Category: Post Primary Teachers Association

“No Government that was for the worker would treat this pay equity process – a process which goes to the heart of treating workers fairly – with such contempt. It’s mean-spirited, unfair and just plain wrong.”

Last modified on Tuesday, 6 May 2025 12:43

Kāhui Ako, or Communities of Learning, bring together schools with the aim of helping students to achieve their full potential. They give highly skilled and experienced teachers the opportunity to lead projects in and across schools, providing support and advice to teachers on agreed priorities such as attendance, transitions and implementation of new government initiatives.

“Kāhui Ako provide an alternative and greatly valued career path for about 4000 teachers around the motu and they need clarity about their future,” says Chris Abercrombie PPTA Te Wehengarua president.

“At the moment the Minister seems to be making unilateral decisions about the programme without any consultation.

“There has also not been any consultation on where the funding could be reallocated for learning support especially in the secondary sector where students’ learning needs are quite different from primary school students’.” 

Last modified on Tuesday, 6 May 2025 11:23

“The Government’s decision to pay our Teaching Council fees indicates that it realises it needs to do everything it can to keep teachers in the profession in the midst of a chronic secondary teacher shortage. Paying teachers’ Teaching Council fees lets teachers know their professional expertise is valued and provides an incentive to stay in the job.

“Teaching is an extremely rewarding and amazing profession; it is also an increasingly challenging and demanding one, so we need to everything possible to keep all of our experienced and skilled teachers in the workforce. Paying their Teaching Council fees is a step in the right direction.”

Chris Abercrombie said the decision was also important in terms of keeping beginning and new teachers in the profession. “Teachers in their first few years of teaching are among the highest number of teachers who are leaving either for better paid work in Australia or for jobs with a reasonable work / life balance here in Aotearoa New Zealand. Teaching Council fees are a significant expense when you’re in your first few years in the job, so this decision will encourage some of these teachers to stay.

“The decision announced today is a positive step. PPTA Te Wehengarua looks forward to working with the Government on other steps to attract graduates into secondary teaching and keep our highly experienced and skilled teachers in the workforce. These include making teachers’ salaries more attractive and making the job more manageable.”

Last modified on Monday, 28 April 2025 12:21

“The Government has made it easier for overseas trained teachers to come to New Zealand to try to address the teaching shortage. It’s hard coming to an entirely new country with an entirely different curriculum and schooling system, so understandably these teachers require support. This support needs to come from experienced teachers, often the same teachers who are responsible for leading the implementation of the new curriculum and NCEA changes in their departments.”

A recent PPTA survey of establishing and overseas trained secondary teachers found that 90% of respondents agreed that mentoring had helped their development. Worryingly, almost 20% of respondents said they did not receive the right amount of mentoring during that time and almost 20% said they did not believe the mentoring they received was good quality.

“That’s why we are launching today a series of initiatives aimed at making the role of the mentor teacher better supported and recognised. These initiatives include the development of clear and detailed guidelines for mentors of teacher trainees, beginning teachers, overseas trained teachers and classroom specialist teachers.”

And in the upcoming collective agreement negotiations, PPTA Te Wehengarua will claim for: 

• Continued funding for the delivery of a highly successful professional development course in effective mentoring
• An increase in the allowance received by teachers mentoring student teachers from $3 an hour to the minimum wage of $23 an hour
• An increase to the unit and allowance payments which are paid to teachers in roles that include mentoring responsibilities.

“Secondary teaching is an amazing and hugely satisfying career. But it’s hard, and particularly teachers in their first five years of teaching need a firm foundation of support to keep them grounded.”

Chris Abercrombie said both academic and anecdotal research showed that effective mentoring and support could ‘make or break’ an establishing teacher. “The quality of mentoring that teachers receive, particularly in their first few years in the profession, can have a significant influence on whether they stay in or leave teaching after their first few years.

“Retaining the experienced teachers that we need in the workforce to pick up these mentoring responsibilities is incredibly important. The largest number of teachers leave after five to 10 years in the profession, exactly the time when we need them to start mentoring new teachers.

