NZPF Federation Flyer No 17– 4 October 2011

Introduction
They say a lot can happen in a week in politics but at NZPF we’re equal to the task!  Since our last executive committee meeting we have launched the six principles upon which we believe all future education policy should be based and we have launched our newly updated NZPF website.

I have also given speeches to three different regions, including a leadership forum and daily we are dealing with unwelcome issues emanating from the charter debacle and other matters.

I do hope you have all been able to make the most of the Rugby World Cup experience and have given your children a taste of a truly international event. As I’ve travelled around the provinces, I’ve done my best to get immersed in the games and the atmosphere they generate. Go the All Blacks as we enter the knock out stages!

Click here for a pdf copy of this Flyer >

To you and your staff thank you for the wonderful work you do and I hope that you intend taking some time out for yourselves over the term break to recharge.

Beyond the Summit
In the last Flyer we told you about the summit and the emerging principles.  Those principles have now been carefully honed and are as follows:

1. ‘Every child, irrespective of their academic ability, financial status, or geographical location will have the right to a free education of the kind for which the child is best suited.’

2. ‘Public education is an investment in the future of our country and thus will be publicly funded and will take account of social inequities in the allocation of funds.’

3. ‘NZ is a pacific nation and our education system will reflect our place in the world, recognising Maori as tangatawhenua and specifically delivering for Maori and Pasifika learners.’

4. ‘The world-class NZ Curriculum will govern a child centred learning culture to ensure every child has a relevant access point to learning from the level they present, whether that is equal to, behind or beyond their peers.’

5. ‘The Teaching profession will lead teaching and learning initiatives through research informed, evidence based practices and teachers will keep their practice updated through attending relevant professional development programmes throughout their teaching careers.’

6. ‘The status of the teaching profession will be enhanced through an independent Teachers’ Council which will be self-regulating, will set teacher registration standards, teacher competencies and practice standards and will be the body of accountability for the conduct of professional teachers.’ 

We welcome your feed-back and encourage you to hit the ‘comments’ button on our website to make suggestions for change or to support these principles. You will find the principles on the home page.

Initiatives around assessment tools and other policies
We are aware of schools being approached to participate in various initiatives concerning assessment tools and the effectiveness of certain other initiatives and policies.  Schools have advised us of these approaches and have raised some concerns about the long-term outcomes of these initiatives for the wider sector.

Whilst acknowledging that schools are self-managing, it would pay to be mindful of the possible unintended outcomes these initiatives might produce for both yourselves and your colleagues for the future.

NAG2A
In recent months the sector has been heavily focused on charters and the setting of targets. Some believe they have to report only on the charter targets their boards have set. This is not the case. Read this section carefully.  It comes as a timely reminder to refer back to NAG2a.

The NAG2a sits at the heart of the National Standards debate, as it is the clause that allows access to reporting information from which league tables can be constructed. This is one of a number of unhelpful aspects of the National Standards and why we and the rest of the sector have battled to make changes. NZPF has attempted to overcome the problems by rewriting the NAG2a and has submitted its alternative version to the Minister of Education and to the Prime Minister. Neither has so far agreed to adopt our alternative version.

Below is a copy of the NAG2a as it appears in legislation.

Where a school has students enrolled in years 1-8, the board of trustees, with the principal and teaching staff, is required to use National Standards to:

(a) report to students and their parents on the student’s progress and achievement in relation to National Standards. Reporting to parents in plain language in writing must be at least twice a year;

(b) report school-level data in the board’s annual report on National Standards under three headings:

i school strengths and identified areas for improvement; 

ii the basis for identifying areas for improvement; and 

iii planned actions for lifting achievement.

(c) report in the board’s annual report on:

i the numbers and proportions of students at, above, below or well below the standards, including by Māori, Pasifika and by gender (where this does not breach an individual’s privacy); and 

ii how students are progressing against the standards as well as how they are achieving.

These requirements do not apply to boards of trustees that are working towards implementing Te Marautanga o Aotearoa until 2 February 2011.

For the avoidance of doubt, the first annual report to which subclauses (b) and (c) apply is that which reports on the 2011 school year, except for boards of trustees that are working towards implementing Te Marautanga o Aotearoa when the relevant report is that which reports on the 2012 school year.

