most extraordinary stories have emerged. Most involve relief has called for a full public inquiry and this call will surely have teachers, part time teachers, teacher aides, teachers applying for the full support not only of the education sector, but of the public sick leave or annual leave. But some involve full time teachers who have unwittingly funded this shambolic system. too. Many still unresolved problems involve payments to third The Novopay debacle has been widely publicised, but it is not parties such as superannuation, the only issue that has exposed an medical insurance, student The Novopay debacle has been area of Ministry incompetence loans and the like. The latest, and inconsistency this year. as this issue goes to print, are widely publicised, but it is not Let’s go back to the class size revelations of security breaches the only issue that has exposed issue. Information passed to around teachers’ pay details. the Minister on the impact of The system is two years an area of Ministry incompetence increasing class sizes was also overdue and comes with a $29 inaccurate, especially for inter­ million price tag. The contractor and inconsistency this year. mediate schools, and it took the is an Australia-based company, Talent2. profession to point this out. Increasing class sizes was to release So bizarre has the experience been we have read stories from money for increasing the quality of teachers through teachers teachers being paid tens of thousands of dollars for a few hours having higher qualifications. The Minister claimed that quality relieving to the unbelievable case of the reliever who was owed teaching is what makes the difference in lifting achievement. $7,000 but had been charged $24,000 in tax, leaving her with Fast forward to a few weeks ago and the introduction of the negative $17,000. There were teachers appearing on school staffing ‘Amendment to the Education Act’. This amendment allows for usage and expenditure (SUE) reports who had never worked for the establishment of Charter Schools which are supposedly to lift the school. Just a few weeks ago a Fiordland teacher aide appeared achievement for our most vulnerable and challenging learners. on television to tell us she hadn’t been paid since August.

These schools will not require teachers to be registered or Every newspaper, radio station and television channel has a qualified, and that includes principals. Further, the schools will dossier of Novopay stories. NZPF ran its own Novopay survey not be obliged to respond to Official Information Act requests. and sent it out twice, three weeks apart. Across the two surveys It is all quite extraordinary and bewildering. the results were almost identical. In the latest survey Principals Let us not also forget the debacle called the Christchurch reported that in 75% of schools the staff were still not all paid Renewal Plan. Ministry information once again is just so wrong. correctly, 90% of schools had problems relating to previous pay How can someone mistake a long-jump pit for liquefaction in rounds not yet resolved, half of the schools had had to resort to such an important report? How can you mistake five buildings paying staff out of their own school funds at some stage, and 86% for fifty? of schools had no confidence that problems would be resolved Together, all of these issues add up to a certain attitude of before the end of the year. arrogance. The Ministry is disrespecting the sector, ignoring The staff in schools responsible for payroll report that they the professionals and so often getting things horribly wrong as have reached their wits end. The frustration of the call centre a result. There is a need for an urgent culture change. wait times which have exceeded fifty minutes for many, have Teachers right now are preparing end of year reports. If led to unbearable stress levels. Payroll staff have had to work the ‘Ministry’ was on the class list they might well say ‘overall considerable extra hours trying to sort out problems so that the performance this year below standard; needs to understand rest of the staff could get paid. The situation is intolerable. what responsibility means and when things go wrong, admit the What has made it more exasperating is listening to Ministry failure; needs to practice and improve listening skills; consistency staff report that the Novopay system is fundamentally sound and needs work; relationships with others poor; consultation skills that the problems really are minor. well below expectations; Can do much better, and we expect big Rejecting reality creates a block to progressing solutions and improvements from the ‘Ministry’ next year!

2

N Z P r i n c i p a l | N o v e m b e r 2 0 12

President’s Pen Paul Drummond

National President, New Zealand Principals’ Federation

New Zealand has a world class education system. Irrespec­ tive of challenges to the contrary from the Secretary for Education or the Minister herself, we remain world class by definition. Our children are placed by the OECD in the top seven countries in the world for their educational achievements. End of story.

We are rightly proud of our world-class status and world-wide reputation for producing high quality teachers and high achieving learners. We have a successful education system for a number of reasons. We operate in a high trust low stakes environment, subscribe to a collaborative culture and our rich and broad curriculum is the envy of the rest of the world. Our schools are self-managing giving us the autonomy to accommodate diversity, respond quickly to individual children’s needs and we are fortunate to have developed here in New Zealand some of the best learning support programmes in the world. Further, our teachers and leaders are committed to self-improvement through on-going professional development.

Exposing our teachers and leaders to new ideas and pedagogies is now more important than ever. Teachers today are challenged to create new and different learning environments. Our job is to prepare children for twenty-first century living. Children in our schools today will grow up in diverse multicultural communities.

They may end up working in a job which has not yet been invented. What we can be fairly sure of is that the children we teach today will not be moving into traditional manufacturing jobs, most of which will be gone. Nor will there be layers of unskilled work available. In fact many of the jobs that we consider typical or ordinary will not exist in thirty years’ time. That is why our children need to be creative, responsive, critical thinkers and problem solvers. It is our job to give them the opportunities to develop those skills that they will need to survive.

One thing we don’t need is a nineteenth century education system. As we were repeatedly told at the recent Trans-Tasman conference by world experts, GERM or the Global Education Reform Movement must be eradicated. See the article by the same title in this issue pp. 14–20. One of the reasons it must be eradicated is that it simply works against everything that is required for our children’s future. It works on standardisation which denies diversity. It narrows curriculum to literacy and numeracy when children need a broad curriculum including higher order skills of creativity, problem solving and critical thinking. It creates competition when we need collaboration and it demands that the results of standardised tests or assessments be made public so that schools’ performance can be compared. This high stakes, low trust environment works against teachers focusing on individual needs of children and collaborating with colleagues to share best practice.

Simply put such a reform agenda is tediously old fashioned.

It is not original and was tried and rejected in New Zealand before the 1940s. So why was it ever introduced again?

Our Government presents two reasons. First it aims to lift the achievement of all those children who are not yet experiencing success. Secondly it wants to address the high levels of inequity that plague our education system. We may have a world class high performing education system, but we also have one of the highest levels of inequity in the world. The gap between our highest and lowest achievers is unacceptably huge.

If we don’t accept that GERM will provide us with a solution to inequity then what will?

As a profession we have always been concerned for those children who are not succeeding. It is the reason we have developed such a broad range of excellent learning interventions over the years including our world famous reading recovery programme which addresses reading problems for individual

YMCA CAMP KAITOKE out in the

out on the

out at the

bush

water

camp

WE OFFER OFFER camp camp facilities; facilities;catering; catering;outdoor outdooreducation; education; WE education; retreats, retreats, language languageimmersion; immersion;team teambuilding building building LOCATED 45 45 minutes minutes from fromWellington WellingtonCBD CBD LOCATED 55 minutes from Masterton 55 minutes from Masterton, MORE INFO www.ymcawellington.org.nz/campkaitoke MORE INFO www.ymcawellington.org.nz/campkaitoke www.ymcawellington.org.nz/campkaitoke CONTACT C O N TA C T campkaitoke@ymca.org.nz e: campkaitoke@ymca.org.nz campkaitoke@ymca.org.nz p: (04) 526 7338 7338

N Z Principal | N o v e m b e r 2 0 12

3

In order for the profession to lead the way in creating opportunities to close the gaps further, they need support and freedom from other distractions so that they can focus solely on a better future for the children of New Zealand. That means eradicating GERM. learners. What we have not until recent years appreciated is the importance of creating a culturally safe and culturally welcoming environment, especially for our Māori children. The research of Russell Bishop and Angus Macfarlane has led to some outstand­ ing programms such as Te Kotahitanga which secondary schools have adopted in numbers. Although not confirmed, it is likely that Te Kotahitanga has had a part to play in the sharp increase in Māori students achieving NCEA levels one two and three in the most recent report released in September this year. Bruce Jepsen principal of Te Akau ki Papamoa School, who features on p. 7 of this issue, has also produced some brilliant examples of practices that can be successfully applied in schools in order to strengthen Māori children’s identity and ultimately build

4

N Z P r i n c i p a l | N o v e m b e r 2 0 12

confidence and self-esteem. His approach to creating a bicultural environment for his school is also commendable.

Leaders in the profession, including members of NZPF are currently working with Ministry staff to develop a programme of professional development for principals. The programme will help principals establish bicultural school environments so that Māori children can feel welcome and part of the school community. With feelings of affiliation established they are more likely to be successful learners.

What will suit one school community will not necessarily suit another. It will be important for principals to feel confident in establishing strong relationships with Māori iwi leaders in their areas so that they can work with them to provide a school environment that is appropriate to their community. Identifying principals who can assist as mentors and advisors and help principals make the connections with iwi will be an essential factor in the professional development programme.

Normalising biculturalism in our schools will take time. It will involve the teaching of Te Reo in all schools and will require an increase in teachers who are fluent in Māori language. Currently there are too few to go around. All of this will take a concerted effort and commitment on the part of all schools, the Ministry and will require a strong political will.

Progress has been made and will continue to be made. The gaps in education are closing. In order for the profession to lead the way in creating opportunities to close the gaps further, they need support and freedom from other distractions so that they can focus solely on a better future for the children of New Zealand. That means eradicating GERM.

Are your school records Safe?

Where do you store your student records? If a flood, fire or other disaster struck could you recover them? Konica Minolta can help. We can provide you with a document management solution to capture and store all of your records electronically in a safe and secure system.

Documents can be intelligently scanned and filed directly from your MFPs into electronic storage systems and retrieved within seconds whenever you need them.

Save Space, Save Time and Save Money with Konica Minolta. Call 0800 933 008 today to talk to your local Education Specialist and find out how much we can save you.

Scan The QR code To find ouT MoRe and RegiSTeR foR youR chance To Win a SaMSung galaxy Siii.

konicaminolta.co.nz

NZPF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE ELECTION RESULTS 2012 This year it was great to see some new faces put their names forward to serve on the National Executive and we thank each one of you for doing so. This keeps our democracy healthy. If you were not successful this year, do not be discouraged. Next year it may be your turn.

The election data from our Returning Officer Warwick Lampp of Electionz appears in the table below. In all 44.25% of the

membership took part in deciding who would form your 2013 National Executive. Congratulations to those whose names are shaded. We again sincerely thank all candidates who made themselves available for this election.

Please note that under the constitution the new executive will appoint from within their number a member to each of the positions of National Secretary and Finance Convenor.

NZPF NATIONAL EXECUTIVE ~ from 1 January 2013 CANDIDATE

SCHOOL

POSITION

SUCCESSFUL

Philip Harding *

Paparoa Street School, Christchurch

President



Unopposed

Ernie Buutveld *

Havelock School, Marlborough

Vice President



Unopposed

Paul Drummond *

Tahunanui School, Nelson

Immediate Past President

NA

NA

Peter Simpson *

Belfast School, Christchurch

Executive Member



543

Phil Palfrey *

Manurewa East School, Auckland

Executive Member



508

Julie Hepburn *

Levin North School, Levin

Executive Member



497

Gavin Beere *

Hillpark School, Auckland

Executive Member



490

Denise Torrey *

Somerfield School, Christchurch

Executive Member



476

Iain Taylor

Manurewa Intermediate, Auckland

Executive Member



462

Keri Milne-Ihimaera *

Moerewa School, Northland

Executive Member



461

Kevin Bush *

Te Hihi School, Auckland

Executive Member



459

David Ellery *

Somerville Intermediate, Auckland

Executive Member



456

Whetu Cormick *

Bathgate Park School, Dunedin

Executive Member



447

Sally Direen *

Balaclava School, Dunedin

Executive Member



435

Peter Witana *

Kawakawa School, Kawakawa

Executive Member



427

Marlene Campbell *

Salford School, Invercargill

Executive Member



379

Karen Brisco

Omata School, New Plymouth

Executive Member



370

Graham McDonald

Raumati South School, Kapiti

Executive Member



228

Danny Nicholls

St Patrick’s Catholic School, Taupo

Executive Member



175

* asterisk (*) denotes current executive member

6

N Z P r i n c i p a l | N o v e m b e r 2 0 12

VOTES

MĀORI ACHIEVEMENT IN A MAINSTREAM SCHOOL Liz Hawes asks Bruce Jepsen, Principal of Te Akau ki Papamoa, the key factors which have led to the remarkable lift in achievement for the Māori children in his beach-side Bay of Plenty school.

It is the most talked about subject in education today, from the Minister’s office at parliament to the tea rooms of schools across the nation. Māori achievement, or more usually Māori under-achievement, is the centre of attention for Government policy, the Ministry and the Education Review Office and features in the charters of countless schools up and down the country.

