NZ Principal Magazine Term 4 2013

November 2013 Volume 28, Number 4

Highlights of Hillsborough Reading Recovery and Beyond The National Aspiring Principals’ Programme NEW marketplace section – see page 36

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CONTENTS

November 2013

2 EDITORIAL 3 PRESIDENT’S PEN 6 The National Aspiring Principals’ Programme

Magazine Proof-reader Helen Kinsey-Wightman Editorial Board Philip Harding, NZPF President Geoff Lovegrove, Lytton Street School (Feilding) Liz Hawes, Editor

Dr Jan Robertson

10 Reading Recovery and Beyond

Advertising Stephen Tuck, Sales & Marketing Manager For all advertising enquiries contact: Komal Mathur, Michael Lynch, Maree Eketone, Sonia Payne

Professors James W Chapman & Keith T Greaney

15 Managing the return to school following ‘stand down’ Dr Patty Towl

Cervin Media Ltd PO Box 68450, Newton, Auckland 1145 Ph: 09 360 8700 or Fax: 09 360 8701 Production Stuart Sue, Monica Lynch 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.

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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.

18 Highlights at Hillsborough – Nicola Girling, Principal 23 The manufacture of education myths and mantras Some reflections on the Christchurch school renewal project Gregory Lee and Howard Lee

27 Hidden Politics of Tomorrow’s Schools Brigit Manning

29 Revitalising the role of public education An alternative to the growing privatisation of education Bruce Hammond

33 school lines Children are Children, and Statistics are Numbers Lester Flockton

35 WHAT’s on TOP

Tragedy as a source of strength . . .

Helen Kinsey-Wightman

36 MARKETPLACE SECTION service providers

Profiles from education product and

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Thinking Keys and From power poles to art – the copper figurines on the poles were all made by the children

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Editorial Liz Hawes

Editor

Spring is an uplifting season. It stirs the spirits and is bursting is what Treasury was advising the Government in respect of with colourful new beginnings. It makes me think of leafy new Education Minister Parata’s ‘ambitious agenda for change in canes rearing upwards from rose bush stumps, of woolly lambs the schooling sector’, as reported by the New Zealand Herald gambolling across lush green fields, of little new entrants, of first (31 October). year teachers and of first time principals. It is a refreshing time The Treasury advice entitled ‘Quiet Change – A Treasury filled with innocence and optimism.

Guide’, suggested that ‘controversial changes to education I am a fortunate person in a fortunate job. I get to visit schools should be kept as low-profile as possible’ and ‘implemented and write stories about them. I get to experience the spirit of Spring with less attention’. The advice went on to describe how best to all year round because in every push through this change with school I visit I find refreshing the words ‘Communicating optimism. I meet energised, Helping struggling children change across a broad front is enthusiastic children, teachers has been used as a front for difficult. Overseas experience and principals. I see stunning in education reform suggests achievements that children privatising the state education system. focusing on communicating a make in school every day, positively framed ‘crucial few’ irrespective of their ability or circumstances and I see the creative at any one time.’ It continues that this can be achieved ‘while and innovative ways teachers draw children into learning. Nicola making smaller incremental changes in a less high profile manner Girling, principal of Hillsborough School is one such principal across a range of fronts’. (see p.18 of this issue). She talks about the questioning techniques The real cynicism is embedded in the next bit however. This used in her school and the direct teaching of thinking skills is where the helpful Treasury offers more direct, concrete advice because she, like so many principals, studies the research and about how to successfully communicate this unpalatable reform listens to the experts who all say that these are essentials for the agenda. future success of today’s children. They all want the absolute best Treasury suggests using themes such as ‘supporting quality for the children in their schools. teaching’ and ‘measuring performance to focus support’.

Is it any wonder then that we get so frustrated when we see This way, continues the Treasury advice, ‘you can pursue the such disconnection between what the Government is doing to harder-edged changes in parallel, incrementally and without our education system and what the professionals are trying to significant profile.’ In other words whilst you are quietly pursuing achieve for our children. I’ve always thought the most recent privatisation, distract the pundits with warm phrases like ‘quality Ministers of Education and associates were out of touch with how teaching’ and ‘support’. Who would argue against those ideas? children learn best and especially how the strugglers learn best. Now that this document has been made public, the current Still I believed they really were motivated to help those children Minister has utterly denied taking any notice of it. at the bottom – I just thought they had picked the wrong policies The influence of Treasury and its advice however runs deep. to achieve what were otherwise sincere and noble ends.

It runs so deep that it would seem the Minister isn’t even aware Documents written last year, and revealed through the OIA of how it is influencing her own rhetoric. In the last year we process recently, leave us in no doubt however that the cynics and have heard her make dozens of statements in relation to the naysayers were right all the time. Helping struggling children, has ‘distraction topics.’ ‘Supporting quality teaching’ and ‘measuring been used as a front for privatising the state education system. performance to focus support’ are statements as synonymous The real agenda is about introducing competition and market with the Minister as her bright blue jackets. forces and extracting savings from a big government department It is examples like this that confirm why the credibility and called our schooling system. The only reason the Government integrity of the Treasury and its political mouthpieces has hasn’t succeeded with full privatisation yet is because teaching plummeted to the level of the most unscrupulous second hand car professionals have been constantly highlighting flaws in the salesman, who cons, deceives and rips off the public. But even as policies they have tried to embed. Professionals rightly objected politicians go, this is about as low as we’ve ever witnessed before. because they could see the policies were more likely to harm I say roll on the election and allow the voters to restore the children than help. All the time, they were mechanisms intended spirit of Spring and optimism: so that leadership, fresh ideas, to provide the foundation for privatisation. creativity and critical thinking can again rule in our schools, As optimists we are not used to this level of stealth. But here unimpeded by deceitful political distractions.

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President’s Pen Philip Harding

National President, New Zealand Principals’ Federation

When we plan the year ahead, the priorities for the NZPF non-ORS funding for special education. executive are largely determined by the feedback and concerns There were also concerns expressed around the RTLB service that are raised at our annual Moot. Moot is an interesting word model, with just under half (46.3 per cent) of those who with a number of meanings – including of course a moot point responded unhappy with their current RTLB support and advice.

– which is something worthy of debate.

The anecdotal feedback covered all ends of the spectrum though, The moot we hold is the noun, and describes a gathering to from endorsing at one end to concern and frustration at the other. discuss things, and that’s what we do. From those discussions What does such variable feedback really mean? Perhaps the about education come our priorities for the year ahead. service itself is variable. Perhaps there is a disconnect between There were a number of what schools want and expect, concerns raised of course, but Ministry policy is promoting a and what the practitioners are one hardy annual is special offering. Regardless of where education, and this year was strong drive towards inclusion for the trouble lies, there is a no exception. The executive as many children with special perception in the minds of a responded by designing a large group of principals that special education sur vey needs as possible, and I do not believe they are not getting the service and when it was pushed out they deserve and need. to schools, 410 principals that principals are viewing the future There are other signs within responded, with over 9000 as it is planned. this landscape that are worthy separate pieces of feedback. of our attention, and I am Designing a good survey is concerned that these are not always a nightmare, and I have to say that one thing we will try being picked up and noted by principals. to avoid in the future is harvesting too many questions with Consider the decision to close existing residential special qualitative feedback! With some advice from Cathy Wylie we schools. Waimakoia and McKenzie have closed already, and did two things – we sub-contracted the survey’s analysis to a Salisbury would have closed as well, had it not been for its researcher who identified the common themes as they emerged. judicial review. Halswell has seen its roll decline from 90 before We then based our analysis and decision making on what they the earthquakes in Canterbury to just 20 today, and while closure told us. is not being openly proposed, the staff are concerned.

The most obvious consensus lay around funding levels. There The argument is that one place in a residential setting can fund were consistent messages, all suggesting that funding was up to three children within the Intensive Wraparound Service, insufficient, for both ORS children, and non-ORS. Indeed, 95 back in a mainstream school. per cent of those who responded claimed dissatisfaction around Then, there are the non-residential special schools, which some

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parents choose for their child when a mainstream school is not seen as the best option. My sources tell me that they have long wait lists, and yet two schools who are awaiting news of their post-earthquake rebuilds have been told that their total capacity once replaced, will be reduced.

So – what does this tell us of the direction of special education policy and its implications for schools?

Ministry policy is promoting a strong drive towards inclusion for as many children with special needs as possible, and I do not believe that principals are viewing the future as it is planned. By the time people are finally awake to current policy direction, options for the placement of children with special needs will be significantly reduced, and to quote Greg Healy, the past principal from McKenzie Residential School, “those children will be coming to a school near you”.

This article does NOT attempt to argue for or against inclusion.

Any principal in the country would speak up in favour of including in their school the majority of children with these special challenges. The question that it begs however, is by whom should the best educational setting for any child be determined?

The parent?

The school?

The disability sector?

The Ministry?

My money sits with the parent, informed by the other groups, and this requires that there must be a range of choices available – choices which I fear are being lost.

NZPF has written to Peter Hughes, the Secretary for Education and we are hopeful that a national discussion will be convened early next year where we respectfully and professionally can plan the next steps in partnership with all the stakeholders. We need to be very clear about what we mean by the term inclusion.

The Ministry has this in its brochure, What an inclusive school looks like: (Children with special education needs) . . . are participating and engaged in class and out of class, with their peers, all of the time, doing what their peers do.

All of the time? Really? Many such children simply cannot cope in such settings all of the time. If this is truly the philosophy that is driving Ministry policy, a conversation is well overdue. Peter Hughes has indicated his support for the proposed discussion, and I truly hope that as a result we can start to talk directly and honestly around what a teacher with a class of thirty children can realistically achieve. The conversation will need to explore with the wider sector, schools’ obligations under law and international convention, as well as consider the aspirations and hopes of parents.

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The National Aspiring Principals’ Programme

Coaching through partnership Dr. Jan Robertson

Academic Director

How do you design professional learning that will develop future generations of leaders who are even more than we ourselves have been able to be? This was our challenge in the National Aspiring Principals’ Programme (NAPP), a professional learning and development contract funded by the Ministry of Education.

The professional learning consortium Te Toi Tupu, constituting CORE education, The University of Waikato, Cognition Education, the Waikato-Tainui College for Research and Development, with the New Zealand Council for Education Research providing evaluative support, won the contract and developed a comprehensive programme that it has delivered nationwide since 2011. We realised that the current challenges in education today cannot be solved with the same mindsets that created them. I would posit that no one has more influence over New Zealand society than the school leaders and classroom teachers who touch every community from North Cape to Bluff.

How then, do we transform ourselves in order to be able to lead for transformative change in our schools and communities? The challenge in all of this is that the change must begin with ourselves as leaders, so that we can become part of the solution. What can we learn and change in our personal and professional practice that will help create the changed practices in those with whom we work? For example, schools with leaders with little knowledge, experience or capability of digital learning communities and the potentiality of technology in creating learning environments, or leaders who have little cultural knowledge of Te Ao Māori or the power of culturally responsive reciprocal practice, will not be competent or confident to lead for these changes in their school communities. The moral purpose to step up – Ka Hikitia – and be capable of addressing inequities in New Zealand education will require changes in leadership capacity. More of the same, or working harder at what we have always done, is likely to get similar results. The quality of the school principal is inextricably linked to student learning outcomes and principals will not change their dispositions, practice and mindsets just by reading policy documents. Professional learning is much more complex than that.

