NZ Principal Magazine Term 2 2015 by NZ Principal Magazine

June 2015 Volume 30, Number 2

Schooled For Success Halfmoon Bay School, Stewart Island

Also

featuring

• 6 Drivers of Stression • Goal Pursuit in Education Using Focused Action Research

• How to Write Grant Applications • NZPF Moot • Opinion: Growing Others

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“Every week, I get at least one thing that I can immediately use with my students and all the new ideas have encouraged me to look up new things that haven’t been discussed in the course yet. These skills and ideas are so important, especially for me and my school – a Decile 1a school – where many of my students have a lot going against them already. It is imperative that I teach them the skills that will allow them to be successful in the future.” Michael Davidson Rowandale School

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CONTENTS

Editor Liz Hawes Executive Officer PO Box 25380 Wellington 6146 Ph: 04 471 2338 Fax: 04 471 2339 Email: esm@nzpf.ac.nz

June 2015

2 EDITORIAL 3 PRESIDENT’S PEN 6 6 Drivers of Stression David McKenzie

Magazine Proof-reader Helen Kinsey-Wightman Editorial Board Denise Torrey, NZPF President Geoff Lovegrove, Retired Principal, Feilding Liz Hawes, Editor Advertising

10 NZPF Moot

Liz Hawes, Editor

19 22

For all advertising enquiries contact: Cervin Media Ltd PO Box 68450, Newton, Auckland 1145 Ph: 09 360 8700 or Fax: 09 360 8701

How to Write Grant Applications

Jenny Barrett

Goal Pursuit in Education Using Focused Action Research

Eileen Piggot-Irvine, Professor of Leadership, Royal Roads University, Victoria, Canada

Note The articles in New Zealand Principal do not necessarily reflect the policy of the New Zealand Principals’ Federation. Readers are welcome to use or reprint material if proper acknowledgement is made. Subscription Distributed free to all schools in New Zealand. For individual subscribers, send $40 per year to: New Zealand Principals’ Federation National Office, PO Box 25380, Wellington 6146

24 33 35 ibc

Schooled For Success

Halfmoon Bay School, Stewart Island

SCHOOL LINES

Lester Flockton

OPINION: GROWING OTHERS

Helen Kinsey-Wightman

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service providers

Profiles from education product and

New Zealand Principal is published by Cervin Media Ltd on behalf of the New Zealand Principals’ Federation and is issued four times annually. For all enquiries regarding editorial contributions, please contact the editor.

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24 Halfmoon Bay School, Stewart Island

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Editorial Liz Hawes

Editor

Schools where principals have given thought to what That however could be about to end, unless the school’s roll education is and what it is trying to achieve tend to be vibrant, can be increased by two. Halfmoon Bay School, categorised fun, exciting places full of risk taking. Most schools would amongst the most isolated in the country, will lose one of their subscribe to the notion that education is about acquiring skills, two teachers if they do not push their school roll out to 26. It is knowledge and values and also about socialisation or learning hard to fathom the rules that would remove 50 per cent of the about existing traditions, customs and social mores. Some teaching staff and negatively affect the achievement opportunities theorists suggest there is a third function of education and that of 24 children, just to meet an arbitrarily set staffing formula. is to free the student sufficiently to generate their own thoughts In their typically creative fashion the Stewart Island school’s and ideas and allow them to creatively apply them. This facet Board of Trustees’ Chair is now promoting an offer to any makes education unpredictable and creates insecurity. Whilst the New Zealand family to come down to Stewart Island and be first two functions can be easily controlled by the teacher, it is accommodated for a month (if they have at least two school age the third function that requires children of course) to try out life on the risk and courage on the part The disconnected thinking Island, in the hope that the family will of the teacher, whose job it decide to stay on. is to create the environment between politics and the It’s not like the Chair and indeed within which students can feel profession would be risible, if the the principal have not already pleaded confident and safe to handle their case to the Ministry. It just seems their new-found freedom. results weren’t so tragic. that the Ministry doesn’t have the Arguably it is this third factor flexibility or the will to accommodate that provides students with the highest levels of satisfaction, as extraordinary circumstances. they take charge, exploring their own questions and thinking Common sense would suggest that a system formula cannot and creating their own learning. be applied evenly across vastly different sized schools and get Despite policy makers and politicians all wanting predictability the same result. Inevitably there will be devastating effects on and risk-free measures for education, and as little subjectivity as the small school. A larger school might absorb the loss by being possible, principals are increasingly encouraging their teachers flexible and creative with the remaining staff. No matter how hard to allow students to cut loose and make their own learning the Halfmoon Bay School principal tries to be creative, there will connections through their own experiences. be no remaining staff members with whom she can be flexible. There is no better example of this construct of education in It simply doesn’t make sense. action, than on Stewart Island where the children experience It is little wonder that principals become frustrated. Their freedoms both within and outside of their school which ambitions and aspirations for the children in their schools are constantly lead to fresh ideas and creative ways to solve problems. constantly impeded by policies and legislation that are way In turn this leads to high levels of confidence, self- worth and the out of step with twenty-first century educational thinking and motivation to perform at the highest level. It is a success story practice. School leaders are rising to meet the challenge of the extraordinaire (see pp.24–31 for the full story). international call to produce creative and critical thinkers, At Halfmoon Bay School, Stewart Island, the achievement encouraging students to push the boundaries, to take risks and levels of the children, including Māori children, throughout both to take charge, whilst the politicians of the world are weighing the junior and senior classes, exceed the national averages. The them down with demands for compulsory standardised measures children are quite clear about factors that help them do so well of achievement, mindless data gathering for accountability and and they include having strong healthy relationships with their the application of punitive and petty rules. The disconnected teachers and access to individual teaching as they need it, even thinking between politics and the profession would be risible, though there are four different levels in both the senior and junior if the results weren’t so tragic. classes for the two teaching staff to accommodate. This, they say, gives them the confidence and assurance to pursue ever higher and higher goals across the whole curriculum.

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President’s Pen Denise Torrey

National President, New Zealand Principals’ Federation

When national standards were introduced, the do this at a national level with the right support. In the case of Government was very clear about their rationale. It was to address the MACs I acknowledge the support we have received from the the disproportionate number of Māori and Pacific Island students Ministry who, in joint partnership with us have resourced us to alongside those from lower socio-economic communities and get the MACs established. those with special needs who were not succeeding as well as Given the right support, the profession will also develop a everyone else. We argued that introducing national standards was culturally appropriate solution to give our Pacific Island students a not the best mechanism to lift achievement but we never argued more positive schooling experience and I don’t doubt we could create that there weren’t inequitable a more functional model to deliver educational outcomes for the As a group of professionals, the a richer education to our special identified groups. That fact is needs students too. We are up for patently obvious and applies to NZPF national executive was all of these challenges and more more than just education. because we are the ones who have As a group of professionals, deeply concerned about Māori the knowledge, the wisdom and the NZPF national executive achievement . . . the collective educational expertise. was deeply concerned about It is therefore frustrating when Māori achievement and none more so than the three Māori policy makers create obstacles to our creative solutions. On my representatives at the time, Peter Witana, Keri Milne-Ihimaera and Whetu Cormick. These three led the executive in their own Māori education programme to better understand what succeeding as Māori might look like. Out of this experience came meaningful discussions on how to assist principals, especially those in the mainstream, where MAGNESS SOUND LTD most Māori students are located, to apply strategies that would make a difference. Whilst the Ka Hikitia strategy for Māori Schools Auditoriums Churches contained some very useful guidelines, the document landed Sports & Shopping Complexes in schools without the necessary professional development behind it to assist principals to use it well. Drawing on their own experience within the national executive, committee Let Us Design, Build and Install a new sound members worked together to develop the concept of the Māori system that will meet your budget using the Achievement Collaboratives (MACs). See p.18 of this issue for latest technology from around the world the full story on the development, implementation and current success of the MACs. The model we used for the MACs was to cluster schools Equipment hire: public address systems for large public geographically with a facilitator. You could call it a ‘Community events, outdoor entertainment, sports days, at-home of Schools’ model. All schools joining MACs are self-selected celebrations & weddings. Scaled systems for bands, and have the common purpose of giving their Māori students conventions, celebrations, promotions, markets . . . a more meaningful, more engaging and culturally relevant Sound system design & installations: for schools, educational experience. The MACs are about opening hearts churches and significant public buildings and minds so that principals can embrace the rich complexities Sophisticated custom designed permanent sound of a Māori world view, which is the key to understanding how systems: for single or multiple location organisations Māori succeed as Māori. Early research shows that the MACs are where perfection is expected having a positive impact and barriers to learning for our Māori students are beginning to crumble. Consulting & existing installation assessments I draw your attention to this example because it demonstrates our capability as professionals to recognise an area of weakness, F1/130 Newton Rd, Newton, Auckland rise to the challenge and collaboratively work together to find a p 09 309 4460 fax 09 309 4463 solution. Within our schools we do this every day. We can also

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recent trip to the UK, I attended the conference of the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT). At the conference, NAHT declared its intentions to work together with the profession and the government to develop a model that ensures ‘all schools are part of a collaborative structure that offers mutual support, accountability and development.’ This was a refreshing approach and quite the reverse of how the IES, for example, was launched in NZ. What was even more refreshing was to hear a Member of Parliament, and partner in the coalition Government, David Laws, say that the Government and educationalists should develop policy together because it is the educationalists who know about education. If this attitude prevailed in New Zealand politics, we would never have had the stressful and distracting national standards debacle, nor the present stand-off over the IES policy. We wouldn’t be arguing over the introduction of yet another type of school called charter schools. We would have sat down together to discuss what the Government was trying to achieve and what we as a profession are trying to achieve for children. Together we would have reached creative and useful conclusions which would satisfy all parties concerned. Instead we have the profession and the Government working in isolation from each other and often in opposition to each other which is unlikely to ever lead to better learning outcomes for children. This combative environment, in which the profession is in constant brace position awaiting the next policy bombshell, is unhelpful and dysfunctional. I do hope before I complete my term as NZPF President that the light of reason will prevail and the Government invites the profession in for a long overdue cup of tea.

