SPANZ Day 1: More leadership needed in education - An Open Letter to the Minister of Education
Today marks the first day of the SPANZ (Secondary Principals of Aotearoa, New Zealand) Conference 2022. First things first, hats off to the conference organisers for a way more diverse (and IMO way more exciting) key note line up. Last year I was so incensed by the line up I wrote this. I want to thank SPANZ for taking it on the chin and whilst I have no idea if it even vaguely influenced the shift we see this year, I would like to acknowledge the awesome keynote speaker line up of Laurayne Taufa, Dr Damon Salesa and Dr Mere Berryman alongside the Minister and the Harrison Stone team.
The letter below isn't directly about SPANZ but it does capture what is chewing me up as I set foot into this year's conference. Below is a slightly tweaked "open letter" version of an email I sent to the Ministry of Education and the Minister last week. As the tumbleweeds blow through my inbox as I await any kind of acknowledgement or reply, I thought it was worth sharing a version of it here.
An open letter to the Minister of Education Hon Chris Hipkins.
Kia ora Chris,
I have tossed up whether to send this email for a while, but after reading yesterday's School Leaders Bulletin I felt like I needed to share my increasing concern about the lack of leadership of education at a national level.
Firstly, this is not levelled at our Secretary of Education, or even necessarily the Ministry of Education as I know that they are, ultimately, guided, supported and limited by how the government and you, the Minister, direct and resource them. I also acknowledge that everything is bloody hard at the moment and that we are all struggling as we move into our third year of living with a global pandemic.
That aside, I also believe we could and must be doing better for our learners and our educators in Aotearoa. At Albany Senior High School, we have fabulous, well-supported teachers and at present they are stretched. The day before yesterday we surveyed staff as we got the sense that they were close to breaking point. The results confirmed that this was indeed the case. And this is in the context of a well resourced senior school within a relatively affluent community. I can't even imagine what this looks like when you add to it the trauma that comes with widespread deprivation and other societal pressures.
At present we are regularly facing up to 30% of teaching staff absent at any one time
We are facing massive ongoing student absences.
We are trying to enforce mask mandates in a vacuum of national support.
We are trying to address attendance and engagement in a context where people are away because they are sick and/or struggling with such complex mental health needs that we can't support them even if they do turn up.
We are struggling with increasingly complex and serious mental health and behaviour issues which we simply are not resourced to do.
We are also expected to engage with NZC and NCEA changes and prepare for an, as yet, unclear change to literacy and numeracy co-requisites.
We are expected to staff schools with 30% away, a handful of relievers and little help or guidance beyond that.
We are expected to do all of this and get kids qualifications without LRCs and UEGs in sight.
We are being encouraged to keep our schools open but actually have been offered NO tangible solutions from the MoE or government beyond encouraging mask use, ventilation and hand washing.
And what frustrates me the most is that if we had stepped up and addressed the digital divide and transformed our system years ago we could have been prepared for actually doing things differently and sustainably.
Where is the our national digital strategy?
Kia ora Chris,
I have tossed up whether to send this email for a while, but after reading yesterday's School Leaders Bulletin I felt like I needed to share my increasing concern about the lack of leadership of education at a national level.
Firstly, this is not levelled at our Secretary of Education, or even necessarily the Ministry of Education as I know that they are, ultimately, guided, supported and limited by how the government and you, the Minister, direct and resource them. I also acknowledge that everything is bloody hard at the moment and that we are all struggling as we move into our third year of living with a global pandemic.
That aside, I also believe we could and must be doing better for our learners and our educators in Aotearoa. At Albany Senior High School, we have fabulous, well-supported teachers and at present they are stretched. The day before yesterday we surveyed staff as we got the sense that they were close to breaking point. The results confirmed that this was indeed the case. And this is in the context of a well resourced senior school within a relatively affluent community. I can't even imagine what this looks like when you add to it the trauma that comes with widespread deprivation and other societal pressures.
At present we are regularly facing up to 30% of teaching staff absent at any one time
We are facing massive ongoing student absences.
We are trying to enforce mask mandates in a vacuum of national support.
We are trying to address attendance and engagement in a context where people are away because they are sick and/or struggling with such complex mental health needs that we can't support them even if they do turn up.
We are struggling with increasingly complex and serious mental health and behaviour issues which we simply are not resourced to do.
We are also expected to engage with NZC and NCEA changes and prepare for an, as yet, unclear change to literacy and numeracy co-requisites.
We are expected to staff schools with 30% away, a handful of relievers and little help or guidance beyond that.