Often leaders talk about change as if it is something that everyone else needs to do – the change they are leading others towards. They talk about how difficult it is to lead for the changes that the policy documents are requiring of them – changes towards future-focused learning spaces, changes in teachers’ paradigms 6

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to develop ako learning relationships, building teachers’ understanding of Te Ao Māori and creating the conditions in their classrooms for culturally responsive practice focused on Māori achieving success as Māori, and all students honouring the dual cultural heritage of Aotearoa New Zealand. These changes are hard to lead because they are in a different paradigm of learning for many educators, and they may require an examination and subsequent change of leadership and teacher identity – questioning all one knows about how to be a leader or a teacher – perhaps all that has been modelled to them through their professional lives; perhaps all that is known to them as educators. An understanding that the first change will begin in their own practice will then make the leadership of change in the leadership of learning much more likely. The personal journey of experiencing change leadership and the exploration of moral purpose are central to NAPP. How are they achieved? Through partnership.

NAPP is underpinned by the metaphor of partnership: Partnership as a key principle of the Treaty of Waitangi; Partnership in leadership relationships; Partnership in learning relationships – ako; Partnership with community and iwi.

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We focus on coaching through partnership leading to reciprocal learning relationships where teachers learn from students, students from each other, leaders learn from the people they work with and with each other, school communities learn from each other, teachers learn from parents and whanau. These powerful learning partnerships are important throughout the learning community. At the heart of NAPP is the belief that learning within professional practice is the key to the improvement of that practice and leaders who see their leadership as learning, and are adaptive leaders, will be key to the successful leading of system change in New Zealand education. Leadership is about moving into the unknown – out of our comfort zones – and we do not always have all of the answers about how to achieve our vision.

But we do have the questions, and through successful learning and inquiry into our practice, we can learn the way, together, to where we want and need to be, in our education system.

The theory of action in the aspiring principal leadership experience is built on four key principles of professional learning, drawn from the international literature on leadership development: ■■ ■■

■■ ■■

Personalised, self-regulated, reflective meta-cognitive learning Connected and networked leaders sharing and creating knowledge Coaching leadership capacity in self and others Inquiry-focused leadership and learning, informed by research and evidence.

Personalised, self-regulated, reflective metacognitive learning What does it mean to learn in leadership, from one’s leadership, so that every year of leadership is considerably better than the previous year? “How have you changed in your leadership?” is a key question to ask. Developing the disposition to learn and become more self-aware is the first step – and recognising that leadership is a practice. Leadership is not just the actions that leaders take – but it is what happens in the space between their actions and others’ responses that is important to focus leaders’ attention upon. Leaders can change what happens in the interactions by changing their own actions. Leaders could solve problems, put out fires and give advice, reacting all day and every day to what comes at them and thereby create a climate of dependency from those around them to stop thinking and be dependent on the ‘leader’ of the school to take responsibility.

Or leaders could as easily stop and listen and ask questions and develop critically reflective and thoughtful leadership around them. This does mean a mindshift for many leaders. In fact it is those leaders who are willing to learn from those they lead,

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who learn the way into innovative and creative practice with their colleagues, who build the sustaining capacity for change in their schools.

An important part of NAPP is that the leadership learning is school-based. Each akonga is sponsored by their own principal initially that they have the disposition to lead, to be able to take part in NAPP. The New Zealand school principals’ ongoing support and mentoring in NAPP is vital to the akonga leadership learning experience. Each akonga develops a context-specific inquiry question, in alignment with the school’s strategic direction and vision, focusing on the learning outcomes for priority group learners. This focus provides the vehicle for the reflective leadership learning as the akonga leads change and leads learning in their school. The issues and challenges they face become the basis for regular reflective and critical questions in coaching conversations and the professional learning support and challenge they design in their own school. Akonga have a choice of discussion topics in their Virtual Learning Network online forums as they study through flexible, anytime asynchronous online learning modules that they can personalise to their own needs and own school context. The personal reflective online journal they develop on the My Portfolio platform becomes the basis for their portfolio of resources; for some it is evidence for Teacher Registration Criteria and appraisal, for all it is a place for ongoing leadership learning as they move in their leadership careers.

Connected and networked leaders sharing and creating knowledge Sharing and creating new knowledge together with other school leaders is a key aspect of NAPP. We work to develop the leadership disposition in New Zealand schools that school leaders should be system leaders – concerned for the education system in New Zealand and not just solely focused on their own school. Awhinatanga is at the basis of the design of the mahi and all NAPP akonga have a peer coaching partner on their learning journey. All akonga have a regional professional learning group that meets each term kanohi ki te kanohi and also meets in the online forum. The Virtual Learning Network provides a nationwide online professional learning community, focused specifically on the complex, multi-faceted role of the school principal in New Zealand’s education system. Aspiring leaders select from indepth modules covering all aspects of principalship through finance, law, resource and personnel management, including the research and the policy documents that support the principalship and its practice. They have an e-learning coach and are coached by their peers and their kaiarahi online. The conversations with their own school principal-mentor about the topics enhance the depth of their korero online. The national residential Hui and its complementary online hui, which begins three weeks before the Hui and continues afterwards, help akonga to build networks with leaders throughout New Zealand. By the end of their time in NAPP, all akonga are digitally proficient and confident participating in online learning communities and understand the potentiality of ICT for future-focused learning for teachers and students in schools. They are now part of curriculum and leadership networks to support them on through their future leadership of transformative change. They are also Skype- and Survey Monkey-capable to assist them to further connect and create knowledge with their generation of aspiring leaders and others in their learning leadership networks.

Coaching leadership capacity in self and others The main paradigm that has distinguished the work in the NAPP is that it is about leaders coaching capacity for change – first within ourselves, and then with the people with whom we work. Many people bring many different ideas to the concept of coaching.

Our work in coaching is through the principle of partnership – ako – leader as learner in the leadership relationship. I often ask leaders “what do you want in a partnership?” and they call out such things as: “respect, challenge, trust, caring, being better together than alone, complementary strengths and knowledge, learning from each other, fun, commitment, support, creating the way together” . . . actually, you could argue, as we do, that these are all of the things that make a great learning relationship and indeed these are all the elements of a coaching partnership (Robertson, 2005).

NAPP is underpinned by a coaching paradigm invested in the elements of relational trust, disposition to learn from practice, co-creating new knowledge, building capacity of self and others, and enabling the agency of self and others to act. Self-development is a major part of the curriculum in NAPP – self-awareness leads to improved social, emotional, cultural and spiritual intelligence, and ultimately the understanding of others and how to effectively work with them. Opportunities to become aware of their own values and beliefs and to further develop their identity as a leader are ongoing throughout the year through kaiarahi (experienced school leader) and peer (aspiring leader) coaching partnerships.

All akonga (re)learn the skills of coaching at the residential Hui, have coaching modelled to them throughout the year by their kaiarahi and actively coach and receive coaching through their peer partnership online in the My Portfolio platform. The mentoring conversations with their own school principal are also powerful for akonga to develop in their understanding of the role of the principal in their own context. A shadow visit and conversation with a principal in a different school context helps to provide a critically reflective experience and some challenges to the leaders’ thinking across contexts.

Inquiry-focused leadership and learning, informed by research and evidence.

The residential national Hui in April has a focus on research evidence, policy documents, and best school practice. Students join with the akonga as learning partners through the Hui, both kanohi ki te kanohi and in the online hui. Successful primary and secondary leaders talk about their journeys of leading transformative change, Ministry of Education personnel speak to the vision and the policy documents that support our work in leadership in New Zealand, researchers highlight key research evidence on leadership for learning. The focus is on inquiry-mindedness and leaders learning from their leadership and from each other. During the Hui the akonga further refine their inquiry focus area and can select round tables to attend and lead that support their kaupapa. The akonga work with their peer partner at the Hui, coaching for clarity around their individual inquiries. The professional learning groups meet

on three different occasions during the Hui to build these relationships and focus on the curriculum and knowledge of the key leadership policy documents. The akonga also build a rich resource library of readings, resources and documents through their module work on the role of the principal on the Virtual Learning Network. Their regular reflective leadership coaching means they are asked the questions that keep challenging them to inquire into the taken-for-granted of their practice, and to seek new and transforming ways of leading change in their schools.

Leadership is about pushing into the realm of the unknown for transformative change – it is not simply invested in a position of responsibility such as ‘principal’. There are people who hold positions of responsibility or authority who show very little leadership. Leadership is about transformative change. There is a vision of ‘what might be’ but how to ‘be there’ requires leaders who can learn the way with the communities who shared in the development of the vision. Unless leaders are learning in and from their leadership practice they are likely to repeat their same leadership practice over and over again through the years. Brookfield (1995) warned “Ten years of practice can be one year’s worth of distorted experience repeated ten times.” He goes on to say that experienced educators “may be caught within self-fulfilling interpretive frameworks that remain closed to any alternative interpretations.” Deep reflection and coaching from others with skill in critical questioning is therefore vital to this process to enable different perspectives, challenges and new ways of knowing. Unless leaders can learn successfully, metacognitively and be self-regulated in this continuing process of leadership learning, they are unlikely to have the necessary moments of disorientation where their ways of seeing the world come into question. Unless their leadership practice comes into question, unless leaders are able to move out of the comfort zone of what they currently know, into the zone of “what they didn’t know they didn’t know!” then we will continue to get what we have always got – and our vision for New Zealand education requires more than that from our future generations of school leaders.

About the Author Dr. Jan Robertson is an author, photographer, academic researcher and leadership consultant, residing on Waiheke Island, New Zealand. Jan is currently a senior researcher in the Institute of Professional Learning at the University of Waikato, New Zealand and academic director of New Zealand’s aspiring principals’ program. She is an Adjunct Professor at Griffith University, Australia. Jan’s books Coaching Educational Leadership and Leadership and Learning (Co-edited with Helen Timperley) have been influential internationally in professional learning, leadership development and system change. Jan can be reached at info@janrobertson.co.nz and her book Coaching Educational Leadership can be purchased from NZCER at http://www.nzcer.org.nz/nzcerpress/ coaching-leadership-building-educational-leadership-capacity-throughcoaching-partnership For more information on the National Aspiring Principals Programme contact Jill Lunn the National Director – jlunn@waikato.ac.nz

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Reading Recovery and Beyond James W. Chapman and Keith T. Greaney Massey University Institute of Education

When Reading Recovery (RR) was introduced throughout New Zealand in the mid-1980s it was seen as an innovative programme. It forms a significant part of the literacy fabric in around two-thirds of New Zealand primary schools. Criticism of the programme is frowned upon and often seen as somewhat unpatriotic.

It’s useful to consider that RR was conceptualised in the 1960s, trialled in the 1970s, and implemented in the 1980s. Scientific research on how children read and why some struggle has advanced considerably since the development and implementation of RR. It’s timely for the teaching profession and for policymakers to consider whether RR is meeting its goals, and whether contemporary scientific research provides the basis for new and more effective ways of providing literacy instruction and early intervention.

The RR website (http://www.readingrecovery.ac.nz/reading_ recovery/) states that the goal of RR “is to prevent literacy difficulties at an early stage before they begin to affect a child’s educational progress. Providing extra assistance to the lowest achievers after one year at school, it operates as an effective prevention strategy against later literacy difficulties. Nationally, it may be characterised as an insurance against low literacy levels” (emphases added).