The OECD reports of the last decade provide plenty of evidence that New Zealand’s education system is a very high performer compared to other countries and the vast majority of Kiwi kids are excelling. What OECD reports also tell us is that the gap between our highest achievers and lowest is one of the biggest in the world and our Māori students are over-represented in the lower group. It is these low achievement ratings for Māori that brings the Secretary for Education to provocatively declare that New Zealand cannot claim to have a world-class education system – not while so many Māori kids are not achieving.

Bruce Jepsen doesn’t disagree that there are inequities that urgently need addressing but says ‘We can’t change the back­ground kids bring to school each day, and we try not to over-analyse.

We have children who arrive at school with all the competencies they need to move on to formal learning and we have kids who arrive at school who can’t write their name, can’t name colours or numbers and who have had no experience of books at home,’ he said. Obviously the kids in the second group are going to take a lot longer to be ready for formal learning and meanwhile the other kids have moved on.

‘That’s why we have to focus on progress,’ says Bruce, ‘not just whether a child is meeting some norm referenced or national standard at some particular age or stage. You could have a child who has made huge progress, but still won’t be up with their peers straight away. It will take longer,’ he said.

Bruce believes that there is no ‘silver bullet’ for building a school culture in which every child can succeed. He says there are multiple factors that contribute to success including setting high expectations. Every parent wants their child extended and our Māori parents have very high aspirations for their children. Success includes establishing an appropriate learning environ­ment and part of Bruce’s approach is to set a bicultural environment where both English and Māori languages and cultural practices are normalised. Setting the right environment begins with an agreed set of values.

‘We have a set of seven values,’ says Bruce. ‘We call them the seven waves and they represent ‘how we do things’, he said.

These seven waves include: Vision – Moemoea, or defining the future of the school and having a clear learning continuum that everyone understands.

Think – Whakaaro, how to solve problems, higher order thinking and reflecting, individualised learning, in depth learning and research.

Learn – Ako, providing opportunities to develop skills, attitudes, values to contribute to society and be selfmotivating, lifelong learners who stretch and grow their minds.

Nurture – Atawhai, with a whanau approach so each child is treated like our own, in an environment that is physically and emotionally safe Grow – Tipu, assisting learners to discover, develop, demonstrate and celebrate talents

New Zealand’s #1 Out-of-School Care Provider sKIDS provides fun, Safe, Out-of-School Care programmes On-SIte at local primary schools • Guaranteed rental income • Highly trained staff

• No administration for schools • Proven track record

For more information visit www.skids.co.nz Phone 09 576 6602 or 0800 274 1722

N Z Principal | N o v e m b e r 2 0 12

7

The 7 waves – the values that drive Te Akau ki Papamoa School

Communicate – Korero, celebrating excellence when we achieve it and sharing what we believe in. Consulting regularly with our community and building relationships Shine – Tiaho, celebrating individual strengths and suc­ cesses, modelling and building self-belief and confidence.

The whanau approach is central to the culture of Te Akau ki Papamoa. In Bruce’s view, when everyone feels they belong to the school family, they will feel safe and secure and will do better. That means there are certain ‘family’ practices that must be followed. One of them is the way in which visitors and new children are welcomed to the school.

‘We greet everyone here warmly,’ he said, ‘so that they quickly feel part of our whanau.’ When new children or groups of child­ ren start at Te Akau ki Papamoa School they are welcomed with a full powhiri no matter who they are. Bruce told the story of the little girl who arrived from the UK. After the powhiri she met her new class mates but wanted to thank everyone for singing for her. She decided she would return the gesture and sang an ancient folk song from her own country, as a gift to her new class mates. It is such a perfect illustration of what Bruce means when he says ‘we don’t have to talk about the values so much as just practise them. People soon understand what we mean and they become normal,’ he said.

Bruce Jepsen’s is a decile four mainstream school with a roll exceeding 500, 40% of whom are Māori.

‘We know how important it is for all our children to know where they come from and what their connections are,’ said Bruce, ‘so all of our Māori children are registered with their iwi when they first come here.’

Bruce showed me the map of New Zealand with all the iwi geographically plotted. ‘These are the iwi that the kids in this school have affiliations with,’ he said proudly. ‘Sometimes parents may not know what their iwi connections are, so we help them find out. It’s important because knowing where you come from is central to understanding your identity.’

Bruce believes that once children have established who they are and where they are from, then they can establish other connections and build relationships.

‘Identity and connections lead to children having pride and high self -esteem,’ says Bruce, ‘and that’s not just for Māori kids.

That goes for all kids. They will learn much better if they feel good about themselves, so we make that a priority,’ he said.

Te Akau ki Papamoa has its own identity too. ‘We are a bicultural school, and every child learns Te Reo here,’ says Bruce.

Not only do the children learn Te Reo, they share their learning with the whole Papamoa community through their own radio

8

N Z P r i n c i p a l | N o v e m b e r 2 0 12

station TAKP, 107.60FM. The children take on the DJ role and the entire broadcast is in Te Reo. Parents and the local community can tune in and learn along with the children. The radio station broadcasts directly to every classroom.

The day I visit, the DJ is running a bingo game for the older children. It’s about children having fun while they learn. Through working in the radio station the children learn a lot. They learn to report news, research, interview people, broadcast, advertise and learn about music selections all in an authentic high tech studio.

‘The kids love it,’ says Bruce, ‘but we won’t stop at the radio station. We are ambitious to get a television studio up and running with Apple TV.’ There is not much that children at Te Akau ki Papamoa don’t already have access to: ■■

■■

■■

■■

■■

■■

Superb sporting facilities and a dedicated staff member coordinating the whole physical education programme Two digital class rooms where children can engage with the latest technology work cooperatively and have fun while they learn.

Specially designed ‘whanau’ classroom spaces built to MLE (modern learning environment) code. Pods of four classrooms can all open into each other, a central shared learning area, breakout spaces and resource room so that all teachers can use the spaces to meet the needs of learners. This physical environment means that team teaching is common and teachers support, mentor and encourage each other easily.

A ‘boys only’ class, established in response to the need ‘to enhance opportunities for all boys to succeed.’

KFC (Key Friday Competency) Programme, through which children can learn elective subjects including foreign languages.

An empathy building Programme, through which children care for real babies in a supervised capacity

It’s not the wealthiest community in the country so how can Bruce’s decile four school afford all these extras for the children?

‘That’s where the sponsorship comes in,’ he says. He points to his brand new boundary fence that has hardly had time to set in its new concrete.

‘I’ve just sold that,’ he says with a grin, ‘to businesses, for advertising,’ he said. ‘Next week there will be bill boards up there, and more activities in here,’ he smiles.

He has excellent entrepreneurial skills and attracts consider­ able extra funds to support the school so that no child misses out, but make no mistake, unless an initiative helps lift children’s achieve­ment, it won’t be adopted at Te Akau ki Papamoa School because lifting achievement is the major focus. Everything is about providing the very best conditions, facilities, learning environment, school culture and programmes to help children learn better.

DJ for the day gets ready for broadcast time

No one in Bruce’s school community is taken for granted, least of all his teachers.

Empowering staff is really important and all members of the senior team go through a special ‘life coaching’ professional development programme. ‘This builds up capability in our senior teachers,’ says Bruce. ‘The professional development is tailored to the teacher’s particular personality and gives them greater confidence in their decision making and handling difficult situations,’ he said.

Bruce is a leader who has excellent communication skills himself and clearly enjoys the daily contact and easy conversa­ tions he has with both his staff and students. He likes to get involved. There is an inter-house dodge ball competition in train at lunch time and immediately he appears, Bruce is collared by supporters of both teams. He tosses his suit jacket aside and joins the game. His enthusiasm for participation is infectious and I count no less than four male teachers all playing their part in the dodge ball game.

‘We are so lucky,’ says Bruce, ‘to have a good cohort of male teachers and especially teachers prepared to give up their lunch time to organise these competitions and play with the kids. They are such important role models especially for our boys,’ he says.

In Bruce’s experience Māori learners have staggering potential and learn best when whanaungatanga (interrelatedness), hui (meeting), awhi (support), ngati (inclusiveness), aroha (love) and ukaipo (governance) are all interwoven in the delivery of the NZC. ‘It’s about taking a holistic stance,’ says Bruce, ‘where the emotional and physical are just as important as the academic.’

That all sounds good, but in practice is it achievable to take a truly holistic approach?

‘It is when teachers have the relevant professional develop­ment, knowledge, resources, support and the motivation to implement these ideas,’ says Bruce, ‘but all of that comes with a sub­stantial price tag.’

This is a price Bruce, with the help of sponsorship from the business community, is prepared to pay.

‘Our Māori children were not doing well, but with the change in emphasis and shift in pedagogical approach, we have seen massive improvements,’ says Bruce proudly. ‘Following the introduction of our new focus, structures and organisation and with achievement central to all we do, we have made huge gains,’ he said.

‘Our first curriculum focus was on reading and understanding and this was deliberate because reading is key to accessing the rest of the curriculum. Our approach was refined over time, as we used achievement information to identify needs.

There were certain elements that contributed to making the difference including additional reading recovery teachers, PD for all teachers, we unpacked ‘effective literacy practice’, intro­duced ‘Rainbow Reading Intervention, provided SPELD support onsite, introduced Lucid Cops screening tool, set SMART targets to literacy and other prioritised curriculum areas, made links to teacher quality improvement cycles, built a learning land­scape (new library) and made significant resourcing contri­bu­tions to literacy development Whilst these elements were important, what made the huge difference for us was the change in attitude when identity, culture and language were acknowledged, reinforced and understood.

They are the things that accelerated progress,’ he said.

‘Take our year one Māori learners,’ he said, ‘Last year in February, we had 50% of them not achieving at expectation. By

Starlab www.starlab-astronomy.co.nz PORTABLE PLANETARIUM Starlab is a portable Planetarium that comes to your school.

This innovative approach makes it easier for you, as you don’t need to worry about the problems that come with a field trip off school grounds. Starlab available in North Island schools only. b Programmes to suit all student levels b Planetarium holds approximately 30 students at a time b New UV detection beads, and sun-smart activities Gloria Gloria is the Director of Astronomical Services, and is a past Council member and Secretary of the Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand. Gloria has worked in astronomy education for over twenty-five years, and has developed a programme suitable for pupils of all ages that is curriculumbased.

CONTACT info@starlab-astronomy.co.nz 0800 STARLAB (782 752) or (09) 626 6333

December, we had 84% achieving at expectation and of these 9% were exceeding expectations.’

‘Our year two Māori learners were similarly not doing well with only 15% achieving at expectation and none achieving above.

Within the year, 87% were achieving at or above expectation.

In fact all of the Māori learners in this cohort, by the end of the year were achieving equivalent to other learners in the year level.’

‘Year three Māori learners were similarly struggling with just 32% achieving at or above expectation but at years end the numbers had dramatically changed. In December, 44% were achieving at expectation and 32% were achieving above expectation. These results were better than for the whole of school results.

‘A similar picture emerged for year four Māori learners. In February, 73% were performing below expectation. By December

Tumuaki Bruce Jepson joins a class as they listen to the school radio broadcast and play Bingo in Māori

N Z Principal | N o v e m b e r 2 0 12

9

all learners had made progress with 46% achieving at expectation, 19% above and 38% had made significant progress.’

If this is impressive, the data for year five is astonishing. The cohort of Māori learners shifted from 75% performing below expectation to 14% achieving at expectation and 67% above.

Such figures are well above national norms. The results for year six students were similar shifting from 56% below expectation to 39% above and 39% at expectation. These results exceed those of their peers.

Te Akau ki Papamoa school simply bucks the national trends.

It is on a road to success and will not be distracted. That’s not to say there aren’t barriers to continuing success and these include maintaining access to relevant professional development to support teacher delivery and teachers’ understanding of what elements contribute to effective practice for Māori learners.

Success requires continual review, access to specialist learning support programmes such as reading recovery, further expansion of the school library and ICT programme and of course a continual focus on leadership development, structure and organisation which is paying such high dividends.

We might describe Te Akau ki Papamoa as a model school for raising Māori learner achievement, but Bruce Jepsen is quick to remind us ‘Each school has to work out for itself, with its own community and in consultation with its own local iwi , the best way to engage Māori learners so they can experience success.

Our way will not be the best way for every school. What each school needs is to know how to find out what is the right way for them. Then and only then will we see a real turn-around in Māori learner achievement.’

Does your school need A clnz print license?

YES If you plan to copy, scan or share printed material that you didn't create, chances are the answer is yes!

