 |
 |
 |
|
 |
Well, what interesting times we work in! How are you going with establishing your new curriculum, bringing in national standards that don’t match your new curriculum (let’s just hope that they have NCEA 2 right!), reporting to parents on national standards when you have barely had any professional development about them (not to mention any money to get your staff to the professional development), managing the budget with the increase in support staff wages without any additional funding from the government and, if you are really lucky, managing your commitments to a schooling improvement or other project?! All...or even some of the above...could explain why we have received no applications from members for a cluster grant or the leadership award. We barely have time for a cuppa tea and a feet up for 5 minutes! Do consider putting in an application...there is up to $5000 available for a cluster and $10 000 for a principal to explore a professional interest... too good to pass up. Forms are enclosed to make this easy for you. Applications will now close on the first day of Term 3. At our Term Two meeting last week the key topic of discussion was......drumroll please....National Standards! No surprises there. Liz Millar and Paul Drummond from the NZPF Exec led a lively discussion. NZPF’s present stance is that the battle to have national standards removed is a lost cause. This government is hell-bent on their introduction and it is likely they will be our ‘leaders’ for at least one more parliamentary term. There is no clear direction for NZPF to be guided by, as membership opinions range right through the continuum with a few seeing no issues, a few seeing huge issues and most sitting somewhere in the middle. NZPF (and NZEI) have been completely cut out of the consultation loop, so NZPF has decided to work towards re-establishing a working relationship with the minister... sitting outside the tent is not a good place to be! Liz and Paul also asked us to consider what our ‘bottom-line’ is...at what point we would not be able to ethically support such a flawed and potentially damaging system. We may be asked to define this quite clearly if Plan A...to re-engage with the minister and work to limit the most damaging aspects of NS....is not successful. Have you thought yet what your Plan B might be? Principals overseas have been placed in this dilemma for some time and you will all have seen some of the news stories of their attempts to counteract the damage that has happened to children and schools. Isn’t it interesting that our government appears to believe that they can get NS right when no other country has achieved this. Isn’t it interesting that the highest performing country in the world...Finland...has no national standards, nor an equivalent of ERO. So who is the government getting advice from? Right, enough already...on to other things now I have got that out of my system! Mana Education Centre had a very productive first term ,especially with the successful teachers’ conference. However, Term Two has been very slow and the centre’s existence remains tenuous. There have been many course cancellations. A suspicion that the current financial and time pressures on school with National Standards a reason for this. Angela is looking at the possibility of a Jumbo Day around special needs education, as there is clearly a need for this. She would be very interested in suggestions for speakers. Thank you for supporting the PRT courses, which are growing in numbers every year. The NZEI Principals Council is meeting at end of month. Janice has put out a survey via WRPPA e-mail network to give her the heads-up on what’s on top for principals. If you didn’t receive this, please e-mail Barbara.Hay@koraunui.school.nz so I can check I have your correct e-mail. Please also check your system isn’t blocking what it might consider to be spam. A caution from the council to ensure you release teachers for paid union meetings – to not do so is illegal. Janice also distributed an information sheet concerning part-time, relief and reading recovery teachers. If you would like a copy of this please contact me and I will ask Janice to forward you a copy. Useful reminders about the employment dos and don’ts with these teaching groups. WRPPA Conference 2010: Did you receive your departure call via e-mail for this year’s conference, which is being held on October 21 & 22 , just before Labour Day weekend? NZEALS Meeting dates and venues 2010 Troop Movements and farewells A warm welcome to:Craig Vidilich at Te Horo,Martin Downer at Hutt Central,Sherry Hughes at St Patrick’s Masterton (I think we might have welcomed you already – better twice than not at all!), Gaylene Hill at Glenview and Jenni Adam at Pukeatua. Jeremy Edwards apologises about the website being out of date. He is having difficulty tracking the hosts who seem to have vanished! Cheers all! Keep smiling!
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