It was Marie Clay’s belief that the RR programme “should clear out of the remedial education system all children who do not learn to read for many event-produced reasons [i.e., environmental, cultural, or economic causes] and all the children who have organically based problems but who can be taught to achieve independent learning status in reading and writing despite this” (Clay, 1987, p.169).

Ministry of Education RR National Monitoring data over the last 10 years provide no support for these claims. If the RR programme had been successful in attaining its goal of substantially reducing the number of children who develop ongoing reading difficulties (i.e., providing the “insurance” against low literacy levels), then the relatively large gap in reading performance consistently observed between good and poor readers since the 1991 International Educational Achievement study should have steadily decreased after RR was introduced throughout the country in the late 1980s.

This has not been the case, as results from the 2001, 2006, and 2011 PIRLS surveys show.

The Deputy Secretary for Education (Student Achievement) recently cited the 80 per cent successful completion rate for RR as an indication of the success of RR. But simply completing the programme does not guarantee that the child will actually benefit from having participated. After more than 25 years of RR in New Zealand, there is virtually no rigorous empirical evidence to indicate that successful completions in RR result in sustained

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literacy achievement gains.

Another factor usually omitted when considering the success of RR that are based on discontinuation rates is the withdrawal of children from the programme who make slow progress, or the decision not to place children in the programme because of the belief that they would make insufficient progress. Clay was opposed to such practices but she knew they occurred: “Schools have wanted to select children for the intervention, who in their judgement, would be ‘able to profit from the intervention’ and they have been willing to exclude some lowest-achievers from selection” (Clay, 2005, p.22).

Similarly, McDowall et al. (2005) in their NZCER study of RR, made reference to information from teacher interviews that supported the practice that many children with the most challenging literacy support needs are either not placed in RR (in schools that offer the programme) or are withdrawn if progress is too slow.

What does the evidence from Ministry of Education RR National Monitoring Reports show? Summary data from the 2011 Monitoring Report indicate the following: ■■

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■■

■■

■■

■■

■■

■■

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64% of state schools with 6-year-old children offered RR, serving 75% of the 6-year-old population. Of the total 6-yearold population, 14% entered RR in 2011.

18% of 6-year-olds in the schools that offered RR entered in 2011.

25% of 6-year-olds in RR schools were involved in RR at some point in the year, and included children carried over from 2010.

RR was more likely to be implemented in high decile (8–10) schools (71%) than in low decile (1–3) schools (56%).

In low decile schools, 17% of the total 6-year-old population entered RR compared to 11% in high decile schools.

The average RR hours allocated per children in decile 1 schools were 52; the average in decile 10 schools was 43 hours.

Māori & Pasifika children constituted 35% of the total 6-yearold population in 2011; they made up 44% of children in RR. Of the total 6-year-old population of children involved in RR, 33% were Māori, 35% were Pasifika, and 23% were Pakeha.

The higher participation rate for Māori and Pasifika children shows they were already more likely to fall behind after one year of schooling than Pakeha children.

Māori & Pasifika children were less likely to be successfully discontinued from RR than Pakeha children. Successful discontinuation rates for 2011 were 76% Māori, 81% Pasifika, and 85% Pakeha. The pattern has been stable for 10 years.

Of the total number of children “referred on” (not successfully discontinued), 49% were Māori or Pasifika.

77% of RR children in low decile schools (1–3) were successfully discontinued, compared to 86% in high decile (8–10) schools.

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15% of children in decile 1 schools were “referred on”; this is double the 7% in decile 10 schools who were referred on.

These data show that Māori and Pasifika children, and children from low decile schools (largely the same groups), were less likely to have been successfully discontinued from RR and more likely to have been referred on for specialist help. Many of the referred on children had failed to respond adequately to RR despite having received extra lessons and more time in the programme.

Further evidence of the differential effectiveness are data on entry and exit scores, as assessed by the Burt Word Reading Test and the Writing Vocabulary Task.

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Entry scores for successfully discontinued children were much higher than for the referred on children.

Entry and exit scores of successfully discontinued children for the Burt and Writing vocabulary tests overlapped so much that some children had entry scores that exceeded the mean of exit scores.

RR children in high decile schools are more likely to enter and exit from the programme with higher scores than children from low decile schools.

Why hasn’t RR been more successful, and what can be done to improve the literacy learning outcomes of all children, especially those who most need literacy supports? The RR programme is limited in its ability to be more successful because it was designed to complement New Zealand’s predominantly constructivist approach to literacy education. Underpinning the constructivist approach to literacy teaching (and RR), is the “multiple cues” theory of reading. According to this view, skilled reading is viewed as a process in which minimal word-level information is used to confirm predictions about the upcoming words of text based on multiple sources of information (Clay, 1991). Learning to read is seen largely as a process in which children use multiple cues in identifying words in text. Text-based cues (i.e., picture cues, sentence context cues, preceding passage context, prior knowledge activated by the text) are used by students to predict the text yet to be encountered. Letter-sound information is generally used only to confirm word predictions or guesses and for self-correction.

The scientific community has firmly rejected the constructivist/ multiple cues model of reading. The major shortcoming of this approach is that it stresses the importance of using information from many sources in identifying unfamiliar words in text without recognising that skills and strategies involving phonological information are of primary importance in beginning literacy development.

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The RR program is beneficial for some struggling readers but not others, especially those struggling readers who need help the most. Research indicates that for these children, more intensive and systematic instruction in phonemic awareness and phonemically-based decoding skills is needed than what is normally provided in RR lessons.

It is both unfortunate and unacceptable that such a large number of New Zealand children do not benefit from the current, somewhat one-size-fits-all approach to beginning literacy instruction. This is not the fault of teachers or schools, but rather the product of inappropriate and outdated theories and policies. We recommend two important changes so that the specific literacy learning needs of all children can be more appropriately addressed.

The first change relates to Year 1 reading instruction. Why wait an entire year before helping children with little or no phonological awareness at school entry, when it’s well known that children with limited phonological awareness at school entry will struggle? For some beginning readers, the processes of acquiring literacy skills are highly learner dependent. These children seem to grasp the idea of what is required to discover orthographic patterns after having had only a small amount of phonologically-based skills and strategies explicitly taught to them. In contrast, for other children the learning processes are more environment dependent. These children require a fairly structured and teacher-supported introduction to reading that includes explicit, systematic teaching of phonological awareness and alphabetic coding skills outside the context of reading text but in combination with plenty of opportunities to practice and receive feedback on using these skills during text reading.

New entrants should receive an initial evaluation consisting of measures of emergent literacy skills that are known to be important in early literacy development (e.g., phonological awareness, print awareness). Supplementary instruction in these skills would then be provided to those children who needed it. This approach is referred to as differentiated instruction. It is more inclusive, takes into account children’s diverse pre-school and background experiences, and is more suited to addressing specific literacy learning needs. New Zealand primary school classrooms are ideally suited for differential instruction because we have long had a tradition of grouping children for literacy instruction.

The second change relates to RR. This is an expensive programme with evidence showing that many children derive little or no benefit from the programme, and virtually no evidence to show that the gains for those who do benefit are

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sustained. The most serious shortcoming of RR concerns the differential effectiveness of the programme. The programme is beneficial for some struggling readers but not others, especially those struggling readers who need help the most. For these children, more intensive and systematic instruction in phonemic awareness and phonemically-based decoding skills is required than what is normally provided in RR lessons. Knowing the research reason for this, the Literacy Experts Group that advised the Literacy Taskforce in 1999 (and that lead to the NZ Literacy Strategy) included in its report the following unanimously agreed upon recommendation: “We recommend that Reading Recovery places greater emphasis on explicit instruction in phonological awareness and the use of spelling-to-sound patterns in identifying unfamiliar words in text” (p. 6). This recommendation hasn’t been implemented and although RR was developed, implemented, and supported by public money through the Ministry (formerly Department) of Education, no changes can be made to the programme without the approval of the Marie Clay Literacy Trust. There has been no indication of any willingness to make significant changes to the instructional approach of RR, in line with contemporary research.

To conclude, positive and relatively inexpensive changes can and need to be made to Year 1 literacy instruction and to the RR programme. Such changes can help all children receive the literacy instruction that is most suited to their specific literacy learning needs. The changes we recommend are not “phonics”, or skill and drill. Rather, they are designed to provide more explicit instruction on word-level skills for those children whose specific literacy development requires enhanced phonemic awareness and phonological processing skills.

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NZ P r i n c i p a l | N o v e m b e r 2 0 13

Managing the return to school following stand-down Dr Patty Towl

In 2008–2009 I conducted doctoral research into how students about seventy transcribed thirty minute interviews. The ten renegotiate their membership of the school following a stand- students attended a range of schools from area, intermediate, down event. The study investigated the six months following year 7–13 and full secondary. Most of the students were rural stand-down for ten students in the middle school. The outcomes and attended mid to high decile schools. Of the ten students four of the study provide insight into specific actions both primary were in year eight at the time of the stand-down and the oldest and secondary principals can take to improve the potential for student was in year eleven. a seamless and permanent return to school. The two key areas that principals could focus on are utilising the mechanics of the The analysis home school relationship and resolving the in-school factors The analysis was organised by Wenger’s (1998) model of situated that contribute to the stand-down event. These two outcomes learning in communities of practice. Stand-down, by definition, restricts participation and are addressed separately later Wenger (1998) describes in this article.

School is an early and safe participation and identity in Ministry of Education data an intrinsic relationship with on stand-down from school environment where children learn membership in communities (MOE, 2013) reveal that of practice. Stand-down, stand-down is used to address about social behaviour and particular types of behaviour rules that might be different to those t h e r e f o r e , a c c o r d i n g t o We nge r’s ( 1 9 9 8 ) m o d e l, that are unacceptable at school. must impact on both school The students in my study had at home. identity and membership. all behaved in ways that the school, they and their parents agreed were unacceptable. They Consequently, the return to school presents an opportunity to had hit other students, sworn at teachers, brought alcohol to renegotiate membership. The student’s success in renegotiating school and set fire to a friend’s dreadlock. Swearing at staff and school membership was framed by Wenger’s (1998) modes hitting other children disrupt learning and make other children of belonging. The degree to which the students talked about feel unsafe (Chaplain, 2003). Addressing issues of safety is an themselves and their parents and teachers talked about them in important function of school management. Just as important, terms of the modes of belonging to a school community defined though, is retaining children in school because of the relationship the success of the renegotiation. between school learning and the longer timescales of a person’s life (Lemke, 2000). School is an early and safe environment Results where children learn about social behaviour and rules that might This results section is in three parts. The first section provides be different to those at home; any stand-down event provides a brief summary of how the students in the study align with an opportunity for children to learn the consequences of not national statistics on stand-down. The second section discusses complying with rules. While continual disobedience is one of the significance of the home school relationship to this study and the most common reasons principals give for standing a student the third how uncovering and addressing context may reduce the down from school (MOE, 2013), is sending a child home an risk of future stand-downs and suspensions. In this analysis the students are referred to using the names they chose for the study. effective way to teach children compliance?

