education aotearoa

eA autumn 2016

Ea.org.nz

the futureof education

Grassroots – where the best change happens

Stretching the CoL envelope

eLearning in kura– ka rawe!

winchromebookspAge 24

autumn 2016 | 3

education aotearoa

ContEntseArecyclespread the word!

Once you’ve read EA, let others see it too:

• Leave it in a waiting room (dentist, doctor)

• Give it to your Board of Trustees

• Leave it out at school for parents to read

• Donate it to your local library or information centre

• Leave it at the gym

up front

4 Editorials | 5 Comment | 8 News

extras

26 The Professionals New charter for BTs, bush kindergarten and more

28 Reviews Flip the System, Elwyn Richardson PLUS great apps

30 Giveaways Positive Puberty programme, great books and more

GrassrootsWhere the best change happens

stretch the envelope Communities of Learning

eLearning in kura Ka rawe!

poor quality eceMore people speak out

1210

2018

24 Kaboom – chromebooks!Fabulous art competition22 the future of education

Professor Hugh Lauder

LiKE Education aotEaroa On FAcebook (MoRE SToRiES)

FoLLoW EA On TwiTTer: educATionnZ FoR NZEi HELP CaLL 0800 693 443

FoR RESoURCES, BLoGS aND MoRE viSiT eA.org.nZ

www.fuelled4life.org.nz

AFFORDABLe HEALTHY foOD In YoUR SCHOOL. HERE’S How.Fuelled4life is a practical tool that can be used to identify and offer healthier food choices to children.

Sign up today at www.fuelled4life.org.nz to receive our many free resources.

4 | Ea.org.nz

ThE Poll REsulT*

autumn 2016 | 5

editorialS comment

SPEaK UP, SPEaK oUTThe wealth of experienceEvery year, NZEI Te Riu Roa sees a number of its members retire. They take with them a wealth of knowledge, experience and a continuing interest in education.

Five years ago, the Retired Educators Group Auckland link, with support from the Auckland Area Council, began. Following a meeting held each term, usually with a guest speaker, action has included letters and articles to the media, speaking at various community groups, submissions, visits to MPs and much discussion.

We would encourage all area councils to use this human resource.

Margaret Readyon behalf of REGALjdmtready@gmail.com

Wi-fi health risksA tidal wave of wireless technology is sweeping into classrooms and there is an assumption that it is completely safe. I would like teachers and

parents to be aware of the current international debate about possible adverse health effects.

Many peer-reviewed, scientific studies in reputable journals have reported adverse biological effects including impairment of cellular repair mechanisms and clumping of blood cells – among many others. Many teachers and children are subject to six hours a day of radiation emitted by routers in classrooms, as well as the microwaves from dozens of wireless devices.

According to the Ministry of health, it’s all hunky-dory. however, an ever-increasing body of international research strongly suggests that damage can occur.

Countries such as France, Austria, Italy, hungary and Israel have safety standards hundreds or thousands of times lower than New Zealand’s.

Mike Vaughan Psychologist, Auckland

Watch the ABCTV documentary Wi-Fried? on YouTube

Support for Reading TogetherAmongst the many first rate articles you publish in EA (summer issue) I was particularly impressed with the one on the uncertain future of Reading Together. 

Many people share your concern about its future now the enthusiasm and care that John Good brought to the programme has ceased.

Managing editor Stephanie Mills

Editor Jane Blaikie

Design and production NZEI

Cover Bridget McCall

Cover photo Adrian Heke

Contributors Louise Green, Paul Goulter, Jane Blaikie, Debra Harrington, Lester Flockton, Wally Penetito, Diana Clement, John McIntyre

All rights reserved.

Address: 12th Floor, Education House, West Building, 178 Willis St, Wellington 6140

Website: ea.org.nz

For NZEI HELP call: 0800 693 443

To advertise, call: 09 579 7715

To subscribe, email: gita.champaneri@nzei.org.nz

To contribute, email: jane.blaikie@nzei.org.nz

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of NZEI Te Riu Roa or its members. Education Aotearoa is dedicated to celebrating and informing educators who work mainly in early childhood and primary education.

ISSN 1176-5062 (Print)ISSN 1176-516X (Online)

With the constant swirl in education it can be difficult to get a frame of how it all fits together. At a government level, there are two constants – a vocabulary of system change and commercialisation. Many apparently unconnected changes are lumped into this: the funding review, review of the Education Act, the Education legislation Bill, IEs, PlD changes, the Education Council, and so on.

Globally, commercialisation is possibly the biggest issue in education, and we are beginning to face the conditions related to this that confront our colleagues in England and the us (p8).

This begs the question – what is the problem being fixed by these changes? And that question’s close friend – what is the fix going to look like? Did anyone ask you?

Fortunately, we are up to addressing the real challenges.

system change is alive and well in all the high-performing education systems around the world, including New Zealand’s. We are all grappling with real challenges, including high levels of immigration, more children with learning and behavioural challenges, long-standing issues of cultural competency, and gaping inequity.

As educators, it is our responsibility to assert our professionalism and leadership in the best interests of the children and communities we serve.We must be highly professional – with autonomy and internal accountability.

This requires leadership at all levels (p16). At the same time, the challenge is too big for one individual, school or centre to tackle alone (p12). We must join together and take collective responsibility for the learning and development of children (p10).

Paul GoulterNational Secretary NZEI Te Riu Roa

Louise GreenNational PresidentTe Manukura

Changing times Real challenges

PHONE (09)845 3696 EMAIL bookings@motat.org.nz ONLINE www.motat.org.nz

For more information on this and our other Hands-on, Minds-on education programmes please contact us at:

Official LEOTCProvider

In this programme students flex their design-thinking muscles in the animated world of digital gaming. Using a design process, they will troubleshoot arcade style games – discussing what elements are good, bad or could be improved.

The creativity begins when students apply their new understanding to build their own digital game, using glyphs to create hazards and challenges, over 3 levels. Once they are satisfied with their

creation their peers will play and critique their game! Students can work by themselves, or collaboratively to design and build an epic game. When all the designing is over their games can be published to the arcade and released to a global audience! Suitable for Yrs 3 – 13.

Bring Your Own Device (preferable)

Bookings essential see the MOTAT website.

Design Thinking draws upon imagination, logic, creativity, and problem solving.

GAME'MAKER!

MOTAT_Education Aotearoa_GameMaker Autumn 2016 187x80.indd 1 4/03/2016 2:35:35 p.m.

Our winning letter receives a $100 book

voucher

Winning letter

SEND yoUR LETTERS To eA.org.nZ

(Read the full version at ea.org.nz)

• Bouncy castles • Slides • Jousting • Sumo wrestling • Obstacle courses• Popcorn & candyfloss machines

Call 0800 424 438 or visit blastentertainment.co.nz

Package deals available New range arriving soon

Out of Auckland areas available for larger events at an extra cost

School fair or event coming up?We have what you need!

A survey of new ECE teachers asked how many times they had been employed as a teacher on a fixed-term or long-term relieving contract?

0 29%

1-4 65%

5+ 6%

* From an NZEI Te Riu Roa survey of 155 ECE teachers, fully qualified for up to three years

A recent survey of school teacher graduates found that only 15% get a permanent job after their studies.

6 | Ea.org.nz

comment

Send comments to

ea@nzei.org.nz or via

ea.org.nzIf there is one strategy that

could be described as “best practice” for NZEI Te Riu Roa’s negotiations with government over the future of IEs, this is it. Reading Together has been frequently evaluated in a wide variety of contexts and found to be very effective in helping struggling readers to catch up.