We are expected to do all of this and get kids qualifications without LRCs and UEGs in sight.
We are being encouraged to keep our schools open but actually have been offered NO tangible solutions from the MoE or government beyond encouraging mask use, ventilation and hand washing.
And what frustrates me the most is that if we had stepped up and addressed the digital divide and transformed our system years ago we could have been prepared for actually doing things differently and sustainably.
Where is the our national digital strategy?
When are we going to close the digital divide? When are we going to see any kind of national leadership that accepts that the world has changed and that we need to change the system to be agile and responsive and actually build an education system that is fit for purpose.
You know I say all of this being a lifelong supporter of Labour and a career long supporter of our education system and MoE. But I can no longer ignore the fact that our school leaders are at breaking point. My teachers are at breaking point. The system, as it stands, is at breaking point. And as a result our young people are at increasing risk.
It is no longer good enough to simply send weekly School Leader bulletins that read like they come from the Ministry of Health. It's no longer good enough to say schools should do what suits them and their communities.
We need courageous and visible leadership. And we need to get back to looking to the future!
The current situation is frustrating the hell out of me. It needn't have been this way. I know I am one of many school leaders who is keen to lean in and help develop more national guidance and support. And not just one of a raft of bloody MoE working groups working on a litany of relatively unimportant initiatives.
Please can we consider parking the wider New Zealand Curriculum work stream, the NCEA Change Package, the Literacy and Numeracy co-requisites, the pointless MOE restructures (and all the other initiatives that came out of an initially exciting Tomorrow's School Report that got watered down to the point of pointlessness) and let us instead simply focus on Mana ōrite mō te mātauranga Māori and closing the goddamn digital divide and actually just give schools more resourcing to manage the complex needs of their learners and staff instead. Let's focus on looking to the future and proactively designing and supporting an entire system that can cope and evolve and actually change so as to cope with ongoing absences and disruptions.
I also want to remind you of this document and the set of suggestions it provides. There is much that still stands the test of time and if we had realised it we may not be scrabbling to patch up and preserve the status quo. Let's do some courageous futures thinking and actually evolve the education system so that it can stand the test of time.
I know this is a crazy old rant, but it is also an offer to help and to step up - before it's too late and you lose even more excellent educators.
I also want to assure you that as a school we are already stepping up. I just don't think it's fair to expect every school and leader to do so as an island. I have attached our latest thinking just in case you are interested.
Learning Strategy for Term Two
Albany Senior High School Learning Strategy fo...
I appreciate you (hopefully) taking the time to read this.
You know I say all of this being a lifelong supporter of Labour and a career long supporter of our education system and MoE. But I can no longer ignore the fact that our school leaders are at breaking point. My teachers are at breaking point. The system, as it stands, is at breaking point. And as a result our young people are at increasing risk.
It is no longer good enough to simply send weekly School Leader bulletins that read like they come from the Ministry of Health. It's no longer good enough to say schools should do what suits them and their communities.
We need courageous and visible leadership. And we need to get back to looking to the future!
The current situation is frustrating the hell out of me. It needn't have been this way. I know I am one of many school leaders who is keen to lean in and help develop more national guidance and support. And not just one of a raft of bloody MoE working groups working on a litany of relatively unimportant initiatives.
Please can we consider parking the wider New Zealand Curriculum work stream, the NCEA Change Package, the Literacy and Numeracy co-requisites, the pointless MOE restructures (and all the other initiatives that came out of an initially exciting Tomorrow's School Report that got watered down to the point of pointlessness) and let us instead simply focus on Mana ōrite mō te mātauranga Māori and closing the goddamn digital divide and actually just give schools more resourcing to manage the complex needs of their learners and staff instead. Let's focus on looking to the future and proactively designing and supporting an entire system that can cope and evolve and actually change so as to cope with ongoing absences and disruptions.
I also want to remind you of this document and the set of suggestions it provides. There is much that still stands the test of time and if we had realised it we may not be scrabbling to patch up and preserve the status quo. Let's do some courageous futures thinking and actually evolve the education system so that it can stand the test of time.
I know this is a crazy old rant, but it is also an offer to help and to step up - before it's too late and you lose even more excellent educators.
I also want to assure you that as a school we are already stepping up. I just don't think it's fair to expect every school and leader to do so as an island. I have attached our latest thinking just in case you are interested.
Learning Strategy for Term Two Albany Senior High School Learning Strategy fo...I appreciate you (hopefully) taking the time to read this.
Ngā mihi
Claire
Claire Amos
Tumuaki | Principal
Albany Senior High School
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