These were Ben, Bob, Cherish, Elephant, George, Mara, Mark, The study Missy, Mr Smith and Tui. Their parents and teachers are referred This study investigated the return to school following stand- to by the student’s name e.g. Tui’s teacher. Principals and senior down of ten students in one New Zealand province. Each student, teachers were given numbers in accordance with their entry to together with a parent and a teacher, were interviewed twice six the study: e.g. ST1 was the first senior teacher interviewed. months apart. The principal of the school and the senior teacher who investigated the incident were interviewed once. Parents, A bunch of characters students and teachers were asked identical questions about how Initially the ten students appear to align with national statistics stand-down affected the student while principals and senior on stand-down from school. Nationally there are about 2.5 times teachers were asked questions about how they use stand-down as many boys stood-down as girls and, in this study, there were to manage behaviour. Consequently the analysis was based on seven boys and three girls. Ethnicity also followed the national

NZ Principal | N o v e m b e r 2 0 13

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statistics with four Māori, one Pasifika and five European/pakeha students. The stand-down experiences of these ten students, however, provide extra insight into the annual stand-down statistics. According to the Ministry 78 per cent of students are only stood down once in a year (MOE 2013). This was generally true for this group but over their school careers eight of the ten students also had multiple stand-downs. In addition, while they weren’t stood-down again two were suspended and two left school within the six months of the study. Ministry of Education statistics also draw attention to the imbalance of stand-downs that occurs between low and high decile schools.

Although most of these students attended mid to high decile schools the majority were from low income households. This suggests that low income may be a more significant risk factor in stand-down than is indicated in Ministry data. Finally and most important for primary principals is that, while primary schools have low numbers of stand-down events according to Ministry data, a significant proportion of the students in the study had accumulated histories of stand-down from primary school and, except in Tui’s case, it was these students who found renegotiation of school membership most difficult.

Purposeful home school relationships The most important outcome of this research was that enabling and promoting purposeful home school relationships enhanced and consolidated the return to school. Furthermore productive relationships were particularly relevant to reintegration for low income, Māori and Pasifika students. Of the ten students in the study four parents initiated specific school interventions following their child’s stand-down. Their children: Mara, Missy,

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Mr Smith and Tui all settled back into school, remained in school and achieved in school terms. Their renegotiated membership can be heard in the way teachers refer to the modes of belonging to the school as a community of practice (Wenger, 1998). Mara’s teacher expects her to ‘be head girl’, Missy teacher remarked she sang at Prize giving and Tui’s teacher plans a celebration with Tui’s family when he passes his NCEA level 1. Mr Smith was different to the other three students whose parents helped them renegotiate their school membership. Mr Smith’s father was an old boy of the school, knew the principal and called him by name. This established, positive relationship was significant to how Mr Smith’s parents were able to address the issues and enable a smooth reintegration. Mara, Missy and Tui came from low income, Māori and Pasifika households. Mara’s and Missy’s mothers report a history of stand-downs and suspensions for their older children and Tui’s father a significant history of stand-down for Tui. Each of these three parents constructed a purposeful, targeted intervention that addressed the issue at hand that was contributing to their child’s unacceptable behaviour.

All three parents took advantage of an existing relationship with the school and each was operating in a first time school exclusion environment with that child. Tui, for example, had just moved to a new school to live with his father and Mara’s was her first stand-down. Tui’s father set up an email exchange with the year dean where an already positive relationship existed with Tui’s older brother. Mara’s mother approached a sport’s coach for advice and Missy’s the deputy principal who had taught Missy’s older brother. While Tui’s father wanted to put a stop to Tui’s irresponsible behaviour e.g. setting fire to his friend’s dreadlock, Mara’s and Missy’s mothers targeted their interventions to factors external but contributing to the behaviour. Mara had been being bullied by a girl in her class and was truanting. Missy was also being bullied by a group of girls in her class. Both parents engineered a class change for their daughters and as a consequence there were no more stand-downs. The experiences and actions of these parents show the advantages of engaging with parents in a collaborative and purposeful way following a stand-down event.

First stand-downs have the benefit of a fresh page and identifying existing positive school relationships the opportunity to establish a supportive environment for problem solving.

Addressing context For each child each stand-down came from a context that contained a problem. A collaborative, home school interaction identified and resolved these problems for four students but this did not happen for the six who did not remain in school. Each context included critical factors that either affected the student’s ability to access the curriculum or to maintain membership of pro-social friendship groups. There were a high proportion of children with moderate special education needs like reading and processing difficulties, ADHD, possible ASD and Anxiety.

Most were boys who admitted they would misbehave in class so that they didn’t look ‘stupid’ with their mates. Children in the study with behavioural conditions like ASD and ADHD not only found it difficult to access the curriculum, their inability to fit in also made them isolated and vulnerable. This study, therefore, revealed the importance to children of fitting in as an adjunct to being ready to learn.

While being isolated, being bullied and being stood-down seemed to go together in this study, having friends made the students feel safe at school. All of the stand-down incidents

were associated in some way with friendships. In addition a significant number of the stand-down events could be directly attributed to students using non legitimate strategies to resolve bullying. Mara, for example, punched the girl who had been bullying her on Bebo for a year and got stood-down. Bob threw chairs and swore at teachers to be removed from a class where he was bullied. The sort of incident that prompts a decision to stand-down, therefore, presents an opportunity to examine context and identify bullying and other relationship issues with students. School personnel in the study, however, defined bullying incorrectly as individual incidents of assault. Those students particularly who were perceived by teachers as obese were named as bullies though, while they hit out or swore, they were actually recipients of bullying. Principals could take advantage of this information by ensuring all school personnel are aware that bullying exists in uneven power relationships, is repeated and intended to harm. Finally understanding the return to school through applying Wenger’s (1998) modes of belonging to membership of friendship groups may improve the student’s potential to remain in school.

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Conclusion Purposeful, collaborative, home school relationships, therefore, appear a positive way forward to ensure the return to school is seamless and enduring. Some parents find initiating engagement with the school difficult so some strategic planning on effective ways to initiate collaborative discussions with home could be a useful tool. Taking advantage of other already established positive school relationships appears to present an opportunity. Standdown events are also likely to occur in conjunction with either

temporary or long term periods of isolation at school. Strategies that address these isolation contexts and strengthen the child’s position relative to understandings of modes of belonging to the school may prove useful. Finally strategies that reposition the student within a group of friends may also improve the potential for the return to be enduring and trouble free.

References 1. Chaplain, R. (2003). Teaching Without Disruption in the Secondary School: A Model for Managing Student Behaviour.

London. Routledge.

2. Lemke, J. (2000). Across the scales of time: artifacts, activities and meanings in eco-social systems. Mind Culture and Activity, 7 (4), 273–290.

3. Ministry of Education (MOE) (2013). Stand-downs from school.

Accessed at http://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/indicators/ main/student-engagement-participation/80346 4. Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of Practice Learning, Meaning and Identity. Cambridge. Cambridge University press.

About the Author Dr Patty Towl is an ex high school principal whose teaching experience is with middle school students with moderate, special education, learning and behaviour needs. Her doctoral research investigated the return to school following a stand-down event. She would like to find out more about the resources schools need to make every stand-down event a learning experience for children.

Contact for responses to this article phtowl@gmail.com

Highlights at Hillsborough Liz Hawes Editor

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To say a person is ‘passionate’ is a cliché these days. Overuse of the word has stripped it of its punch and status. A pity, because when you describe Nicola Girling, principal of Hillsborough School in Auckland, it’s the word that leaps to the top of the list.

It springs out in neon lights blinding you with accompanying dosages of enthusiasm and energy because to meet Nicola Girling is to meet a human dynamo.

When you question the effervescent principal about her work life balance the word variety emerges. Ah yes variety is synonymous with relaxation in Nicola Girling’s world. The more activities you are engaged in, the more satisfaction you get, and satisfaction is relaxation!

Her extra-curricular activities include membership of the Auckland Primary Principals’ Association (APPA) Council since 1997, Emergency Medical Technician (Ambulance Officer) training, gym sessions, swimming four mornings a week and Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) training.

Then there are of course the myriad nieces and nephews and unrelated children who have just ‘adopted’ her into their lives, and for whom she makes space, time and connections.

‘I believe that when we are fitter we can focus better,’ she says in defence of her rigorous physical programme. ‘It gives me more energy!’ she quips.

The NLP training is another important feature of her personal life but it quickly becomes apparent that most things Nicola Girling does privately or publicly feed into her most important focus which is the health and wellbeing of the teachers and students in her school.

‘The skills I have learned through the NLP programme are so hugely useful to share with my staff and with the children,’ she enthuses. ‘The programme is all about developing coaching and mentoring skills, both for oneself and others and questioning is

at the heart of everything,’ she says. ‘It is a technique that I use in leadership growth training in my school both with teachers and children,’ she said.

Nicola Girling’s Ambulance Officer training has also paid off, in a most creative way, for her children. ‘I was attending the national rugby league tournament for under-fifteens as part of my training and invited the referees to use our school for a training session of their own,’ she said. ‘The pay-off will be having four of the Junior Warriors Rugby League Team to come and teach the children ‘tag league’’, she beamed. ‘The kids thought that was just awesome!’ she said.

I am invited into Nicola’s Office where we settle down with our tea and biscuits. My eyes are drawn to the vibrant, ‘fluid’ painting over-looking us. Shades of green, red and blue meet in

This expressive piece was painted by Nicola Girling herself and tells her own personal story

And here is the Pièce de résistance The biggest mural in the school looking magnificent

NZ P r i n c i p a l | N o v e m b e r 2 0 13

Nicola shows us the Māori language teaching resource she has constructed from watching the Māori language programme Toku Reo on Māori television.

Checking out what the children are learning

parallel and swirl as one across the three piece mural in varying thicknesses like a gently rising wave of colour that dips and soars, curls in on itself then soars again.

‘I painted that myself ’, she said. It is my own story of being Principal of Hillsborough Primary and I call it ‘From the Mountain to the Sea’. It is a metaphor for my own personal leadership journey,’ she says proudly, before launching into a description.

‘The painting talks of a principal being the pinnacle of a mountain,’ she says. ‘There are many different paths to the top.

Some cross each other, some are broad enough for more than one person, some are narrow, some are steep, some are gentle but they all lead to the top,’ she says.

‘Then you can see that some paths plunge deep and curl in on themselves. That depicts our reflective time which we need for enlightenment,’ she explains.

‘The road ripples and surges and spreads out to reach others.

These are our staff, our students and our communities and in turn, they replenish us with their energy and ideas and so the cycle continues,’ she explains.

‘Hillsborough School’, she says, ‘is like an ocean, reflecting light, rising to peaks of achievement and plunging to the depths of reflection and critical thinking.

There will always be another mountain to climb and another achievement level to reach. The pathways are many and brilliant colours light the way including those of nature, of people, living things and objects that give life to learning.’

Nicola concludes her story with the proverb: Ko te pai tawhiti, whaia kia tata Ko te pai tata, whakamua kia tina Seek out distant pathways and horizons And cherish those you attain.

The telling of her own story lifts her enthusiasm another notch as she stretches her diminutive frame upwards to proclaim, ‘I get huge pleasure from guiding children to new awareness levels, challenging them and exciting them about learning,’ she says.

‘It’s all about questioning and giving them that love of learning and the capability to become self-directed life-long learners.’

In every classroom I see evidence that this message is filtering through. At the centre of the school’s pedagogy is the development of sound thinking skills.