Artwork courtesy of Tauranga Intermediate School Mackenzie Groos, 2012

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Six Drivers of Stression David McKenzie principal of Edendale Primary School

Stression is a fusion of the words ‘stress’ and ‘depression’. It involves job related stress that stretches physical, emotional and intellectual resources beyond capacity to the point where that work becomes unbearable. Principals know all too well that stression can be an unsavoury and unwanted feature of the job – it can rob the joy from life. Whilst stression can come from one prolonged event, more often it is from a suite of subtle stressors that grind against each other to wear away at a Principal’s internal mental well-being. Stression spawns from three main areas – self, leadership and society. It is important to understand each of these areas and to learn how they impact upon Principalship. Self-Induced Stressors Some stress is self-created and self-induced. ‘You don’t know what you don’t know’ and sometimes this can contribute to stress. Self-induced stressors require reflection and personal development to overcome. Two examples of stression from this area are: 1. Stressor: Thinking like a teacher when a Principal should think like a leader. Principals get promoted into Principalship from the classroom. Yet, being a good Principal is not about translating the technician mindset of a classroom teacher to the running of a whole school. This can reap a whole lot of unnecessary stress as it can present itself as micromanaging. Solution: Think like a leader. Work through people. Focus on improving the system not working in the system. Lead people, manage resources. Become strategic, future focused. Plan ahead. Listen, observe, discuss then act. Embrace and manage change. 2. Stressor: Trying to please everyone, all the time, with everything. In leadership it is not long before the 3Cs appear at the door – complaints, concerns and criticisms. Each wants their perceived needs met, now, instantly! Principals can find themselves bending this way, that way and every other way, like an Olympic gymnast to meet all these demands. This response is people pleasing, motivated out of a desire to be ‘liked’ believing that ‘liking’ equals ‘support’. It is natural and very understandable. Few Principals want to be hated. People pleasing can create an insatiable monster that demands more and more and more whilst giving back very little.

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Solution: Learn the art of the graceful ‘No’. Saying ‘No’ to someone sets healthy boundaries that protect mental well-being. At a deeper level it is important to understand that leadership is less about liking and more about respecting. Respect is a deep value that comes with saying ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ in equal measure. Leadership Based Stressors There is stress that comes with taking on the mantle of Principal leadership. It is in the role. These stressors require in-school support structures. Two examples of stressors from this area include: 3. Stressor: Diverse multifaceted responsibilities. The expectations inherent within educational leadership are considerable. In any given day or week what a Principal does can be incredibly diverse. Whilst this can be stimulating and motivating it can also be stretching and frustrating. When things are going well it is fine, but the waters are not always smooth. The more ‘hats’ that a Principal wears the more fronts that can open up for conflict. Many Principals also have sizeable teaching functions. A Principal’s work does not go away when teaching a class, nor does teaching work go away when being a Principal. This diverse multifaceted stretching can swiftly ratchet up stress. Solution: Delegate, delineate, deputize. Whereever possible establish defined, delegated roles. Get the right people doing the right things. Try not to become the secretary, caretaker, plumber, photocopier fixer, ICT trouble shooter, electrician, social worker, bus driver etc. Whereever possible pay someone else to do that. It is important for a Principal to delineate what they will and will not do based on their strengths and weaknesses. That means admitting weaknesses – a thing that the wise and the strong do regularly. Then deputise through clear and shared procedures. There are times when staff are just looking for the authority to do something. Give them this in advance. This will stop the permission seeking door knocking. Clear deputized procedures encourage initiative and build trust. 4. Stressor: Staff. The very nature of leadership is to be a change agent journeying a group of people towards a common goal. This does not come without

David McKenzie is the principal of Edendale Primary School

challenges. Leading a mixture of staff with their different experiences, skills, knowledge, beliefs and protective silos is not easy. There can be all kinds of passive or active resistance. Every leader experiences this and these are stressful times. Principals can suffer work place fragging where isolating back stabbing comes thick and fast from employees around them. Leadership in these times is hard. Solution: Take a long term approach. Plan, strategize and prioritise. Point to your school’s vision. Use the appraisal process to drive change. Undertake whole staff professional development around growth mindsets and fixed mindsets. Work on a lighthouse approach where you trial in one part of the school, work out the kinks and then roll it out across the school using existing staff as coach mentors. Be the change you want to see. Stand tall. Remain resilience. Be alert. Grow where necessary. Societal Based Stressors There are stressors that come into schools that are the result of broad societal trends. These stressors require broader system and societal responses. Two examples of stression from this area include: 5. Stressor: Being seen as the ‘fix-it-station’ for society’s problems. Our society has many and varied problems that generate public debate because of genuine public concern. Media outlets pick up the issues and highlight them for everyone to see. Local and national politicians are then targeted for solutions. The government of the day then acts using the levers at its disposal which, when it comes to children, is the school system. Schools get tasked with fixing issues from childhood poverty to teen pregnancy, from early obesity to pre-criminal behaviour, from youth suicide rates to teenage unemployment. All this is added in, one at a time, out of genuine desire for a better nation. It steadily cranks up the range of problems schools are expected to solve. It is a difficult conundrum. Schools are full of caring and compassionate people who want to help. Well-meaning programmes with genuine intentions are taken up by dedicated staff on top of everything else they do. Schools are also the only places that all children attend making them the most logical place to exercise leverage. The compounding impact of this makes schools very complex places to lead and manage.

Solution: Realign community expectations. School attendance only makes up 14 per cent of a child’s year. Progressively the responsibility of parents, whānau and community has shifted into and onto the school despite the vast bulk of a child’s life – 86 per cent –residing outside of school under the control and influence of other significant adults. If there is no social partnership between home and school working on a child’s problems, then it creates an unhealthy relationship, distorted towards creating dependency upon the school and enabling corruptive behaviours to persist outside of the school, meaning the problem will continue to be the problem. Problemsolving-creep has systematized rescuing at the cost of self-responsibility. Are we brave enough to say that a school system cannot

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and should not do it all? Are our politicians brave enough to say that our schools are already doing their darndest to help? Are we brave enough to recalibrate societyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s expectations saying that schools can only do a small portion of what is required? It took a generation to get to this point so it may take us a generation to realign expectations to a more healthy two-way relationship between society and the school. This rejigging would see genuine high functioning partnership become the norm.

6. Stressor: Diverse and fragmented society. As family structures diversify, parenting patterns shift and society changes, the results of these changes arrive in a school to be managed by Principals and classroom teachers. Schools, situated at the fulcrum of society, are doing their best to understand, adapt and respond to these changes. There can be seriously sad situations, with complex needs, requiring multiple interventions, from a range of providers. The solutions are not easy nor do they come quickly, the time and stress of such cases can be considerable. Solution: Rethink staffing formulas. A solution to this problem needs to be structural and system wide. To become proactive in dealing with the diversity of need Principals need a lowering in the classroom child-teacher ratios. Children with diverse and complex needs require intense teacher time and programme oversight. As

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numbers increase in the classroom, stress compounds upon school leadership â&#x20AC;&#x201C; smaller classes enable teacher time to be invested more swiftly, equitably and appropriately at the point of need. A welcome start would be rolling out the lower junior class size ratios across the first three years. From there the senior primary ratios can be progressively lowered. This, occurring over an affordable, predictable time period, across progressive governments would make a system wide improvement and incrementally reduce stression upon school leaders.

Stression is a dark place that seldom gets acknowledged. It is a silent thief that can steal away vitality, resolve, energy and joy. It can feel overwhelming. It comes about through a range of stress areas including self-induced stressors, leadership stressors and societal stressors. Principals can get tested and stretched to breaking point. Being aware of stression is an important first step. It places the problem on the table for all to see. Shining light upon something that survives and grows in darkness, disempowers it. Collectively let us make a commitment to ensuring that Principalship is a sustainable, vitalizing, energizing, prospect for all those that aspire to educational leadership.

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MOOT POINTS 2015 Liz Hawes Editor

This theme ‘taking the lead’ had clearly enthused the regional presidents who turned up in big numbers to listen to their national president and to other professional colleagues on a number of burning issues. In the traditional spirit of the moot, these issues were all vigorously debated and ideas generated were discussed, shared and shaped for future or immediate action. The morning speakers provided plenty of scope for debate and discussion and there were no shortage of tough questions put to both Paul Gaulter, NZEI Secretary and Secretary for Education, Peter Hughes.

MC Philip Harding kept the day on track

Several years of government policies have left the profession feeling distracted, demoralised and powerless, said president, Denise Torrey, in her opening address to the 2015 NZPF moot. She argued that for too long there had been frustration upon frustration at not being able to just ‘ . . . do what we know is best for kids.’ It was time to take back the lead, she insisted, and that would begin with this 2015 moot. She went on to say that the NZPF national executive had already taken the lead with two important initiatives. These included the Māori Achievement Collaboratives (MACs) and more recently, a plan to share ideas and examples of best practice for educating children with Pacific Island backgrounds. Torrey told her appreciative audience that whilst the Ministry had developed some very useful documents at the strategic level to guide both Māori and Pacific Island education, principals and teachers needed assistance and guidance to translate the good ideas into good practice in their own schools. No agency had so far ventured into this territory so NZPF had taken the initiative to lead this work, she said. Torrey thanked the regional presidents for responding to the pre-moot survey and noted that in answer to the question, ‘What is going well in your region?’ the response was overwhelmingly collaboration! She joked that ‘ . . . we probably don’t really need a Government policy to tell us to collaborate . . . but to fund our collaboration projects – now there would be a useful policy,’ she smiled. As national president, she then challenged the regional presidents saying, ‘We want to encourage you all to take the lead in your own areas, unshackle yourselves from the burdens of inhospitable policies and refocus on what matters for kids.’