Warwick Elley, Emeritus Professor of Education

Grave doubtsEnjoyed reading your article on Reading Together (EA summer issue). I have been following the progress of its implementation since supervising Jeanne Biddulph’s master’s dissertation. Initially I was somewhat sceptical of the impact of the programme, but after seeing the outcomes of Jeanne’s initial evaluation, which was to a very robust design, and talking with teachers involved over the years, I concluded it has numerous positive outcomes.

I have grave doubts about the notion of self-sustainability as promulgated by the Ministry of Education in your article.

Dr Bryan Tuck, Auckland

Short-sightedI very much enjoyed your article on the Reading Together programme (EA summer issue).

I am concerned at the future of this highly effective programme, now that no national coordination is being provided by the ministry. John Good’s departure is a great shame and in my opinion, a very short-sighted move by the ministry.

Adam Rivett, Principal, Waimate

Eat to learnWhile teaching for an international school, Jeremy, aged eight, was added to my class of five-year-olds. Jeremy had spent the previous three years in the corridor or receiving counselling in the principal’s office. he couldn’t read and after one momentous day, I approached his mother Faith with the books Fed Up and Failsafe both written by Australian psychologist sue Dengate. I told Faith that I had some ideas that could help.

The next day, Faith walked in looking very tired. she finished the books at 3 am and Jeremy was off all fruit juice from that day (too much salicylate). [After other related changes] and by the end of that school year, Jeremy had a reading age that matched his chronological age.

I have written a parent nutrition brochure available to all schools. I urge schools to try a five-a-day/forever-additive-free trial. My stories about other children can be even more eventful than this one, but all of them are success stories.

Julienne Law , Kerikeri www.brainfoodnz.co.nz

LETTERS HavE BEEN EDiTED FoR SPaCE. REaD THE FULL vERSioNS aT ea.org.nz

How are educators making virtual reality (vR) a reality in the classroom, and what does vR offer young people?

vR was once lumped in with flying cars, holograms and tartan paint as fictional. But now game developers, tech start-ups, film makers and designers are scrambling to understand and explore how it can enrich our lives.

vR is simple in principle. a user wears a headset that tracks their movements and displays video and audio accordingly. The result is a stereoscopic (3D) image where users can view and interact with an environment.

Given the ‘WoW’ factor, young people are drawn to vR , and the tech is no longer out of reach. Google recently released Cardboard, a simple cardboard headset that holds a smartphone. in its first 19 months, five million Cardboard viewers shipped. on the education front Google are trialling Expeditions, a series of virtual reality panoramas lead by a teacher or a guide for up to 50 students wearing Cardboard headsets.

at Capital E in Wellington, students use Unity (a game engine that has expanded to cater for vR games) to design a 3D terrain. along the way students negotiate 3D space, design in three dimensions and realise the potential of the medium.

Virtual reality in the class

PRoMoTioN

Read moRe at ea.oRg.nz oR capitale.oRg.nz

– Samuel Phillips Capital E MediaLab Coordinator

At Waikato we’re preparing our postgraduate students to move upwards in their careers while positively influencing tomorrow’s young minds.

Current student Andrea Crawford is using her Master of Education to help engage Māori students in Year 13 Science at Otumoetai College. She’s investigating how Western Science and Māori knowledge can co-exist within our classrooms.

Enhance your contribution to student achievement with a 180-point Masters in Education, Teaching and Learning, Educational Leadership, Counselling or Disability and Inclusion Studies.

To find out more about your study options online or on-campus, phone 0800 WAIKATO or email educ_grad@waikato.ac.nz

TWo-ThIRDs oF ChIlDREN Who NEED ExTRA suPPoRT To MIss ouT?

A secretive government review of school funding appears to be considering dumping decile funding and replacing it with a form of “social investement” that limits the funding to a relatively small group of children.

The government is looking to tag children with “at risk” criteria and allocate targeted funding accordingly. Four criteria are being suggested that relate to officially recorded factors – child abuse, a mother with no qualifications, a parent in prison, or being in a long-term beneficiary household.

But Treasury documents show that the group of “higher risk”

children make up only 31% of children who “fail” in the education system, that is, only 47,346 out of 152,598 children.

Also of concern is that proposals to reform CYFs indicate resources will be taken from the ministry's Special Education budget to focus on higher risk children. Children with somewhat lesser needs stand to have access to less resourcing, at a time when existing unmet need is overwhelming. In the CYFS proposals, “education” will also provide “direct purchase of specialist services”, suggesting more privatisation.

UK charter schools

NZEI takes on the big guys

The Conservative Government in the UK announced in its recent Budget that all schools will be forced to become “academies”, the equivalent of New Zealand charter schools. They will not be required to employ qualified teachers and they will not have to follow a national curriculum.

Teachers have overwhelmingly rejected the move and are voting on whether or not to take strike action. Ian Murch from the National Union of Teachers said the measures would see “schools stolen from their local communities”.

“We will stand up for pupils, for parents and for teachers, and we will lead the campaign for sanity. We will fight the forced academisation of our schools.”

autumn 2016 | 9

FIElD sTAFF WIN ouT

By sticking together and staying strong, Ministry of Education Field Staff members have won a better collective agreement. Field staff work in a number of roles for the ministry, mainly in special education. They are highly skilled and in high demand by educators and parents. They rejected the ministry’s initial offer, voted to take industrial action, and achieved a settlement that gives a 2% pay rise, backdated to settlement, and a way forward on workload issues.

suPPoRT sTAFF hAvE DAy IN CouRT

Support staff members and their supporters met at the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) ahead of a hearing on April 7 – including former EA cover girl Abacus (winter 2015). Members took their case after Novopay cut the fortnightly pay of 6000 support staff. Novopay, now back under Ministry of Education control, cut the fortnightly pay of staff whose earnings are annualised by 3.7%, claiming it was because there are 27 pay days in 2016 instead of the usual 26. “For many it meant losing up to $40 a week. Families, who were already struggling, had to cut back on the likes of groceries, food and shoes for children,” says Executive Secretary Alison Gray from Fairhaven School, Te Puke. The ERA’s decision will be posted at nzei.org.nz when it is released.

8 | Ea.org.nz

newSnewS

Dr Kirsten Locke argues that what seems to be missing from the debate about modern learning environments (MLEs) is a notion of education and the school as involving more than the ubiquitous and undeniable focus on learning.

In defence of the ‘school’ in MLEs“In the current context the how, why, who and what of learning leaves little room to expand thinking about education.

“I would put it to you that the current conversation on MLE’s needs to be constantly widened to incorporate other notions that speak to the purpose and nature of education that incorporate an awareness of the conceptual and physical perimeters of the notion of the ‘school’.

“This perspective has gained currency from various philosophers who have specialised in the area of school architecture and design, such as Maarten Simons and Jan Masschelein. They remind us of the Ancient Greek notion of scholé, which was defined as ‘free time’ to think, discuss, and engage in leisurely activities such as art and literature, away from the wider structures of society and adult obligations of work.

“Scholé was the defined conceptual and physical space where the young came together as a community that was separate from the busyness of the outside world in order to better understand that world and together potentially alter it for the better.

“The idea of school as emerging from the notion of scholé gives it a purpose much wider than ‘only’ learning, and brings it closer to a democrati-cally sanctioned space premised on providing a public commons of study and thought.”

Dr Locke is a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Auckland.

Read the full blog at ea.oRg.nz

NZEI Te Riu Roa has joined an international coalition of pension funds and unions to challenge the world’s biggest education company.

Pearson, both publicly and privately, has been driving the privatisation agenda in education, selling high-stakes testing and assessment in the US, and off-the-shelf education systems to the developing world.