Chris Abercrombie said it was appropriate that the mentoring initiatives were being launched at the PPTA Te Wehengarua Network of Establishing Teachers conference, being held in Tāmaki Makaurua today and tomorrow. The network of establishing teachers is made up of secondary teachers with up to 10 years’ experience.

“It is these teachers who we really need to keep in our schools. Everything that can be done, needs to be done, to support their professional growth.”

Last modified on Wednesday, 23 April 2025 14:53

E te mareikura, e Melanie, ngā huruhuru o te whare o Te Wehengarua 

Nā te ngākau aroha koe i ārahi kia tāea ai e tātou o Te Wehengarua kia eke panuku. Nā tōu rangatiratanga i ea ai te whakatauki “Mā mua ka kite a muri, mā muri ka ora a mua” 

Hoki atu koe ki ōu tūpuna, ki ōu maunga, ōu awa, ōu whenua tupuna moe mai ai, okioki mai ai, moe mai rā. Nāia ko ngā roimata e heke ana, nāia ko ngā tangi e rere ana, engari, kei konei tonu koe, kei ngā kūrae tonu o mahara. 

Moe mai rā e te mareikura 

Melanie, our Senior Vice President, the wings of our PPTA whare. Your loving heart guided us all to rise to any occasion. Your leadership gave sight to us who followed and those who followed provided you with insight and inspiration. 

Return to your ancestors, to your ancestral mountains, to your ancestral rivers, to your ancestral lands. For these are our many tears, hear our many cries, but know, you are still with us in the corners of our hearts and minds. 

Rest in peace 

Kia ora, 

It is with deep sadness that I write to let you know that Melanie Webber, PPTA Te Wehengarua  Senior Vice President, has died. 

Melanie was PPTA Te Wehengarua President in 2021-22, the culmination of many years of branch, regional and national activism and commitment.   

In her presidency, Melanie led members through an incredibly difficult period, as COVID-19 set in, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland was placed in what seemed like an endless lockdown, and COVID vaccinations were mandated for teachers. 

True to form, Melanie led members through this extremely challenging period with conviction, courage and honesty – and a good dose of her brilliant humour.

These characteristics, along with an amazing grasp of detail and the big strategic picture, endeared her to the many political, educational and union leaders with whom she built very constructive working relationships. 

Melanie’s ability to explain complex issues in ways that people could understand easily meant that she was often the first port of call for the media. Whether she was having a robust exchange with Mike Hosking on Newstalk ZB, explaining an issue to a Morning Report presenter, or getting just the right sound bite across on the TV news, Melanie always did secondary teachers proud.

Her late entry to secondary teaching – from a very successful career as a television producer for many years – imbued Melanie with a particularly fiery zeal and passion. She absolutely loved secondary teaching and its ability to make a real difference in the lives of rangatahi. She was committed to doing everything she could to improve conditions for teachers and students.

Melanie was incredibly proud of her school Western Springs Ngā Puna o Waiōrea. She absolutely loved its commitment to Te Tiriti and the co-governance role. Melanie was deeply inspired by her colleages dedication to upholding these values and often spoke with admiration of the way they embodied partnership and respect.

Melanie played an especially important role in the early stages of the curriculum refresh and the NCEA review, working tirelessly in a range of forums to ensure that teachers’ voices and concerns were heard and acted on. 

Melanie’s amazing mahi, political astuteness and razor-sharp intelligence, paved a very smooth path for me as her successor. I will be forever grateful.

She was a true epitome of that saying, ‘It’s not so much what life deals, but how you handle it’. The world is a poorer place without Mel and we will miss her so very much.

Memorials for Melanie are being finalised, and we will let you know the details as soon as we can. 

Arohanui

Chris Abercrombie 
President, PPTA Te Wehengarua 

Last modified on Thursday, 10 April 2025 09:14

Applications are now open for state schools to convert to charter schools, so it is imperative for PPTA Te Wehengarua branches to meet and pass a resolution against being converted to a charter school.