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Paul Gaulter NZEI Secretary Paul Gaulter pulled no punches in his opening statement to the moot. He said that the Government was not ‘playing around the fringes’ of the education system but was intent on making absolutely fundamental changes to the way the system works. Like the NZPF president who spoke before him, he reiterated that the sector has been feeling bruised, alienated and disaffected because changes have not been introduced in conjunction with the sector but rather in isolation from it. He used the current Education Review, which the Minister described as an exercise in ‘getting rid of red tape’, as an example. ‘This is about making serious changes to the Education Act. That’s not decluttering, that’s fundamental,’ he said. He warned his audience that this review would follow the precepts of the Global Education Reform Movement (GERM) and would create a very powerful lever in the Government’s system change agenda. It would question the vision and the very purpose of education in NZ. He encouraged every principal to engage with and make a submission on the process calling for a holistic approach to education incorporating the goals that sit within the NZ Curriculum. The second phase of the review, he said, would address issues such as models of ‘super-governance’ and operational matters such as the length of the school day and the school year. Gaulter also signalled that a funding review would be underway before long. ‘Funding,’ he said, ‘is another very powerful lever.’ He suggested that funding should be about equity but we could expect the Government to be floating ideas like performance based funding and vouchers which follow the student. It would be necessary, he suggested, to mobilise communities to support principles of equity. His main focus however was the Government’s $359 million Investing for Educational Success (IES) policy, how 93 per cent of teachers had rejected it and how the NZEI and the Ministry were working in good faith on an alternative model called the Joint Initiative.

Paul Gaulter (NZEI) and Ian Taylor (NZPF Vice President) in deep conversation

There were some common areas of agreement, Gaulter explained, including the emphasis on collaboration, transitions and career pathways for teachers [and support staff]. Where the Government’s IES model failed, he said, was first in not consulting with the sector and secondly, having a weak evidence base. Instead of presenting a model and asking the sector to make it work, the Government should have invited the sector to co-construct a model for the $359 million spend he said. He told the audience that the Joint Initiative would start with consulting the sector on how best to collaborate and deal with transitions and career pathways. Those transitions would include the Early Childhood Education (ECE) Sector. Flexible models would be the key, he said. He added that any model would need to be student-centred and about children’s learning, not just about communities of schools, teachers and principals. It would take into account children with special needs and Māori and Pacific Island children, he said. Gaulter concluded his speech with a warning to principals not to commit to the IES model until work on the Joint Initiative was completed. He encouraged all principals to contribute their own examples of best practice to the Joint Initiative development. The deadline for presenting a report on the Joint Initiative to Cabinet was set for May. Questions for Paul Gaulter Q The Joint Initiative is a ‘primary school’ level model. How will that work with the secondary sector? A Of necessity, the Joint Initiative is about transitions and that includes secondary level. We don’t know what the secondary sector will look like in the Joint Initiative or whether they can

legally come in [the PPTA has already signed off on a process to access the IES funds]. As time goes on the broader model will take over the narrower. Q I understand the problems for the primary/secondary issue with the Joint Initiative. ECE transitions will also be difficult with fragmentation and private providers. How will that be accommodated? A There is a drive to collaborate but the whole ECE sector is driven by a model of competition. You can’t force collaboration on ECE. We could end up with public money in private hands so it is difficult. We have begun the conversation with the Ministry but they have no ideas about how to progress ECE. The Joint Initiative group is engaged with the Kindergarten Association but admit this is difficult. Q In the ‘Joint Initiative’ what is the representation for the special education sector? A There are special education representatives on the ‘Joint Initiative’ team. Q What constitutes a good Education? I suspect Government and grassroots think differently. The Ministry talks about educational achievement and NZEI is talking about educational success. Are we trying to modify the Government definition through the ‘Joint Initiative’? A I agree there is no consensus around that and I think when we talk of educational success we look at the NZ Curriculum because when you put the child at the centre that’s what you are looking at. We can’t progress unless there is a common understanding and that makes it difficult for the Ministry who have to deal with what is in front of us.

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Moot organiser Julie Hepburn and MC Philip Harding exchange last minute notes before launching Moot 2015

Graham Barber, Canterbury has a quick catch up with Pat Newman, a long serving principal from Whangarei

Peter Hughes, Secretary for Education Hughes won the attention of his audience immediately, telling the gathering that the new word in the Ministry was ‘stewardship’. He insisted that under his leadership, ‘stewardship’ was at the heart of an entire culture change and that the role of the Ministry was to focus on the system of education, not leadership. The principals are the leaders, he said and the Ministry the stewards. He expressed optimism that after two years in the job he believed that the sector and Ministry were coming together more. He openly acknowledged that there was no shared vision about the direction education was taking and his ambition was to fix that. He said that educational achievement should be

one unifying goal and that within the context of curriculum discussions, it was. There were however differences, he said, including the way achievement is measured and the way targets for achievement are set. He noted that student achievement was listed as one of the Government’s ‘Better Public Service’ goals. He added that it is however important to know what it is you are trying to achieve no matter what the system. The IES and Joint Initiative were also a focus for Hughes who said they were trying to take a more sensible approach, using the big idea of collaboration over competition. He remarked that it was significant that ‘ . . . we have both sides of politics saying collaboration is the way of the future, not competition.’ He was very clear that in this new world of collaboration, it would be principals who set the goals and defined the challenges to make a difference for kids in the community. Central to observing the difference would be achievement [measures]. He contrasted how the future would look under a collaborative system and how it looks now. ‘We are set up to be a market system [where parents go out] to find the best deal. They shop around. That’s [from] the ’90s.’ He went on to say that as communities of schools start to form they are enjoying working together on collective challenges. He said people like collegiality and support and achieve more by collaborating. The two major challenges however were aligning the system to support collaboration and changing the culture of how schools operate. ‘There are neighbouring schools where principals see themselves as competitors,’ he said, ‘and I worry about that the most.’ He assured the audience that they will be able to work through the IES and the Joint Initiative. But the greatest challenge would be culture change. His next concern was career pathways. He described the pinnacle of a principal’s career as heading up a large high decile secondary school. This ambition reflected the ‘CEO’ aspects of the principal’s position rather than the ‘leader of teaching and learning’ attributes, he said. He added that some smaller rural schools created more difficult challenges than any large high decile school. His message was clearly about redefining the pinnacle of a principal’s career in terms of leading ‘teaching and learning’ rather than being a CEO. The newly established Education Council of Aotearoa New Zealand (EDUCANZ) also took his attention momentarily as he told the principals that there was no going back. The legislation

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had been passed, he said, and it was critical that the right people were appointed to the Council’s governing board because that would make a huge difference. His last words were about the parents and their influence. ‘Parental engagement is the Ministry’s mission,’ he said, ‘because the evidence says that parental engagement and expectations have a huge impact on achievement.’ He questioned whether there was more that could be done at a system level to help parents get the right information and the right resources so that they could better understand their children’s progress. ‘When we put information out to parents, they hoover it up,’ he said excitedly. One thing the Ministry was looking at were ‘apps’ for parents through which they could help their kids. To sharpen his point about where the real influence lies, he left the audience to ponder a few statistics. ‘There are 2,500 principals, 100,000 people working in schools, 750,000 kids and 2 million parents . . . ’ He then returned to his main messages. ‘You are the sector leaders not us . . . We focus on the system . . . We don’t focus at the programme level any more . . . We are talking about a ‘change group’ which would comprise the heads of all peak bodies, to help with the ‘culture change’ [3–5 years] which is about one third of the way down the track now . . . The sector is moving from scepticism to optimism, coming together and working together better. He thanked the principals for being open to change which made a difference, and for their commitment to children and young people. ‘You’re a great bunch of people!’ he concluded. Questions for Peter Hughes Q I am interested in the peak body to lead change. What [would be] the work of that body? A It is to schedule change better. At the beginning of the IES [process] we spent time on change. I envisage four times a year we would get the heads of the unions and the peak bodies together in a session which I would chair. It would be for leadership and management of change in the sector Q How do we resolve the elephant in the room which is that we are state sector employees [so have the right to] and can object to [Government] policies? EDUCANZ shuts us up. A I am the public servant in the room! You are the ones with more freedom as state servants and can say what you want because you are not constrained by a code of conduct as I am Q Can you elaborate on what is happening in special education? A We have a system of special education that is locked up. We have silos and those trying to access help navigate across silos. Parents waste time getting their child categorised to get resources. We want a system that starts with the child and looks at their needs. [We want] a menu and package for that child. I won’t call it a review because that’s a loaded word. There will be bite sized bits. [It won’t be] as big as Ben Hur or nothing will happen. Q Where does the Minister sit on competition vs collaboration? A We have a centre right Government. At the top end of cabinet is a range of views. IES is Government approved and it was discussed at the highest policy level. They’ve signed off the version that came out of