The share-owning pension funds, supported by NZEI, the American Federation of Teachers, the Canadian Teachers Federation, the Australian Education Union, and others, have put together a detailed shareholder resolution that challenges the company’s business strategy. Pearson’s share price has collapsed by nearly 50% over the last year as high-stakes testing begins to lose favour in the US.

“Privatisation is the big issue in education globally,” says NZEI Te Riu Roa National Secretary Paul Goulter. “We are part of this campaign to get Pearson to review its business model because it rests on an unfounded belief in choice and competition. It leads to a philosophy of education that causes our colleagues overseas many problems, and it is encroaching here. It contributes to inequity and is detrimental to students’ learning.”

More at pearsonres.org

PRoMoTioN

10 | Ea.org.nz autumn 2016 | 11

takE thE timE to get it rightEDUCaToRS aND

oTHER ExPERTS aRE

CaLLiNG FoR MoRE

FLExiBiLiTy iN HoW

$90 MiLLioN oF PLD

FUNDiNG iS SPENT

everyone can more or less agree that the current model of pLd doesn’t work. Government says it spends $90m a year and doesn’t know what it gets. Big providers want “sensible policy”. and schools can’t get money for what they need.

“Every teacher has a responsibility to identify their PD needs, “ says

Fairburn school principal Frances Nelson. “And we also need to provide school-wide PD to meet goals in the strategic plan.”

This translates to very specific PlD needs, says Nelson, which may not be a match with what is on offer from Ministry of Education PlD contracts.

however, the government has announced, as a part of a current review, that it intends to only fund PlD on numeracy, literacy, science, digital “fluency” and a pilot on health and PE, related to obesity.

It is also moving toward only funding clusters or communities of learning (Cols) – which Nelson says would be “disastrous”. Most schools aren’t in a Col, and their success will depend on authentic relationships built over time, rather than schools being driven into structures under threat of lost funding.

Flexibility needed An inflexible model would also go against the current trend toward personalised learning, says Dr Cheryl Doig, recent board chair of CoRE, a large national provider.

“We’re living in an increasingly complex world, and schools need to be flexible with adaptive thinking. The ministry’s

promoting this with the building programme (modern learning environments) and the same flexibility is needed in PlD.”

Doig is now director of the consultancy Think Beyond and isn’t going to jump through the hoops to become one of the new “accredited” providers. The complex accreditation process means there is likely to be fewer providers from next year, just at a time when schools are looking for more choice.

The new PlD model is to

be operational in 2017, with an announcement on the Education Council’s role in its delivery expected in June that year. But given the tensions to be resolved many are hoping this will be delayed until 2018.

Ingredients missing “It would be much better if time was taken to get it right,” says Jan Tinetti, principal of Merivale school in Tauranga.

“The focus of PlD and who delivers it is determined by government, and we’ve been doing PlD on maths and literacy for years now. It’s taught as standalone content rather than being informed by context.”

Tinetti sees the two missing ingredients as cultural intelligence and inclusive education.

“It has to be a pre-requisite that the providers can work with Māori and Pasifika students and they understand inclusive education.”

Tinetti says that government’s intention is there, for students to do better, but the problem of underachievement is not being solved.

A recent oECD report on how to lift the achievement of low performing students talks about teachers having high morale, struggling students getting support early, resources being distributed more equitably, and teachers having more freedom.

Anyone listening?Jane Blaikie

ProfeSSional develoPment and learninG

hoMEGRoWN

Pizza evening PD and bus tours for ECE members and new educators to see a variety of practice – NZEI Te Riu Roa branches and area councils are sharpening up their game to provide what it is members need on the ground, including relevant PD.

In Kaiapoi, Bridget McCall (left) is a fourth year primary teacher, and chair of the local area council (AC).

“We aim to make it worthwhile for members. We don’t want them to feel they’re giving up a Saturday morning for nothing – they get something out of it.”

The AC meets once a term, and like many branches and ACs around the country, it is becoming more focussed.

“We’re quite spread out geographically, so those of us on the AC talk by teleconference. And we’ve employed a secretary to do things like pay the bills. It saves a big job for someone.”

At the term meeting, there’s a speaker to bring people up-to-date with developments in the sector, followed by group meetings for ECE, primary and support staff.

“The different groups have set tasks to do – identify people for hui or different roles, organise PD, and so on. We have a big morning tea so people can get through. We finish with PD, and people can stay on for lunch and a chance to socialise if they like.”

McCall is enthusiastic about the AC role, saying it’s not onerous and gives opportunities. “I get to collaborate with some very knowledgeable and experienced members. I enjoy it.”

It’s also given her a chance to practice public speaking. “I don’t enjoy that – but I’m getting experience at it!”

“We’re living in an increasingly complex world, and schools need to be flexible with adaptive thinking. The ministry’s promoting this with the building programme (modern learning environments) and the same flexibility is needed in PD.”

PHoToGRaPH: aDRiaN HEKE

12 | Ea.org.nz autumn 2016 | 13

joint initiative

CoMMUNiTiES oF LEaRNiNG aRE FoRMiNG aCRoSS THE CoUNTRy.

WiLL KiWi PRaGMaTiSM aND iNGENUiTy BE ENoUGH To TURN a

PoTENTiaL STRaiT-jaCKET iNTo SoMETHiNG MoRE LiBERaTiNG?

Stretch thE envelOpe!“James and i have the same dopey sense of humour,” says te atatu intermediate school principal noelle fletcher as she and arohanui school principal James Le Marquand attempt to explain their easy rapport.

The principals sit in Fletcher’s office going over the plans for a new block of classrooms at the intermediate, where two on the ground floor will be part of le Marquand’s school for special needs students.

For James le Marquand, collaboration with Auckland principals is essential to success for his students, and he’s adamant it’s the informal structures that work best. And he would know.

Arohanui caters for high needs students aged from five to 21 across 12 sites in West Auckland. It also runs a comprehensive outreach service in a further 33 schools for students in the ongoing Resource scheme.

“If you’ve got the relationship, it’s easier to have those hard conversations when they’re needed,” he says.

ScepticismAnd he’s convinced those relationships don’t come about if they’re imposed on principals and schools. That’s one of the reasons he’s sceptical about Communities of learning (Cols).

“let’s face it, Cols are there first and foremost to grab resources

rather than being about genuine collaboration.”

But that’s not quite how Fletcher sees it. Te Atatu Intermediate is one of eight schools in West Auckland to recently form a Col based around their former cluster. In this community there is one college and one other intermediate but no early childhood services at this stage.

Despite their controversial beginning, Fletcher is optimistic Cols have the potential to work for students. “If we can work together without competitiveness and distrust, then the Col model can work brilliantly. But we need to work with honesty, respect and clarity.”

Teachers are altruisticFor herself, she doesn’t think that the chance of across-school leadership was a motivating factor for principals

when forming the Col. “Teachers are very altruistic. I’ve never heard anyone say they want to become a principal for the big bucks.”

For le Marquand and his school, joining a Col under the current structure has never been on the horizon.

“I work across a large number of West Auckland schools so being drawn into just one Col would not benefit our kids.”

on this visit to Te Atatu Intermediate, le Marquand had earlier made a point of stopping en route to grab Fletcher a latte – he knows how she takes her coffee.

Genuine engagementon arriving at the intermediate, he’s greeted with: “Did I tell you that we’ve built you a gate?” Fletcher’s school caretaker had seen the need, and taken it on himself to ensure there was a secure gate for Arohanui’s students. student runaways can be a source of tension between schools sharing the same grounds.

It’s this kind of genuine engagement that le Marquand cites as an example of how real collaboration works – something he says comes about best when the relationships are real, honest and trusting.