Ngā mihi nui to the approximately 70 branches that have passed your resolution – great work!

The resolution against charter school conversion affirms your branch’s desire to remain a public school. It is important for teachers and school communities to take the lead in the conversation, and to make your opposition to conversion visible.

The resolution is an affirmation which can be celebrated and shared with your principal and board.

PPTA Te Wehengarua website www.ppta.org.nz has a range of resources to support branch chairs and members in
holding a branch meeting to sign the resolution, and to take steps to present this to your school board and principal. The array of resources includes a toolkit for branch chairs, templates for the branch resolution and a letter to your school board, and much more.

If you are a new branch chair and need help organising a branch resolution meeting, please contact your local field officer.

Seven new charter schools have opened this year: Mastery school in Ōtautahi Christchurch; Christchurch North College; Te Rito Te Kura Taiao in Northland; and North West Creative Arts College; the BUSY School; TIPENE; and École Francaise all in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland.

It is extremely disappointing to see hundreds of millions of dollars being poured into a tiny number of charter schools when there are so many state schools around the country in need. For example, the BUSY school is offering what all New Zealand students who require additional learning support deserve. At the moment, many students are not having their needs met, as the alternative education system has been left to languish under successive governments.

It is heart breaking to see extremely niche schools, such as the Remuerabased French language school, being funded with public money when our local state schools desperately need more teachers, building upgrades and pastoral and learning support.

Last modified on Monday, 7 April 2025 13:35

“Its focus on cursive writing at Year 8, for example, shows a complete lack of understanding of the challenges of secondary teaching and the extent to which teachers have to work to engage and motivate students and manage an ever-increasing range of abilities and behaviours.

“Similarly, making Shakespeare and authors from the 1800s compulsory. Does this actually reflect what the teaching profession considers would be best for the students that they teach?”

Moving away from a curriculum that is underpinned by Te Tiriti o Waitangi is a seriously backward move, says Chris Abercrombie.

It was also extremely concerning that the English teachers’ subject association had stepped away from the development of the draft curriculum.

“If the draft curriculum has been written outside of the frameworks developed by the profession, and the curriculum writers are not listening to the subject association that represents the profession, then we have to question what connection it has to the reality of the classroom.

“If there is no link between the curriculum and reality, then it will not be delivered or received well, resulting in more students being disengaged and more teachers leaving the profession.

 “Good curriculum needs the input of the subject specialist teachers who are on the ground delivering it.”

Chris Abercrombie urged all English teachers and school leaders and the community to provide feedback on this. “We will be watching to see whether the Ministry of Education responds to that feedback.”

Last modified on Tuesday, 1 April 2025 14:22

Being a unionist is in Lisa Murphy’s DNA. “It’s part of my family heritage, being from a Catholic family there are a lot of
teachers in my background. My Mum was a high school teacher in the 1970s, she taught in all sorts of Auckland schools and was always involved in the union. So, we had discussions about Tomorrow’s Schools, education, and politics. “Being a union member is just not something I would question, I suppose. I never look at the subs and think I could save that money.

Chairing with gusto

Paul Stevens, Chair of PPTA’s Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland region, nominated Lisa for the Guy Allan award. “As branch chair, Lisa has taken to this role with gusto, ensuring her colleagues and comrades are well supported and well connected to the work of the PPTA. Lisa should feel proud that she has maintained a strong branch through very tricky times.

“To me Lisa is the demonstration of what PPTA Te Wehengarua represents at its best: a humble hard-working teacher and activist, who cares about our rangatahi, supports her colleagues, and recognises the important work of our collective to ensure the future of our profession.”

When Lisa heard she had won the award, she felt pleased and proud. “I feel like I put in the work and the award is an acknowledgement of that which is nice. It is also an acknowledgement of the branch behind me and around me.” A sign of a great leader is that they do not have to be present for the work to continue. “I was away last July and a bunch of them went to the pub and wrote a submission on charter schools.”