Cabinet. When I signed off on the Joint Initiative the Minister supported that, no problem. The Government might think competition is good in some ways, but collaboration needs to be the engine in education. Is it all going to change when the Government changes? I think not . . . it gives us stability and clarity of direction. Q With [your] systems approach, will there be more support for principals before they fall? A I need to better understand what support is needed. If we need to put more support in we will do that. STA [also] has responsibilities in this area. Taking the Lead in Special Education James Le Marquand, Te Atatu Unequivocally the most impassioned speaker of the day, James Le Marquand left the audience in no doubt that support and resource allocation for special education in New Zealand is not in good shape. The principal of Arohanui School and Specialist Outreach Service in West Auckland, Le Marquand opened with a potted history of the Arohanui School. He explained its evolution from a school for special needs students, operating in a joint arrangement with the Ministry and the IHC in the ’60s and ’70s through to the ‘deinstitutionalisation policies’ of the ’80s and becoming a four class school with special satellites and classrooms in the mainstream. He outlined how the role of Arohanui teachers had changed from teaching classes within the school to also providing expert advice to mainstream teachers and teacher aides. Mainstream settings, he explained, were now the location of most special needs children. ‘We are about creating communities around the child’, he said, ‘and following the students on their life journey.’ This might include involvement with Special Olympics, for example and taking careful note of transitions. ‘One of our key initiatives was to set up a transition outreach programme for 18 – 21 year olds,’ continued pg16

NZPF President Denise Torrey delivers her speech to the Moot

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he said, ‘ and work is progressing with high school providers on transitions post-school.’ Le Marquand also talked about the challenges they faced every day saying that ‘the politics of inclusion are a civil war issue!’ ‘It [inclusion] is a flawed concept,’ he declared which simply doesn’t work.’ He went on to explain that the expectations of the disabilities sector, the Ministry and schools simply don’t line up. ‘Three per cent of our students have high needs,’ he said, ‘and one per cent is funded by the ‘Ongoing Resourcing Scheme [ORS]. Who is being served and how are they being served?’ he asked. He noted some of the new challenges facing the sector under the ‘inclusion’ policy saying that every school is now a special school and demands for new expertise are increasing all the time.

His message was essentially not to bother with prescribed options because there were no single answers to the PLD needs of any given staff of teachers. Rather, he said, PLD should be an organic process, emanating from the people involved. He urged his audience to ask some pertinent questions before embarking on any PLD programme. These include first asking what our purpose is and what vision we have developed to fulfil our purpose. For inspiration he suggested principals might look to Clarence Beeby who set a vision for education in the 1930s that ‘every person regardless of background or ability had a right to an education of a type for which they were best suited.’ This vision endured for many years and continues to underpin the educational drive of many principals today. He also suggested

James Le Marquand led the discussion on the state of Special Education in NZ

Mike Anderson dispelled some myths about PLD

‘We have ‘P’ babies, autism, premature babies, mental health problems and of course special needs,’ he said. We have to start doing things differently, to lead politically and to fight for the necessary resources. He suggested that perhaps the Resource Teachers of Learning Behaviour (RTLB) could be differently deployed and more collaboration and congruence was needed if we were going to achieve ‘success for all’, an aspiration of both the Ministry and the sector. Whilst Le Marquand views the notion of ‘inclusiveness’ as completely misguided, he acknowledges that out of the debates has come a focus on the purpose of special schools like his. ‘We have become the hothouses of pedagogical development,’ he said, ‘and compared to what is happening overseas, we are second to none.’ Despite his infectious optimism, it is clear that being a political football is not Le Marquand’s preference. The continuum of special education is currently a downward spiral, he said. ‘Whilst New Zealand is the most inclusive country in the world, the resources haven’t come in behind to acknowledge that.’

principals might also draw inspiration from educational greats such as Sylvia Ashton Warner who was famously quoted as saying ‘You must be true to yourself. Strong enough to be true to yourself. Brave enough to be strong enough to be true to yourself. Wise enough to be brave enough to be strong enough to shape yourself from what you actually are.’ Anderson suggested that the best vision statements came from heads and hearts and conversations. They came from ideas, and were not born of statistics. He insisted that education is not a technical activity but an artistic one involving setting people free and urged his audience to be educationally wise, not to focus on ‘how to’ but to believe in the theatre of ‘light and sound’ because education was a musical journey to live, to love and to enjoy. Just as children must be part of the experience for learning to occur, so also do adults. In other words professional development cannot happen by transfer because the person must be part of the experience or it won’t work. He referred his audience to the Dreyfus Model as a useful tool to plan PLD. The Dreyfus model explains how skilful knowhow is progressively acquired by passing through developmental stages. These include moving from novice (rule bound behaviour) to competent to expert stage (ability to read context). The model explains that people will apply any new expertise to the developmental level they are at. That said the approach adults need is very different from children. He drew a distinction between pedagogy (children’s learning) and androgogy (adult learning) suggesting that the former is more instructionally bound while the latter is self-directed. Thus, the traditional practices of teacher observation, feedback

Taking the Lead in Professional Learning Development (PLD) and Appraisal Mike Anderson, Christchurch Mike Anderson brought a series of warnings to his audience about ‘PLD peddlers’ dragging their wheelie bags around the schools and so called ‘experts’ presenting at conferences. ‘It’s nonsense to listen to people at a conference who do something different. It’s boring. You need to bring light and sound and be educationally wise. It’s also a truckload of fun,’ he said.

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Taking the Lead in Collaborative Clusters Kaylene McNee, Upper Hutt In describing the 2003 beginnings and composition of her

quickly on political issues such as the IES. There are however challenges, McNee told the audience, and these include funding release time for teachers, coping with school mergers, national standards, finding common ground and not having sufficient free time to pursue collaborative activities. McNee is confident that the organic nature of the cluster of schools will sustain it into the future. The cluster was formed because it was needed. It is responsive to local needs, adaptive and has involvement from all levels of the school sector. Leadership is shared and an effective system of communication has developed over time. ‘We all visit each other’s schools annually and geographically we are in close proximity,’ she said. The immediate plans for the future include setting strategic

Stephen Lethbridge enthused on e-learning and modern technologies

Stephen Lethbridge introduces his audience to ‘Scratch’ and ‘MakeyMakey’ programmes

Upper Hutt School cluster, Kayleen McNee portrayed a perfect example of the organic nature of effective collaboration. ‘When our local secondary school’s NCEA performance declined,’ she said, ‘that was the catalyst for principals across all levels of Upper Hutt schools to analyse and share their literacy data to try and identify just where things were going wrong.’ The schools began collaborating and decided to set some targets for themselves around literacy PLD. Once established, the cluster grew and by 2009 comprised 19 schools from decile 3 to 10 including urban and rural schools, contributing, intermediate, integrated and both state and state integrated secondary schools. These schools were now setting new targets in ICT, Māori Achievement, innovative practice and special needs education. Out of collaboration evolved other practices such as all of the principals meeting once a term; the office teams meeting once a term; and Board meetings being held across the schools once a term. In addition the assistant principals and deputies meet from time to time as they see fit. In the course of the cluster’s evolution other informal and formal systems have developed. Curriculum leaders across the schools now meet to question their data and collectively seek interpretation to inform their future planning. A relational trust has built up amongst the participants who are now constructing a shared interest in Hutt Valley students beyond the confines of their own school boundaries. ‘This is one of the great strengths of working collaboratively. Competition between schools diminishes and opportunities for sharing practice increase,’ said McNee. Relationships have strengthened and both principals and Board chairs can unite

and annual goals and sharing some professional reading. Each participant will be examining areas of principalship they wish to develop and these will become future challenges for learning. ‘It’s about continuous improvement and learning across our school region,’ said McNee. The audience was left feeling as confident as McNee herself, that the collaboration would continue well into the future. They were also in no doubt that the shape of the cluster would continue to evolve as you would expect in an organic system.

and technical checklists should be consigned to the archives in Anderson’s view. ‘It’s nonsense,’ he said. ‘You behave differently when someone is watching and observing and giving teacher feedback is presumptuous,’ he said. Only self-directed learning should prevail according to Anderson. On principal appraisal, Anderson referred his audience to the commercial entity ‘Inter-lead’ for the best appraisal programmes and recommended that if they haven’t already, that they should all read: ‘The beautiful risk of Education’ by Gert Biesta

Taking the Lead in E-Learning Stephen Lethbridge, Henderson, Auckland A leading enthusiast for embracing new technologies, Stephen Lethbridge opened his address with a brief history of how teachers have moved from the blackboard, to the roller blackboard, to the overhead projector to the calculator, the laptop, the iPhone and iPad. We have robotics, scratch, coding and 3-D printing. Today, he said, many schools have their own ‘Bring Your Own Devices’ (BYOD) policies. ‘Digital is in residence,’ he announced. ‘Throughout all the changes we have witnessed rejecting and embracing of technology,’ he said. There is no denying however that Lethbridge was here to tell us that the context of the world is now digital and we cannot afford to reject it. He refused to accept that age is a barrier to adapting to the new technologies saying, ‘Age is not a barrier [but] mind-set is’. He explained that people have their own mental models which can either support or oppose technology. He also acknowledged that you cannot make anyone do what they don’t want to do. His solution to bringing people on board with technology lies in changing your thinking about it and being strategic. For

