Claire Amos

This Thursday the 16th March both Primary and Secondary teachers will be striking. There is no question, teachers deserve more money. Put bluntly, there is a teacher shortage, teaching has become increasingly complex and to top it off they are also the profession most at risk of contracting COVID-19 with teachers having the highest rates of infection of any occupational group.  And I say all of this as a career educator 25 years in who is still very much in love with the profession. I also say all of this as someone who recognises the challenges that governments face when everyone seems to be asking for more. I recognise that the NZ Government and Ministry of Education has a limited budget and when all of the sectors go to their Ministers cap in hand we can not expect more money to be allocated to one sector at the expense of another.  Earlier today I read two posts by Paula Wine that got me thinking. You can read her excellent insights here and here . In the first post she provides a

Dear Chris Hipkins, As the incoming Prime Minister I know you are prioritising getting back to basics, to clearing the decks and focusing on what really matters. With this in mind, and off the back of three years of leading a school through a pandemic, I hope you look to education and the opportunities for parring back and prioritising a few key changes rather than tsunami of changes we currently face. It would be a win, win, win - for the government balance sheet, teacher wellbeing and ultimately student success. We all know that doing less better is the key to powerful and successful change.  I have already written about  my concerns regarding the waves of educational change  that is about to wash through the educational landscape and until recently was convinced it was  simply a matter of prioritising the NZC refresh before we focus in the NCEA change package , and whilst I still believe this is necessary, looking more closely as the timeline and strategy for the NZC refresh it has

The last three school years have been like no other. 2022 has been particularly hard as teachers trudge their way out of two and half plus years of attempting to keep students engaged and learning through waves of COVID-19, rolling lockdowns, evolving hybrid teaching and learning practices, whilst also battling their own bouts of COVID-19, widespread winter illnesses and a rollercoaster of stress, anxiety, existential despair. It is no wonder we have a workforce who is fast running out of steam (and some even running out of the sector). Add to this the veritable tsunami of change on the educational horizon and you soon get the sense that we may very quickly be dealing with an educational zombie apocalypse.   The future of the teaching workforce? I have already written about my concerns regarding the waves of educational change that is about to wash through the educational landscape and until recently was convinced it was simply a matter of prioritising the NZC refresh before we foc

Source Yesterday I found myself having a rather visceral response to Christopher Luxon sharing his visit to Michaela School whilst he visited London. Whilst the school is not my cup of tea (in terms of educational philosophy) it wasn't actually the school that concerned me, it was more what the visit represented when combined with a visit to the rightwing think tank Policy Exchange. At just over a year out from election, now is the time for each of the parties to start circling the wagons and laying out what they will each offer should they get voted into government. Knowing that Luxon was actively seeking policy ideas when he visited what is known as " the strictest school in Britain " and that he then posted and raved about how great it was is more than a little concerning, particularly when schools in Aotearoa are working so hard to decolonise their contexts and develop a genuinely responsive "local curriculum".  As I sit here and ponder what National might b

De Mere Berryman From the SPANZ programme: Understanding contexts for learning where equity and belonging can be a reality for Māori means coming to deeply understand historical events that have seen the systematic belittlement and redefinition of Māori identities through colonisation. Upon this historical legacy of cultural harm, school policies were imposed this century, so that we would step up (Ka Hikitia) and establish educational structures where Māori learners could ‘enjoy and achieve education success as Māori’. Today contexts for learning have seen mātauranga Māori being appropriated and applied across the system. Courageous leaders, who commit to making the aspirations of Ka Hikitia a lived reality in their schools, are ensuring that this generation of Māori learners is better served by education. Importantly they have also shown the benefits that ensue for Māori can be for all.  Article from RNZ:  https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/the-weekend/audio/2018677651/mere-be

Peggy Burrows From the SPANZ programme: In 2010, I undertook a PhD research project to investigate why disparities existed in the achievement levels of Māori students and their Pākehā peers. As an educational leader I wanted to explore the Aoteoroa New Zealand educational landscape in an attempt to understand why these disparities occurred. I framed my study as an autoethnography, because I wanted to explore my own learning as I grappled with assumptions, ideas and theories that existed outsidde my personal sphere of experience around why Māori ākonga/students consistently failed in the school system.  Over a two year period, from 2010 to 2012, I collected anecdotes shared with me by Māori ākonga/students, whānau/parents, kaimahi/staff and board members about their experiences of school life. I recorded the anecdotes as vignettes then coded and grouped them according to recurring themes I identified. The five most significant recurring themes evident were: ahurea tuakiri/cultural ident

  Dr Melissa Gilbert-Smith From the SPANZ programme: Sure we have a relationship with a local GP clinic from whom we contract a nurse for a number of hours each day. This means that we also able to take students to the clinic outside of those times to see a GP directly and have a prescription filled as necessary. If the student is not enrolled with a GP this offer is made to the whanau. The school pays for a med tech license which means all the students information is entered on the system at the school end and his GP gets the notes if he is seen by the nurse. We are also able to claim funds from ACC and this offsets the cost of the nursing hours.   We went this way because of the number of boys who didn’t come to school if they were sick combined with many of our boys not having a GP so attendance improved and the boys did not miss time off school. We also had poor outcomes with the PHO provided nurse as this was a service more focussed on gathering youth health stats than actually se