Sounds serious, but fortunately it’s simple.

For around the cost of a new book per class, your school can have advance permission to copy from a whole range of copyright protected resources.

For a full list of benefits go to:

www.copyright.co.nz

...

“LiteracyPlanet makes really good use of our limited teacher time and the students love it.”

R Soper - Southern Regional Health School

...

“When students have finished their set tasks for the day they love playing a game of Word Mania or Donkey Dash against their peers.”

L Lindsay - Taradale Intermediate School

Free Trial

OW

TER N

REGIS

www.literacyplanet.com @literacyplanet /literacyplanet Literacy Planet is a trade mark of Intrepica Pty Ltd. ABN 44 128 896 980

10

N Z P r i n c i p a l | N o v e m b e r 2 0 12

Public Interest Threatened by Private Gain

Learning from the UK Experience of Charter Schools Sue Street

Executive Officer, National Association of Head Teachers, UK

In the last few years I have seen first-hand how private business is shaping the future of the UK education system by establishing Free Schools and Sponsored Academies (Charter Schools). It paints a very worrying picture and is proving to be a potentially destructive mechanism for Education.

In my Executive role with the NAHT (National Association of Head Teachers) I have met many highly principled school leaders who feel their ideals are being eroded by the relentless business focus of the powerful, wealthy sponsors. “Caught” and “forced” are words I hear from school leaders in many conversations.

There are now 79 Free Schools in England. Fifty-five opened this academic year (1 September 2012). Fourteen of these have between half and a third of their places still available. Many others are similarly not at capacity and are, according to national press reports, struggling to recruit children. Many Principals of existing schools in these areas point out that there really was no need for the Free School at all. As this year’s new bunch of Free Schools were launched, a poignant story appeared in the UK Guardian newspaper showing that Free Schools have had very little impact on providing desperately needed Primary School Places in deprived areas. http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/sep/03/freeschool-primary-places-labour The problem with the Free School Movement is the variability of quality as parents see it. Some are a really good fit for their communities. I have met with the Headmaster of the West London Free School. He has a long history of leading private schools and his pupils are very complimentary about the school.

I applaud his resolve to try out new teaching methods, to evaluate these and encourage other teachers to adopt those that work well. The West London Free School fits the middle class and aspiring middle-class community it serves. Some however do not fit nearly as well.

The NAHT, Teacher Unions, press and several academics constantly raise concerns over the pot-luck approach to establish­ ing these new schools. Christine Blower, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: “To allow so-called free schools to open, irrespective of local need . . . is not a sensible approach to creating primary provision.” This academic year the Department of Education withdrew its support for the ‘One in a Million’ free school in Bradford just eight days before it was to open. The Newham free academy in east London was withdrawn in July owing to a lack of interest and the Rivendale primary school in west London has abandoned plans to open. There is insufficient attention paid to assessing a community’s educational needs before allowing a Free School to be established.

There are concerns over how Free schools are funded, where they are built and the communities they serve. School leaders, especially new Head Teachers, are being appointed under quite different conditions in Free schools. In turn they are expected to employ staff on contracts that do not necessarily match the pay and conditions normally expected for teachers. This leads to teachers in Free schools feeling discriminated against. It also changes the nature and focus of not just the Free schools but all schools because neighbouring public schools are competing with them for students. At the outset, associated with the Free school concept came the notion that turning around achievement for failing kids was a short-term project for a Head Teacher. This idea has now given way to cooler thinking patterns that are mindful of the complexities and multi-layered issues that surround kids who don’t succeed as we might normally expect. There is now recognition that effective changes take time and expertise.

In NZ there are seven key concerns around Charter Schools (see table p. 12). These largely mirror the experiences of the UK but in some areas the UK has placed stricter regulations.

In July this year, the UK government was urged to reconsider whether sponsored academies are the best way to boost weak schools – as the Tory Government claims.

The reason? A University study released in July shows that those inner-city schools who engaged with the City Challenge Programmes developed better and faster and the results for their “disadvantaged” students improved faster than any other programmes available.

From 2008 to 2011, City Challenge ran in London, Manchester and the Black Country. In the capital, a similar programme, The London Challenge began in 2003. For five years, my job was to chair one of the steering committees. It was a successful

Charter schools are a business and thus financial viability and profitability are the driving imperative. Accountability is about meeting overall targets, not meeting the needs of individual children. programme. City Challenge was designed to crack the associated cycle of disadvantage and underachievement by reducing the number of underperforming schools, increasing the number

N Z Principal | N o v e m b e r 2 0 12

11

Concerns in NZ

Learning from the UK experience

Those responsible for teaching in charter schools would not necessarily have to be registered teachers

Same. Charter schools do not require ‘Qualified Teacher Status’ or a ‘teacher’ to actually have received teacher training. Some feel this is of value in the technical subjects as it will expose students to real-life workers.

To maintain the reputation of NZ Education, NZ must fight to keep standards very high. Internationally, NZ Teachers have a reputation for being excellent. This would be diluted by anyone who is allowed to teach in a school without the rigorous NZ Initial Teacher Training.

The question still remains over the qualifications of the Principal. On coming to power, the UK Tory Government was quick to remove the legal requirement for all principals to hold NPQH (the National Professional Qualification of Headship).

Charter schools would not In the UK this is a fuzzy area. One moment all schools are equal and in the next Free Schools/Academies are have the same accountabilities working to their own, agreed set of outcomes. The most worrying trend currently is that in order to prove the validity and viability of the Free schools movement, the Government has enlisted OFSTED (the UK ERO as state schools equivalent) so that businesses could take over ‘failing schools’. The schools and OFSTED would agree the key areas for improvement and after three inspections either be removed if the agreed targets had not been met or confirmed if they had succeeded. In NZ ERO is a true part of the school improvement cycle whereas OFSTED in the UK is not.

Charter schools would select Selecting students would completely undermine the basic tenets of public education in NZ and the belief that students rather than be every child has a right to a free education that is best suited to their needs. In the UK every school except truly required to accept all students private ones must accept all students. However, Academies in particular have managed in certain circumstances to avoid accepting some students. Last year a sponsored, new-build academy hit the headlines for not admitting a gifted and talented student because she was in a wheelchair despite the school’s ability to accommodate all her needs.

Charter schools have the potential to undermine the viability of our quality public school system

In the UK the successful Free Schools and Academies are the ones who emulate the perceived ideals of private education because it is the middle classes and aspirant middle classes who are drawn to those values. Where issues arise is where the location of the school has not been thought through carefully and competition arises with good neighbourhood schools or when the new school will not engage in collegiality.

Charter schools will not be required to respond to requests under the OIA (Official Information Act)

This is dangerous and not a feature of schools in the UK. If new schools and structures are to be seen as fair, moral and ethical then they must be able to be questioned. Like any school a Free School or Sponsored Academy in the UK must respond to Freedom of Information requests within 40 working days AND cover any reasonable costs incurred by this process as long as the request is not frivolous.

Students will attend charter schools during the hours set by the business sponsor, which may include weekends and holidays.

My background is working with schools in challenging circumstances. I have said on BBC Radio 4 that in the UK school is for many children the only safe and stable place they know. Last academic year I asked one of my classes how many children attended any type of school on the weekend. More than three quarters did.

This could be the Mosque or Gurdwara, but many attended extra lessons in subjects where their parents felt they were weak e.g. Maths. We are a changing society with new challenges to meet including those of child deprivation. I rather think a sensible implementation of a wrap-round provision tied to the specific needs of the community the school serves is now essential and that may involve extra work for teachers.

AND

The charter school business However, teachers need to be paid for extra work outside their core responsibilities and in the UK some sponsors (school leaders), teachers, especially new teachers in Free schools can find themselves accepting positions where they are who are not required to have expected to do more than a teacher in another school for less money in order to secure a permanent position. any educational background, will set pay rates for teachers and the rules under which the charter school will operate

Equipping the Performing Arts in Schools Nationwide

Lighting

Makeup

Scenic Products

Drapes

Specialist Supplier to the Education Sector Huge Catalogue Online: www.adena.co.nz

12

N Z P r i n c i p a l | N o v e m b e r 2 0 12

TV/Video Adena Limited PO Box 756, Hamilton Email: sales@adena.co.nz Free Phone: 0800 782-438

Sound

of good and outstanding schools and improving educational outcomes for disadvantaged children. The key strategy was providing external experts to work alongside existing head teachers to assess each school’s individual needs and to set up tailored support programmes which included mentoring by head teachers from better performing schools. It was a system in which NZ is already so successful, because in NZ there are no encumbrances like League Tables to interfere with the necessary collaboration and cooperation between schools.

So what did the study find? The researchers, from the Institute of Policy Studies in Education at London Metropolitan University, drew on government data to compare GCSE improvement rates for the poorest-performing fifth of schools between 2008 and 2011. These were schools where in 2008 fewer than 32% of pupils achieved five A* to C GCSEs including English and Maths.

The research team’s analysis showed that pupil attainment in the underperforming schools supported by City Challenge improved significantly more than pupil attainment in sponsored Academies. By 2011, the secondary schools that had been in City Challenge programmes improved their exam results by 4% more than sponsored Academies.

Some of the secondary schools supported by City Challenge programmes subsequently became sponsored Academies, but the research showed that as Academies they did not make any greater gains. Lead author Professor Merryn Hutchings told BBC News: “What we are showing is that there is an effective way to improve schools through support and expert advice as happened with City Challenge. The current government’s policy is to turn weak schools into sponsored academies. Our data suggests that this has been effective only in those schools that had previously been supported through City Challenge.”

So WHY are Free Schools and Academies still so popular?

There is no clear answer but perhaps Governments can see a way to reduce investment in education and businesses can see profit margins. In the USA some Charter Schools work due to massive amounts of money, donated through a well-established philanthropic culture, not just to the school but also to the wider school community. Some American Charter schools require parents to make a commitment to the school by signing an oath/agreement in respect of their conduct and commitment to the school and their children’s learning. This is legally binding and not a feature of any Charter/Free School or Academy in the UK or NZ. The charter school debate raises both positive and negative points. But there is one fundamental underlying problem, common to all charter models. It is the undermining of teachers as professionals. Doctors, lawyers, psychiatrists or any other professional would find it unthinkable and immoral that an unqualified person would practice in their field. The public would likewise be outraged if it was discovered that a practicing lawyer or doctor was unqualified. It is thus bizarre that politicians would consider that it is fine for unqualified people to be responsible for children’s learning or worse to lead a school.

Teaching is a vocation. It is not a 9am to 5pm job. Creating a successful learning environment takes a high level of skill. For children to achieve results teachers constantly call on their own learning gained through their training, their experience and their on-going professional development. They meet with parents and families in order to understand the background and culture of the children they teach so that they can tailor authentic learning experiences to meet individual needs. They collaborate with

fellow teachers, share ideas, resources and best practice. They spend hours outside of the classroom time, thinking, planning, preparing and evaluating their own practice in order to deliver the best learning experience for the children in their classrooms.

The charter school model is anathema to these values. Charter schools are a business and thus financial viability and profitability are the driving imperative. Accountability is about meeting overall targets, not meeting the needs of individual children.

Success is about targeted outcomes or products, not about individual children’s progress and learning.

Sue Street BSocSc GDipT(Pri) QTS(Sec) DipChem NPQH FN, National Executive Member of NAHT (UK) Sue works as a school improvement leader with significant experience in developing and leading both Primary and Secondary schools. She trained to teach in NZ and has taught sciences, classical studies and languages in both the USA and UK, across most of the internationally common syllabuses including GCSE, A-Level, Cambridge Examinations and i-GCSE, International Baccalaureate and the International Primary Curriculum. Sue is also a National leader of ICT and is a NAACE Fellow. Her research interests focus on learning acquisition, pedagogy and practice with IT, and Global Comparative Education. She is no stranger to BBC television and radio, the Guardian, Telegraph Times and Observer newspapers through which she debates educational issues. In her free time she writes for BBC’s Eastenders soap-opera and works with the Raspberry Pi Foundation on modules for including this revolutionary IT device into schools.

Margaret Walshaw has researched doctoral engagement and is a published author in the field of doctoral study. www.engine.ac.nz

DOCTOR OF EDUCATION Massey University’s Doctor of Education programme will support your career development as an educational leader.

This high-level qualification will expose you to the most upto-date research from New Zealand and and support you to carry out an in-depth exploration of a professional area of most interest to you.