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This helps shift the culture within your school, said Lethbridge. Māori Achievement Collaboratives (MACs), Te Ara Hou – The new pathway Ros McQuillan-Mains, Canterbury Māori Achievement Collaboratives (MACs) grew from discussions within the NZPF national executive. The discussions led to the executive wanting to understand and experience more about a Māori world view, how Māori think, feel and achieve as Māori. Led by Peter Witana, Kiri Milne-Ihimaera and Whetu Cormick, the executive travelled north to spend a weekend immersed in Tikanga Māori on Te Tii Waitangi marae. It was a transforming experience which led to further discussions about how all principals, especially Pakeha principals in mainstream Ros McQuillan-Mains introduces the MACs to the participants schools, might access greater understanding about example, the ‘e’ in e-learning does not have to mean ‘electronic’. Tikanga Māori in their own areas, build stronger relationships with iwi and better appreciate children’s learning through a It can mean ‘effective’. Lethbridge acknowledged that there are mixed views about the Māori world view. This led to the birth of a new professional virtues of technology. He did not however mention the views development programme, by principals, for principals called Te of Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple, who sent his own children to Ara Hou, the new pathway. We are constantly reminded that New Zealand’s future is Waldorf (Rudolph Steiner) schools so that they would have plenty of hands on practical learning experiences and no exposure to linked with Māori achievement and Māori success is a major even a television screen, never mind a computer screen, before Government target. That being the case the importance of their teenage years. Jobs believed that technology was not good being comfortable walking in both Pakeha and Māori worlds is for children’s thinking and creativity development and did not essential. Higher levels of cultural literacy and the new skills to want his children to become addicted to games like ‘Candy acquire that therefore need to be a national priority. The vision for the MACs is to create ‘A collaboration between Crush’. However, Lethbridge said that if you do want your school those knowledgeable and successful in improving pathways and community to embrace technology, they need to be involved in outcomes for Māori and those who want to, but need support’. They setting the vision in the first place. Once the vision is set it’s a are about creating education that fits Māori learners, promotes matter of changing patterns of behaviour which takes time. He self-learning and builds strong relationships, cultural identity warned that compromise may be necessary, such as reducing the and whānau engagement. Central to the success of MACs is the number of meetings for staff to free up time to let them ‘play’ notion of ‘changing hearts and minds’ through whānaungatanga. In partnership with Te Akatea, the Māori Principals’ with technology and build their confidence in using it. ‘My job is holding peoples’ feet to the fire of the vision they Association, NZPF approached the Ministry and the Minister and gained approval and resourcing for the MACs which are have constructed,’ he said ‘and encouraging creative tension.’ Lethbridge emphasised the importance of standing back clusters of principals led by a facilitator who is knowledgeable and allowing others to shine as you go through the process of in Tikanga Māori. The clusters are self-selected, organic change. Collaboration and empowerment are two very powerful groupings. A national coordinator and six regional facilitators learning influences and in Lethbridge’s view, you find both in were appointed and MACs took their first collaborative breath. MACs facilitators walk with and beside participants. They modern technology. With open source learning materials and creative commons, teachers can freely access excellent resources visit individual schools, help develop strategic and action plans, and legally share ideas, approaches and activities in a truly facilitate full day cluster workshops at each of the participants’ schools, provide professional development for staff and collaborative way. Most importantly of all, Lethbridge sees modern technology contribute to an annual Hui/conference to bring all participants as the perfect context for empowering children. ‘Technology across the country together. The MACs are based on relationship building and a common can be used in every-day learning for kids to make stuff,’ he said, reminding his audience of how important it is for kids to purpose, sharing resources and supporting each other. They learn through ‘doing’. ‘Kids can build their own computer,’ he have been operating now for the past twelve months and have said excitedly, ‘and even better if you take the instructions away been independently evaluated by a group of researchers from the Auckland University of Technology (AUT). They have you’ll be amazed to see what happens!’ He also advocated forming technology clubs outside of school shown they are hugely successful in transforming the thinking of hours. To join, each child brings an adult. In this way, you get principals who are now in a much stronger position to respond to technophobic Mums and Dads quickly involved in designing the learning needs of their Māori students. There is now verifiable and making things through programmes like ‘MakeyMakey’. evidence that the MACs professional development programme Teachers can also join the club if they wish. Over time the is having a positive impact on Māori student achievement. influence of the club grows and more and more want to join.

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How do I write a winning grant application? Jenny Barrett

The Writing Room Ltd

Want to do something that would benefit your children but can’t find the money? A school can achieve great things through successful grant applications. Although perceived as time-consuming there is a lot of support out there to help you. We talk to Wairakei Primary School, recipient of many grants largely due to one talented teacher aide. We also speak to a funder and get their take on what makes a winning grant application. What projects? Paula Farquhar, Principal of Wairakei Primar y School believes that understanding the purpose of your application is the key, ‘Identify the school and community needs first and then look for the appropriate funding body, not vice versa.’ To facilitate this Wairakei includes their fund raising strategy in their Annual Plan, asking teachers to provide wishlists. This enables the school to identify what type of funding they require. Is it capital or operational? Would it be classed as a community project, an environmental project, a literacy or numeracy programme or sports-related? Will it improve learning achievement for a minority group? The school can then focus their search for an appropriate funding body. More importantly, it also means that from the outset there is a genuine intention to use the gift for a valued project that will be resourced and supported by the school. Supporting documentation will not need to be ‘created’ solely for an application

but will be a part of the school’s annual planning. Resourcing the application process Terri Eggleton, Community Development Advisor at Bay Trust stresses that grant applications should be taken seriously: ‘They are gifts from charities who want to make a difference and have their own reporting responsibilities. For every grant that you receive, other organisations have by necessity been declined. Thus both the application and reporting processes have to be thorough.’ As a result they do take work to administer, particularly the first time that you apply and need to collate all the information required. Wairakei Primary school are lucky to have on staff a wonderful teacher aide. ‘Diana Fitzsimmons has been with the school for 15 years and knows the community and understands the needs of the children inside out,’ explains Paula. ‘She has an hour and a half a week out of the classroom for fund raising work but that can increase depending on need.’ Diana had no prior knowledge about fund raising and freely admits that she ‘had no idea what she was doing for her first grant application’ which was handed to her at lunchtime to be in the post by the end of the day! However she is now ‘a well-oiled machine’ and her successes have included $445,000 from the Lotteries Commission to relocate the community hall onto the school site and refurbish it, $20,000 from the Lions Foundation for the hall

furniture, $7,000 from Bay Community Trust for sound and lighting, $10,000 from the Treemendous School Makeovers to restore a gully and most recently a number of grants to support the conversion of the old swimming pool into an aquaponics organic food garden. A highlight of the latter project for Diana was supporting the students to submit and win a $5000 grant from the O-I Environmental Fund who now use the students’ application as an exemplar on their website. Sources of funding Once you have decided on the project and have designated personnel (or added it to your own to-do list!), the next task is to identify a funding body that has objectives that align with your own strategy. Many funders have clear goals which are updated annually. Some may not support education per se but will fund a project that would benefit the community as in the case of Lottery funding for the relocation of the Wairakei Community Hall. There is an online database of funders www.fundview.org.nz. It is a fee based service but you can access it for free at libraries or via a library’s online portal. Paula also keeps a close eye on flyers and emails. Terri from Bay Trust says, ‘Read the funder’s website, check their priorities and call them if you have any doubts about your eligibility. Many organisations have someone at the end of the phone who will support you through the whole process.

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Larger organisations such as the Lotteries Commission have staff on the ground who can meet with you face to face.’ Some even hold free workshops. The Process Diana recommends creating a Fund Raising folder. Gradually collate all the kinds of information that is required such as: school contact information; ‘Vital statistics’ – staff numbers, student numbers, decile number, volunteer numbers, banking details, GST number, legal status and proof of any affiliation

(e.g. a PTA may be registered with the Charities Commission or Incorporated for tax purposes); audited financial statements; a copy of the Principal’s Report; a copy of the minutes of the last Board of Trustees meeting and a document that summarises the aims and objectives of your organisation – a summary of your strategic plan would suffice. Once this information is ready to hand for every funding application, you can simply focus on the what, who and how of the project. Even if you are asking for funding for sports kits or IT equipment, by framing the purchase as a project you should be able to pull together a project title, a project summary including the need for the expenditure, project goals, benefactors and how the impact of the project will be measured. Many funders ask for excerpts from a relevant strategy document if applying for ICT or curriculum-focused funding. For larger projects they may request feasibility studies or evidence that background research has been conducted. Some

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funders may request detailed project plans but they will usually provide a template and support for this. Accompanying this you will need: ■■

■■ ■■

Evidence that the organisation has made the decision to apply for funding such as a minuted resolution from of a Board of Trustees meeting. Project costs and breakdown. Two or three competitive quotes or a letter of explanation as to why there is only one quote. For example there is only one manufacturer in New Zealand.