“I didn’t have to go through a bureaucratic formal process to get that gate – something I would have

"if you've got the relationship, it's easier to have those hard conversations when they're needed." principals James le marquand and noelle fletcher catch up at te atatu intermediate, auckland

PHoToGRaPHS: aDRiaN HEKE

“ If we can work together then the CoL model can work brilliantly. But we need to work with honesty, respect and clarity.”

14 | Ea.org.nz

had to do if there had been no relationship, or if the relationship had been a formal process.”

When he started as Arohanui principal 14 years ago, he inherited a structure that involved things like formal satellite meetings, appointments, agendas, minute taking and so on. he found that to be an impediment.

“What I found was that I only had so much time to invest, and it was a much better investment to invest time informally. you get a lot more done.”

How will it unfold?so how will his informal style fit with the new system of formalised Cols?

le Marquand says he’s not sure how things will unfold in the long run and amongst his worries is ensuring that all students continue to get access to resources.

yet, despite his scepticism about the motivation underpinning the new model of schooling, he could see a workable Col structure that would suit the West Auckland community. A few suburbs away in New lynn, sits oakland special school. le Marquand sees the very real possibility of a Col model of collaboration between the two schools: essentially a micro-Col working across other Cols.

however the question remains as to whether the Col model really

joint initiative

autumn 2016 | 15

“ Forming CoL must be voluntary and it is the right of every school or service to decide what is best for their students.”

is flexible enough to allow such a stretch in the best interests of all students.

In the meantimeNZEI member leaders are urging schools and centres to take their time in forming Communities of learning (Col) and to “stretch the envelope”.

“stretch the Col resourcing and roles currently on offer to ensure they go where children’s learning needs are greatest,” member leaders say in a package of Col resources available at nzei.org.nz/col

In 2014, NZEI members voted overwhelmingly against the government’s first proposal, Investing in Educational success but last year, after negotiations won improvements, a cautious “yes” was given.

The improvements allow for shared leadership and more flexible cross-school roles. They also schedule in a review of the Cols model to begin in December 2016. It is hoped that on-going, joint member-ministry work will feed into this, and formalise further improvements for ECE, support staff, inclusive education and Māori and Pasifika.

Needs to evolveBerhamphore school principal Mark Potter helped develop the resources and says, “We strongly believe the Col model needs to evolve further if it is to meet the goal of significantly improving success for learners with the most challenges.

“We strongly encourage members to put the needs of learners first. Forming communities must be voluntary and it is the right of every school or service to decide what is best for their students.”

The resources look at the purpose of Cols, how to form one and the resourcing; as well as answer questions such as, “Who’s my tribe?”, “Can we be bigger than 10 schools?”, “Does it mean we can’t belong to other or exisiting clusters, communities?”

Debra Harrington and Jane Blaikie

Education in New Zealand is currently experiencing its most significant change since the educational reforms of the 1980s that led to self-managing schools.

One way in which teaching and learning is shaping up for 21st century education is the move towards more collaborative practices. Traditionally, teachers have been fiercely autonomous, the classroom was their domain and they alone controlled what happened within those walls. Now, there is an increasing emphasis on learners, teachers, educational leaders, and even schools working together to build collaborative learning networks.

Included within this new view of collaboration is a focus on shared leadership practices and while leadership can be incredibly rewarding, the role of leading others can also be complex and demanding.

In many cases, new school leaders are left to learn on the job through trial and error. This is erroneously referred to as “learning by experience” and this unstructured form of development is ineffective and can lead to job dissatisfaction and burnout. “Leadership Learning and Development”’ provides leaders with the specialised skills and knowledge they need to effectively carry out their role. Learning of this kind does not just happen. Developing leadership capacity needs to be deliberate and planned to allow leaders time to critically reflect on their own behaviour and role.

Because leaders “don’t know what they don’t know”, they require support from an expert who can help them to challenge their assumptions. New Zealand research examining effective professional learning and development practices within education (Timperley et al., 2007) highlights the role that external experts can play in helping teachers to “learn new content and skills and to think about their existing practice in new ways”. In the same way, external support is a vital ingredient for effective Leadership Learning and Development.

– Martin BassettREaD MoRE aT ea.org.nz

Martin Bassett is Programme Leader of postgraduate educational leadership and management programmes at Unitec Institute of Technology. His current research interests include the professional learning and development of middle leaders.

mbassett@unitec.ac.nz

consultation on the government’s proposals to “update” the education act generated a whopping 1800 submissions – with two-thirds coming from educators.

Frequently mentioned goals for education in the submissions included: • student success and achieving individual potential • Connection to others and good citizenship • Resilience, determination, confidence, creativity and

critical thinking • valuing cultural knowledge and identity, recognition of

the Treaty of Waitangi and te reo Māori

New National Education Measures?These are quite a long way from the narrow focus of the current National Education Priorities, and how they play out with policy driven by literacy, numeracy and student achievement data.

As well, government asked for feedback, late last term, on proposals that question the right of principals and staff reps to be voting members of boards of trustees. It also proposed new National Education Measures, likely to be based on questionable data. A business lobby group, The New Zealand Initiative, is publicly lobbying for these kinds of measures to be linked to funding, and to be used to “sort” students and teachers.

Which raises the question of whether or not this government has the political leadership to rewrite the Education Act in a way that respects public opinion.

NZEI research indicates parents want a fair and adequately funded school system. Educators have made their views clear through submissions and the Joint Initiative process. The release of the new bill, expected this term, will be followed by a six-week round of written submissions, followed by oral hearings around the country. Gear up to speak out!

Political lEadErshiP crucialWaTCH oUT FoR THE RELEaSE

oF THE NEW EDUCaTioN aCT

ExPECTED THiS TERM

SUMMaRy oF SUBMiSSioNS oN THE UPDaTE oF THE aCT aT ea.org.nz

TELL NZEi TE RiU Roa MEMBER LEaDERS WHaT’S HaPPENiNG WiTH THE CoL PRoCESS iN yoUR aREa. THEy CaN THEN

RaiSE DEFiCiENCiES iN THE REviEW LaTER THiS yEaR. SEND yoUR CoMMENTS aND SToRiES To col@nzei.org.nz

PRoMoTioN

Learning to lead in the 21st century

16 | Ea.org.nz

joint initiative

autumn 2016 | 17

sara Rogers deputy principal auckland

In an educational context, leadership is about getting people working together and taking responsibility for supporting and developing each other’s capacity to learn: to think critically, to communicate and discuss and challenge choices, actions, initiatives, programmes and options – always with the needs of the learner in mind. 

 

liam Rutherford teacher palmerston north

Being a teacher leader in primary involves building relationships within and across worksites. leaders work to understand the bigger picture and to convey messages in clear ways. Their leadership and contribution is vital due to their day-to-day experiences of working with learners.

Virginia oakly kindergarten head teacher, nelson

To be a leader involves bringing people together. leaders have the ability to inspire and collaborate with others. They identify and use strengths within the group. A leader keeps current with what is happening in education. They advocate for those in their care – whānau, children, colleagues and the profession.

  

alison gray executive secretary te puke

school leaders (including support staff) need the following qualities: awareness (of the collective agreement, of the abilities and talents of support staff); decisiveness; accountability; being trustworthy; having confidence in people doing their roles; fair appraisal; being inspirational, inclusive, transparent and having empathy.

it’s time tO leaD (or bE lEd)

lynda stuart principal auckland

leaders articulate a clear, shared strategic direction within an environment of often very diverse opinions. They empower others to contribute to the vision and to have a sense of ownership of the direction. They build a climate of trust and develop the collective impact of the team.

manu pohatu ko-hanga supervisor hamilton

he rangatiratanga kei roto i ia tangata, tamaiti hoki. heoi anō ko te rangatiratanga mā te kohanga reo, ko te mōhiotanga ki te kaupapa o te kohanga reo; ko te reo me ōna tikanga, ā, ko te whakawhanaungatanga o te whānau whānui. Kia mahitahi, kia whakaarotahi ki raro i ngā uaratanga o te whānau, hapū, iwi.