INTERESTED? Find out more about this course please contact Sharon Simmons, Graduate School Administrator, Massey University, College of Education on 06 356 9099 extn 8668 Email: gse@massey.ac.nz | http://enrol.massey.ac.nz 0800 MASSEY | contact@massey.ac.nz

Massey University’s College of Education and Centre for Educational Development provide ongoing teacher and educator courses from inschool professional development, to Diplomas, Masters and Doctorates. Find out more at www.massey.ac.nz

N Z Principal | N o v e m b e r 2 0 12

13

ERADICATING GERMs

The lead message from the Trans-Tasman Conference 2012 Liz Hawes and Helen Kinsey-Wightman Photography Bob Bradley, Photolife Studios

This year, New Zealand principals partnered with their Australian colleagues to stage the Trans-Tasman conference in Melbourne. The two countries have differences in the ways they administer education, but they also have many issues in common. It therefore makes good sense to meet together on occasion and share ideas.

Melbourne provided an ideal background for the conference.

It is a splendid, bustling city where Melbournians thrive in numbers comparable to the entire population of New Zealand.

For a modern metropolitan city it is not short on green spaces and attractive gardens where conference delegates could relax and have a quiet think in between sessions. Early settler Charles La Trobe ensured that as the town grew, large areas were reserved as public parks. Amongst others, these include the Royal Botanic Gardens, the Treasury Gardens, Flagstaff and Carlton Gardens.

Adding to the city’s ambience are towering trees bristling with lush spring growth bordering several of the expansive inner city streets. These roadways form corridors for Melbourne’s unique transport system, the Melbourne trams. Trams thunder about the city and suburbs, providing an excellent passenger service and convenient access to all of the city’s cultural, recreational, and educational attractions, including its famous Arts Centre in St Kilda, the National Sports Museum at the MCG, the library, theatre and museum, not to mention its vast selection of fabulous book shops. It’s an uncomplicated transport system making it easy for the conference delegates to explore these cultural gems in their free time. Bisecting the city is the Yarra River, its south bank bordered by tantalising restaurants and cafes. The array of tropical breakfast fruits and aroma of freshly ground coffee tug at the taste buds of morning passers-by as they scurry to their inner city office blocks.

Principals join the Melbourne work force on their south bank stroll to the magnificent Melbourne Convention Centre, the venue for the conference. From both sides of the Tasman, these school leaders have turned out in unexpectedly high numbers.

In fact, 1,460 principals have made the journey to Melbourne to be uplifted by the latest research findings, to experience the camaraderie of their Australasian colleagues and to network and learn. A little known fact is that conference attendance numbers lined up much like the final score of a typical Australia vs New Zealand netball fixture, with Australia this time, edging out the Kiwis by just five!

The Opening The opening ceremony, staged in the Olympic Room of the famous Melbourne Cricket Ground or MCG, was a cultural dance fest featuring both the Wurundjeri Tribe/Melbourne 14

N Z P r i n c i p a l | N o v e m b e r 2 0 12

People (One Fire Dancers) and Ngā Manu Waiata, a Melbourne based Māori cultural group. The Fire Dancers performed a traditional dance depicting the relationship between the people of the land and its animals. Ngā Manu Waiata entertained the capacity crowd with a spirited performance of action songs, poi dance and a haka so rousing it drew wild applause from the audience. A mihi whakatau led by NZPF executive member Peter Witana, preceded the Māori group’s recital.

Opening speeches included the Australian Primary Principals’ Association (APPA) President, Norm Hart, the New Zealand Principals’ Federation (NZPF) President, Paul Drummond and the Victoria State Minister for Education, Hon Martin Dixon.

Dixon, himself a former teacher and school principal shared the sentiments of both countries’ Presidents about the nature and critical importance of leadership for the teaching profession.

All commented on the world class programme of speakers conference organisers had lined up.

It is timely for the Australasian neighbours to meet. Australian principals continue to grapple with their home-grown national testing system, public league tables and ‘Myschool’ website, just as our government is introducing the Kiwi version of national standards and publishing the first results on a public website.

These reforms are part of a global movement commonly known as the Global Education Reform Movement (GERM).

GERM follows a neo-liberal ideology and is fundamentally about favouring privatisation and choice over public school provision of education. Keynote conference speakers assured the attentive audience that GERMs were best eradicated and one by one proceeded to demonstrate through their latest research the solutions, politically and educationally, which really did make a difference to children’s learning and progress.

Keynote Addresses Tony Cook

Tony Cook is Australia’s Associate Secretary Schools and Youth.

His address was entitled ‘Small Country in a global space: how does Australia measure up?’

By Helen Kinsey-Wightman

Whilst he lacks the rock ‘n roll street cred of his Minister Peter Garrett (lead singer of the band Midnight Oil) Cook worked hard to establish his credentials at the chalk-face as a teacher and Deputy Principal in Australia and to indicate that he had grasped the mood of the Principals assembled: ‘If you go to an international summit or conference on

education reform like this one you will notice there is a palpable sense of urgency – we need to educate for the future rather than the past. And there is a great sense of having to catch up while the future doesn’t wait. It is our present.’

His presentation focussed on efforts to reform and transform education based on analysis of international testing such as PISA (the Programme for International Student Assessment.)

He spoke about the success of Finland in turning around its education system over the last 30-40 years and identified that the driver for this success was the achievement of equity in public education. He then turned to the US where he noted the declining PISA performance and the reform priorities identified there.

He went on to look at how Australia measures up against the international benchmark of PISA. Over the last decade, the performance of Australian school students in reading and mathematical literacy has fallen in comparison with the highest achieving OECD countries. Since PISA 2000 Australia has fallen from equal 2nd to equal 7th in reading literacy. Since PISA 2003 Australia has fallen from equal 5th to equal 13th in mathematical literacy.

He then set out the steps Australia has taken in their reform programme since the government assumed office in 2007. These essentially mirror the reform pathway mapped out by the US and the UK; building an evidence base, establishing national assessment and reporting and publishing results in an online league table format called My School.

He then discussed the reforms currently underway. An online national curriculum being rolled out countrywide in the core subjects of English, mathematics, science and history.

In addition the new curriculum tackles the need to equip students for tomorrow’s world and encompasses problem solving, competence in ICT, respect for global diversity and ‘Asia Literacy’, the ability to engage and build strong relationships with Asia.

He then quoted from McKinsey and used evidence from the US and Australia to support the benefits of improving teacher quality. In Australia this has involved developing professional standards for teachers. He also identified that teacher training and entry levels are becoming a focus.

The Empowering Local Schools Initiative aims to give more autonomy to local schools based on evidence such as the ‘OECD’s 2011 PISA in Focus’ study which found that schools that enjoy greater autonomy in resource allocation tend to show better student performance than those with less autonomy. This is a phased initiative which schools are able to opt into.

Finally, he touched on the issue of equity and the significant differences between the academic achievements of Aboriginal

and Torres Strait Islander peoples and those of their nonIndigenous peers. It is now an expectation of schools to develop school and community partnerships and to develop personalised learning strategies with the involvement of families. In addition the government aims to increase the number of indigenous peoples in teaching positions through scholarships.

The government’s most recent initiative is the ‘National Plan for School Improvement’. Having completed a review of funding for schooling the plan aims at consistent funding arrangements for all schools. There will be a benchmark amount for every student, based on the costs of schools that are already getting great results, topped up with loadings for students who need additional support.

In announcing the ‘National Plan’ earlier this month, the Prime Minister set an ambitious target: ‘By 2025 Australia will be ranked as a top five country in the world for the performance of our students in Reading, Science, Mathematics, and for providing a high-quality and high-equity education system.’

Tony Cook’s address demonstrated that the Australian Government have clearly done their homework in terms of current educational thinking. His presence – and that of his Minister later in the week – indicated the value placed on garnering the support of Principals for the ongoing reforms. Unfortunately our own Minister was unable to make the same commitment.

However, despite acknowledging equity as the basis of the success of Finland’s strategy and continued reference to this as a goal throughout his presentation, it is clear from the targets set out in the ‘National Plan for School Improvement’ that Australia’s strategy much more closely follows the path of the Global Educational Reform Movement which Pasi Sahlberg, referred to so frequently by Tony Cook, quite deliberately calls GERM.

Andy Hargreaves

Professor Andy Hargreaves is the Thomas More Brennan Chair in the Lynch School of Education at Boston College. His mission is to promote social justice and connect theory and practice in education. His address was entitled ‘Professional capital: transforming teaching in every school’.

By Helen Kinsey-Wightman

Although Andy Hargreaves now lives in Boston, he has not replaced his broad Lancashire accent with a mid-Atlantic drawl neither has he forgotten his British cultural heritage. He started by asking his audience to participate in a pantomime style exchange of ‘Oh yes he has, Oh no he hasn’t’ in response to

N Z Principal | N o v e m b e r 2 0 12

15

tongue in cheek statements reflecting his knowledge of current political issues in Australasian education.

Hargreaves then swung into action introducing the notion of professional capital by referring back to Tony Cook’s earlier presentation and stating that Cook was right to say that an education system is no better than its teachers – but only half right . . . In fact, an education system is no better than its teachers together.

He defined professional capital as that which adds value to one’s work and set out 2 contrasting viewpoints current in education. The business capital view, typified by the educational reform model, rewards teachers it deems to be at the top with performance related pay and tests teachers at the bottom. In New York teachers are tested with assessments set up so that 7% automatically fail. This model looks at teachers individually rather than as a community.

He contrasted this view with the notion of social capital – the idea that a strong group of teachers can raise the achievement of all, whereas one strong teacher cannot perform highly alone and will not perform well in all environments. I found myself relating strongly to this view that good teaching is not a constant – when I reflect back on my own teaching career my most successful experiences have been at times when I felt part of a ‘winning team’ with a joint investment in and a shared ownership of student achievement outcomes.

Hargreaves then posed the question: How many years does it take to produce committed and capable teachers? There was a wide variation within the audience with a mean of between 4–7 years. Research indicates that teachers in their early careers are very committed but less capable whilst teachers in their late career become both less capable and less committed. Teachers in their mid-careers show both higher commitment and capability. He noted that 10,000 hours of practice equates to around 8 years of teaching. Do we want our teachers to be the equivalent of musicians who are just good enough for the pub on a Saturday night or are we looking for an orchestral standard?

He encouraged Principals to support teachers by managing and developing collaboration and driving change by putting the new teacher next to the best teacher and creating terrorist cells of insurgency in tough staff cultures.

Hargreaves went on to summarise the research which underpins his latest book, ‘The Global Fourth Way’ – written in collaboration with Michael Fullan. The research looks at countries that perform most highly on PISA: Singapore; the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Alberta and Finland. Also included are California and the north of England where there are schools bucking the trend in otherwise poor performing countries. He summarised the commonalities in all of these countries under 3 headings: The 6 pillars of purpose ■■ ■■

■■

■■

■■

■■

an inspiring dream education as a common public good (most high performing systems have a tiny private sector) a moral economy of education (saving money in ways that do not harm children) local authority (in Finland schools work together at the local level and can even transfer funds to other schools in their area) innovation with improvement (disciplined innovation is relentlessly pursued despite initial failures) platforms for change (a platform of resources and a structure so that teachers can make a difference over time.)

The 5 principles of professionalism ■■

■■ ■■ ■■ ■■

professional capital (schools are dynamos of change, they take and create energy and transfer it into another form) strong professional associations collective responsibility teaching less to learn more (less curriculum content taught better) mindful uses of technology (he gave the example of schools who use cellphones for teacher feedback, encouraging children to tweet their own responses to lessons to a site they have created)

The 4 catalysts of coherence ■■

■■

■■

■■

intelligent benchmarking (visit other systems/schools to learn and apply the findings to us) prudent & professional testing (testing a sample – prudent vs pervasive – also saves money) incessant communication (The Singapore education minister announces new policy to all principals and takes feedback from them!) working with paradox (“Consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds” Ralph Waldo Emerson)

Andy Hargreaves’ presentations are always fast paced and characterised by quantity and quality research findings packaged alongside anecdotes which personalise and inspire. Whilst he presents the characteristics of high achieving educational systems at a country and state-wide level, when he visits schools he clearly engages with leaders and finds the stories to illustrate and add heart to the research.

In closing he encouraged and challenged us all in the face of the poorly researched initiatives we face daily to “Remind people of what is important – don’t look at your shoes . . .” He wouldn’t.

Kishore Mahbubani

Professor Andy Hargreaves gets everyone’s attention

16

Professor Kishore Mahbubani

N Z P r i n c i p a l | N o v e m b e r 2 0 12

Professor Kishore Mahbubani had a distinguished career in government and is now the Dean and Professor of public policy at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. His address to the conference was entitled ‘Globalising current educational thinking’.

