In this edition

PD opportunities

Featured: Bicultural practice and cultural responsiveness in Christian schools

Perspective: Health & Safety legislation

Executive news

Term 3 prayer diary

Cover photo:

Paeroa Christian School’s new school van is proving to be a valuable asset.

The Whiteboard

Term 3 2016

invites you to join the International Christian Educator Conference (ICEC) at the International Christian School in Hong Kong. This conference provides a focused time of professional development, networking, and fellowship for international school educators. Be challenged and inspired by keynote speakers, preconference courses, workshops, and job-alike sessions.

https://www.acsi.org/events/global/gl_icec-asia

X

Ss

Professional Development and Networking

ICEC Conference

November 2016

NZACS and BTI offered ‘Christian

Education Matters: Re-examining Foundations for the Future’ PD in six locations during 2016. 72 teachers registered for the course bringing the total number of teachers who have accessed the PD to 150. Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.

Late in Term 3 2016, principals will be asked to indicate their level of interest in the course for 2017. Venues chosen and the cost of the course will based upon these indications.

Christian Education

Matters PD

KingsWay School, Orewa

Monday 10th July – Wednesday 12th July

NZACS Teachers’ Conference - July 2017

Registration

is now open

Feedback from

this year’s course

“Wonderful,

awesome day of

learning and

understanding”

Bicultural Practice and Cultural Responsiveness

Kia ora koutou Ko Aidan tōku ingoa Ko kawari tōku maunga Te toto o ihu karaiti tōku awa Ko Ngati Ingarihi me Kotimana ōku iwi Nō Gisborne ahau

Greetings. My name is Aidan Harrison. My mountain is Calvary and my river is the blood of Jesus. I am a Pākehā who grew up in Gisborne immersed in Māori culture at school, church, work and play. After attending Gisborne Boys High School I moved to Christchurch to study Forestry Science and then God led me to teach, which I have been doing in Christchurch for 15 years: the first six years in a bilingual unit at Aranui High and one year in Canada. Over the last nine years, I have worked in the Science curriculum and run bicultural practice workshops with a number of Christian Schools in Christchurch and Auckland.

Currently I am a Science/Biology and te Reo Māori teacher at Middleton Grange School. Last year I was on study leave at the University of Canterbury completing a post graduate diploma course - Hōaka pounamu. My studies were focused on Māori immersion teaching, Mātauranga Māori (Knowledge), revitalising languages and making connections between the school, local geography, Māori whānau and iwi. The Hōaka (my study) is the sandstone that is used to shape the pounamu (greenstone/me) so I can return as a taonga/treasure to my school and wider education circles.

The recent anniversaries of the first official preaching of the gospel and the Treaty of Waitangi have been key events to renew interest in biculturalism & cultural responsiveness. Many churches throughout New Zealand have investigated the bicultural Christian heritage of New Zealand and consequently there has been some raised awareness among staff and pupils in Christian schools. I am passionate about helping pupils and teachers develop their learning. I have a particular interest in improving teachers’ confidence to integrate bicultural practices and cultural competency into learning. I am excited about where God is leading Christian schools in bicultural practices and I hope I can assist in some form. I sense that God can use Christian schools to reach out to the wider Māori community to bless and to serve.

At present I am seeking out critical relationships which may further my work in the area of bicultural practice and cultural responsiveness in a Christian educational setting.

I look forward to hearing from you if this is something that you may be interested in discussing.

Email Aidan: a.harrison@middleton.school.nz

Aidan Harrison - involved in Bicultural Practice and Cultural responsiveness at Christian Schools

Highlight your sabbatical topic here

Recently awarded a sabbatical? We would love to feature the findings of your research in The Whiteboard. Please contact the secretary: secretary@nzchristianschools.org

The NZACS Executive has considered having a section of the Whiteboard as a forum for professional discussion of modern ideas facing our association. We would like to invite members to submit articles of professional interest to NZACS and would also welcome a “letters to the editor” section where other members give comment or professional critique on articles. The following is the first of these articles.

Perspective: Health and Safety

into four headings: Documentation, induction, signage and committees. There’s a fifth one which comes from the VCA: safety checking. The whole process is a bit mind numbing but we think you can get through it relatively unscathed. We’re still getting things organised so haven’t quite completed our processes yet.

1. Documentation You are going to need to write some new policies. We’ve scaled it down to three basic ones:

Risk and Hazard register and management

Health and Safety induction and information

for new workers on site

Safety Checking

The first of these is critical. Schools have long needed a hazard register but this has been extended to include what hazards and risks are on your site and how will you manage them. The definitions are important too: A Hazard is a situation or thing with the

potential to cause death, injury or illness.

A Risk is the likelihood that death injury or

illness might occur when exposed to a hazard

Our plan to meet the requirements is to create a sheet listing all of the likely hazards on the site, this one document can then be used in various different situations. We call it our “One H&S Doc to rule them all” (from Lord of the Rings).

2. Induction This is new and basically everyone on your site has to have had some sort of Health and Safety induction: students, staff parents, contractors, cleaners, visitors, children who come on site at weekends etc.