There is leadership in every person and child. What is necessary for kōhanga reo is the knowledge of the philosophy of kōhanga reo, encapsulated by the language and customs, and by the relationships built collaboratively with the wider whānau: working together, thinking strategically using the values instilled or passed down by our whānau, hapū, iwi.

“WHaT DoES SUCCESSFUL EDUCaTioNaL LEaDERSHiP LooK LiKE?”

NZEi TE RiU Roa NaTioNaL ExECUTivE MEMBERS PRoviDE SoME aNSWERS

“ Every member is a leader in their day-to-day work, but now ‘Leadership’ is back on the government’s agenda, and it’s crucial the sector works together toward a clear definition.”

– NZEI Te Riu Roa

President louise Green

PHoToGRaPHS: aDRiaN HEKE

18 | Ea.org.nz

the new report, Meeting requirements for children’s safety and wellbeing in ECE, found that only 43 percent of services met current legal requirements.

some 17% of services were seriously non-compliant, including having centre owners who were not police vetted. unsurprisingly, the report indicates that services led by registered teachers were more likely to meet the law.

It follows an ERo report last year that found 46% of services did not

offer a responsive curriculum to infants and toddlers. A number of problems appear linked to working conditions.

Speaking upAuckland academic, Dr Andrew Gibbons, wonders just what has to be done to get the government’s attention. he wrote a letter outlining concerns about working conditions to the Ministry of Education, ERo and the Education Council last year (see a copy at ea.org.nz).

“There seems to be a range of responses to calls for a sector-wide campaign to address working conditions – either there isn’t enough evidence, or there isn’t enough reason to gather more evidence. We also see some evidence being discredited rather than seen as a signal to work together.”

At first Gibbons had wondered if what he was hearing was just the occasional horror story. so he went out and began questioning former

PHoToGRaPHS: aDRiaN HEKE

No ACCIDENT REGIsTER, No PoRTFolIo. NoT GooD ENouGhNishi* arrived here five years ago and the family is settling in well. But her new job as a trainee ECE teacher sees her questioning some early experiences.

Two years ago, and pregnant with her second child, she placed her two-year-old son into a centre in South Auckland that was close to her home for three mornings a week.

“One day, I called in at morning tea and a staff member just sat on a mat in the middle of their room and handed out sandwiches to a few children from an old ice-cream container. My son stayed in a corner and didn’t eat anything.

“Now I’ve been doing some work in a kindergarten, I see the importance of having rules for eating. At kindergarten, the children sit at tables and chairs. They are all offered food. They stay until they are finished eating. If they want more food they can have it.”

She also now realises that the service, part of a commercial chain, should have kept an accident book. “My son had a scrape on his knee. He was scratched on the arm. He had bruises on his leg. But no-one could tell me how he got the injuries. They said, ‘It must have happened at home’ – it didn’t.”

After three months, she decided with her husband to remove her son. “There was no portfolio when he left. I never saw anyone read a story to the children. They just played with the same old equipment every day.”

Now Nishi drives 20 minutes to take her two children to a small, community-owned centre with 100% qualified teachers. “There are lots of stories, lots of different activities. They go swimming. They go into nature. My son has learnt a lot there. We go to the beach and he tells us what is happening at the beach – how it all works.”

*Name has been changed to protect identity.

early childhood education

autumn 2016 | 19

KEEP SENDiNG yoUR SToRiES aND CoMMENTS To ea@nzei.oRg.nz

students who now work in centres. “Not one of them, not one, said there wasn’t a problem.”

An associate professor and ECE teacher educator at AuT, Gibbons is particularly concerned at the silencing of teacher voice.

“one graduate who went to a centre and challenged their bicultural programme, and she was told it wasn’t her place to have a say. But the whole point of being a teacher is having a say.”

“The government is undermining its own agenda around protecting children, and developing confident explorers, by failing to support teachers. They talk about vulnerable children – but seem unwilling to address the vulnerability of teachers.”

It is very difficult for teachers to

safely make a complaint about a centre they work in, and there are no spot checks on services.

At the same time, Gibbons is concerned that zealous policing isn’t unleashed on the sector, which could also be counter-productive.

NZEI Te Riu Roa members have been calling for a wide-ranging public inquiry into ECE. Gibbons says that when he asked a politician about the possibility of a select Committee hearing at Parliament, he was told “It won’t happen without more evidence.”

The two ERo reports were based on notified visits to centres, indicating that services either didn’t know about regulations and guidelines or they were prepared to flout them.

Jane Blaikie

WhAT WIll IT TAKE FoRchanGe to happen?aNoTHER ERo REPoRT CoNFiRMS WHaT MoST iN THE SECToR aLREaDy

KNoW – THaT PRoBLEMS oF PooR qUaLiTy aRE ENDEMiC

FAMIlIEs ARE lEARNING ThAT NoT All ECE sERvICEs ARE sAFE

autumn 2016 | 2120 | Ea.org.nz

technoloGy

elEARNING IN KuRA – Ka rawe!so say academics and teachers. in fact, turn it around and say what’s good for Māori learners is usually good for all learners, says cath rau, chair at Kia ata Mai educational trust. the power of technology is about how you use the tools, not the tools themselves.

Principal Ripeka lessels at Māori medium school Te Whata Tau o Putauaki in Kawerau says watching her students collaborate with their

devices is both fascinating and heartening. “The devices assist that collaboration.” she cites the example of Padlet, a brainstorming app used in the school, which allows groups to create online walls collaboratively. It’s ideal in a Māori medium context. likewise, Google Docs and Google Classroom.

“If we don’t give elearning to (Māori) kids they are, when they leave school, going to start at a deficit.”

The academic knowledge about Māori elearning is still a work in progress – as it is with most elearning. Auckland university’s Professor stuart McNaughton is a go-to person for digital education, although reluctant to position himself as an expert in Māori elearning. Nonetheless, he says assuming elearning is all about individual agency may underestimate its potential for collective learning.

Podcasts and blogsAt the Manaiakalani cluster of decile one schools in Auckland, McNaughton has seen achievement and learning increase thanks to the likes of podcasts and blogs that the learners are using.

he points out that elearning can promote the skills of collaboration and social skills to do with empathy and perspective taking, which often work well in a Māori setting. “It comes back to what they are actually using the device for,” says McNaughton. “We don’t have enough evidence (yet) to answer the question of how we do this well.”

he emphasises, however, that Māori should not be lumped into one. “you want to nuance this point about cultures, for example, being only collective or individualistic.”

Rau studies the developmental progressions associated with elearning. on a practical level she also works with Māori medium schools to match apps and e-resources to their needs through the Mauri oho Mauri Tau programme.

one such technology Rau recommends is the oPzone Connect software, which is designed to make students aware of their state of mind and help transition them to their optimum learning zone with breathing exercises.

At Te Whata Tau o Putauaki, students attach the oPzone e-clip to their earlobes after lunch. If the data identifies that the students are not in an optimum state for learning the software leads them through a set of breathing exercises returning the student to a more balanced state. The kura also uses traditional methods such as waiata and karakia to help regulate

breathing and transition students from one state of mind to another.

Te Whata Tau o Putauaki has 130 devices for around 120 teachers and students, but staff are aware that devices should never supersede kanohi ki te kanohi learning, says lessels.