Mahbubani opened his speech with an authoritative claim that western domination is now over and the future world power will be located in Asia and India. He warned his audience that the implications would be profound, particularly for Australia and New Zealand since they are the two western countries located in Asian territory. He estimated that by 2050 China will be the largest world economy followed by India, the USA and Japan.

These were strong assertions and Mahbubani meant no less.

Australia and New Zealand can have a very positive future, he said but they will need quite a different mental map to educate the children of the future. It will be necessary to check that the curriculum and text books being used will prepare children for the new world.

This Asian return to power is both irresistible and unstoppable and will accelerate in the years ahead. ‘Many leading English minds are sceptical,’ he says, ‘but the reason Asian societies are coming back at such great speed is because they have understood the seven pillars of the western world.’ These ‘seven pillars’ are outlined below with examples of how Asian countries have enacted them: The 7 pillars of the western world ■■

■■

■■

■■

■■

■■

■■

Free market economics. The best proof of free market success is China. China is described as the largest human laboratory for understanding two economic approaches. Prior to embracing the free market, China operated a centrallyrun economic system and from 1979 a communistic system.

Investment in China was low relative to free market countries and China was far behind the western world. One of the most remarkable shifts is that the largest free market agreements are now signed in China, Asia, India and Japan.

Mastery of Science and Technology. Having lagged behind for many years, China now spends more money on research and development than the USA or Europe. Of all the North American PhD graduates in Science and technology, twothirds are returning to India and China. China now has one of the most exciting space programmes in the world, whereas in the USA, the space programme has slipped hugely.

Culture of pragmatism. This refers to an attitude whereby ‘it doesn’t matter what colour the cat is, so long as it catches mice it is a good cat.’ China is on the greatest learning journey in history right now. Hundreds of millions of Chinese are in education and that is why China is ascending so swiftly.

Meritocracy. Hiring the best entrepreneurial brains is critical to progress and Asia has always had the world’s greatest pool of good brains. In India, even deeply entrenched socioreligious beliefs and practices have been overlooked in order to hire the best person for the job. For example the chief economist of the Reserve Bank in India was an ‘untouchable’.

Born to such status once meant living with the same status throughout life. Not so now.

Culture of Peace. Wars are the single biggest obstacle to a country’s development. It is notable that in East Asia wars have now desisted.

Education. There has been an exponential increase in the proportion of Chinese attending university. In 1990 it was 3%; now it is 29%.

Rule of Law. This is improving in Asia.

There has been an explosion of cultural confidence in Asia, with South-East Asia having the greatest diversity in the world. Young Asians are said to be the most optimistic of all. Australia and New Zealand are perfectly positioned to be the bridge between the East and the West.

18

N Z P r i n c i p a l | N o v e m b e r 2 0 12

Mahbubani suggested that one of the ways Australia and New Zealand can lead is by introducing Asian languages into their schools. We can look back to Europe, he said, to see how beneficial learning multiple languages can be. But he urged his audience to look forward by choosing Asian languages for children in the South Pacific so that they better understand and gain a real appreciation for Asian culture. In answer to a question from the audience about the ‘crowded curriculum’ we already have, Mahbubani agreed that we must not push too much content.

He referred to Singapore and their efforts to reduce curriculum content and make learning fun. He also observed that education is not about ‘filling a bucket’ but ‘lighting a fire’. We were left in no doubt that in his view, multiple language learning belongs in the ‘fire-lighting’ rather than the ‘bucket-filling’ world.

He highlighted another important entity, ASEAN, the only culturally-diverse group that can work well together incorporating Muslims, Buddhists, Christians and Communists.

This group, he told us, represents 600 million people who live in South-East Asia and will be a necessary vehicle for us if we are to balance our children’s learning towards Asia.

Mahbubani’s was an address punctuated with stark examples to remind us that Asia is on its way to lead the world and is coming ready or not!

Yong Zhao

Professor Yong Zhao specialises in educational issues related to globalization and education, creativity, global competitiveness, educational reforms and educational technology. He holds the Presidential Chair and is Associate Dean for Global Education in the College of Education, University of Oregon. He is also Weinman Professor of Technology and Professor in the Department of Educational Measurement, Policy and Leadership.

The topic of his address was ‘World Class Learners – educating creative and entrepreneurial students’. Zhao was already well known to the New Zealand audience, having entertained, educated and challenged their thinking at the Wellington NZPF conference in 2011. A dynamic and quick witted speaker, he also proved popular with his Melbourne audience.

Zhao opened his address by reminding us which country dominates the world rankings in maths science and reading.

With the exception of Finland the top five places in everything are held by Asian countries, and in particular Chinese countries or cities. So he asked, ‘Why didn’t China have a big party?’ China, he told his enthusiastic audience celebrates every achievement!

He shortly answered his own question, quoting Kai-fu Lee who says ‘The next Apple or Google will appear, but not in China . . . unless it abolishes its education.’

The problem for China, he said, is that people are not taught to think for themselves. The same, he says, applies to Singapore which has a regimented curriculum driven by rote learning which all helps sustain the city’s ‘formal culture’. China is not celebrating he announced, because its world class achievements will not lead to more entrepreneurs. As a 2011 OECD report on young people in Shanghai stated, ‘While they have learned a lot, they may not have learned how to learn.’

America, on the other hand, leads the world in producing entrepreneurs, has the most prosperous and largest economy in the world, and in 2011 was ranked second out of 82 countries in global creativity, yet it has a long history of doing poorly in tests.

What does this tell us? ‘If you want your country to prosper, then best that your kids fail the tests.’

Employable skills for the twenty-first century, Zhao emphas­ ised, had to take in curiosity, passion and creativity. There is also growing cultural diversity, multiple intelligences and individual differ­ences in the children we educate. The curriculum has to accommodate the need to develop different skills and pedagogy has to respond to take account of changes in the population.

Zhao explained that the new middle classes have to be entre­ preneurial and there are three types of entrepreneurs. They are the business entrepreneurs, who maximise profits, the social entrepreneurs, who maximise social benefits and policy entrepreneurs, or bureaucrats who are the job creators. They create jobs out of finding solutions to problems.

So what are the implications for schooling? How can schools draw out and develop qualities in children that will lead them to be great entrepreneurs?

First, he said, we must stop reducing human talents down to achieving prescribed skills. Lady Gagas come out of the US because the USA is a ‘broken sausage factory’. We need Professor Yong Zhao Pasi Sahlberg, whose reputation a new curriculum, to change our pedagogy and get children entertained as he enthralled preceded his presentation making things. We need to expand our learning contexts to the There is a set of qualities, Zhao explained that are described globe. Children are naturally curious but forcing them to learn as entrepreneurial qualities. These include confidence, passion, prescriptively reduces their curiosity. They are unique so forcing global competency, friends, creativity, uniqueness, risk-taking, the same curriculum on all of them is unhelpful.

In response to comments from the audience he warned that alertness to opportunity and empathy.

On confidence, the USA rates very high, but on test scores it certain reading programmes can improve test scores in reading but may cause long-term damage rates low. Asian countries do the to a child’s interest in reading. opposite. Zhao demonstrated his We can look back to Europe, he He also emphasised that greater point through a confidence survey autonomy for students, principals of Singaporean and American said, to see how beneficial schools would be helpful. This students. Students were asked to rate learning multiple languages and echoed comments already made whether they agreed or dis­agreed with a selection of state­ments. In can be. But he urged his audience by Professor Hargreaves. Finally in answer to a question about how to response to the state­ment ‘I usually influence politicians to understand do well in Math’, 18% of Singaporean to look forward by choosing and act on these ideas he quipped, students said they agreed a lot while Asian languages . . .

‘It’s all your fault. You didn’t teach 39% of Americans agreed a lot. Only 5% of Americans disagreed a lot whilst 12% of Singaporeans the politicians right when they were in your classroom!’ disagreed a lot. The maths test scores of the countries however show that Singapore’s students way out-perform Americans.

An important question to ask ourselves, Zhao coaxed, is ‘What Pasi Sahlberg do we sacrifice when we raise test scores?’ ‘If all your time is Director General of CIMO (Centre for International Mobility and spent preparing for a test, what are you NOT learning? What Cooperation) in Helsinki, Finland, Pasi Sahlberg has global expertise in educational reforms, training teachers, coaching schools and advising have you given up?’

He then entertained the audience to a humourous sequence of policy makers. Educational change and school improvement, cooperative learning and international education policy are amongst his other areas slides featuring Lady Gaga, who is worth over US$100 million. of interest.

‘What does she do? he asked. ‘Does she create anything that you can eat or wear? What are her skills? ‘She’d be no use in a Chinese village,’ Sahlberg took the stage to a packed auditorium. Some had come to find out how Finland had successfully dealt to equity issues. he quipped, ‘she can’t cook or farm or do anything productive!’

It was now time to draw on his collection of favourite Albert Others wanted to know how to emulate Finland’s high world Einstein quotes: ‘If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, performance ranking when most were aware that the small Nordic nation hadn’t always done so well. Would the Finnish it will live its whole life believing it is stupid.’

‘China,’ he said, ‘treats everyone like a tree climbing fish. So secrets to success be revealed?

Surprisingly, Sahlberg opened with a statement saying he lady Gaga would never happen in China.’

The future is the globalisation age, Zhao said. The world was not here to tell us that Finland had the best education population is growing and traditional jobs are disappearing. Jobs system in the world. It is not an aim of Finland to compete for for those entering education today have not yet been invented. a higher placing in the OECD PISA assessments or any other Low paying jobs were now disappearing off shore from developed achievement ranking, he said. Nor did he suggest that anything countries and we are losing manufacturing jobs, even though the Finland has done is necessarily the best approach for Australia or value of manufacturing is rising. It is the age of the creative class. New Zealand. What he did say though is that Finland can offer It is global, creative and entrepreneurial. We can no longer rely on important lessons in the global school improvement movement.

He described his country as having a very liberal environment traditional jobs and have innovations occur by accident.

N Z Principal | N o v e m b e r 2 0 12

19

where crazy ideas were welcomed. It’s a country in which mad com­petitions flourish including bizarre examples like ‘wife carrying’ com­petitions, cell phone throwing, and swamp soccer championships. But in the field of education, he was very clear – competition has no place.

Change, he said began in 1972 and educational performance improved rapidly. Simultaneously, in a drive to address inequities, Finland divested itself of its many private schools to the point that it now has only public schools. The new goal is not to be number one or even to be in the top five in the world. It is to focus on equity and the belief that every child has the right to attend a good school with a good teacher in their own community.

The focus on equity extends way beyond just education.

Finns are also happy people and have very high gender equity, economic competitiveness and are literate and capable in ICT. Sahlberg then addressed the Global Education Reform Movement (GERM). He gave examples of what actions countries that subscribe to GERM are taking. They include: ■■ ■■

■■

■■

Increasing competition between providers Standardisation of process and procedures, so that one size fits all and everybody takes the same test or meets that same standard School choice, including new types of schools like charter schools and other for-profit providers Test-based accountability and making teachers and schools more accountable by using standardised tests

So does the GERM work?

So far, in those countries that have subscribed to the GERM, there has been a decrease in achievement.

Finland rejected the GERM and took the following approach: ■■ ■■

■■

■■

Collaboration, not competition Individualisation not standardisation. Standardisation is believed to be the enemy of creativity Equity, not school choice. You cannot have choice and equity at the same time. There is no change in direction because there is a change in government. All parties agree on education policy.

Trust-based professionalism not test-based accountability.

Like doctors, lawyers and other professionals there is no testing or external inspection

Sahlberg identified three driving forces of this agenda.

Enhancing equity ■■

Finland believes that all children deserve a good school. There is little variation in performance both between and within schools.

All eyes face the front as each of the keynote speakers snatch the full attention of the audience

20

N Z P r i n c i p a l | N o v e m b e r 2 0 12

■■ ■■

■■

The greater the income inequality, the less students learn The most useful thing about PISA is that it benchmarks equity in education systems and the OECD ranks countries for equity. Both Australia and New Zealand require investment in equity.

All students should not be treated equally but all must have the same equity of access, inclusion and resources.

Approaching education from a position of equity means that schools with greater complexities and needs can be allocated additional funding.

Less is more ■■ ■■

■■

■■

More funds do not necessarily lead to better results Children spend fewer hours in school and do less homework in Finland than in Australia and New Zealand but test scores are higher. In Finland children start school at 7.

Teachers in Finland have more time for collaboration, planning, assessment, improvement and welfare issues In Finland results are not just dependent on effort and intelligence level. Culture, cooperation and trust are values that also count towards the results .