We have scaled down the process whereby the H&S induction is simply going through the hazards listed on the One Doc (hopefully this term hasn’t been copyrighted by Microsoft yet).

The One Doc sits on the front counter as visitors come in and they are directed to read it, it gets sent out with the enrolment information for new students and with new appointment letters, it sits in broad view at the entrance to the school so that

Health and Safety Act and Vulnerable Children’s Act – what are the implications? Last November I attended one of NZSTA’s presentations on the new Health and Safety at Work Act (2015) and the implications of these for schools. During the presentation I became more and more concerned – particularly when I realised that, if things went wrong, I could be liable for five years in prison and a $600,000 fine. This Act came into law in April.

I also recall feeling a bit perturbed watching the 6pm news last term when a principal on the West Coast of the South Island was laughed at by politicians and legal experts for not allowing tree climbing on the school as a result of the Act. At the time, my team and I were spending a lot of time understanding the law and I tended to agree with that Principal’s interpretation.

Last year another key piece of legislation became law: The Vulnerable Children’s Act (VCA). Both of these have significant implications for our schools and we would be unwise to ignore them. My team and I have grappled with the requirements of both and have come up with a solution which we believe is compliant but workable. You may find our procedures useful.

The H&S requirements are really well summarised in NZSTA’s guide to BOTs and school leaders. Although this document runs to over 100 pages, it can be easily digested during a relaxing 3 hour bath (or however you prefer to read your professional material).

We managed to summarise the recommendations

all people coming on site can read it in large font.

3. Signage If you don’t have adequate signage, I fear you are open to issues if something goes wrong on your site. This may be a bit extreme but consider:

Can children climb things and fall off them?

Have you directed them in writing not to?

Do you have slippery decks? Have you

warned in writing of this hazard?

Do you have dark places where children put

their hands (eg outside lockers) and white

tail spiders might live? Have you warned in

writing of this hazard?

Do you have things which can come unstuck

and hit people in a strong wind? Have you

warned of this?

Electricity, car parking, chemistry labs,

exposed nails etc.

Can this get a bit ridiculous? Yes it can, but my position is that you want to be sure you’re covered and the guide suggests that you need a sign to warn people of these things. This is where the One Doc can help you out. Our one is being placed in a display case at the entrances to the school which ensures people pass this information on the way through the gates. Please be aware that this is our idea – whether it covers you or not would come down to a test case in a court of law if things went bad, but I feel pretty comfortable with it (it would be clearly untenable to place “do not climb” signs next to every available roof or tree for instance).

4. Committees The new Act makes it quite clear that you need a BOT H&S committee. Some schools have these; we don’t, since it has been delegated to the management, but this doesn’t cut it any longer.

The Act also makes it the right of employees to have

a staff H&S committee if they ask for it with one staff

member as the H&S site rep. This is quite involved

and will likely cost the school quite a bit, but if the

staff ask for it: then they get it.

5. Safety Checking This is from the VCA. The Act defines some key terms

such as “core children’s worker” which means you

can no longer get away with allowing adults,

including cleaners, contractors etc, if they have

regular contact with children, to come onto site

without ensuring they have been thoroughly

checked out. You (or the contracted company) need

to conduct a police vet, identity check (2 forms of ID,

one photographic), referee checks etc. You need to

know that each adult not only has a clean record but

also is actually who they say they are.

There you go – that’s our

interpretation of the legislation

changes in a nutshell. I hope you

found it useful and not too mind

numbing.

Many blessings

Peter Ferrar

Principal, Cornerstone Christian School

Robust discussion around

topics of interest

Would you like to see the Whiteboard develop into a forum allowing for robust discussion around topics that are of interest to Christian educators? Would you like to respond to this article with your own thoughts or ideas? Do you (or does someone you know) have an area of passion or expertise that you would like to share, or around which you would like to encourage robust, helpful debate?

The Executive is keen to have members contribute articles or viewpoints: if you have a topic you would like to see some discussion around, or a viewpoint you would like to share, please contact the secretary: (06) 356 7326 ext. 6102 or secretary@nzchristianschools.org

NZACS Executive News

Aim: To provide teachers with professional development based on a Christian worldview

The NZACS Teachers’ Conference 2017 will be held from Monday 10th July – Wednesday 12th July.

Two members of the Executive will join a team from KingsWay School to plan the conference.

The Executive has set aside funds to help schools send teachers to the NZACS 2017 Teachers’ Conference where the costs would prove prohibitive. The closing date for applications from the PD support fund will be advertised on the NZACS website prior to the end of the 2016 school year.

The Executive met in June. Here’s a summary of decisions made:

The Executive considered feedback from the SWOT analysis conducted at the 2016 AGM together with miscellaneous inward correspondence and used all this to design a survey. The survey will be sent to each of the NZACS regional coordinators in Week 1 of Term 3. There will be a section for the regional coordinators to fill in themselves and another section for them to discuss and fill in based upon the collective feedback from the principals in their region.