When she spoke to EA, students from the senior school were working on a project that involved taking devices home to interview kaumatua. The next morning, students typically collaborated with their devices on their findings.

year 5 and 6 students were working in groups to record trailers around their pepeha. At night they discussed the project with whānau, then each morning compared notes with their peers.

Too few Te Reo appsDevices can give struggling students confidence, she says. When they master skills using their devices they then go on to teach others. “The device gives them confidence to give it a go.”

But lessels says there are so few apps and tools available in Te Reo Māori.

“The dilemma for Māori medium, when you teach the inquiry material, is that children have to inquire in English, then switch it into Māori,”

says lessels. The story Creator app is a classic example, although some apps do transcend language. For example, lessels introduced Minecraft to the kura after her mokupuna showed her how it worked.

Rau’s team has done work around identifying the most useful apps to recommend to Māori medium students, the best of which are language agnostic.

she says that teachers working with Māori students may find apps such as Explain Everything, Imagistory, Educreations, and Pic Collage for Kids useful.

More on oPzone at http://tinyurl.com/opzoneNZ

Diana Clement

Meaningful parental involvement with children’s activities and interests is the most critical factor in their children’s development.

eLEaRNiNG iS

CoLLaBoRaTivE

aND CaN BE USED iN

THE Ma-oRi CoNTExT,

DESPiTE SoME

PREjUDiCES aBoUT

THE EURoCENTRiCiTy

oF “oNE CHiLD, oNE

DEviCE”

“If we don’t give eLearning to (Māori) kids they are, when they leave school, going to start at a deficit.”

Auckland University’s Professor Stuart McNaughton says assuming eLearning is all about individual agency may under- estimate its potential for collective learning.

above: Tumuaki Ripeka Lessels with tamariki Tukiwaho and Montygau at Te Whata Tau o Putauaki. year 5 and 6 students have been working in groups to record trailers around their pepeha. at night they discuss the project with wha-nau, then each morning compared notes with peers.

PHoToGRaPH: aLiCK SaUNDERS

22 | Ea.org.nz

future of education

autumn 2016 | 23

WHaT DoES iT MEaN FoR EDUCaToRS WHEN LaRGE NUMBERS oF

STUDENTS aRE LooKiNG aT a LiFETiME oF LoW-WaGE joBS? WHaT

DoES iT MEaN FoR EDUCaTioN? PRoFESSoR HUGH LaUDER ExPLaiNS

ooPs, but thE jObS WOn’t be there

At a series of lectures around New Zealand you raised the spectre of a global economy awash with unemployed university graduates. What’s going on?

some 50% of graduates in the us and the uK are now underemployed: that is they are not doing the work we used to expect of graduates. There will always be some demand for sTEM graduates (science, technology, engineering and maths) but it is too simple to say that if students nobly took the right subjects all will be well.

I have just interviewed a group of MNC [multinational corporations] executives in singapore and they all fear for the future of employment. one said he was relieved his daughter was studying theatre in Australia because robots can’t act!

Universities New Zealand has released analysis that shows graduates, including those with BAs, were financially better off over their lifetimes than people who didn’t have degrees. Yet you talk about the “cut-price knowledge workers” coming out of China, India, Russia and Bulgaria?

The report is misleading. It is talking about the past not the present or the future. By 2020, China will have 190 million graduates. But there is an important role for universities in the age we are entering and it is that role universities should be thinking through.

Knowledge work is being “stratified”, you say, meaning it is being broken down into “routinized tasks”, leaving only a few at the top “who have permission to think”. Will our students have permission to think?

yes, but there won’t be that many with the chance to do that. What we need are people, including graduates, who can be creative, resilient and

innovative. But how we teach for these qualities is a very difficult question.

Are National Standards related to this trend of “routinizing” knowledge work?

What is clear is that the repeated testing we have in the uK and us is totally counterproductive – it really is a training for routinised work.

Educators here are told that students need “21st century skills” for “jobs that don’t yet exist yet”. These skills include entrepreneurship, creativity and problem-solving. Will they help?

If we knew what these terms meant in more precise ways so that

we could teach for these skills, then yes. There’s a lot of rhetoric about 21st century skills but very little work on how we can best teach them.

If there aren’t the jobs, is it reasonable for families and students to aspire to a tertiary education? What is the purpose of education?

In the age we are entering, education will become more not less important. We need people who are independent thinkers, and that is what education should be about. There is a strong relationship between education and other social goods, like citizenship and community involvement, and these will be even more important. There will still be a place for an education for the economy but paid employment will be much more uncertain.

We need a new social contract between government and young people. In part this will mean the abolition of tertiary fees. In the uK the introduction of high fees has been self defeating. There just aren’t the jobs for graduates to enable them to pay back loans – to the point

where the government might as well have kept the lower fees.

You’ve been quoted as saying the UK government needs to consider paying unemployed graduates a minimum wage so they can “innovate” rather than take dead end jobs. How would this work?

This is part of a new opportunity bargain or social contract. Everyone, not just unemployed graduates, will need a basic income or citizen’s wage. The alternative is that a few will have high paying jobs but the many will be on temporary low-wage contracts, and many of them will come from middle class backgrounds, so there will be pressure on governments to think seriously about this. And we need “learning accounts” so that people can upskill. These are being piloted in singapore.

This is tough because what I am arguing for goes against the preconceptions of Kiwi culture. But if we don’t have this debate and think

though the issues that we are now confronting, there will be major problems ahead.

Hugh Lauder is Professor of Education

and Political Economy at Bath

University, UK. He is a former Dean

of Education at Victoria University

of Wellington. He was hosted in New

Zealand earlier this year by Massey

University and The Policy Observatory

at Auckland University of Technology.

Jane Blaikie

PRoFESSoR LaUDER iS Co-aUTHoR oF thE Global auction – thE brokEn PromisE of Education, Jobs and Education, oxFoRD UNivERSiTy PRESS. a REPoRT oN THE PRivaTiSaTioN oF EDUCaTioN

By PRoFESSoR joHN o’NEiLL WiLL BE avaiLaBLE SooN aT ea.oRg.nz

" There is a strong relationship between education and other social goods, like citizenship and community involvement, and these will be even more important."

" What is clear is that the repeated testing we have in the UK and US is totally counterproductive – it really is a training for routinised work... there’s a lot of rhetoric about 21st century skills but very little work on how we can best teach them."

iLLUSTRaTioN: CHRiS SLaNE

24 | Ea.org.nz

put the dates in your planner now!• Going live in late April – kaboom.org.nz • Website open for entries on 1 June• Closing date for entries 30 August• Winners announced on World Teachers Day

More details at ea.org.nzEmail queries to: ea@nzei.org.nz

– Bob Kerr competition judge, author and illustrator of children's books, including Terry and the Gunrunners and Changing Times.

The winner of each of the 10 categories will receive a

Chromebook – and so will their class or centre. Categories are

ECE, Years 1-8, and a video section.

Kaboom – unleash your creative superpowers! But what sort of Kaboom?

And where will you find your creative superpowers? It’s quite a wide brief, so let’s

narrow it down a bit. The important word here is “your”. You won’t find your creativity

by making things that look like other people’s art. You’ll find if by showing your street, your house, your school, your friends, or the view out of your window. I will be looking for a doorway to your world. Art is about looking as much as it is about making, so look closely then tell us what you see,

and remember that you will be submitting your art online. Bold bright colours look good on a screen while soft pencil

drawings are hard to scan or photograph so keep that in mind.