Enjoying the role

There are many reasons why Lisa enjoys being a branch chair. “I love the people I work with; I want to bring them together so they have a place they can feel safe and heard- and get power from each other.” She also finds the political and social dynamics fascinating. “We’ve got these really interesting political and social structures going on, like why are people in the union or not? The political background to that, their choices of why they are in the union or not fascinate me, how they are led to their various political choices and why.

‘It is also an acknowledgement of the branch behind me and around me.’ 

“I really enjoy navigating the variety of views that you get across such a big branch and I’m always quite amazed by the psychology of it, how different perceptions can be of any one issue.” Being a staunch PPTA member, Lisa has always been interested in union meetings and how they operate. She was an observer at Annual Conference a couple of years ago and was fascinated. “Seeing the formal processes that are happening, I was amazed by that because in my daily life as an art and art history teacher, I touch on politics and philosophy, but to see democracy in action and how structured it is, was really inspiring. It was like being in a mini government.”

Tips for new branch chairs

Lisa has some tips for new branch chairs in preparation for this year’s collective agreement campaign. Go to your regional meetings and get as much information as you can because the members will be hungry for information
about what’s going on. Set up regular meetings – because most members would prefer to hear it in a discussion or meeting than have to read a whole lot of emails. Some people do read the emails so they can bring the information to the meeting. Make sure meetings are a nice place to be- have a bit of food if your branch can afford it. And provide the opportunity for members to share but keep it focused as well – not a whinge fest. 

* PPTA Te Wehengarua established the Guy Allan award in 2005 to recognise outstanding branch activism in the Counties-Manukau and Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland regions. The award commemorates the late Guy Allan — a former PPTA branch chair and Auckland based field officer who was renowned for his commitment to unionism and branch activism.

Last modified on Thursday, 27 March 2025 11:44

The Teaching Council has opened consultation this week on a proposal to increase practising certificate renewal fees from $464 to $501 for the next three years. 

Chris Abercrombie said the proposal represented an 8% increase which the Council advise is the result of cost inflation as well as increased operating costs. One of those is the processing of thousands of overseas teaching applications.

Teaching Council explanations for the proposed fee increase include the fact the Government funding of additional staff to process overseas teachers’ applications would end in June. “The Government has deliberately chosen to hire overseas teachers to address teacher shortages, rather than ensuring an adequate supply of New Zealand teachers, so it should continue the funding of staff to process overseas applications for as long as it takes. There is no way the profession should be paying for this.” 

Chris Abercrombie said it was National Party policy that teachers’ registration fees should be paid for by the government, and teachers supported this. “This will most likely be part of our claim in our collective agreement negotiations later this year. 

“In the meantime, I would strongly encourage all teachers to have their say on the proposed fee increase.” 

Last modified on Thursday, 6 March 2025 16:59

“The report released today shows clearly we are facing significant shortages of secondary teachers around the motu.

“The Government’s attempts to address the shortage by importing teachers from overseas, employing unqualified staff and lowering the re-entry requirements for teachers who have been out of the profession for a while are a bandaid on the significant need in schools.

“We need improvements in relative pay rates and working conditions and the removal of barriers into teaching – such as paid training.”

“Also, the numbers still only tell part of the story as the specialist nature of secondary teaching means that you could have numbers balanced yet still be short of hundreds of the needed teachers in practice. And if you want schools to have a choice of appointment you actually need a surplus of teachers in each region.”

“Even on the most optimistic projection for secondary teachers, schools could still be struggling to fill subject vacancies and reducing curriculum options or having teachers take subject classes they are not specialists in, e.g. specialist history teachers taking physics classes.”

Chris Abercrombie said the report did not take into account relief teacher supply. “Relief teachers are a big part of the system and shortages there are a major pressure currently.

“This report acknowledges what we are hearing from principals around the motu – that it is becoming increasingly difficulty to fill vacancies in a wide range of subject areas, and in a wide range of schools.

“The secondary teacher shortage is worsening and if this Government is serious about growing Aotearoa New Zealand, it needs to start with the basics and ensure every secondary school student has a trained and qualified specialist teacher in every subject.”

Last modified on Friday, 21 February 2025 09:43