Diana keeps copies of all her grant applications in her folder, allowing generic information to be quickly copied and pasted. This also ensures that the school does not apply to the same organisation too often. After a grant has been awarded the school always completes the required reporting and provides a written letter of thanks and photos of the outcomes. Making it a winning application Keep in the back of your mind that a regional trust such as the Bay Trust would expect to receive a few hundred applications a year. The Lotteries Commission will receive thousands. Terri highlights three key components of a winning application: clarity (‘Don’t write a novel’), completeness (‘Don’t forget to attach a required document’) and timeliness (‘Try submitting your application at least a week or two in advance of the cut-off date to give the funding body an opportunity to contact you to clear up any issues.’) Terri also recommends avoiding

repeated references to attachments meaning that the reader has to plough through long documents to find relevant information. Plus as funding bodies move to online forms the attachments may not be forwarded to the reader at all: ‘All the critical information needs to be included in the form itself.’ It is a fine balancing act between not overloading the reader but at the same time making them very aware of the needs of your school and community, as the reader may be neither local nor an expert on education. Paula and Diana agree absolutely with Terri, adding only that many funders like to see details of other income sources contributing to the project. This could include other grants, fund-raising events planned, working bees or resources that are being donated. Expand on other equipment that you have already purchased or intend to purchase to support the project, thereby showing your financial commitment to the project. Detailing who on staff or what external expertise will be involved and what they will bring to the project also demonstrates commitment. The charitable trusts want to award funds to deserving causes and most will do everything that they can to help you reach your goal. In the words of Diana writing a successful grant application simply requires ‘getting across an understanding of how the project will benefit the community and the kids.’ With thanks to Wairakei Primary School and Bay Trust for their input. Author Jenny Barrett runs The Writing Room Ltd providing organisations and businesses with freelance writing services including managing, writing or proofing grant applications. Visit www.thewritingroom.nz for more information, like thewritingroomnz on Facebook or follow @WritingRoomNZ on Twitter

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NZ Leads the World in Goal P Eileen Piggot-Irvine Formerly Director NZ Principal and Leadership Centre Currently Professor of Leadership in Canada but from August on half in Canada: half NZ

I have quoted in my recent book (Piggot-Irvine, 2015) that despite the strong rationale for goal pursuit in schools provided by many authors, Conzemius and O’Neill (2006) remind us that goal setting has yet to become real and compelling in schools at either a personal or organisational level. I believe this may be true for many countries but increasingly it is not accurate for many NZ schools. I will be bold and suggest that I think we lead the world in goal pursuit. Not that I am a biased and fiercely patriotic kiwi . . . well, maybe a little given that I have always been enthusiastic, some might say ‘doggedly determined’, about moving principals and schools towards clarity of direction when pursuing goals in strategic planning, team planning and personal performance appraisal. During the last three years, whilst having a blast heading up one of the largest leadership development masters programmes in North America in a university that has a castle for an administration building, I have never lost my interest in goal pursuit! You can see the castle in the background on my first snowy day in Canada. In my time away I have been lucky enough to peek into what is happening in several other countries with performance appraisal, as well as goal pursuit. About a year ago I felt the strong need to profile how well NZ schools are practising goal pursuit. The result is a new book entitled ‘Goal pursuit in education using focused action research’. A key element in the book is a case study of a real NZ school (School A) to illustrate practical application of a raft of recent research and theory. During my two years working with School A, the Board, principal, other leaders, teachers and students were all part of a ‘meta-level’ goal focused on how to implement deep goal pursuit. Although this book is written in response to, and details, escalating international research (e.g. Locke & Latham’s 2013 work) showing the importance of alignment and focus of goals, I am painfully aware that not everyone, including myself, finds it easy to focus on goals through to full pursuit. The pain is reflected in the title of the first chapter of the book i.e. ‘Introduction to how a reluctant goal pursuer became converted’. The pain has led me to create a simple approach to goal pursuit fitting my own inclinations favouring the three principles of depth of development, lift (stretch and challenge) in performance, and an authentic collaborative underpinning to the action research (inquiry learning) approach to improvement. How the principles align strongly with evidence from neuroscience has also been relevant to my approach.

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In this article, I don’t have space to outline all of the theory and tools covered in the book associated with the three principles. However, I do want to briefly introduce a link I have made between these three principles and current thinking from the field of neuroleadership which interprets for leaders the neuroscience research about brain response in goal pursuit. As a former biologist, lately I have become fascinated with what we are learning about the brain’s response to stimuli. We know, largely from MRI scanning, that the prefrontal cortex (PFC) region (see Figure 1) of the brain is stimulated in goal pursuit. Ochnser et al (2002) suggest that ‘prefrontal regions enable one to selectively attend to and maintain goal-relevant information in mind and resist interference’ (p.1215).

Figure 1: Location of Prefrontal Regions of Brain As I suggest in the book, like several others (Louie & Glimcher, 2012; Miller, 2008) I have a slightly cautious, ‘amber-light’ view of the way the neuroleadership field is interpreting the results of neuroscience research. However, I could not resist including some of this material, because even though we know relatively little about how the brain works, many of the ideas drawn by the neuroleadership proponents (such as Rock, 2008; Street, 2011) fit very well with my own experience of goal pursuit. In a recent workshop in Timaru I introduced school leaders to my own adaptation of two neuroleadership models – SCARF (Street, 2011) and AIM (Berkman & Rock, 2012) – that indicate elements enhancing conditions for focus and success in goal pursuit. My interpretation of these elements is summarised on the left side of Table 1 and you will notice that there are some overlaps between elements. On the right side of the table I have outlined the way that School A implemented strategies matching the elements in the two models.

ursuit in Schools!

Table 1: Neuroleadership Models and School A Strategy Match Neuroleadership Element

Strategy Match in Goal Pursuit for All Students, Teachers and Leaders in School A

SCARF Status (goals should create learning and improvement; positive feedback given)

Learning, development, focus in all goals. Public display of student goals. Continual discussion of progress with student-parents, teachers-leaders.

Certainty (clear planning; incremental steps)

Goal setting and achievement itself was a demonstration of certainty. Goal pursuit model had clear planning, action and outcome steps in distinct phases in the Focused Action Research model.

Autonomy (goal pursuer in the driver seat; ownership, not imposition of goals)

Establishing the plan and phases for goal pursuit was controlled primarily by the person who set the goal whether student, teacher or leader.

Relatedness (collaborative, supportive, sharing ethos; lowering of defensiveness and enhancing dialogue)

Approach for authentic collaboration and lowered defensiveness modelled by Principal A and then mirrored in leader, teacher, parent/caregiver and student interactions.

Fairness (increasing transparency, openness; clarity around expectations of achievement)

Both ‘Relatedness’ and ‘Fairness’ were evidenced in non-defensive, transparent, and open interactions as well as clarity in deep planning.

AIM Antecedents (create stickiness, motivation, enhance social context)

Goals were visible – student goals were hanging up in all classrooms and therefore tangible, memorable. Gain-framed goals were set for all goal pursuers. Students, caregivers, teachers, team leaders and Principal A all engaged collaboratively in dialogue about goals.

Integration (knowing and articulating ‘why’ you are setting a goal and ‘how’ you will achieve it. Including implementation intentions and knowledge of obstacles and ways to overcome those, is essential.

‘Why’ and ‘how’ elements were made evident in deep plans for goals. Clear actions and outcomes were shown in plans. Honesty about obstacles and intentions was encouraged in dialogue sessions. Data/evidence on progress was collected to indicate areas for further improvement.

Managing Rewards and Anticipation (create goal habit formation. The brain loves to anticipate and ‘predict’ receiving rewards. Habits are formed through small victories and resulting rewards) (Elements adapted from Berkman & Rock, 2012; Street, 2010).

Occurred with the action and outcome steps in deep action plans making achievement visible, the sharing of success continuously encouraged during varied dialogue settings, the rewards made explicit in the evaluation phase of the goal pursuit model; and the goal pursuit model implemented in an aligned way throughout the school.

School A is only one of many schools in NZ implementing goal pursuit that creates depth in improvement, lift in performance and doing this in an authentically collaborative way. Such schools have made goal pursuit real and compelling at a personal and organisational level!

References Berkman, E. & Rock, D. (2012). Focus your AIM: A social cognitive neuroscience model for goal pursuit. 2012 Neuroleadership Summit Highlights. http://blog.neuroleadership. org/2012_11_01_archive.html Conzemius, A., & O’Neill, J. (2006). Building shared responsibility for student learning. Alexandria: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Louie, K., & Glimcher, P.W. (2012). Efficient coding and the neural representation of value. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1251, 13–32. Issue: The Year in Cognitive Neuroscience. doi: 10.1111/j.1749–6632.2012.06496.x Miller, G. (2008). Growing pains for fMRI. SCIENCE, 320, 1412–1414. www.sciencemag.org Ochsner, K.N., Bunge, S.A., Gross, J.J., & Gabrieli, J.D.E. (2002). Rethinking feelings: An fMRI Study of the cognitive regulation of emotion. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 14(8), 1215–1229. Piggot-Irvine, E. (2015). Goal pursuit in education using focused action research. New York: Palgrave McMillan. ISBN 9781137505125 Rock, D. (2008). SCARF: a brain-based model for collaborating with and influencing others. NeuroLeadership Journal, 1, 44–52. Street, C. (2010). Application of neuroscience in executive team coaching: The WSR Case. NeuroLeadership Journal, 3, 64–77.

Locke, E.A., & Latham, G.P. (2013). New developments in goal setting and task performance. New York: Routledge.