These requirements remain open to debate and interpretation however it is NZPF’s opinion that all schools must understand what the requirements are:

1. All data must be included in the Board’s annual report and submitted to the MOE by the end of May.

2. You must report on the number and percentages of ALL students at, above, below or well below the National Standards (include by Maori, Pacific and gender) for reading, writing and mathematics;

3. As a part of the “analysis of variance” you must comment on the overall progress made in relation to your TARGET(S) GROUP and ALL STUDENTS identifying areas of strength, areas of improvement and your plans to lift achievement in the following academic year.

4. You must report to both STUDENTS and parents on student’s progress and achievement in relation to National Standards.

Nga mihi nui me te arohanui

Peter Simpson

President

Upcoming Dates:

October 28-29 – Executive meeting, Wellington

November 1 – Rural conference/seminar applications close

December 2-4 – Executive meeting, Wellington

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This Flyer contains information on:

1 Rural Teaching Principals’ Seminar & Conference Support

2 Snippets from September Executive Meeting

3 NZPF Moot – Friday 23 March 2012 - James Cook Hotel Grand Chancellor, Wellington

4 Banking Staffing Update September 2011

5 2012 NZPF & APPA Trans Tasman Conference

6 Survey On Professional Development

7 INet Online Conference 14-21 November 2011

8 Microsoft – Building Skills for Tomorrow Roadshow

9 All-of-Government Contracts

10 Business Partners

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1 RURAL TEACHING PRINCIPALS’ SEMINAR & CONFERENCE SUPPORT

NZPF annually gives out rural grants of $1000 to rural principals groups, to assist them with holding their own conference or seminars. Applications close on 1 November.  For an application form click here.  Applications need to be made now for funding in 2012.

2 SNIPPETS FROM SEPTEMBER EXECUTIVE MEETING

• RTLB transformation progressing. Still working through employment issues with unions. Sector advisory groups been particularly helpful

• Resourcing more ORS children with additional $18million from government. Parents of children with high complex needs no longer have to go through application process each year, reducing stress for them.

• NETservice and DTS now combined to create a more effective truancy service

• NZPF education summit successful. A set of principles, which the sector recommends should underpin all future policy making, has now been formed

• Reports from regions of heavy-handedness in treatment of non-compliant boards

• NZPF, NZEI and BTAC have now formed a coalition to encourage more groups to join the national standards campaign and strengthen our collective position especially in relation to reporting data.

• NZPF reinforces its commitment to supporting all schools fighting National Standards compliance issues

• NZPF launches its new-look website

3 NZPF MOOT – FRIDAY 23 MARCH 2012 - JAMES COOK HOTEL GRAND CHANCELLOR, WELLINGTON

This is the day where the NZPF invites the president of your local principals’ association to Wellington to inform and be informed about current issues, initiatives and happenings.  From registration at 08:45 the formal programme runs through to 16:00 and concludes with a social hour. If you are the president of your local association mark this date in your diary and more importantly book your airfares and accommodation especially if you intend to stay over. Formal invitations and programme will be sent in due course.

4 BANKING STAFFING UPDATE SEPTEMBER 2011

Provisional Roll Review Application Suggestion for Area, Primary and Contributing Schools  – Checking the 5% threshold accurately.

(I believe that a number of eligible schools ignore the imbalance caused by the 11/12ths New Entrant adjustment on the provisional staffing notice, consequently think that they do not meet the 5% requirement and give up on the application! )

After you receive your Provisional Staffing Entitlement notice in September there is a period until early October when you may seek a roll review.  While many factors might trigger such a request, the one which affects primary and contributing schools in particular is closely linked to the way the school competed Question 9 predictions in the 1 July return this year. (Because unlike Area schools, Primary and Contributing schools do not get a new entrant adjustment added to their 1 March headcount next year.  They need to use the roll review process to attempt to remedy the situation).

It is important to realise that the provisional staffing notice includes a new entrant adjustment of 11/12th times the year one roll, or a lesser number if Question 9.3 was not addressed well.  It follows that you also need to factor in a new entrant adjustment as you seek to establish whether there is a 5% difference between the Provisional roll for 2012 and the March figures you use for the Roll Review - Compare apples with apples!