Nurturing ‘The Habits of Mind’ is a common theme.

Colourfully displayed in classrooms are illustrated skills for success including listening through ears, minds and feelings; creating and innovating to solve problems; trying new ideas even if they don’t always succeed; being clear; using past knowledge for present problems; being ‘wowed’ by the world and wanting to know more; seeing the funny side; being accurate by checking and checking again; never giving up; using all the senses to get as much information as possible; talking and thinking about your own thinking; making plans and asking meaningful questions to set tricky problems to solve.

In another class the teacher uses Tony Ryan’s ‘thinking keys’ approach where children are introduced to ‘key’ concepts that can either enhance or inhibit good thinking. So they have keys called the ‘brainstorming key’, the ‘prediction key’, the ‘what if key’, the ‘combination key’ and so on, which all influence positive thinking. Then they learn about the ‘bar key’ and the ‘brick wall key’ and their ilk which can create barriers to open ended thinking and creativity.

‘We are proud to put thinking skills at the centre of everything we do at Hillsborough,’ says Nicola. ‘We teach thinking skills directly and the whole school adopts a problem solving approach to decision making,’ she says. ‘That means that it is my job to find everyone’s ‘magic button’ not just in the teachers but in the children too,’ she says.

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And one little boy tells Miss Girling all he knows about dinosaurs

She moves easily from classroom to classroom where children are eager to show her what they are working on. A group has been set the task of assigning disaster situations to one of two categories. These are natural and unnatural disasters.

Immediately Miss Girling shifts to questioning mode and deliberately sets a problem for the group to solve. ‘So, let’s look at the wild fire disaster,’ she says. ‘The wild fire might come from a lightning strike, but what if it was deliberately lit? Which category would it go into then?’ she prompts.

‘It’s all about encouraging the children to think broadly and not be single dimension thinkers,’ she says. ‘That’s where questioning is so important because it makes them think beyond the obvious.

Our teachers have all become expert now at prompting the children with questions to extend their thinking,’ she says.

Another class is all eyes and ears as the energetic principal leads them in a Māori action song.

One of the many art works depicting the school’s relationship with the environment

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‘We are working very hard at our Te Reo and our tikanga across the school,’ she says.

To help her teachers she has created a resource of over two hundred lessons and takes her teachers for Te Reo training so that they in turn can teach the children.

‘I did this in my spare time,’ she chuckled, ‘watching the Toku Reo teaching programme on Māori TV.’ Leading the Te reo programme is not the only ‘hands-on’ teaching Nicola Girling does. She also takes the ‘Kiwi-leles’ classes.

‘Any of our children can learn the ukelele,’ she smiles, ‘we provide all the instruments and this is just another option that the kids can take up which doesn’t cost the parents,’ she says.

Involving the school in community activities is another important learning experience according to Nicola, and at Hillsborough that includes visiting and entertaining the aged in local residential care and participating in charity work.

One charity the school is committed to is ‘Daffodil Day’ to support research into cancer. ‘Every year the children create art for ‘Daffodil Day’. Their daffodil art becomes ‘wallpaper’ for the charity’s sponsoring bank, the ANZ,’ she says.

‘It is our way of showing the community the quality of our children’s art work and secondly that our children have developed a sense of service to their community and the ability to reach out beyond themselves,’ she says.

Art is one of Hillsborough school’s great strengths and one of the reasons I have chosen to visit. In fact there has very recently been an exhibition of the children’s art work some of which is displayed in classrooms and corridors. Nicola proudly shows me two vibrantly coloured bowls created and painted by the children for the exhibition. continued on p. 22

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Safer journeyS for child paSSengerS New child restraint laws will affect parents and caregivers but may also affect schools transporting children

from 1 november the mandatory use of child restraints in vehicles was extended by two years. This means that all children are now required to be correctly secured in an ‘approved’ restraint until their seventh birthday. Parents and caregivers must continue to secure any children aged seven in an approved child restraint if one is available in the vehicle, and if not, in any child restraint or safety belt that is available.

These changes have been made by the government to help reduce preventable deaths and serious injuries to child passengers travelling in vehicles on our roads. Seats and safety belts installed in vehicles are designed and manufactured to most effectively protect an average sized adult in the event of a crash. Children, because they are smaller and have a different body shape to adults, need additional seating equipment to keep them as safe as adults in a car.

How will the new rules apply to schools?

How the new rules apply to schools will depend on a number of factors such as the type of vehicle and number of seats, and the age of the children being transported.

One of the main ways to determine how the new rules apply is if your vehicle is defined as a Passenger Service Vehicle – if so certain exemptions from the new rules may apply.

Organisations running a passenger service will have applied for a transport service licence, meaning that they have to meet certain legal standards and requirements to get a licence and operate a passenger service – so if your vehicle falls into this category, you should know.

You can find information to help you assess what, if any, changes are required by your school in the Q&A document at www.nzta.govt.nz/childrestraints What are approved child restraints?

Approved child restraints are ones that meet approved standards so you can be sure that they have been designed and tested to provide an acceptable level of safety.

Approved child restraints include: ■■

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infant restraints for young babies (such as baby capsules or rearfacing convertible car seats) restraints for older babies, toddlers and preschool children (such as convertible or forward-facing car seats) booster seats for preschool and school-aged children. These position children in the seat so they can safely use the adult safety belt child safety harnesses (used with or without a booster seat) for preschool and school-aged children.

The most suitable type of child restraint required to keep a child safe will vary depending on the child’s size. Also if you’re transporting multiple children with child restraints, it’s important to find out the best combination for the children and the vehicle. So it’s important to seek expert advice and ideally have the restraints fitted to the vehicle.

More information is available at www.nzta.govt.nz/childrestraints including resources that can be shared with parents and caregivers.

This includes leaflets in seven languages which can be ordered and posters which can be downloaded.

What are the rules from 1 November 2013?

Age of child

The law says you must:

until their 7th birthday

correctly secure your child in an approved child restraint

Age of child

The law says you must:

from their 7th to their 8th birthday

correctly secure your child in an approved child restraint if one is available in the vehicle (and if not, in any child restraint or safety belt that is available)

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The artistic works the children have collectively created spill seamlessly from the classroom to the corridors and beyond to the school playground.

‘We are so lucky to have a very talented and committed art teacher on our staff,’ says Nicola. ‘Patricia Carlyle leads the art programme across the school, sharing her talents, ideas and techniques with staff and children alike’, she says.

Art meets you as you walk in the main entrance to the school in the form of a three dimensional sea scape of fish, rocks, water and swirling koru shaped wave crests. ‘We are so fortunate to have such a great location,’ says Nicola, ‘with the Manukau Harbour visible in one direction and expansive playing fields in the other,’ she says.

‘shadow art’. ‘Patricia took photos of the children at full physical stretch playing a variety of sports, projected the images on to the white boards and the children painted them,’ said Nicola.

The cultural diversity of the school is also represented in the outdoor art. The school’s mix is about one third European New Zealanders, one third Indians and one third Asians and in total there are thirty-one different cultures.

‘The pole art tries to incorporate this mix of cultures,’ explains Nicola. The copper images are beaten and some are beaten in Indian Hana style, like the hand for example,’ she says.

So far I am feeling overwhelmingly impressed by the standard and quality of the outdoor art work at Hillsborough as we scurry from one gem to another but the best was still to come – the

A proud principal, Nicola Girling

Mosaic work by the children

‘The children designed this seascape to represent our closeness to the harbour and under the careful instruction of artistic whizz, Patricia, put it together,’ she said.

Perhaps one of the most defining art works is the giant HPS, (Hillsborough Primary School). Two linked Kauri trees shape the ‘H’, A Rata tree etches out the ‘P’ and the Koru forms the ‘S’. As with much of the art at Hillsborough, the artistic depiction has layers of meaning. The three images also represent the school’s three syndicate teams which are unsurprisingly called Kauri, Rata and Koru. It doesn’t end there. The images are also metaphors. The Kauri portrays strength, the strength to support everyone. The Rata is about growing tall and colourfully, inviting all to be part of the school and the Koru is about protection and new beginnings.

Every classroom is numbered, only at Hillsborough the numbers are made in mosaic tiles.

‘This was a whole school project and each room designed their own mosaic pattern for their room number,’ said Nicola. ‘Room one chose to incorporate a star and room four wanted a soccer ball!’ she laughed. ‘It was up to them to decide and then Patricia led them in the technique of actually making the mosaic tiles,’ she said.

The mosaic work extends to other areas of the playground where walls are adorned with magnificent mosaic roosters, frogs, turtles, butterflies and more.

‘With Patricia’s guidance and volunteer help from our parent community, the children with special artistic talent made the clay, cut out the tiles and painted them,’ said Nicola.

The netball court area was very effectively adorned with

major outdoor mural.

‘I call this our pièce de résistance,’ says Nicola proudly.

Individual children’s paintings join up to cover a ten metre stretch of concrete block wall, in a stunning array of bird life, fish, flowers, trees and sea creatures. Even a dolphin and a penguin join the foray of artistic splendour. It is truly a professional work of art.

‘The wonderful thing is,’ says Nicola, ‘that while the school was once plagued by break-ins and graffiti, we get none of that now.’

The beauty of the art work is undeniable and much too precious to defile but another reason for the school’s current lack of unwanted invasion Nicola puts down to the fantastic support of her parent community.

‘Parents want the school to be safe for their children not only during the school hours but also at weekends and after school,’ she says. ‘Our neighbourhood doesn’t have nearby parks so the school grounds are also the weekend playground for the children. This means the parents keep a very close eye on what is going on in the grounds after hours,’ she said.

It was a colourful and most pleasurable experience to visit Hillsborough, and become immersed in its people, philosophies, talents and values. In turn it made me think about what I have recently heard international educational experts saying. Their message is that developing critical thinking, questioning and innovation skills in today’s children is priority because these are the key skills that they will require in their future working lives. That being the case, I thought, the children of Hillsborough School will be well and truly prepared for their adult lives.