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Schooled For Success Liz Hawes Editor

When you think of Stewart Island and schools, you instinctively think of seas swimming in blue cod and salmon. In fact about fifty different species of fish, crustaceans and molluscs inhabit the Island’s waters including the highly rated crayfish, and the spectacularly famous Foveaux Strait oyster, arguably the most flavoursome shellfish in the world. The Island at last count had a population of 390, so the fish are winning by a long shot, especially if you are a crayfish. Quota for crayfish has doubled in recent years due to phenomenal population growth. Not so for the Stewart Island humans. Inland from the schools of fish, Stewart Island is home to another kind of school educating 24 eager young learners. The local Halfmoon Bay (HMB) School has not overlooked the powerful influence fishing and the sea has on the Island’s children

and has incorporated the language and imagery of the industry into its school logo. ‘Schooled for Success’ is the bold ambitious vision, and the title adopted for this story. The school, its values, expectations and aspirations reflect those of the Island’s people. It’s a close knit community, to the extent that locals’ birthdays are publicly celebrated on the blackboard outside the Island’s Four Square supermarket! Split from the mainland Stewart Island is situated in an environment so pristine it’s almost surreal. Whether standing on the wharf or frolicking in any one of the impossibly scenic bays, you can see through the layers of unblemished waters to observe every level of sea life right to the bottom. Bordering its shorelines are 1570 square kilometres of unspoiled bush-clad hills and valleys, 85 per cent of which form the Rakiura National Park. The

The seniors manage their own quiz time, flashing the questions up on a screen for all to read

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Kath Johnson Principal Halfmoon Bay School, Stewart Island

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Playtime

The ‘A-Z’ of Stewart Island

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National Park creates employment for a significant number of the Island’s inhabitants through the Department of Conservation. Their work includes maintaining Ulva Island as a ‘pest-free’ open sanctuary, where threatened bird species flourish in the un-milled, perfectly preserved environment. Other Islanders work either in the commercial fishing industry, aquaculture or in the tourism industry. A small number are employed in local services. It is not surprising then that the natural environment dominates the Islanders’ lives. The school’s artwork displays demonstrate the strength of relationship between this natural world and the children’s thinking. The ‘A–Z’ of Stewart Island, which the children created begins with ‘Ackers Point’, sight of the Island’s lighthouse and is followed by ‘Blue Cod’, ‘Crayfish’, ‘Dolphin’, ‘Eels’, ‘Fishing’, ‘Great White shark’, ‘Hunting’ the ‘Inlet’, ‘Jellyfish’ and the ‘Kakapo’. You quickly get the picture. Nature is just ‘so natural’ here on Stewart Island. The environmental influence manifests itself well beyond the art curriculum. It spills over into the children’s literature preferences too. Prominent in the school’s library display are books such as ‘The Lighthouse Keeper's Lunch’, ‘Whales and Dolphins’ and ‘Marine Science’. Nature also provides the inspiration for senior children creating their own alliteration poems with titles like: ‘The howling hazardous Horseshoe hurricane’ and ‘The stormy, squally Stewart Island Strait’. Kath Johnson is the HMB school’s principal and teacher of the senior school. Strong, direct and utterly dedicated to seeing Stewart Island children succeed, she is highly respected by all the locals who give her their full support. They are delighted with the way she has progressed the school and ever so proud of the

All wired up for the Virtual Learning Network class

academic, artistic and sporting achievements of the children. ‘We know that relatively speaking we are very isolated here on Stewart Island,’ says Kath, ‘but we don’t dwell on that. We think about how lucky we are to have so much else that mainland kids don’t have,’ she says. Top of that list of advantages is the enormous sense of freedom that all of the Islanders enjoy. ‘Our kids can play in the bush alone at the weekends and parents know they won’t come to any harm,’ she says. ‘There’s always someone looking out for them whether they are kayaking, diving, swimming or bush walking, so they are quite safe.’ With this freedom to openly explore, the children develop high levels of self-confidence, resilience and common sense.

They become good at overcoming obstacles because they have plenty of outdoor opportunities to test and develop their problem solving skills. These attributes in turn have an effect on the way they approach their school learning. The senior school day at HMB opens with a general knowledge quiz. The questions include local news, sports news, world news, current affairs and trivia. The children administer the quiz themselves and mark each other’s answers. They are a self-reliant bunch unafraid to take charge of their own learning and quite capable of taking on the responsibility of managing each other. That allows Ms J, as the children affectionately call their principal, to take a lesson with another group. The children love school and consider themselves lucky to

The local Fish n chip shop where you get battered blue cod fillets with your chips

The Island’s wharf awaits the next ferry

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George not only wins triathlons, here he is at work on his MacBook

Creating an alliteration poem to share with peers via the Virtual Learning Network was such fun

have so many opportunities to go places and do things like caving and rock climbing and taking trips to Wellington to visit parliament, the Police College, Weta workshop, the zoo and to join the Hurricanes in a gym session and watch them play at the Westpac Stadium from a corporate box! They also recognise that ‘small is good’ when it comes to learning because they all get so much individual time with their teacher. Honesty, openness and community spirit runs rampant amongst Stewart Islanders. Although some would suggest they are locked into a bygone era that would be mistaken thinking.

The children at HMB school are better prepared than most to adapt to a changing world because modern technology is central to much of their schooling. As Marley Wright wrote in his Flyer, introducing himself to his new secondary school last year, ‘At Halfmoon Bay everyone between year five and eight have their own Apple MacBook that we use every day for work.’ Marley well knows how technology can be cleverly used for many learning purposes. A music lover, guitarist and competent singer, Marley won the ‘Best Vocalist Award’ in Otago BandQuest

Enjoying the cricket at lunch time with Ms J supervising

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Kath Johnson takes a class whilst the seniors do the quiz

in 2014. BandQuest is a nation-wide competition between primary and intermediate schools and has an entirely on-line section which the ‘Rakiura Rockers’ of HMB entered. Their band won the national on-line competition from 22 entries. The children had only four face-to-face music lessons during the year because their music teacher is located in Kaikoura. The rest of their musical instructions came via Skype. It’s an extraordinary story but a typical example of how HMB school works creatively to provide opportunities for the kids to succeed in as broad a curriculum as possible. Technology also connects the Stewart Island children to other classes, such as poetry and foreign languages. The day I visit HMB, the children are learning about alliteration poems through

the Virtual Learning Network Primary School. The teacher from Makuri School in Pahiatua is leading the class comprising children from seven schools. It is exciting to listen to the HMB children read their poems and then watch on screen as children from areas as far flung as Marco, Whataroa, Ohura, Makuri, Putorino and Kaitoke (Great Barrier) show their appreciation by spontaneously clapping their ‘video classmates’. Even more exciting is listening to the feedback offered by the children who bring a diversity of viewpoints. It is a rich learning experience at so many levels. ‘We are all little isolated schools and [as teaching principals] we take turns at leading this class,’ says Kath. ‘The kids just love the opportunity to interact with kids from the other schools. It

Polynesian inspired artworks

When the children are ready to leave HMB and go to secondary school on the mainland, they prepare an information leaflet about themselves for their future teachers

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The Four Square supermarket celebrates the locals’ birthdays on their blackboard

The South Sea Hotel in Halfmoon Bay

benefits everyone,’ she said. With only 12 children in the entire senior school, one would think that sports competitions would be impossible. Not so for the enterprising Stewart Islanders. ‘We enter all the Southland competitions we can,’ says Kath, ‘because we don’t want our kids missing out. It’s a huge help that the Foveaux Strait Ferry lets all our kids travel for free.’ This is just another example of the way business on Stewart Island supports the school and the children’s endeavours. The local South Seas Hotel is another generous sponsor of the school and often donates the proceeds of their weekly trivial pursuits quiz night, along with all the spare cash dropped on the floor! ‘You’d be surprised how much money ends up on the pub floor by the end of the night,’ laughs Kath.

Business efforts are well rewarded. Last year, HMB children excelled taking top three placings in many sporting events including the Southland primary schools athletic and Southern Zone swimming sports, and the Southern Zone Cross Country. ‘When you think that our kids are competing against six other schools that have a total of 600 students our kids do pretty well,’ said Kath proudly. ‘Last year, every year five – eight student from HMB school had success, at least to Southland level, in at least one area,’ she said. The successes of HMB kids are not just limited to sport and music. They extend to the Social Studies Fair in which HMB school cleaned up both the digital and heritage sections; the Southland Science Fair where for the fourth year in a row they won the Soroptimists’ Award for Junior Female Scientist, silver

The boys get some extra close attention from Ms J

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Halfmoon Bay School from the playground

awards for excellence and the award for excellent use of statistics in a science project. Results were similarly spectacular for the speech competitions where again the HMB kids shone with two first placings and a second and finally it was a HMB school sweep of the Southland Media Mash year seven and eight IT awards in graphic design section. The day I visit the school year eight student George Conner was given a hero’s welcome down on the wharf when he stepped off the ferry with the gold medal for the Southland triathlon. ‘We are so proud of George,’ said Kath, who rushed down to the ferry to meet and congratulate him on his fantastic achievement. She wasn’t alone. The local South Seas Hotel bar was abuzz with the latest news and delighted that George paid a quick visit before heading home for dinner . . . possibly fish and chips from the local ‘Kai Kart’ – surely the only take-away in the country where the chips come with battered fillets of blue cod! Kath Johnson has her own family connections to the Island having moved there in her teens. After 17 years away, she

The entrance to HMB school, proudly displaying the school logo

returned to the Island as a teacher and has been principal of the HMB school for the past eight years. She taught all three of her own children through their primary schooling and like every other Stewart Islander, her daughters headed off to boarding school on the mainland for their secondary schooling. It’s a fact of life if you are a Stewart Islander and at HMB everything is done to make the transition as smooth as possible, including arranging visits to the secondary schools, which might include a night sleeping over in the school hostel. Again the Foveaux Strait Ferry helps out with free transport for the kids so they can come home at weekends. The kids still find it tough because in many cases they have gone through their entire primary schooling together. As Marley Wright said, ‘Moving to town also means saying bye to all of my friends and people that I have grown up with and also my home.’ Timu Moxham similarly said, ‘All of my school mates are like family too because we have known each other since kindergarten.’ Despite the thorough preparation for transitioning to high school, the pain of separation from friends and family is palpable. For many, knowing they can get on the ferry and come home for the weekend is a critical coping mechanism. As a teaching principal, Kath works long hours and has no complaints if what she is doing leads to better learning outcomes for her kids. She considers herself privileged to work with such keen learners who achieve so well and alongside a Board of Trustees who, like the parents, are utterly supportive. In a perfect world she’d reduce some of the paper work, which ‘has no direct input to helping the kids learn better.’ These are things like Novopay and audits that soak up her precious time. But overall what gives her the greatest thrill is seeing the HMB kids achieve as well or better than the mainland kids. Judging by the current results Kath has nothing to worry about. True to their school motto, HMB kids are indeed schooled for success.