The Executive will consider further clarifying specific NZACS roles and processes, e.g. those of the Executive, Executive members, Chair, Deputy Chair, and Executive elections.

Aim: To ensure the Executive carries out all its duties in a responsible and accountable manner including undertaking an ongoing programme of self-review and planning

Week 1 starting 25 July 2016

Praise

For the volunteers who help the school in a variety of roles

For the exciting range of trips and extra-curricular activities that we enjoyed in Term 1

For being blessed by donations/prizes of sports gear and books

Prayer:

For the incoming board of trustees and our proprietors as they make decisions about

the school

For the new students who start school this term as new entrants

For a successful school camp in Term 3

For the health and well-being of our staff, parents and children

Week 2 starting 1 August 2016

Praise: For Godly men and women whom the Lord has raised up to serve on Boards of

Trustees during this BOT term

Prayer:

That the Lord’s purposes for our schools will be placed on the hearts of our trustees

That new and existing trustees will apply themselves to upskilling in the area of

governance

TERM 3 2016 PRAYER DIARY

Hawera Christian School

Boards of Trustees

Week 3 starting 8 August 2016

Praise:

An increase in the roll has

inspired everyone and the

school is a busy and happy

place.

A school van has been

purchased and is proving to

be a valuable asset.

1.3 hectares of land next to

the school has been

purchased allowing us to

dream of all sorts of

possibilities in the future.

All staff are getting stuck into ‘Chuck Missler’ Bible studies.

Our very active BOT and BOP are sharing the load of leadership and allowing us to set

long-term goals.

We continue to hear wonderful stories from past pupils at High School who are

continuing to grow and walk with the Lord.

Prayer:

A few students from other schools are taking a while to realise what is acceptable at

Paeroa Christian School. Pray for teachers as they balance behavioural management

and teaching.

For our Y7-8 students as they prepare for our mission trip to Samoa in November. Not

only do they need to prepare practically, they need to let God prepare their hearts.

Week 4 starting 15 August 2016

Praise:

For the faithful principals, teachers and support staff who have served in our schools

over the long or short haul.

Prayer:

That the Lord will guide our Boards of Trustees and/or school leaders as they make

staffing decisions ahead of the 2017 school year.

Paeroa Christian School

Schools appointing staff for 2017

Week 5 starting 22 August 2016

Praise:

God's outpouring of blessing over Maranatha Christian School.

Dedicated staff, vibrant students, supportive parents, proficient governance boards

and an involved wider school community... our Maranatha Christian School Family!

Two new staff members this year: Nicky, our new Assistant Principal/New Entrant

Teacher, and Sherilyn, our new Y2-3 teacher.

The opening of our sixth classroom due to substantial roll growth.

The projected opening of our seventh classroom later in 2017, when our roll is

expected to reach our cap of 160.

Successful BOT elections and a new season of collaboration between the Senior

Leadership Team, Board of Trustees and Maranatha Foundation Board (Proprietors).

Although not specific to Maranatha alone, thanks needs to be given for the NZACS

Principals’ networks that provide regular prayer, support, advice and guidance,

equipping and empowering Christian Principals to lead their schools with

professionalism, integrity and with Christ at the centre.

Prayer:

Protection from spiritual attacks that would erode the positive progress being made at

Maranatha Christian School.

Good stewardship and wisdom around major property maintenance and building

redevelopments, specifically those scheduled between now and the end of 2017.

The culture of the school to continue to develop in a way that brings glory to God,

unifies His people, and provides a high quality education.

Week 6 starting 29 August 2016

Praise:

For the NZACS Executive members and regional coordinators who work to strengthen

Christian schools.

Prayer:

That feedback received by the Executive during Term 3 will provide clear direction as

to the Association’s next steps.

That the new strategic plan will enhance the Association’s capability to strengthen

Christian schools.

NZACS Strategic planning

Maranatha Christian School (Hutt Valley)

Week 7 starting 5 September 2016

Praise:

For our growing roll.

For property developments

to meet the needs of the

school in the immediate

future.

For continued growth and

understanding of Christian

Education in a changing

society.

For our newly appointed

Student Executive and their

role in the school.

Prayer:

That an application to increase our maximum roll will be approved.

Wisdom for the proprietors and their direction with the five year property plan.

That new staff will quickly grasp the culture and needs of the school and students.

That we will maintain unity on all levels.

Wisdom for the SLT in managing a growing school.

That staff will have a balanced home/work life.

Week 8 starting 12 September 2016

Praise:

For the opportunity afforded to senior students who are elected to Boards of Trustees

in Christian schools.

Prayer:

That students standing for election will be given wise and understanding hearts.

Board of Trustees student elections

Nelson Christian Academy

Week 9 starting 19 September 2016

Praise:

Completion of the new gymnasium and the way it is being a blessing not only to our

school community but beyond

Excellent achievements throughout Term 2

The engagement of CSN projects including an effective collaboration with other

schools

Prayer:

Wisdom in the protection of our Special Character amidst challenging times

regarding sexuality

Courage, direction, and unity for our "new look" Board of Trustees

Hillview Christian School (Christchurch)