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The manufacture of education myths and mantras

Some reflections on the Christchurch school renewal project Gregory Lee and Howard Lee

Readers of The Press who reside in Christchurch City, the commentators as possible, especially if it is to be employed in Selwyn district, and the Waimakariri district will have received other communities throughout New Zealand subsequently– in their mailboxes (if they can be accessed, because of the albeit, with a tailor made rationale. earthquakes) three brochures from the Ministry of Education, To be fair to the Key Government and to the Minister of in November 2012, February 2013, and in May 2013, each titled Education, the agendas underpinning restructuring or renewal Greater Christchurch Education Renewal. These professionally have not been hidden in the documentation released publicly. produced publications, taken together, are intended to inform They have made it abundantly clear that the earthquakes residents and readers about developments associated with have given rise to a situation where schooling in the greater the National Government’s renewal strategy. People who Christchurch region needed to be looked at closely in order to have studied this literature identify those schools where already may have concluded enrolments have decreased, that the main aim behind There is no doubt that what is to determine where schools the renewal of the education happening presently constitutes one are located presently and system is to enhance schooling to decide whether or not provision and the quality of of the larger scale changes to they should remain in those education delivered in the communities, as well as region’s schools, primarily on schools and schooling in the greater proposing sites where new account of the physical effects Christchurch area for several schools could be established. of the earthquakes on school Not surprisingly any decision buildings and sites, and taking generations at least. to close a school, or to merge into consideration the number it with another institution, of pupils attending schools that have been affected adversely will undergo extensive community scrutiny, as demonstrated in by the succession of earthquakes. Readers could be forgiven the pages of The Press over the last several months. Cantabrians for arriving at such a conclusion, although we wish to suggest should expect nothing less. In this regard it is possible that that there are other–arguably, even more important–factors the Government has underestimated–especially in the earlier to examine under the rubric of ‘school renewal’. There is no stages of the renewal initiative, last year–the extent to which doubt that what is happening presently constitutes one of the many if not all communities have embraced for more than two larger scale changes to schools and schooling in the greater decades the Picot Taskforce’s firm recommendation (which Christchurch area for several generations at least. As a result the remains unchallenged by any government since 1989) that strategy, and its rationale, need close inspection from as many closer school-community relationships ought to be secured

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and maintained nationwide. The fact that communities have was relayed to affected parties merely under the guise of public indeed treated this recommendation seriously post 1989 is consultation, yet some commentators have suggested that shown in the voluminous newspaper correspondence relating while the Minister of Education has (re)considered and is (re) to both interim and final decisions for retaining, closing, or considering documentation provided by the boards of trustees merging individual schools, given that parents and other parties and principals of affected schools, the renewal project–as a broad take great interest in schooling matters in their respective strategy–is set to proceed. Moreover, when certain mantras localities. We believe that this should come as no surprise to the behind the renewal strategy are understood and examined Government, the Minister of clos ely, t he public may Education, and to Ministry of conclude with a greater sense One can imagine the reaction Education officials associated of confidence that the National with the current renewal to these articles of faith from Government is wedded firmly strategy. to a particular orientation T he re is b ou nd to b e teachers who have been worked toward what schools and considerable speculation schooling in Canterbury post assiduously in the region’s many about the degree to which 2013 should look like. government ‘consultation’ with older schools, built in the 1950s, What, t hen, do es t his communities over the school orientation entail? It is one in renewal project was (and is) who are now being told that they are which a succession of mantras real or imagined. While it is are advanced with supreme much more likely to be better true that consultation should, confidence, in the belief that and does, not proceed on the teachers by the mere act of working most if not all Cantabrians assumption that a consensus will absorb and echo them must be achieved, we would in either a modern or a new uncritically and that they will like questions to be posed about embrace their underpinning institution. the perceptions that underpin philosophy enthusiastically. change proposals and regarding For example, in November the extent to which a particular policy is deemed so attractive 2012 the Ministry of Education boldly declared that “renewing to officials that it is highly improbable it will be abandoned, the education sector” offers “a unique opportunity to make either fully or in large part. It is probably too soon to conclude it better by addressing inequality of learning”. Leaving aside that consultation has or has not occurred, or that information the clumsy written expression, the Ministry’s message is unambiguous: only in a modern schooling environment can “new ways of delivering education” be promoted, and only in this environment can “an innovative approach, to do things in new and better ways” be adopted. In addition, a direct connection is made between “[having] access to a good quality education”, placing schools “in the right locations”, the application of “new thinking” about education–schooling, predominantly–and the Your 2014 teacher erection of new schools.

One can imagine the reaction to these articles of faith from guide contains teachers who have been worked assiduously in the region’s many information about: older schools, built in the 1950s, who are now being told that 42 exciting new mini they are much more likely to be better teachers–and to be better newspaper topics positioned to address “inequality of learning”–by the mere act of working in either a modern or a new institution. The naivety How you can receive NiE is disturbing in one respect but not in another, depending on topics for free! how one views a schooling mantra(s). There is a predictable but How you can access our unexamined emphasis on establishing “21st century schools” free Activinspire interactive and on “[creating] a 21st century education system for greater whiteboard activities 2014NiEIDE Christchurch”, as if to suggest that anything done in the name TEACHER GU of ‘education’ prior to the year 2000 ought to be jettisoned If you haven’t already AVAILABLE received your free copy of forthwith because it is dated, irrelevant, ‘unimodal’, ‘inflexible’, NOW! our 2014 teacher guide call and–by inference–lacking in quality. It appears that the Ministry, us and we’ll send one out to Minister, and the National Government are more willing to plan you. Alternatively, visit the for the future than to give thought to what is worth preserving teacherzone section of our in and from the present, and perhaps the past. website and download a While thinking about what the future of schools and schooling digital copy: bit.ly/VFRwPi might entail is desirable and, perhaps, necessary, it would be regrettable if it is pursued without consideration of that which To learn more call us on 0800 849 971 is, and has been, worthwhile educationally. That their chosen orientation is unapologetically ‘future focused’ should not come Or e-mail nie@fairfaxmedia.co.nz as a surprise to readers, because ‘the present’–and, certainly, ‘the Order online: www.fairfaxnie.co.nz

Discover how Fairfax NiE can help students and teachers in 2014!

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NZ P r i n c i p a l | N o v e m b e r 2 0 13

past’–receive minimal attention for the reason that they are seen as being static, lacking in innovation, and antithetical to the now familiar and much overworked ‘moving forward’ discourse. To put the point another way, it has been taken for granted by the Ministry and by the Minister of Education that having “great new facilities” in the “brighter, more modern schools” that are to be built will, by definition, ensure that all children will have “access to good, quality education within a close distance of where they live.” Such thinking deserves careful analysis, because the inference is that without such schools and facilities high quality schooling will be the exception rather than commonplace.

In this regard, and in several others, the work of Dr Clarence Beeby, a former Director of New Zealand Education (1940–1960) and an internationally renowned educationist and educational administrator, is especially pertinent. Beeby reminded us that myths in education (e.g., equality of educational opportunity) can have enormous public appeal, when embraced, because they have the power to drive educational change (if not reform) and to secure public acceptance of that change. For this to happen a proposed educational policy must be aspirational, but it need not be attainable. Rather, it can have “approachable goals”, to use Beeby’s wording, a sense of direction and purpose but not prescription, and it can indicate outcomes that are neither always achievable nor predicted with certainty. As a prominent New Zealand educational historian, Professor David McKenzie, has observed a myth must be plausible in order for it to succeed. It has to engage with sufficient numbers of sector interest groups–to appeal to the hearts and minds of teachers, parents, pupils, and other parties–otherwise it will lapse.

We maintain that the present Government and its representatives are using a variety of schooling mantras in the publicity material relating to the educational renewal programme, in the hope that those of us residing in the greater Christchurch area will embrace the sentiments contained in them uncritically. If Cantabrians embrace these mantras, or catchphrases, without interrogation then it is more likely that a succession of new schooling myths will be perpetuated, some of which may have dubious or minimal educational worth. Given the far-reaching nature of the renewal project and its possible adoption nationwide, it is especially important that a large number of citizens take the time to study the Ministry’s brochures diligently, to ask searching questions about the assumptions that underpin them, and to demand comprehensive and intelligent responses from the National Government and from the Ministry of Education.

Dr Gregory Lee Professor of Education History and Policy The College of Education The University of Canterbury Private Bag 4800 Christchurch 8140 Dr Howard Lee Professor of Education Policy and History The Institute of Education Massey University Private Bag 11-222 Palmerston North 4442

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The Hidden Politics of Tomorrow’s Schools from a Parent’s Perspective Brigit Manning Havelock North – brigit.manning@gmail.com

It is tempting to feel sorry for the teaching profession which often seems caught between a rock and a hard place. But this is a mistake! If any profession has the talent, energy and organisational ability to advance change for the better, then it is the teaching profession. So the next question is: why do they not use their talents to help themselves? There are at least two reasons.

In my opinion, a giant drama triangle, often called the persecutor/victim/rescuer cycle, exists between teachers, the Ministry of Education and parents, energised by their coinciding and diverging interests. The net result of this public game is an undercurrent of discontent and this is what makes the education sector so vulnerable to narrowly-supported and unpopular political initiatives – of which we have seen so many in recent years.

supporting schools? Does it spend tax payer money well? Could it do the job better?

I believe it is time to change the focus from scrutinising teachers and children by way of complex and suspect assessment systems, and, amongst other things, do a whole-of-life analysis of the teaching career, asking questions such as:

So how does this drama triangle work?

The interests of the Ministry and those of teachers are clearly aligned in one area: The Ministry, with its central direction of all state and integrated schools, saves schools from the extremely difficult task of reaching consensus with parents over the myriad issues which must be decided upon in the running of schools and the teaching of children. At the same time, Tomorrow’s Schools gives them considerable freedom to decide what and how they teach. These two facts provide a huge disincentive against working for changes that would enable schools and teachers to engage with their communities in the same way that other organisations serving their communities do. It is much easier to deal with a Ministry than to achieve consensus within a community of parents, which in the state system can be very diverse.

Another unhappy reason that change for the better is not progressed from within the system is approval and the seeking of it. In a strictly hierarchical way, the Minister of Education sits at the top, then comes the Ministry, then the principals of schools, colleges, kindergartens etc., followed by teachers, students and parents. Being low down the chain places parents on the back foot in their dealings with schools. Yet it is parents providing both the children and the funding. They should be regarded the valued customer in every interaction. The forward path for education in New Zealand, I believe, is to move away from this centrally-controlled approval system."

This top-down flow of approval creates a climate where engagement on equal terms between school, staff, parents and the Ministry is impossible and effectively prevents anyone from finding out how the Ministry performs its role of supporting schools. As a parent and tax payer, I would like to see the Ministry playing a vital, proactive supporting role in the job of teaching and managing schools – and it may well do so, in a low-profile way, whereas it fulfils its testing and auditing/review role quite publicly.

So what kind of a job does the Ministry do in its role of

Unfortunately the prevailing currency of approval prevents these kinds of questions being asked by people within the education system. But they should be asked. Our country can aspire to be the best place in the world to be a teacher – and just think what this would achieve – quite quickly.

Under Tomorrow’s Schools, schools are required to consult with their parent communities on strategic direction at fairly infrequent intervals. I have been astounded to find a complete lack of strategic thinking by the board of one state school as it fulfilled its requirement for consultation with parents for a strategic plan. I now believe that the requirement to consult with parents over strategic plans is inappropriate. Strategic thinking derives from war and commerce and is directed towards simple binary outcomes of winning or losing, profit or loss. Any public education initiative is a multi-faceted undertaking that requires a broader, deeper and richer frame of reference.

The board of this school chose to ask questions about parents’ values. A quick look at other schools’ web sites shows that it is not alone in this approach. This is where religious and special character schools have a huge advantage over state schools: they attract a parent community in which there is already a consensus of values and beliefs. Generally, they enjoy the trust of parents who are very grateful and supportive. While state schools look ultimately to the Minister of Education, religious and special character schools have a higher calling that is respected by parents. Small country schools also have a parent community united, in this case, by its lifestyle choice. Large, high-decile city schools with diverse communities and lower Government funding find themselves in a most unfortunate position.

The interests of the Ministry and of parents are meant to coincide in seeking the best education for our children to the benefit of all. But this is far too simplistic. The Education Review Office can ensure that tax payer funds are not over allocated (this is different from ensuring that funds are well spent) and that all kinds of legislative paperwork

■■ ■■

■■

How are new teachers supported?

Can we create career paths for senior and retired teachers so that they can offer hands-on support and mentoring to new teachers within the regions in which they have spent their working lives?