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School Lines Upbeats and Downbeats – Moot Points! Lester Flockton

feedback, feedforward, Feedup, feeddown lester.flockton@otago.ac.nz

We were told that the mood of this year’s NZPF Moot in Wellington (a meeting of branch presidents) was upbeat. We are upbeat when we feel confident, bouyed, energised and optimistic. The state of up-beatedness can be short-lived and euphoric (a ‘high’) or longer lived, depending on prevailing circumstances. It is seldom a permanent state, since circumstances giving rise or fall are variable and often unpredictable, so we typically move back and forth along a continuum of up and down. For the most part, the ideal is probably some steady-state midpoint. After all, highs are hard to sustain whereas lows are bad for the psyche – and productivity. The state of up-beatedness is seldom universally shared. More often it is confined to a particular group, usually under the influence of a cheer leader of some kind who, paradoxicially, can simultaneously succeed in causing others to become distinctly downbeat. For example, I have observed on a number of occasions the Minister of Education putting on a show of flambouyantly voluble and theatrical up-beatedness with predictable nods and smiles from her entourage of officials and believers, while at the same time many of those subjected to these displays (disbelievers?) show all the signs of bemusement and frustration, or downright down-beatedness. The last time I got a strong sense of near universal upbeatedness throughout the teaching profession and many of the communities they serve, was during the development and introduction of The New Zealand Curriculum, which became mandatory from 2010 – the same year when a changed Government forced the introduction of National Standards for 5 year-olds through to the end of the primary years. Hence, belief and disbelief, up-beatedness and down-beatedness collided. And so the rise and rise of The New Zealand Curriculum was countermanded by the rise and rise of National Standards. The result has been no winners. The New Zealand Curriculum was robbed of the concentrated investment in professional learning and development needed to activate its full potential, while all the evidence shows that after nearly five years of National Standards, they have failed to achieve what the Government said they would. The disbelievers proved to be the most believable. It’s not rocket science to work out the underlying causes of the conflicting states of productive up-beatedness and unproductive down-beatedness in education. Recall, for example, that the hugely successful uptake of The New Zealand Curriculum was in no small part due to the process of its development and acceptance. To use the official terminology, it was developed through processes of ‘co-construction’, or to use today’s jargon, ‘collaboration’. Between 2004 and 2007 more than 15,000 students, teachers, principals, advisers, and academics

contributed to developing the draft New Zealand curriculum, building on the recommendations from the New Zealand Curriculum Stocktake Report that was published in April 2003. Clearly, the inclusive, open and respectful approach, while requiring trust and more time than that afforded through the expedience typical of political decree, succeeds in producing a productive commitment and a constructive outcome. This illustration of the virtues of collaborative policy and programme development is in sharp contrast to the methods used to enforce politically motivated Government policies such as National Standards, Investing in Education Success, Charter Schools, and EDUCANZ. For example, it is a blatant hypocrisy layered with arrogance to announce, deem or decree a policy mechanism that extols collaboration, without any true collaboration in the formation of that policy in the first place – regardless of subsequent meetings with a bunch of sector

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representatives who had to maintain secrecy over meeting proceedings. Disbelief aside about the policy achieving its espoused purposes (do you really fall for the promises of Fullan, who has been a key player?), this is no way to capture the favour and support of those who are supposed to implement the latest figment announced from on high. The whole notion of collaboration is far from new, as numerous commentaries are currently illustrating, it has been at the heart of good professional practice since Adam was a cowboy. But whether it has a credible ‘effect size’ on student learning is yet to be properly proven (it certainly doesn’t appear in Hattie’s Visible Learning – a synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement). Moreover, there is little if any evidence to show that one collaborative ‘arrangement’ is better than another. Harking back to my down days as a school principal, I was clearly of the mind that I needed to be quite discerning about who I chose to collaborate with when it came to matters of teaching and learning. I certainly wasn’t interested in the show ponies, and at best a meeting with a local cluster was a damned good social occasion. Then there is the example of an exemplary principal in a high performing Auckland school whose main collaborative arrangement is with another such principal at a Christchurch school. He maintains, and with good reason, that this is a more impactful collaboration than one tied to local geography. And so it goes on.

School principals can have many good and genuine reasons to feel upbeat from time to time, and they have a rightful role in enjoining their colleagues and communities in the positive feelings that come from recognising the good things that are happening as a result of the school’s own ideas and initiatives. Hardly a day goes by when I don’t read or hear about something happening in a school that is of truly great educational value for its students. So, school leaders, try to exercise a power of influence by regularly making known those things that children are doing in your place that are genuinely good and great for their learning. And they should be much more colourful than national standards data. Even the Government seldom mentions them now! Reference Hattie, J. (2009). Visible Learning. A synthesis of over 800 metaanalyses relating to achievement. London: Routledge.

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OPINION: Growing ourselves through growing others . . . Helen Kinsey-Wightman

We have an advantage as educational leaders in that, as teachers, our success is derived from how well we grow our students as learners. In becoming leaders of other teachers we merely need to make the transition from growing children to growing adults. Simple! I was given my first leadership position after 3 years of teaching – I led a team of 5 teachers one of whom caused me many hours of reflection, self-doubt and a few tears of frustration. I’ll call him Brian. It wasn’t that I didn’t like him – he was funny and intelligent – or that he was a poor teacher. To be fair, looking back on it now, he wasn’t in an easy position. In fact some might say he was in pole position for a mid-life crisis – he was a man in his late 50’s, his wife (10 years his junior) was an ambitious member of the senior leadership team and his team leader (yours truly) was 26 years old, had been teaching for 3 years and would spend hours and hours dreaming up great (and sometimes not so great) ideas to challenge her team towards teaching excellence. My challenge was that his most frequent response to my new ideas and readings on latest research was to smile sagely and (both literally and figuratively) pat me on the knee. It was back in the days when wolf whistling, ponytail pulling and knee patting were not universally acknowledged to be inappropriate in the workplace – so given the option of making a complaint to my senior leader (his wife!) or sucking it up I chose the latter. I was fortunate that another of my team members was a high school teacher who, following her return to work after the birth of her second child, had challenged herself to make the move to primary school teaching. She became my mentor and together we worked on strategies to deal with Brian; at the same time I helped her to make the changes required to adapt

her practice to a primary classroom. Reflecting back over my career I have had many such mutually beneficial mentoring relationships. My first 6 week primary teaching practice was with an inspirational teacher whose name I sadly cannot remember. She had an unwavering belief in her 36 strong class of 7 year olds. We learned about Chief Seattle and how he stood up to the US Government in defence of the environment – she announced we would create a totem pole for our assembly. When I asked her for the design she said, ‘Oh, I have no idea dear – the children will work it out . . . ’ Luckily someone’s dad worked at a carpet warehouse and the next day he turned up with a 6 foot cardboard roll which I spent the next week decorating with papier-mâché Weetbix box faces while

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listening in on her teaching of reading. I introduced her to Run DMC/Aerosmith’s version of ‘Walk this Way’ and we had an assembly that would have undoubtedly gone viral on YouTube (if only it had been invented back then!) When I arrived in New Zealand I had 15 years of international teaching experience behind me but no idea how things were done here. I dutifully read my contract and discovered I was required to adhere to the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi – I asked my Principal whether there was a programme for overseas trained teachers when they would explain what this meant – there wasn’t but his phone call to the ministry led to the discovery that there was a paid time allocation for my professional development. He suggested that I might like to mentor a provisionally registered teacher. Mike was fresh out of Otago Uni, he taught me to say Kia ora, told me to watch Scarfies, and told me all about the essentials of NZ student culture such as setting sofas on fire and rolling mates downhill in wheelie bins – he also invited me to my first (and now I think about it last) crate party. Although his Kapiti Coast flat didn’t have much in the way of furniture (hence the crate party) he told me it was a big step up from the house he had shared with 5 mates in Dunedin. Apparently its practical layout and lack of non-essential items like doors meant that the boys could sit on the toilet whilst being in reach of the oven to cook sausages on a Sunday morning. I have to say this knowledge does cause me to take a deep breath when some of our best and brightest from Girls’ High announce they are off to Otago! A couple of years later Mike headed off to London to do his OE and I went on to mentor Nadia. I worked with her to develop strategies for her

feisty group of Y5/6 boys while she shared ideas about thinking skills and introduced me to Tony Ryan whose blog I went on to use as a discussion tool within the senior leadership team. Thanks to Facebook I was pleased to learn that earlier this year Nadia was appointed as a Deputy Principal. I recently attended a 3 day cross sector mentoring conference run by TRCC – as an organisation run by teachers for teachers I find their courses to be consistently relevant and of high quality. I have done much reflection since about how school leaders can deliberately create opportunities for teacher mentoring to flourish beyond the initial years of provisional registration. I have concluded that as a starting point the provision of professional learning for the development of mentoring skills would be of benefit to all teachers – whether they use these skills in mentoring students, younger staff or peers, gaining experience in active listening and ‘open to learning’ conversations would be of benefit to everyone. My Principal recently announced her retirement. I have to confess that my first thought was an entirely selfish, ‘Not yet – I still have so much to learn from you.’ However, looking back over my career I can confidently say that if we remain open to learning and reflection good mentors will always appear and it is up to us to make the time so that as mentor or mentee we can learn together.

Artwork courtesy of Tauranga Intermediate School Kennedy Crowther, 2012

N Z P r i n c i p a l | J u n e 2 0 15

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