Teacher and Leader Professionalism ■■

■■

■■ ■■

Teachers and principals have to be highly trained and are well respected Principals, teachers and academics all belong to the same Trade Union of Education in Finland High demand for teacher training courses The profession is trust based and is about collaboration, networking and cooperation and combines quality with equity.

In summary, Sahlberg left his audience with seven lessons from Finland.

■■ ■■

■■ ■■ ■■ ■■ ■■

More collaboration and less competition More trust-based responsibility and less test-based accountability More professionalism and less bureaucracy More equity and less marketization Better gender equality More personalisation, less standardisation More pedagogy, less technology

His messages hit a chord with the audience who applauded vigorously and appreciatively. You could observe from the faces that these principals were thinking, ‘We must eradicate GERMs’.

Three NZPF Life members were announced at the conference. Left to right: Madeleine East, Barry Hambleton, Nola Hambleton

STATE OF THE NATIONS REPORTS APPA AND NZPF PRESIDENTS PRESENT . . .

In keeping with tradition, both the Australian Primary Principals’ Association (APPA) and New Zealand Principals’ Federation (NZPF) presidents addressed the 2012 conference in Melbourne with their ‘state of the nation reports’. As we would expect when Australians and Kiwis get together, speeches opened with some good natured banter. NZPF president Paul Drummond said he would not be competitive in the company of his Australian colleagues and pledged not to mention any of the string of sporting events in which New Zealand had whipped their Australian rivals. In turn Norm Hart of APPA pledged not to mention all the other sporting events in which Australia had comprehensively thrashed New Zealand.

But what the packed audience had come to hear was a summary of just where each country stood in respect of their countries’ education policies and how they could learn from each other’s experiences.

Paul Drummond began with the overarching statement that in New Zealand the dominant Government agenda is economic and education policies are moving away from delivering quality public education to privatising it. He said whilst it is acknowledged that for the majority the current system works well, the Government’s stated intention for reform is to lift the achievement of those not currently succeeding. The policies include moving from a high trust model to a low trust high accountability model, introducing a standardised measure of achievement (national standards in literacy and numeracy), making school assessment data public, introducing league tables, using national standards data for performance pay, introducing Charter schools and increasing public funding to private schools.

He then took his audience on an historic journey entitled ‘Back to the Future’. In a series of slides he demonstrated that ‘standards’ had first been introduced in NZ in 1878 but had failed to achieve any educational advantages. Rather they had resulted in mechanical learning, a narrowing of curriculum, marginalising of children who could not perform at the level of their peers, competition between schools and teachers and in at least one province, performance pay was introduced. It was staggering how the system of 140 years ago, which had long been rejected for its shortcomings mirrored the policies of today.

Clearly, he said, this is a backward step and not the right direction for enhancing children’s learning in the twenty-first century, where confidence, entrepreneurship, creativity, problem solving and critical thinking were the most important skills for success in life. What was needed he said was autonomy for schools to work with their communities to develop shared values and a curriculum that was broad and inclusive. Rather than standardisation, celebrating diversity was the key to success and

teachers needed to have the freedom to respond to individual needs rather than be driven by arbitrary targets set outside of the school.

He noted that the New Zealand system with its self-managed schools governed by local boards of trustees, close relationships with the community, rich curriculum and strong collaborative culture allowed the profession to respond quickly and this served the vast majority of Kiwi kids well. He acknowledged the unacceptable disparities in NZ society, including the very large gaps between those who achieve well educationally and those who achieve poorly. Those disparities most certainly need addressing, he told his audience, but dismantling a world class system and replacing it with a nineteenth century failed system was not the answer.

He told his audience that principals had an ethical and professional obligation to advocate for what is right for kids and it was time to collectively stand up and speak up.

Norm Hart opened his address with an upbeat statement telling his audience that in Australia things were not as bad as the media and politicians portrayed. He reminded the gathering that three million Australian kids went to school every day and the overwhelming majority of them found something about school they liked every day. He suggested that none of them wasted a second worrying about how their literacy or numeracy achievements compared with children in Singapore, Finland or New Zealand.

Paul Drummond, NZPF President delivers his state of the nation address to the conference

Norm Hart, APPA President addresses the delegates at the opening ceremony

N Z Principal | N o v e m b e r 2 0 12

21

He rejected his own Prime Minister’s goal for Australia to be ranked in the top five countries of the OECD in literacy, numeracy and science by 2025 because such a narrow focus, he said, would limit learning opportunities in other important areas.

He did however agree with the goal to ‘provide children with a high quality and high equity education system, to put children at the centre of the funding system and apply principles of equity to funding allocations.’

He noted that APPA had published a model for primary education provision which would ensure appropriate levels of curriculum and pedagogical leadership in every school, early and sustained intervention programmes for learning and wellbeing, professional development for every educator and a twenty-first learning environment for every student. This model he said would require additional funding but had the potential to reduce later gaps in performance.

Norm then proceeded to report new Government requirements including lifting teacher quality through more classroom experience before graduation and higher entry levels; more power for principals over budget and staff selection and more information for parents through MySchool website.

He noted too that a performance pay scheme which had been floated by Government had been rejected by APPA and was subsequently scrapped. What he did support however was paying teachers more, particularly if higher entry requirements were enacted.

Whilst supporting greater autonomy for schools he punctuated his enthusiasm with a word of caution saying that he would prefer it was optional so that those schools in challenging areas could continue to access support from central systems.

His major criticisms he saved for MySchool and its inability to provide transparency. Making school comparisons on NAPLAN data is limited to making superficial statistical comparisons, he said and he rejected the high stakes environment that publi­cation of the data created, making it easy for the media to construct league tables. He also reported on a variety of research studies that showed NAPLAN testing had negative impacts on student wellbeing because it was such high stakes.

The plan to administer NAPLAN tests on-line has been met with greater acceptance by APPA since the test taking would not be confined to a particular week and this would lower the media interest. Using aggregated data from NAPLAN to measure the effectiveness of Australian schools has never been supported

by APPA, Norm told us. In his view only samples should ever be used.

22

N Z P r i n c i p a l | N o v e m b e r 2 0 12

www.treeadventures.co.nz

Looking for a fun, safe and rewarding adventure for your students?

Why not head out to the beautiful Woodhill forest for some E.O.T.C in the great outdoors.The physical nature of the Tree Adventures activities provides children and young adults the opportunity to develop fundamental skills, such as agility, balance, co-ordination and confidence. u u u u u u u

Safe, challenging and encouraging environment Suitable for groups of all ages and abilities Half or full day packages available Discounted school rates Suitable for groups of up to 150 students Teachers and supervising adults climb free of charge Full day adventure package with Woodhill Mountain Bike Park available

0800 TARZAN (827 926) contact@treeadventures.co.nz

In conclusion he endorsed his New Zealand counterpart’s plea ‘to pull together and do what we know is right.’

He then called on the entire audience to raise their hand to vote for a resolution which read: ‘The 1460 delegates at the APPA NZPF Trans-Tasman Conference in Melbourne today call upon Governments, School Systems and Funding Authorities involved in Education Reforms in Australia and New Zealand to ensure all of their decisions are in the best interests of schools and students, to ensure the very best educational outcomes for students and made in full consultation with the profession,’ There was not a single dissenter in the audience and the resolution passed unanimously.

Appraisal through Te Ariki lens Principal A: The BoT have just signed off on my annual appraisal Principal B: Are you now a better principal?

Principal A: Well . . .

This paper is in three parts: a redefinition of teacher and principal appraisal; the question of ‘what does a good1 teacher actually do?’ and how can a school nurture those processes that inculcate the energy and commitment of participants to engage in exciting, appropriate, timely and continuous learning for students and teachers.

Redefinition of teacher and principal appraisal In spite of the tangle of mandated processes stretched across their path, many schools already create a culture of excellence often based around such values as: reflective enquiry and discourse; evidence informed professional practice; obligations to their colleagues; and professional discretion.

This paper takes the view that the historical appraisal methodology, mandated since 1997, can be part of the mesh diverting schools from getting on with what really matters.

Teaching is an activity which occurs predominately through interactions. Both the instigator and the receiver process what they hear, see and do, in a teaching interaction, through the filter of what they already understand. Hidden within their heads, both parties create new idiosyncratic meaning. Before we can decide what changes or improvements would be desirable, or even what next to do, we need to know something about this ‘inside head’ material. For teachers that will require group collaboration amongst trusted peers, and for students that will require further interactions with teachers. So called reflection done alone, often at night by teachers is usually called worry!

The Ariki process begins with the teacher recording a sample of her observation and thoughts of an interaction in the Web Diary.

What follows below is a small section of one of these entries.

An extract from a teacher’s Web Diary entry to be used at a Quality Learning Session2 Reflection/Goals Reflecting on my programme and using the questions as a guide, I believe that my writing programme has come a reasonable way. I feel that my writing programme allows the students to be empowered by giving them ownership of their learning.

I have decided that I would like to implement more reflection into my writing programme through self and peer reflection tools. I feel I need to ensure that the fastfinishers have activities that are related to their writing.

This could be such as the students using iMovie. Use of ICT into my writing programme is something else I would like to improve also.

I would like to have more activities available to extend my higher students, but also begin to use peer-tutoring in the writing programme to assist the students who need more teacher direction.

At the Quality Learning Circle meeting the group are able to apply critical reflective critique to the various presentations that have been shared. A summary of this discussion is recorded on a pre-prepared template which is then posted to the web diary of each of the participants. What follows below is an excerpt from one of these meetings exploring issues of validation.

An excerpt from a Quality Learning Circle Discussion Summary The group explored aspects of Validation by talking about: Getting enthusiastic about setting up something new, but changes in routine interrupt the progress e.g. trips.

Keep the timeline going and stick to the plan.

This supports the belief that reflection and discussion are important, especially with integrated programmes. It’s good for students to sit, talk and debate their ideas so verbal reflections are important as well. The self-reflection was to take on board the information found out. The students who didn’t know what they were doing need more support from the teacher.

Appraisal, therefore, should be redefined as increasing under­ standing or deepening meaning about one’s own professional interactions, leading to decisions about what next. Some might characterise this activity as higher order thinking. A school decid­ing to work in this way can quite easily check off the required mandated material as somewhat lower order activity, and then concentrate on developing skilled reflective practice which impacts directly on learning and teaching.

What does a good teacher do?

In our commitment to put ‘the student’ at the centre of the work of the school we must not forget that there are two parties to these interactions. Teachers are not just bundles of skills plucked from the community and charged with processing young lives into productive economic units, but rather are qualified, thoughtful people who live large portions of their lives within the school and clearly operate most effectively when respected, supported and challenged within a predominately positive milieu. Every day they make countless thoughtful choices, which could be variously defined as prudent, moral, or just systematic. It is in this area where they make choices, which are then exposed to critical reflective discussion, that separates the good teachers from N Z Principal | N o v e m b e r 2 0 12

23

others. Teaching is predominately an intellectual endeavour.

Teacher behaviour changes as they expand what they think about what they do. Principal behaviour changes through the same dynamic, using the some processes.

Some further web diary entries

The principal then decided to take this issue to the Leader’s Group which he attended. His diary entry looked like this3:

For educators at every level appraisal should be about the judgement of what is worthwhile4 to do. Many years ago RS Peters proposed that regularly participation in worthwhile professional activities changed what educators thought about what they were doing in classrooms, and in so doing modified their practice to better reflect these increased understandings. Te Ariki protocols for Quality Learning Circles and their focus on instances of interactive practice provide a setting and an agreed process for engaging in worthwhile activities. Furthermore, these evidence of practice collections supported by the summary of the consequent QLC discussion, enable school leaders to correlate their intentions, and their goals, with classroom practice and student outcomes.

In addition other connections can be made. We have just completed some new programming of the Web Diary which enables sorting of entries under the Teacher Registration Criteria for example. The example below links to Principal Professional Standards.

Conclusion Te Ariki offers contiguously, a practice of accountability and a network for school development and improvement. The Appraisal Option is one way into this development. It begins with the teacher gathering interaction instances which are significant and broadens into peer group reflective critique, observations, and personal interviews.

Links between Principal intents, Teacher actions and Professional Standards5 Te Ariki Model Outcomes

Links to Principal Professional Standards

For the first time teachers are participating in cross team groups. This has Principal motivates and supports staff to improve the enabled teachers to understand the practice of other year groups and to quality of teaching and learning build a picture of the learning progressions across the school.