Who can help in marking assignments so that all student work is read and recognised, and the class teacher alerted to each child’s learning needs?

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are complied with. But the ERO cannot determine whether a school is providing the best possible education for my child, which is the central question of all parents. The diversity of education needs within families, let alone amongst wider communities, prevents any central office from meaningfully contributing to this question. In any event the ERO role itself must surely now be considered for review with the advent of national standards and the ability of anyone to review a school or a teacher’s performance online.

Disaffected parents and students can quickly and anonymously lacerate the reputations of teachers and schools according to how they feel at the time. This is something that no Ministry can protect teachers from and underlines my central argument: the relationship between schools and parents has to change – and this change needs to be driven by people who understand the teaching profession.

To illustrate my point I refer to the case of the teacher who routinely calls meetings of class parents and, when dealing with individual issues that are raised, does not assume responsibility for solving issues presented but seeks contribution from the parents present. This takes courage. It affirms the capabilities of parents and builds on their strength as a unique community. Parents receiving this level of support are unlikely to resort to the internet to vent frustration – rather they are more likely to support other parents in their hour of need. The teacher in this example observes that parents are adults after all who have much to offer – not just in fundraising, school outings and telephone trees, but in dealing with the really difficult challenges of raising and teaching children.

This teacher was able to draw on the strengths within the parent community because she had created a forum for the sharing of ideas and concerns by holding a parent meeting each term.

This takes time and energy. I would prefer that more teachers’ time and energy was directed towards active engagement with their parent communities, and less spent jumping through administrative hoops set by the Ministry. But do teachers want to actively engage with their parent communities, or would they rather continue to allow the Ministry to hold teachers and schools accountable on behalf of parents and tax payers and accept the administrative overburden which goes with that?

Equally, do parents wish to address the really big questions about what treasures from our educational heritage we wish to keep, and which must be relinquished to make way for the everexpanding fields of skill and understanding now at our disposal?

Change arising from within the education system is one petal of an unfolding flower, if it is to bloom in full, this must be matched with a simultaneous growth within the communities and society that schools serve. Improving the performance of our schools, teachers and children will best be achieved by all parties wholeheartedly considering options that remove stress, resolve conflict and release energy – not by tinkering with mechanisms for assessing and comparing teacher and student performance.

I received my state school education in the 1970s and early 80s.

It continues to serve me well and I am grateful for it.

About the Author Brigit has studied earth science and journalism and held various roles in news reporting, marketing and PR, before finding her niche in technical and business writing that she has occupied for 18 years. Between contract assignments and parenting responsibilities, she enjoys writing about the education system.

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09) 367 9111 For more information visit Fullers.co.nz

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Revitalising the role of public education

An alternative to the growing privatisation of education Bruce Hammond

I was recently sent a rather long article written by Henry Giroux. I struggled to read it, but I believe it is important to share the ideas he writes about in order for educators to restore the true aims of education. Giroux sees education as central to the development of a just and democratic society currently under attack by neo–liberal thinking.

There is no doubt that current political leadership, influenced by a neo–liberal philosophy of small government, individualism and the need to privatise all aspects of living, has led to the erosion of the belief in the common good resulting in a growing gap between so called ‘winners and losers’.

The winners are the financial and corporate elite. This elite, composed of right-wing think tanks and extreme fundamentalist political groups (the Tea Party in America and the ACT party in New Zealand) are increasingly focusing on privatising education for their own profit. There is big money to be made!

The neo-liberal authoritarian (‘big brother’) political landscape does not encourage questioning and those who dare are regarded as mischievous or ignored. This has been the fate of respected educationalists who have dared to criticise the National Party’s imposition of National Standards which are more about political than educational ends. To open the way for privatisation in the form of charter schools there is a need to compare schools in order to prove public school failure – so data is required – unfortunately this is data gathered from a narrow range of learning areas which results in a narrowing of the curriculum and teaching to the tests.

Since the 1970s there has been an intensification of the antidemocratic pressures of neo–liberal governments of the Anglo

West. The welfare state is being dismantled, social services reduced and, as a result there is growing unemployment, higher crime rates and environments that see people as disposable and, in the case of unemployed youth, a problem rather than a resource. Poor minorities and vast numbers of the working class, and increasingly the middle class, are denied social support.

Keeping up with the Joneses has been replaced with the struggle to simply survive. According to Giroux we have moved ‘from a society of producers to a society of consumers’.

Young people in particular, says Giroux, no longer see much hope in such an unfair society with its ethos of greed. ‘The mall and the prison’ he writes, ‘have become the pre-eminent institutions for symbolising what the future holds for them as they suffer the soft war of commodification or the hard war of hyper-punishment and possible incarceration’. This marginalisation of youth can be seen in in any city and town in New Zealand. The belief in the common good with its shared social bonds, established after the Great Depression – in America

by Roosevelt’s ‘New Deal’ which established the welfare state and at the same time by the first Labour Government in New Zealand – have been replaced by rampant selfish individualism.

In response, around the world, young people are taking things into their own hands demonstrating against this creeping authoritarianism and the pernicious effect of corporate influence in all aspects of life.

The shared destiny and collective responsibility of working towards a decent life for all has been ‘replaced by a market driven ideology that now privatises, commodifies, atomises and taints most everything it touches’. Today right wing politicians happily demonise people on welfare saying ‘the poor have it too easy’

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and the unemployed are just lazy – such people are seen as a burden, a problem they wish would go away – forgetting it was their polices that created the situation in the first place.

The savage neo-liberal worldview that has a grip on American society has its grip equally in New Zealand. The ‘cheerleaders for neo- liberalism’, Giroux writes, ’live in circles of certainty and are deeply suspicious of anyone who dares think critically, asks damaging questions, holds power accountable, or challenges the existing order’. Giroux calls this a ‘hardening of the culture’ . . . ‘ushering a spirit of meanness’ where ‘bonds of trust are replaced by bonds of fear and humiliation’. We now live in an environment in which mass surveillance by Governments – coming soon in New Zealand – makes it clear that the distinction between the innocent and the guilty has broken down. The ‘nanny state’, so despised by the neo-liberals, has been replaced by Orwell’s ‘big brother’ state.

As a result of these undemocratic forces, Giroux believes that education as an alternative liberating force needs to be taken seriously. ‘No democracy,’ he writes, ‘can survive without an education system that offers the public opportunities to broaden their knowledge, skills and values in ways that enhance and expand their capacities to think critically, imagine otherwise and create the conditions for shared responsibilities’.

This takes the educational debate well away from the current narrowness of National Standards. In contrast Giroux sees schools as ‘enabling people to be able to assume the role of critical agents, thinking subjects, and critically engaged citizens, willing to learn how to govern . . . able to care for others’. This is the intent of the all but side-lined 2007 New Zealand Curriculum.

Education as a means to providing the conditions to produce an informed citizenry is the last thing, Giroux believes, the financial

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and corporate elite would want. They prefer, for the masses, the ‘idiocy of celebrity culture . . . embraced by a commodity based culture, the privatisation of all services, possessive individualism, ‘me first’, and crass materialism’. What the corporate elite want is a compliant unquestioning world with pedagogy that produces political quietism served by the repressive surveillance view of education that schools are being forced to comply with.

To escape this world view, which is increasingly being taken for granted, there needs to be a collective transformation of consciousness and values. ‘Until people unlearn values’, Giroux writes, ‘neo-liberalism and other forms of oppression will be normalised, viewed as common-sense, self-evident, and removed from critical inquiry. Without a change of consciousness, it becomes difficult for people to recognise the predatory and pernicious ideologies and effects of a savage casino-capitalism that has a real stake in producing injustice . . . and culminates in a full-fledged assault on the environment’. It was in this cut throat world of ‘winners and losers’ and ‘casino capitalism’ that our current Prime Minister gained his reputation.

For many it seems as if we have no alternative; that we all have to live with the demands of the market and that ‘sufferings, hardships and successes are simply a function of individual choice and responsibility’. To combat this, schools need to develop a ‘language of both critique and hope’. Only through education will people be able to unlearn their attachments.

Giroux writes ‘once education becomes instrumentalised, transformed into training for the workplace, or reduced to the mind-numbing misery of teaching to the test, those pedagogies and values that encourage students to take risks, engage in critical, creative and collaborative thinking, care for the other, and cultivate

a deep commitment to the public good begin to vanish from our educational institutions’. What is being lost in this push for quantitative measurement is not only respect for teachers, students and professional judgement but also the view of public education as a means of sustaining a real, inclusive democracy – an alternative to the current rule by financial and corporate elites.

In New Zealand, as in America we are seeing right wing politicians blaming school failure on teachers and on their unions rather than seeing them as dedicated public servants. To combat the forces behind these attacks, if education is to be reclaimed as a common good, these threats need to be made visible. We need fully educated citizens, with their unique talents developed; in preference to being sorted into above, at, below or well-below by the ‘shonky,’ limited National Standards with which schools are being forced to comply. We need a personalised rather than a standardised education system.

While the right wing politicians blame schools for the ‘one in five failing’, ignoring in the process the effects of the poverty their very policies have produced, the’ biggest problem’ Giroux writes, ‘is not that they were failing – but that they were public’.

The so called new “reformers” want to privatise education as a ‘part of their attack on all things public, which also includes public servants such as teachers and especially teacher unions’, disguising their intentions by pushing such terms as freedom and choice. According to their rhetoric teachers are the problem because they lack accountability and are protected by self-serving unions. There is a ‘refusal to address how larger structural issues such as racism, income inequality and exploding poverty impact on school failings or how education should be reformed in light of these forces’.

The new ‘reformers’, who push their agenda of privatisation by funnelling taxpayers’ money into private schools, standardisation, high stakes testing, and school competition, are really reactionaries intent on returning schooling to its earlier grading and sorting role. In the process, by privatising education through charter schools and the provision of textbooks and tests, they allow vested interests to make a lot of money.

‘Another get rich scheme shrouded in the veneer of altruism!’

In contrast, those who advocate egalitarian reforms see schools as organisations that promote democracy, where young people have, ‘access to the expertise, skills and experience that both deepen their understanding of history, the arts, the sciences – of humanist traditions . . . and the new world of advanced technologies, digital communications and screen culture’. Such an enlightened view of education is not just for students to find meaningful work but also to ensure students, ‘become critical and engaged citizens of the world.’

The message for New Zealand teachers is to focus on implementing the 2007 New Zealand Curriculum and not to be side-tracked by limiting National Standards.

‘Public schools need to be defended as public goods that benefit, not just individual children and their parents, but an entire society’. New Zealand would be well-advised to look towards Finland rather that America for their inspiration in this respect.

‘Those market and corporate forces that now undermine public education in the name of fixing it have little to do with democracy and critical teaching and learning . . . battling against those forces puts one on the side of genuine educational reform’.

Giroux writes that we should be ‘fighting for smaller schools and classes, more resources, more full-time quality teachers’. And,

he continues, ‘all attempts at the privatisation and corporatisation of schools must be rejected so as to make education truly public and widely accessible’.

‘Teachers’, he writes, ‘need to work under conditions that provide them with the autonomy that enables them to take risks, be creative, and draw upon a range of educational approaches and pedagogies’. Teachers need to fight ‘against the imperatives of standardisation and testing’. He continues, ‘we need modes of pedagogy that enliven the imagination, create thoughtful and curious students, incorporate an ethic of civic responsibility, and teach the practice of freedom’. He writes that ‘we need to connect education to the lives and ideas that young people bring to any learning situation’.