Take a moment to print an MOE Year Level Roll Summary table from your SMS as at today, add expected new entrants to 1 March next year to your current Year Zero pupils (to establish your year one roll for March next year), and roll over all other year levels onto the Provisional Staffing Roll Review table.  Now add 11/12ths of the year one roll you entered on the roll review table to the total (There is no box on the Review table to enter this figure).   Compare this total with 1.05 times your provisional staffing notice roll total for 2012. (To establish what 5% extra looks like).  If this total is less than the roll review total you may wish to seek a review on the grounds that your 1 July Return predictions were not appropriate. (Perhaps the school used in house year levels, forgot to put a Yr 7 prediction, understated expected New Entrants to 10 October in Question 9.3,  was in transition between principals when the 1 July prediction was done (by other staff members perhaps?)

Gavin Price

NZPF Life Member
gavin.price@xtra.co.nz

5 2012 NZPF& AUSTRAILAN PRIMARY PRINCIPALS’ ASSOCIATION TRANS TASMAN CONFERENCE

The New Zealand Principals' Federation and the Australian Primary Principals' Association invite school principals to attend the next Trans Tasman Conference - Leading Learning.

Date: Wednesday 19 - Friday 21 September 2012

Venue: the Melbourne Convention Exhibition Centre.

The formal registration application is not available just yet, but to register your interest, find out more about the keynote speakers and registration fees click here

Early bird rates close  Wednesday, 25 July 2012  Delegates will have the option to split their payment over two years.

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6 SURVEY ON PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Former Dunedin principal Nigel Wilson is gathering information for NZEI about professional development.  The purpose is to analyse the needs, engagement levels and support that a professional entity providing professional development opportunities, may be able to provide.  Any information you can provide will be very useful.

Please fill out this simple survey  click here

7 INET ONLINE CONFERENCE 14-21 NOVEMBER 2011

Invitation to Schools andStudents - *Due date for contributions: 10 October 2011

Your school is invited to participate in the 14-21 November 2011 iNet online conference for students (from 5 to 18 years).  The conference focuses on teachers and students co-constructing teaching and learning. The topic is ‘Learning in the hands of students’. There is no cost for participating in this internet-based, international event.

To participate, students are invited to register individually online. However, in the case where whole classes are planning to participate, teachers may prefer to register themselves (although not take part on the message boards) and then pass on access information and updates to participating students. 

To register online click here 

Invitation to Educators - *Due date for contributions: 17 October 2011

Head teachers, principals, teachers, education academics and policy-makers are invited to take part in the 14-21 November 2011 iNet online conference for educators.  This will focus on teachers and students co-constructing teaching and learning. The topic is ‘Learning in the hands of students’. There is no cost for participating in this internet-based, international event.

To participate, educators should register online click here

For further information about either of these online conferences contact Debra Crouch email debra@cybertext.net.au

8 MICROSOFT – BUILDING SKILLS FOR TOMORROW ROADSHOW

1 National Schools RoadshowMicrosoft are running a free set of professional development workshops for principals, curriculum leaders and IT managers in the education sector with a theme of “Building Skills for Tomorrow”.

The Roadshow is designed for a Principal to bring their team along for a Professional Development session around using ICT in education.   The events have three streams:

• Principals – breakfast session

• Curriculum Leaders – morning session

• IT managers – afternoon session

To find out more and register click here

2 Innovative Educator Awards – the Microsoft Partners In Learning network seeks to celebrate and support educators who are using ICT in innovative ways in the classroom.   In Sept-Nov Microsoft are running a national Innovative Educator Award competition, with the winners heading to the regional and world wide competition events.

• Awards details – click  here

Entries close on 28 October 2011

If you have any queries regarding the Building Skills for Tomorrow Roadshow or the Innovative Educator Awards please contact Evan Blackman email evan.blackman@microsoft.com or phone 09362 5609.

9 ALL-OF-GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS

The All-of-Government contracts are currently available for desktop/laptops, office consumables, multi-functional print devices and motor vehicles, with the establishment of further contracts presently under development by the Ministry of Economic Development.

OfficeMax is one of a number of contract suppliers for All-of-Government contracts and would welcome your inquiries. As committed business partners of NZPF we can assure you that we will give you the best solution. 

Any enquiries please contact Suzanne Flannagan on 09 279 7628 or email suzanne.flannagan@officemax.co.nz

10 BUSINESS PARTNERS