Principal fosters relationships within the school community QLC group presentations have essentially reprivatised practice and Principal provides professional direction to the work of encouraged an open door practice and collaborative culture to emerge. others by encouraging vision and innovation in classroom Teachers reflect on multiple ways of teaching the same concept/skill, practice and school organisation which will ultimately benefit the aim of differentiating instruction to suit all Principal demonstrates an understanding of, and is learners’ needs. responsive to, the diverse concerns and needs of staff, As teachers share their practice and critically reflect in front of their peers a culture has developed built on respect, empowerment and trust.

Principal establishes procedures and practices to maintain Teachers receive feedback and praise in a meaningful authentic context as and improve staff effectiveness through appropriate recruitment, supervision, performance management, opposed to a pre-arranged formulaic procedure. provision of professional development and encouragement Experts within the school have been identified and utilised. All teachers are of self-development now regarded as an expert.

Te Ariki provides powerful, in-school professional development focused on the school’s annual goals and target/s.

“The above table allows clear links to be made between principal intent, teacher intent and, in conjunction with the web diary reflections and presentations, links to improved outcomes for students.” (Dr Lyn Bird BOT Report September 2012)

24

N Z P r i n c i p a l | N o v e m b e r 2 0 12

ADVERTORIAL

Safekids Creative Quest Creating public awareness messages for students, by students

Safekids New Zealand is launching ‘Creative Quest’ – a nation­ wide school competition with the goal of creating public awareness messages for students, by students.

Schools have a chance to win cash prizes, win surprise prizes for the winning classes or students ($20,000 total prize pool value), but equally important, to get important safety messages through to their students, families and the community.

Timed to run in Term Two 2013, the Safekids Creative Quest offers three fun challenges: ■■ ■■ ■■

Curriculum-linked learning with each challenge

Every challenge comes with a professionally-prepared, curriculumlinked lesson plan about helmet safety. “The time teachers spend on challenges will be well spent – it will help them to meet their curriculum goals for the year,” Ann said.

Winning videos and radio ads will also join Safekid’s public awareness campaign. “Illustrated stories may be turned into posters or books. Movies and radio ads may be played on TV, online or at radio stations. Classes and students will be credited whenever the material appears,” Ann said.

Register now!

Please encourage your classroom teachers to register for the challenges at www.mysafekids.org.nz/creativequest. Registration ensures they’ll receive a purpose-built challenge pack and clear instructions about preparing and sending their competi­ tion entry. For more information, visit our website or email campaign@safekids.org.nz.

Make a video – for Years 4 to 9 Make a radio commercial – for Years 4 to 9 Create an illustrated story – for Years 1 to 3

The theme: No helmet. No brain.

“All challenges involve communicating the importance of wearing helmets for biking, scooting and skating, and of fitting helmets correctly,” said Ann Weaver, Director of Safekids New Zealand. Research shows that bicycle helmets are effective in reducing the likelihood of severe brain injury by 74%.

School Services Limited Specialised Accounting for Schools

What can we do for you?

Reduce school staff time and cost.

Provide graphical reports.

Access to a specialist team of financial officers.

Monthly and annual accounting.

Dealing with Inland Revenue Department (IRD) on your behalf for GST. Continuity of financial services.

Effective proven control procedures.

A dedicated Financial Officer.

A stress free audit process.

Asset Maintenance.

24/7 Online access.

Training.

BOT Payroll.

Contact us today!

Telephone: 07 847 2672 Email: enquiries@schoolservices.co.nz Web: www.schoolservices.co.nz

N Z Principal | N o v e m b e r 2 0 12

25

Te Ariki in a Nutshell

Values

Professional Discretion: there are multiple ways of thinking and many ways of achieving the same aim.

Collegial Obligations: the belief that teachers are professionals and that schools function as teams.

Reflective Inquiry and Discourse: is the core of professional interaction and development; and that, Evidenced-based Professional practice can be spread across all school activity.

Process Te Ariki provides protocols for QLC meetings, visits, sharing, etc.

Interactions The prime foci for reflective critique are interactions.

Quality Learning Circles Heterogeneous across the school groups meeting at least twice a term.

Leader’s Groups Principal groups using the QLC protocols, meeting to reflect and critique principal web diary entries.

Correlation of intents and outcomes Part of the evidence of practice material regularly supplied to Boards as part of the Principal Report. Includes samples of teacher web diaries and QLC summaries.

Principal B: Are you now a better principal?

Principal A: Well . . . I can correlate my intentions and the

schools goals with what teachers and students actually do; I can present this evidence of practice to my Board; and, as Dr Lyn Bird from Queenstown says; “Te Ariki has provided the practices and protocols that have created an effective learning environment for teachers that is supportive and stimulating. It naturally creates a culture of inquiry based on shared practice, critical reflection and identifying next steps. This practice will increase principal/teacher efficacy and result in improvement to leadership/teaching practice and student achievement. Principals/teachers with strong efficacy beliefs are more likely to engage in professional learning”.

Principal B: That’s worthwhile!

Endnotes 1 Good teacher, or quality teacher, or effective teacher or any other synonym seen in this space.

2 With thanks, these two excerpts are taken from Lyn Bird’s report to BoT September 2012. See full report by following Visual Tours @ www.arikiproject.ac.nz. Dr Lyn Bird is principal Queenstown Primary School and a Regional Director of Te Ariki

Vision Whiteboard Slider Cabinet The whiteboard with heaps of storage!

• Available in 2.4m, 3.6m and 4.8m standard modules • 1970mm high x 400mm deep • Writing surfaces come with our Foreva lifetime guarantee • Optional locks for whiteboards • Customised modules and colours available upon request • New Zealand’s leading whiteboard manufacturer

0800 POTTERS | www.potters.co.nz | info@potters.co.nz

26

N Z P r i n c i p a l | N o v e m b e r 2 0 12

3 These two examples are taken from our Seminar Web space http://ariki.knowledge.net.nz 4 worthwhile: sufficiently important, rewarding, or valuable to justify time or effort spent. Collins English Dictionary. 1984

worthwhile also implies the notion of being ‘transformed’ by what you know. – not just knowledgeable. See R.S.Peters. ‘What is an educational process’ in The concept of education, Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd, London, 1967.

5 With thanks, a further excerpt from Dr Lyn Bird’s report to the Board of Trustees September 2012.

About the Author Dr David Stewart is a life member of NZPF and has been facilitating, examining, researching and writing about reflective practice in groups for over 30 years. The particular set of circumstances that gave rise to Te Ariki began with the group mentor networks established in Wellington in the early 90s. Talking with hundreds of principals, experimenting with new concepts, reading widely about similar practices in other jurisdictions, and thinking laterally, have given rise to this latest iteration. Truly, it demonstrates reflective critique in action. The Ariki project group are often heard to say, “We can do this ourselves.” Te Ariki arose from New Zealand educational practice and is beyond doubt a genuine NZ innovation.

burning the myth about arson Peter Wilding

To stand ankle deep in the ashes of their burnt out class­ rooms is heart-breaking for any School Principal but watching the children staring forlornly at the skeletal remains of what was once their safe learning haven is a truly emotional experience.

Listening to stories from parents about children suddenly having trouble sleeping, bed wetting, and fearful of going to school is soul destroying. But it doesn’t stop with the children. Then you have the teachers, passionate about their learning and teaching, who have just lost years’ worth of resources and records along with their entire classroom displays, all because of a senseless act of arson. Almost ¾ of all deliberately lit fires in New Zealand are lit by young people and schools are four times more likely to be targets of arson. This increases still further over the November period as access and awareness of lighters/matches and fireworks proliferate in communities.

Arson is reckless, it’s mindless and it’s often deliberate but what can you do about it? “A whole bunch of things” according to the Fire Service’s Arson Reduction Manager Peter Wilding. “The first thing to do is dispel the myth that arson is inevitable” says Peter. There is a huge amount of experience from overseas and locally that demonstrates that communities and in particular, schools, can take simple proactive steps to significantly reduce the likelihood of arson.

Most school fires are lit by young people who rarely transport fuel to a fire site. Instead they use locally sourced combustibles to set their fires. Whether the intention is to burn the school or just a reckless act of fire setting, the devastating result is the same. The upside to this common method of fire starting is that by removing easily sourced fuels, such as the contents of rubbish bins, cardboard and other items found around buildings and securing access under them makes it more difficult to start the initial fire.

Rubbish bins should be secured away from school buildings and emptied every night and before weekends. Wheelie bins feature com­m only in juvenile arson and once the contents are alight the plastic bin itself renders down and becomes a very significant fuel source. A simple chain around the handle can prevent bins being placed against the side of buildings as happened in Timaru, Palmerston North and a score of other schools this year alone.

Improved security lighting around buildings is another simple, cost efficient but demonstrably effective way to reduce deliberate fire setting on your school grounds. Fire setters simply don’t wont to be seen playing with fire.

Invariably when the Fire Service attends a major loss fire at a school their fire investigators find evidence of previous fire lighting and other vandalism that has occurred in the preceding days or weeks. Left untreated fire setting behaviour is likely to lead to larger fires by unintended fire growth (once a fire is started it quickly develops beyond easy extinguishment). As the fire setter’s confidence grows so too does the target size. Just as unattended broken windows at your school can lead to escalating vandalism so also can little signs of fire lighting in and around your school escalate to major fires. Peter encourages schools to be particularly vigilant in identifying these signs. Spent matches, melted playground equipment and burnt papers are clear indicators of fire setting and should be reported to the Police and Fire Service as soon as possible as well as addressing the issue with students.

Schools are a great resource for communities even during holiday periods as people enjoy their sports fields, tennis courts

It’s a myth that arson is inevitable and swimming pools. For most schools public exclusion is not desirable or even an option however applying the simple suggestions made here you will strengthen your school’s resist­ ance to the risk of deliberate fire setting and significantly reduce the likelihood of your standing ankle deep in ashes rueing what preventative actions you might have taken.

The Fire Service runs a programme specifically designed to treat young people who exhibit fire lighting behaviour. It’s free and uses firefighters who are specifically trained to help children stop firelighting. For more information visit www.fire.org.nz/faip or call 0800 FIREINFO. For further information about hardening your school against arson, contact Peter Wilding at fireinvestigation@fire.org.nz

N Z Principal | N o v e m b e r 2 0 12

27

ADVERTORIAL

Top Class Books for Children Make better use of your librarian’s limited hours! Time is of the essence in a school library, for not only does the librarian have to be there to advise children, but they must also keep up with administrative duties – buying books and processing them to shelf-readiness is just one aspect of their many tasks. That’s where Top Class Books for Children can help to save time. We do the arduous bit – trawling through catalogues and meeting with agents – to select only the cream of the latest publications.

Then, taking into consideration your school’s demographics, we put together a box of books on a buy or return basis.

Relieve your librarian of the time-consuming task of hunting through bookshops or websites; we’ll provide a box of carefully selected books. All the librarian has to do is select which books to purchase. Instant gratification! Those books not wanted are returned to us using the address and courier labels we have provided. This leaves the librarian with more time to complete the myriad of tasks still waiting to be done. Meanwhile we process the order, add a $5.99 handling fee and invoice the school, offering a 10% discount on the total amount of the purchase if paid by the due date. Does your librarian make use of our services? We are just a phone call / fax / email away.

Contact us to assist your librarian in building a better library.

Leslie Eden BA, HED, TESOL Ph: (03) 434 5844 Fax: (03) 434 8963 topclassbooks@xtra.co.nz See our advert, this page.

Financial Accounting for Schools Leading Edge Services are leading providers of accounting services for schools in the upper North Island.

Benefits are: ◆ Flexible options of service to compliment school needs. ◆ Accounting software in ‘cloud’ environment for security. ◆ Professional, experienced advice in all legal requirements for school accounting.

For more information visit our website for our contact details and client references.

www.edgeservices.co.nz

28

N Z P r i n c i p a l | N o v e m b e r 2 0 12

TCB4C Aiming Only For The Best!

Selecting Great Books!

BOOKS FOR CLASSROOM & LIBRARY     

Time-saving library programme Textbooks Special orders Years 1–13 10% discount for on-time payments

Join us today!

Top Class Books for Children (TCB4C) Leslie Eden BA, HED, TESOL P: (03) 434 5844 E: topclassbooks@xtra.co.nz

Get a classroom of NEW desks at a fraction of the cost!

POSTURA DESK

Cordless drill inCludEd with 60+ top Orders! * or similar drill depending on stock/model available

TM

with its REVOLUTIONARY

Performance Edge

TM

D

id you know you can purchase our Performance Edge™ desks complete or simply buy the tops and fit them to your existing ‘other brand’ desk frames!

Easily fit our ‘NEW’ tops to your other brand frames!