Giroux, quite rightly, sees education as a political act helping every student to come to terms with their own powers as individual and social agents. Pedagogy is not neutral, ‘a viable mode of critical pedagogy must treat young people with respect and enable them to develop their own voice and sense of agency, and to do so in an environment that is thoughtful, critical, humane, and challenging’.

Giroux, echoing the thoughts of John Dewey, believes that ‘education at all levels is the fundamental precondition that makes democratic politics possible, providing the space where meaningful histories, voices and cultural differences can flourish’.

It seems to me that in New Zealand – as in America – we have yet to realise such a vision of democratic schooling and, if we continue with the current standardisation, we never will.

Such a vision is surely worth fighting for.

What is the alternative?

NZ Principal | N o v e m b e r 2 0 13

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School Lines Children are Children, and Statistics are Numbers Lester Flockton

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

A professorial friend of mine (that is, a warmly and most respected academic) once remarked to me that the whole focus of teacher education should be on child development. Now when you think about it, that could mean leading teachers into much deeper, profound and resolute understandings about how children really learn, how much they can learn, the pace at which they can learn, the things that stimulate and excite their learning, and the things that frustrate and obstruct it. It might also help us to be clearer about what we might sensibly expect of children’s individual rates of progress and achievement apropos selective measures in singular domains, such as literacy and numeracy.

Child development is a complex mix of the intellectual, physical, emotional, aesthetic, moral (and now also, technological). It is a hugely fascinating field full of truths, insights and contradictions – convenient and inconvenient, observable and unobservable.

Yet it is a window to a deeper understanding about learning.

Regrettably, that window is largely closed or painted over. It seems incomprehensibly and reprehensibly out of fashion, favouring instead current technicist orthodoxies that the late Jim Neyland (Victoria University) termed “scientific management” of education. This orthodoxy is characterised by standards and standardisation, measurement and evidence and, above all, that glorious data!

What teachers might come to accept from a deep grounding in child development that makes indelible imprints on the professional mind (tattoos on the brain) is a resolute acceptance of the complexity and richness of difference and diversity, that all children are not created equal, that they do not all benefit from privilege and opportunity, that one size does not fit all cultures let alone all children, that so-called “quality teaching” is far from enough for some, and that it is a nonsense to expect all to succeed to targets of “at” or “above”, regardless of the hell bent

Smart Operators Use Smartsquare SPORTS • EXAMS • FUNCTIONS

mantra of “quality teaching” (as though this is a new idea) and the false trickery of medicinal “data”. John Hattie’s truism should never be lost sight of: “There will always be 20 per cent below”.

In her recent release of the Government’s education “Report Card”, Minister of Education Parata proclaimed, “It’s about shifting away from statistics to numbers”. (As one blogger commented, “Hell – and she’s the Minister of Education.)

“It’s about shifting away from statistics to numbers,” she said.

“This report confirms we are well on track, but also keeps us honest – we need to keep a laser-like focus on achievement and act quickly when we see a child can learn more and where we see children falling behind.”

Ms Parata says it shows Māori and Pasifika achievement rates are trending up, but from a very low base.

(3 News, 13 August, 2013)) However well intentioned these data (statistics, numbers), garnished with blatant indigestible political blah, it is inevitably about electioneering. As Robin Alexander observes: Of all the so-called ‘levers’ of systemic reform, tests (or data) seem to be the instrument of choice in policy-makers’ efforts to do the two things which they believe they must always be seen to do: raise educational standards and call teachers and schools to account. This means that tests (or data) are high stakes not just for children and teachers but also for politicians, and that they may be as much about political capital as educational progress. It also means that there’s always the risk that politics will drag what ought to be a carefully considered debate about the quality of education into the gutter of electioneering.

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Of course Ms Parata wants to boast “trending up”, otherwise her government’s policies become a cynical joke. But extreme caution needs to be exercised before swallowing the hype.

Remember (and please don’t forget) that the main reason given by the Government for introducing National Standards was to rescue the 20 per cent they claimed were failing (although now that we have national standards data, that percentage is oddly higher than that). Now if you look at their school report on the Ministry of Education website, you will see that they have a goal for trending up improvement. The goal is that by 2017, 85 per cent of children will be at or above the standards. So, from 16 out of 20 (80 per cent) children succeeding before national standards were introduced, 17 out of 20 children (85 per cent) will be succeeding (maybe) after 7 years of single-mindedness. Clearly, the fix-it policy is going to drag out over a very long time – but, in the meantime, what about all of those highly paid Ministry expert “SAPs” who were going to rev up the acceleration and remediation of learning through their extraordinarily superior elixirs. According to the “data”, it seems they must be buzzing on very low octane fuel, yet that fuel is costing a great deal more than high-grade fuel! So, where does all of this lead us. Again, Hattie seems to have hit the nail on the head: The politicians, advocates, and officials who promised improvement from their policies then start to become concerned that they do not see the gains promised by their national standards policies. Maybe, they say, the standards were too aspirational, and we cannot have a system that “fails” so many, so it is necessary to take stock, conduct a review, and so on. This can lead to complicity in finding ways to make the policies seem successful. This path includes presenting data in “interesting” ways such as using fancy graphs, changing of the standards (in a particular direction), and higher baying of criticism at the culprits who are causing this lack of success (i.e. schools.

(Hattie, 2010) The constant accompaniment to the serving up of data in all of this, is the tedious baying about teacher quality. Teacher quality (along with data, of course) is the official panacea for everything from serious behavioural problems to fixing underachievement among children who are highly over-represented from low socioeconomic and dysfunctional home circumstances.

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It is about time Ms Parata and her officials started to understand children’s development and acknowledge the truth of the matter, which has been so simply and clearly stated by Robert Stake: Student test scores are only weakly related to the quality of schooling. What determines the level of student performance is some rich mix of genetic predisposition, infant nurturing, sibling rivalry, early childhood experiences, peer interactivity, exposure to language and word games, television, and schooling. Schools are good for children, but schools cannot overcome deep deficits.

(Stake, 1999).

If I have repeated myself from previous “School Lines” columns, I make no apology. It is abundantly clear that we need to continue to hammer home the message.

Postscript In defence of data, I know that it has some “indicative” value, but too much of it falls short of giving a wholesome, accurate and balanced account of everything it purports to represent, or all that children know and can do. All data are the hard outer shell of what they represent. They tell little about the soft underbelly!

Data might sometimes contribute to improved teaching, but that depends entirely on the choice of subject matter and criteria for “improvement”. In reality, most data about children’s achievement tells good teachers little that they did not already know. Data is inglorious!

Reference: Alexander, R.(University of Cambridge, UK.). The Perils of Policy.

Success, amnesia and collateral damage in systemic educational reform Miegunyah Distinguished Visiting Fellowship Program 2010, Public lecture, Wednesday 10 March 2010.

Hattie, J. (2010). Horizons and whirlpools: The well travelled pathway of national standards. Unpublished.

Stake, R.L. (1971). National Assessment. Proceedings of the 1970 Invitational Conference on Testing Problems: The Promise and Perils of Educational Information Systems. Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service.

WHAT’S ON TOP? Tragedy as a source of strength . . .

Helen Kinsey-Wightman

I have always believed that it is not solely the events that occur in our life that shape us; but our response to them which builds up a bank of bravery and resilience that we can draw from and build upon.

I am fortunate to have a partner who is also a teacher . . . although years ago when my mother suggested that marrying a teacher might be a practical option allowing for shared school holidays and the potential for overseas travel together, I replied that I had never met a teacher I fancied!

Sometime after meeting my partner (who was obviously the exception) I met up with my lawyer and she asked if my new relationship was going well – when I replied that it was great she said, “Oh, so he must be a teacher too!” I was surprised and asked how she knew. She said that in her long experience of marriage successes and failures some professions work better together than others, “Police officers and nurses work well together, and teachers . . . .” there was a long, slightly uncomfortable pause, “well . . . they only seem to really work with other teachers!”

While I have plenty of teacher friends who are happily married to non-teachers (builders seem to feature strongly amongst the most successful actually) there are real advantages to a relationship with another teacher and shared school holidays are right up there.

In the last holiday Sean and I went down to Christchurch – the first time either of us had been back post-earthquakes. We had bought tickets for the Dave Dobbyn/Don McGlashan concert in the Cardboard Cathedral. For me (don’t tell Don and Dave) it was less about the music choice than the venue – I am probably The Edge’s oldest listener and although I am beginning to realise that the music I grew up with is now all over Classic Hits I refuse to relive my teenage years wearing less cool clothing. My 11 year old son may not rate my coolness quotient quite as highly as I do and even my 3 year old says, “Don’t sing Mummy” when I try to join in with his Noddy CD, however, I think it is less humiliating to be 45 and know the words to Miley’s Wrecking Ball than to be caught singing along to “Like a Virgin” at the traffic lights!

The concert was great – the venue cast a little bit of magic on to the occasion which all of us recognised – not least Dave and Don. One of the great aspects of the evening was the repartee between the 2 artists – they had been touring NZ’s churches for several weeks and are about to embark on a tour of Australia and – somewhat surprisingly – Abu Dhabi. One of Dave’s comments

about Christchurch was that he had heard it referred to as a war zone – he said emphatically and to much applause, “It’s not a war zone it’s a peace zone!”

For me, walking around Christchurch the next day it was hard not to compare it to a warzone – just opposite the Transitional Cathedral is the site of the CTV building and a memorial featuring a white chair for each of the 185 lives lost in the 6.3 quake that hit Christchurch on 22 February 2011, and, near the newly opened Hotel 115 where we stayed, the partly demolished Cathedral building itself. Despite the shock of the changed central city and the sadness of the baby chairs amongst the white painted seats; what gives the city a sense of hope amongst the destruction are the myriad of small art projects, cafés and businesses that have established themselves on temporary sites around the city.

There are cafés in caravans with seated areas created from pallets interspersed with planters and of course the famous RE:Start project where we ate wood fired pizza before the concert, in an outdoor restaurant with a kitchen in a shipping container. Artists have used coloured plastic squares inserted into wire fencing to brighten up areas out of bounds to the public and there are city council sponsored seating areas, gardens and murals.

I have my partner to thank for my own response to the tragedy that was the closure of my small, rural school. My job-hunting had not yet produced a new job – despite being shortlisted and interviewed for every job I had applied for. When the Deputy Principalship of the local Girl’s High School was advertised I talked myself out of applying – notwithstanding that my work overseas as Principal of a large international school incorporating a pre-school, primary and high school and my experience in New Zealand meant that I had all the skills necessary. Instead, I focussed on what I felt were the glaring deficits in my experience – namely my lack of New Zealand secondary training and NCEA experience.

According to Hilary Devey – the straight talking Lancashire pallet entrepreneur on the UK version of Dragon’s Den, in a programme that sought to find out why there are not more woman at the executive and board level in businesses – it is typical of women to focus on the deficits in their skills. With relentless encouragement from Sean, I did apply and was successful.

I know that I will be drawing on the bank of bravery and resilience I have built up over the years as I take up my new position – I hope my approach to the challenges will be as creative and hopeful as Christchurch’s.

NZ Principal | N o v e m b e r 2 0 13

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