Creativity sits at the heart of learning. This year, ea will run an art competition for students

in schools and early childhood centres. This follows the highly successful I Love Learning and School is Cool competitions. From June 1, educators and students can upload their artwork and share the inspiration

on an interactive website.

Chromebooks are increasingly popular with NZEI members. They centralise Google accounts, have loads of apps and store students› work in the cloud. They solve most

back-up and security issues.

pLusWin Time WiTh

an arTisT!Each of the 10 winners (plus a caregiver)

will win a visit to a local artist’s studio to find out how artists work and get some advice

on their own art.

comPetition

One Of 20 chrOmebOOkS!

win

Work together to show all of New Zealand the awesome creativity going on in our centres and schools.

Let those creative juices flow! Pick a topic. One you know well. Something that lights you up. Explore

it. Don't hold back. Steal ideas and make them your own. Why stop at one video. Make several. Play

them for your friends. What reaction do you get? Add, subtract, twist, go crazy ...

Now ask yourself: What's my message? Can others clearly understand my

interpretation when they view my video? Is my work original? Have I presented

my work to a high standard? Do I feel proud of my work? Is it less than 2 minutes? Good. I will be looking

for a video thatI want to show others because it has a special quality.

– gretchen Buwalda competition judge, art teacher, blogger and artist

autumn 2016 | 25

Jitbug is simple, we're a platform that connects schools

and relievers together.

• Schools Invite your relievers (exclusive to your school only) and start posting jobs to them! Or tap into our pool of vetted relievers (Auckland only) if need be.• Relievers Join our database of relievers and start receiving job invites from schools around you!

Jitbug is a simple app that allows you to communicate with your own exclusive pool of relievers. It is easy to use and takes only three steps to find a reliever(s). First step, you post a job invite to your list of relievers (our app algorithm determines which reliever is available. You can deselect whomever you want from your list). Second step, your selected relievers can then choose to apply or decline the job invite. Finally, you approve which reliever is awarded the job. All this is done via instant push notification, as we understand the frustrations and panic of calling and finding relievers in the morning.

You are also able to tap into Jitbug's wider pool of relievers, if necessary, but still keep your own pool of relievers as a closed group exclusive only to your organisation. We interview and vet our relievers (police vetting, identity verification, teachers practicing certificate) to ensure they comply with the VCA.

We want to work together with you so that you can focus on caring for the children and leave the mundane task of finding a reliever to Jitbug. Feel free to check our website at www.jitbug.co.nz for more information or call one of our friendly staff at 0800 JITBUG, we're here to help!

www.jitbug.co.nz

jitbugstaff on demand

autumn 2016 | 27

Taking orders now for Level 3B.Watch your class Love Mathematics.

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26 | Ea.org.nz

the ProfeSSionalS the ProfeSSionalS

An online aunty to help Māori and Pasifika students solve problems – a new website helps “young Pasifika and Māori cope with stressful life experiences by providing them with a step-by-step structured approach to problem solving; something that is not necessarily learned in families where collective decision making is the cultural norm”. Developed by La Va, a Pasifika NGO. Visit auntydee.co.nz

Free vision testing – the Essilor Foundation is rolling out a free vision testing programme for low decile schools. Email Kumuda Setty at settyk@essilor.co.nz to find out if it is available in your area.

Te reo Māori creative writing competition – He Huatau Auaha, for ages 6-18, calls on students to express their thoughts and ideas wholly in te reo, in a bid to ensure the language remains alive and well. More at aut.ac.nz/tereocomp

RESoURCES

Beginning Teacher Charter to launchThe charter sets out what new primary teachers can expect when they begin their careers. Schools will be invited to adopt the charter and identify themselves as good employers for new teachers. It has been developed by NZEI Te Riu Roa members and will be launched at the New Educator’s Network hui in early May. It puts a clear stake in the ground as to what is acceptable practice around the employment and induction of new teachers. Watch out for it at nzei.org.nz/nen

The bush kindergartenECE centres are increasingly getting into the bush kindergarten concept and seeing fantastic benefits for children. Find out how Discovery Kindergarten in Porirua made it happen at ea.org.nz

SchOlarShipSThe NZEI Te Riu Roa scholarships are back!

They offer $5000 each to two early childhood members and $5000 each to two support staff members. The scholarships were set up to:• assist individual members, teams or

cluster members to advance their professional interests while contributing

to NZEI Te Riu Roa’s objectives• advance the cause of education generally

by building the professional status of members.

They can be used to complete a research project, complete a qualification, or attend a national or international conference.

The Expression of Interest application form is available at nzei.org.nz/tka - click on the ‘scholarships’ tab – to be emailed by Friday May 6.

The law now puts significant emphasis on worker participation in ensuring good practices. So, in terms two and three, NZEI Te Riu Roa is offering workshops for Health & Safety reps and others interested to explore and develop their understanding of a healthy and safe work culture. The workshops will be:

• organised, advertised, and run by local field staff

• 2 to 2.5 hours long

• free

• suit health and safety reps, those aspiring to be health and safety reps, and those with an interest in health and safety.

Keep an eye on your NZEI Te Riu Roa emails for more information.

Dr Ranginui WalkerTributes poured in to acknowledge the death on February 29 of one of Maoridom’s most influential academics and authors.

Born into a farming family of the Whakatohea iwi of Opotiki in 1932, Dr Ranginui Walker first trained as a primary school teacher. He was a member of NZEI Te Riu Roa for many years and was made an Honorary Fellow in 1995.

Appointed professor and head of the Māori Studies department of Auckland University in 1993, he is possibly best known for his trenchant writing, including books and highly-respected journalism. He was appointed to the Waitangi Tribunal in 2003 and received many awards and honours over his lifetime.

Obituary

free

heALTh & sAFeTy workshops

New legislation means schools and centres are thinking about Health & Safety.

28 | Ea.org.nz autumn 2016 | 29

reviewS

FLiPPiNG GooD BooKS

Elwyn Richardson and the early world of creative education in New ZealandMargaret MacDonaldNZCER Press

It might not be orthodox to describe a book like this as “one that I loved from the beginning right through to the end” but that is my initial and summative evaluation. The cover of the book is full of energy, bubbling over with activity, humour, diligence and little people going about their learning as the next generation of “oruaiti kids”.

having learned a lot about Elwyn Richardson, I am not sure he would have been too comfortable with his contribution to oruaiti and its tamariki being labeled “creative education” as described in the title. I think he would have preferred to think of what they did in that school as being what “education” really was.

MacDonald has accomplished something few writers do well from the education genre. her integration of the narrative portrayal of Richardson’s socio-biography alongside the educational philosophers and theorists like John Dewey and Franz Cizek, and educational bureaucrats like Clarence Beeby and Gordon Tovey, is masterful.

In my view, she captures the essential ingredients of the humanist and progressive movements that shaped the spirit of the times. An illustration of one simple yet profound observation from Richardson was the need for an “influential friend”. This was the “provocative teacher” who guided the student in the “scientific method”, who didn’t say much but nodded a lot, who taught students to “look, feel, see change, respect, love, be astonished and respectful of nature”.

This reminded me of some of lev vygotsky’s work on the zone of proximal development and in contemporary times, Russell Bishop’s work in Māori education on co-construction. There is a lot of truth in the saying, the more things change the more they stay the same.

This is a book for all whose first responsibility is for the learning of all children: to help them to develop open minds; to learn how to think; to make conscious connections between things; and to deliberately treat the familiar as unfamiliar.HHHHH Dr Wally Penetito, Tainui

Flip the System: Changing Education from the Ground UpJelmer Evers & Rene KneyberRoutledge

It is refreshingly stimulating to meet a book addressing chronically substantive educational issues that has been compiled and edited by a couple of practising schoolteachers rather than academics.