After years of R&D, Sebel has designed the next generation of school desks that deliver superior comfort, style and safety in the classroom.

Using a patented process, molten polypropylene is injected into the wood particles, fusing the Performance Edge™ and desktop together as ‘one element’ making it tamper resistant.

Bull Blue

Marine Crush

Features - Tamper resistant injection moulded polypropylene.

- Arm/elbow-friendly for better, longer concentration.

- Huge range of desks, frames and colours.

- Lifetime Warranty on Performance Edge™.

Fog Grey

- SINGLE 600 x 600 and 600 x 450.

- DUAL 1200 x 600.

Beech

So simple you can...

D.I.Y.

 DIY Top Replacement  21st Century School Design  Superior Arm Ergonomics  Low Cost Alternative  Contemporary Colours

Sand

Simply attach your NEW Performance Edge top using the existing desk frame holes

Sebel Stone

Mandarin

AuCklAnd 4 Nikau St, Eden Tce Auckland 1021 T: 09 373 9981 E: auksales@sebelfurniture.com

ChristChurCh 8-10 Matipo St, Riccarton Christchurch 8041 T: 03 338 0021 E: chrsales@sebelfurniture.com

Olive

Freecall 0800 101 288 | Web www.sebelfurniture.com

School Lines The GERM that is spawning BUGS Lester Flockton feedback, feedforward, Feedup, feeddown lester.flockton@otago.ac.nz

At the time of writing this column, Pasi Sahlberg, Finland’s child left behind’ or ‘five out of five’ succeeding, performance pay former Head of Education, has been receiving some media to “incentivise” improved learning outcomes (i.e. test scores), attention during his visit to New Zealand. Why? Because he is bigger schools to provide better learning opportunities, bigger describing the values, policies, and process of a country that class sizes to save money – because some unearthed researcher won a first place in the international horse race of educational says class size doesn’t matter. And so the list of simplicities and achievement; a country whose ambition was not to seek such sillinesses could go on. fame, yet a country that has worked intelligently to provide its While the GERM is on track for divesting New Zealand’s children with an excellent education. Being ‘top’ was not the education system of proven indigenous capability for bright goal (perhaps the Finns know that ‘top’ is simply a reductionist thinking and creative ideas, its contaminants are spreading like statistical contrivance), but being a high performing education fleas on a dog’s back. The GERM is spawning BUGS! Bugs are both system that provides children with top quality schooling most infectious and disturbingly contagious, to the extent that they are certainly was the goal. Sahlberg has warmed us with insightful indiscriminately invading almost every school. But let me digress messages undergirded by profound good sense, truth and for a moment. I have just finished reading Joe Bennett’s latest fresh air – something that is book, “Double Happiness. How being insidiously sucked out We need a BUGS resistant system Bullshit Happens”. It advises of New Zealand’s education that bullshit has become so system by asphyxiating policies that truthfully and publicly recognises accepted that people cannot and incompetent management only make a living from it, and of their implementation. The diversity and individuality use it to achieve power, prestige arrogance of power, control, fast among children – their differing and wealth, they can even win talk and much half-truth research prizes for it. The book also warns we are currently suffering is the natural assets, their variable of two possible consequences outcome of contamination. It is of this exposure. One is that a contamination that Sahlberg life circumstances, challenges bullshit will be laughed out of has labelled the GERM: Global and opportunities, and their unique existence forever. The other Education Reform Movement. and more likely consequence It is a movement wedded to personalities. is that bullshit will continue to centralised governmental and proliferate and bullshitters will bureaucratic control, competition, market forces, public-private prosper. Now The New Zealand Principal is a very respectable partnerships (charter schools), bigger schools, narrowed publication, and the use of words such as bullshit might be curriculum (literacy and numeracy), national standards, terribly offensive to some very proper, polite and educated more accountability, targets, data-data-data, measurement, readers. But it is a true word, because it can be found in good performance pay, and a great deal of nonsense in definitions of dictionaries. Moreover, Joe Bennett is a highly educated man quality teaching and good schools.

(MA from Cambridge; former English teacher) who is “well” Historically unprecedented and wide-reaching education above the national standard for writing! So, he’s a role model! reform in New Zealand began with Tomorrow’s Schools back in Like Bennett, however, I am fearful that bullshit will continue to 1989. But far from being germinated by a globalised movement, flourish and flow because we are afraid or too polite to laugh it off. that reform was largely of our own making and design. What has We clap after a minister of education or senior bureaucrat shovels followed, however, is the imposition of a cumulating succession it to us at a conference. Why don’t we simply laugh them off? of reforms that derive not so much from grounded good sense, Now, to return to the BUGS: the “Bullshit Undermining Good collaboration and wide agreement, but from the insatiable Schools”. Many schools are now either drowning in the stuff, or thirst of political, bureaucratic and, in some quarters, academic gleefully swimming around in it under the misapprehension opportunism and egotism. Each of these constituencies takes its that it fertilises both thought and practice, and raises student sustenance from selected global fraternities that are in sympathy achievement. The symptoms are all too apparent in the language with their own fixated viewpoints (plenty of fraternities are not). and jargon that have come to symbolise the bugs – language Laughable examples: data driven school improvement, national intended to acculturate and capture the profession into the standards to raise the achievement of children who struggle, ‘no ways of reformers (usually in the guise of so-called “experts”):

30

N Z P r i n c i p a l | N o v e m b e r 2 0 12

targets, outcomes, learning intentions, standards, assessment, data- school needs to ask itself why it has become so contaminated. data-data, evidence (best evidence), triangulation, moderation, Has it lost its strength of true professionalism (which includes WALTs, next steps, feedback, learning journeys, acceleration, autonomy of mind)? Has it failed to develop professional critical recovery, pathways, new possibilities, best practice, inquiry . . . literacies (being able to see, analyse and critique the effects of and so the list could go on. The sad thing is that many of these relationships among texts, language, power, systems, social words can be profitably interpreted in a variety of ways and to groups, social practices, values, attitudes, beliefs, experiences, good ends. But what is happening is that they have been ascribed etc.)? Has it lost sight of the nature of childhood and its role as narrow, prescriptive meanings with the intention of formulating protector of that uniquely special time in life? how schools and teachers should think and work. Take, for We need a BUGS resistant system that truthfully and example, the word data. It has come publicly recognises diversity and to symbolise an industry of numeric Take, for example, the word individuality among children lunacy that churns out, compares – their differing natural assets, and publishes quantifications of data . . . It gives illusions of their variable life circumstances, per­form­ance outcomes across a very challenges and opportunities, and narrow representation of curric­ authority, truthfulness their unique personalities. We need ulum, teaching and learning activity. and trustworthiness that it a system that gives priority to the It gives illusions of authority, truth­ importance of developing their ful­ness and trustworthiness that it simply does not deserve. sense of fun, humour, curiosity, simply does not deserve. Further­ adventure, imagination, ambition, more, the more copious the data, the less you see the reality of self-confidence, self-discipline and passion for learning. Children the individual child, and the more preoccupied principals and are not mini-adults – and it is an adult crime to deny them the teachers become with data, the further they distance themselves joys of their childhood. Children deserve to learn in a BUGS from what the real work of education is really about. I strongly free environment. advise, therefore, that schools unshackle themselves from the word data, and replace it with a bugs-free term such as learning information. Most of the really valuable information about Footnote children’s learning eludes the sterility and simplicity of data.

Alternate words that may be used to represent the “B” in BUGS: It is hard to control the GERM in the current malaise, but bollocks, bogwash, blather, bigheads, bollockticians, bureaucrats, BUGS will proliferate only if we let them. A heavily infected balderdash, blah, blarney, blowholes, bewitchment, and bedazzlement.

DISCOVER A HEALTHY

& FUN WAY TO RAISE FUNDS FOR YOUR SCHOOL…

www.schoolfunrun.co.nz

W E N N Z Principal | N o v e m b e r 2 0 12

31

Rural Ramblings Please Mum can I have a new teacher Baabaara Ramsbottom

I have been teaching my 10 year old son for the last 2 years. It has had its moments – both good and not so good but mostly we have achieved equilibrium. At home he calls me Mum and at some point on our journey to school he switches to my teacher name and, provided the day goes well, we both manage to see each other in our respective capacities until 3pm.

When he first started school I was his Principal. Every time Mrs Francis would walk around the corner, followed by twelve variously skipping and dawdling five year olds, he would see me, his smile would falter and then he would run over and desper­ ately cling to my leg. The time that his new entrant teacher and I shared, cajoling and sometimes forc­ibly detaching him from my ankles, resulted in a firm friend­ship and, if I say so myself, we did a great job of building his con­fidence and independence.

So much so, that later in the year I found myself writing a letter to myself: I am sorry to inform you that today your son was the leader in an incident at the pools where he and a group of his friends (all aged five) picked up a classmate’s undies, took them into the shower and took turns to urinate on them. When asked why, he laughed and said, “Because it was funny!” All the boys concerned have apologised to their friend, however I feel it is important that you talk to him about the need to be kind to our friends and think about our actions.

At the time I was mortified and had a long conversation with his Dad about whether his behaviour was the result of bad parenting and likely to result in serious long term deviance. He laughed and jokingly suggested we send him to a British public school where that kind of behaviour is encouraged. Five years on I can laugh . . .

At the Principal’s Conference in Melbourne I met a fellow small school Principal and while we were going through the ritual of emptying the myriad of fliers and free gifts out of our (spectacularly ugly!) conference bags we got on to the subject of teaching our own children. She had taught both of hers at various times and whilst one had settled into the experience the other had found school much less to her liking – to the point where her Principal/Mother had been forced to stand her down.

She reflected that the stand down had been as much about her own behaviour in backing her daughter into a corner. I can most definitely identify with her – whilst I seem perfectly able to react calmly with forethought should someone else’s child make a cheeky comment – when my own son does it I pounce in the manner of a starving lioness, my son is unable to restrain himself from further comment and suddenly we are having a mother/ son moment under the fascinated gaze of the rest of my class.

There have been high spots too – when we began designing

32

N Z P r i n c i p a l | N o v e m b e r 2 0 12

and building our CO2 dragsters last term he announced to his Dad that it had been the best day at school ever, and then there was the day I was able to celebrate with him when he got a distinction in ICAS English.

However, for the last term I have been considering whether I can continue teaching him in the light of impending puberty (his) and the need to preserve sanity (mine); “I’ve come to a frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It’s my personal approach that creates the climate. It’s my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess a tremendous power to make a child’s life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a child humanized or dehumanized.” — Haim G. Ginott Looking ahead to next year when I become sole charge and my son would not only be the class alpha male but also the oldest child in the school, I have made the difficult decision to consider enrolling him at the local intermediate school. Given that Year 7/8 pupils are my age group of choice this is doubly tough. However, it is a very good school with a unique set up where children are grouped into five interest learning centres Haora (Health/ PE), Papatuanuku (Confidence Building in our Environment), Motuhaketanga (Independence & Self Managing), Nga Toi (The Arts) and Taumata (Academic Strength). Teachers then set about teaching the core curriculum in a way which suits their own and students’ learning style through content which sparks their interest.

Although part of me guiltily looks forward to the day when I call the roll and his name isn’t on it – like those parents who can’t bring themselves to leave the new entrant classroom on the first day of school – I fear that I will feel an overwhelming need to seek out his teacher and then sit him/her down for a thorough appraisal – no let’s be honest this would be at the very least an interview and at worst a Guantanamo Bay style grilling! Will I become that parent – the one teachers sidle away from at school social occasions? When his teacher starts a sentence with, “You’ll never guess what she said to me yesterday . . .” everyone will know it’s me she’s talking about and when parent/teacher meetings are timetabled the DP will promise to hover outside the door to tactfully get rid of me should I overstay my welcome . . .

Whilst I am pretty sure I will be able to let go, should you see me hanging around outside the intermediate school gates after 9am or photocopying helpful curriculum materials for his teacher, please buy me a double shot mocha and lead me gently away.

Hawker Brownlow EDUCATION

10th Annual nual Thinking & Learning ning

INNOVATE! TE! EDUCATE! E! INSPIRE!

Conference Con Friday 17th May Monday 20th May The Heath, Caulfield Racecourse,

Caulfield, Melbourne.

“The only Conference that meets ALL your Teaching & Learning needs!”

Assessment Teaching Practice ctice Leadership Coaching Curriculum Planning lanning Differentiated d Instruction Professional Learning Communities Innovation Brain-Based Learning

2013 4 DAY CONFERENCE

The Art & Science ence of Teaching

03 8558 2444

Register online today www.hbe.com.au