Why? Because the somewhat odd duo of Jelmer Evers (a progressive teacher) and Rene Kneyber (more of a traditionalist) have been advisedly judicious and balanced in choosing contributors whose experiences, thinking, research and guidance is, for the most part, of particular interest

beSt new bookS + aPPS for kidS

RoCK yoUR oWN STyLE

Whose beak is this?Gillian Candler & Fraser Williamson

Guess the identity of 11 iconic New Zealand birds from pictures of their beaks. The beautiful images give clues to how the birds have adapted to the foods they eat. 3+

Lily Max: Satin, Scissors, FrockJane BloomfieldLily Max likes to create and wear crazy clothes: a debut novel that inspires children to “not to be afraid to rock their own style”. 8+

The Bold Ship PhenomenalSarah JohnsonMalachi longs for adventure, and disappointed that his Dad won’t take him camping as promised, he stows away in a classmate’s father’s truck. 9+

Enemy campDavid Hill Award-winning writer brings to life dramatic events at the Wairarapa camp where in 1942 Japanese prisoners of war clashed with guards. Told through the eyes of a guard’s son. 10+

The value of graphic novels

Best apps

We called them comics. The modern term is graphic novels. Whatever the name though they are an increasingly valuable tool in getting children on the ladder to literacy.

They are mostly abridged versions of much longer books, and therefore attractive to less able readers. They have more pick-up appeal and tell the story succinctly to an audience who are used to their entertainment being readily accessible. It would be a mistake though to think of them as an inferior genre of long form literature. The skill of interpreting and decoding visual storytelling, combined with reading the accompanying text, is often more complex than straight reading, and very much a part of modern communication.

Some fully visual books, notably those of Australians Shaun Tan and Jeannie Baker, tell extremely complex and multi-layered stories that demand patience and intelligence and can

take longer to read than if they had included text.

Often they are best used in teacher-led discussions that can bring much greater levels of understanding. Baker’s conservation-based Window and Belonging are great discussion starters on the theme of sustainability, and her book Mirror and Tan’s stunning classic The Arrival deal with the human side of the refugee issue.

Combined with traditional reading and research, and guided use of internet sources, they lead to our children being more fully informed. With their easy grasp of modern media and technology it is difficult to sustain the argument that today’s children are somehow less literate than previous generations, especially as often those who disparage them are still battling with the SKY remote.John McIntyre is a children’s

bookseller and commentator:

childbkwgtn@xtra.co.nz.

Pic Collage for Kids (iOS) Pic Collage for Kids is the digital version of the age-old favourite. It can be used to create a collage that tells a story or to showcase children’s research. Collages made in the app can be shared with Blogger or combined with ThingLink . And it gets the thumbs up from Kia Ata Mai Educational Trust for use in Māori medium. Use the ‘for kids’ version. An alternative for Android is Photo Grid. Free.

Seesaw: The Learning Journal (iOS and Android) Russell Street School’s pupils and teachers are excited about this multimedia journal app. It’s a student-driven digital portfolio that students use to document what they’re learning. It’s simple, but powerful, and allows children to create an organised, digital portfolio using photos, videos, drawing, text notes and links. Free for teachers and students, but not parents.

and relevance to practitioners and their professional organisations, no matter where in the world they are.

Although the various writers’ observations, insights and commentaries draw largely on problems associated with neoliberal, managerialist and associated policy patterns and contexts that plague education globally, the reader will most certainly see the relationship of many of the issues to the increasingly “centralised decentralisation” of our own school system.

The collection of 18 papers and eight vignettes in this book has been arranged into four parts: the globalised problem (accountability, privatisation and control); a new paradigm (flip the system); changing the system (collective autonomy); and a question of mindedness (supporting and activating teachers).

Evers and Kneybar’s purpose is to challenge dominant narratives and the forces of dense networks of “neoliberal technopols” who impose their narrow views about a “good education” along with their relentless system mechanisms on the teaching profession. To counter this dominance they propose “flipping the system”, so that teachers are no longer at the bottom of the multi-layered pyramid of authority.

This book does not deserve to be relegated to fascination or idle reflection. It is a timely challenge to the teaching profession itself, as well as to the system in which the profession resides. This is a flipping good book. Its concluding words are apt: If you stand for nothing, you will fall for anything! HHHH½ Emeritus Director

Lester Flockton, Dunedin

Star Ratings HHHHH ExcellentH Dismal

30 | Ea.org.nz

GiveaWays These great giveaways could be yours in a click. Go to ea.org.nz/giveaways and click on the tabs. Good luck!

GREaT PRiZES To BE WoN!

TERMS AND CONDITIONS Competitions are open to New Zealand residents only. Only one entry per person per prize category. Prizes are not transferable or exchangeable and cannot be redeemed for cash. Entry for this competition is limited to NZEI Members or NZEI Honorary Members. The prizes will be drawn on or after May 31, 2016. Winners will be notified by email. If a winner is unable to be contacted or is unable to receive the prize, another winner will be chosen at random. Any personal information collected may be held by NZEI or the supplier of the prize. You have rights to access personal information, and to request correction of that information. NZEI has no liability or responsibility for lost, late or misdirected entries or prizes. Entry constitutes consent for NZEI and the supplier of the prize to use names and/or photographs of winners for promotion and publicity purposes. As permitted by law, NZEI will not be liable for any direct, indirect or consequential loss or damage whatsoever, including personal injury which is suffered as a result of, or arising from persons(s) participating in the promotion or in connection with winning a prize. NZEI reserves the right to change these terms or cancel the competitions. By entering, you are deemed to accept these terms.

Positive Puberty PlusLast year the Ministry of Education released new sexuality education guidelines for all schools in New Zealand, including primary level (puberty). Nest Consulting offers schools in the upper North Island a highly successful programme for parents and children, valued at $565+gst. Tweens experience a fun, positive, engaging, interactive and informative day on puberty education, life skills and empowerment. The programme is preceded by an evening session for parents and is run by experienced and qualified New Zealand educators. It also covers self-esteem, critical thinking skills, and body image work. Older children look at components of ok/not ok, media manners, cyber safety and anti-bullying messages. This giveaway is for a group of up to 30 boys and 30 girls, and their parents, and will be adapted to either a Year 5 and/or Year 6 group, or a Year 7 and/or Year 8 group. The giveaway is available this year in Auckland, and

can be used next year in Waikato, Northland and Tauranga. Should the winner wish to include more students, costs related to extra educators are at www.nestconsulting.co.nz

Amazing booksHigh-end publishers Simon & Schuster have donated two sets of awesome books to NZEI Te Riu Roa members.• The Misadventures of

Max Crumbly by Rachel Renée Russell. Max, who’s been home-schooled, persuades his parents to let him go to a school. (Age 8-12)

• The Bubble Boy by Stewart Foster. Joe has spent his whole life in hospital. But then someone new arrives. (Age 10+)

• Inside of a Dog by Alexandra Horowitz. Junior version of the best-seller that explains the world from a dog’s point of view. (Age 8-12)

• Surviving High School by Lele Pons and Melissa de la Cruz. A laugh-out-loud novel for those nearing college age. (Age 12+)

• The World as 100 People by Aileen Lord. Ingenious non-fiction that explains the world by way of 100 people. (Age 9+)

shape sorterGorgeous cube sorting board that helps children develop fine motor skills. Age 2+

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B&B vouchersTreat yourself to a chance to relax and unwind.Win one of two Bed and Breakfast vouchers for two people (and two children aged 0-4) to stay in any participating Copthorne Hotel and Resort in New Zealand. Terms and conditions apply – see ea.org.nz/giveaways.