Category: PPTA

Source: Post Primary Teachers Association (PPTA)

Source: Post Primary Teachers Association (PPTA)

Source: Post Primary Teachers Association (PPTA)

Elections for the Teaching Council are now open. Seven of the 13 Governing Council members are elected by the profession during elections held every three years. Election voting opens on Wednesday 5 February 2025.

PPTA Te Wehengarua encourages members to vote in these elections and we support members stepping up to these positions. Four PPTA Te Wehengarua members are putting themselves forward  to be the secondary teachers’ representative.

Ava Asby

Science and Chemistry teacher, Western Heights High School, Rotorua

Profile statement:

I am a dedicated educator driven to help secondary students reach their fullest potential in New Zealand’s education system. Since arriving in NZ over 20 years ago, I have become a fully qualified and experienced science teacher in Rotorua, committed to fostering lifelong learning.
If elected, I will prioritize policies that empower middle management to lead effectively, enhancing team communication and collaboration to improve student outcomes, particularly in applied sciences.
My goal is to link modern, relevant science education with everyday experiences, preparing students for today’s job market. I am also passionate about advancing teacher training policies, supporting high-quality classroom management, and efficient resource planning across schools to ensure the best educational experience possible. Let’s work together to make meaningful, positive changes for our students and educators.

Simon Curnow

Curriculum Leader Languages at Marlborough Girls’ College, Blenheim

Profile statement:

Kia ora koutou, no Kernowek oku tipuna. 
I would like to use this position to advocate for a reduction in fees for Teacher Registration. There must be creative ways for doing this through the Ministry of Education and School Boards. If budgeted for, the real costs for the average school would not be prohibitive on a yearly basis. 
A simplification of the Standards for the Teaching Profession and the Educational Leadership Capability Framework is needed. Too often these documents are used in a pedantic manner to create a rod for hard-working teachers’ backs. Accountability needs to go both ways – bottom up as well as top down. 
The Teacher’s Council should work, in conjunction with NZQA, to attract teachers from different parts of the world to the profession. Recognition of overseas qualifications needs to be re-examined and expanded.

Source: Post Primary Teachers Association (PPTA)

The complaint from PPTA Te Wehengarua related to its request back in March this year for information about the Government’s policy, advice and costings for the re-introduction of charter schools. 

“We are pleased that the Ombudsman has sustained our complaint,” says Chris Abercrombie, PPTA Te Wehengarua president. 

“We agree with the Ombudsman’s finding that the refusal to release this information was unreasonable and unlawful and that there was a legitimate reason for our request to be given urgency.”

“If the Associate Education Minister had set a more reasonable timeline for the charter schools legislation and establishment then the Ministry of Education may not have run into such difficulties.”  

The Ministry’s original response to the request identified 25 documents as in scope of the request. Only two of the documents were released in part. Four documents had even their titles withheld and 17 documents were withheld under section 18(d) as ‘soon to be publicly available’.  

As a result of the Ombudsman’s investigation the Ministry has apologised to PPTA and has recently released all the information requested – nine months after PPTA’s original request. 

Chris Abercrombie said PPTA Te Wehengarua had a keen interest in understanding the proposed model for charter schools, particularly now that state schools will be able to convert to charter schools.  

“The continuing lack of transparency around the plans for charter schools gives us cause for serious concern about how they will operate. More than $150 million of taxpayers’ money is being poured into charter schools under a huge cloud of secrecy. This is totally inappropriate for the use of New Zealanders’ hard earned taxes – they have a right to know how that money is being spent.” 

Source: Post Primary Teachers Association (PPTA)

The ERO report from a review of relationships and sexuality education in our schools is welcomed by the NZPPTA, says President Chris Abercrombie.

“The report has shown us that there is widespread support from parents, whānau and students for relationships and sexuality education (RSE), but there is a need to improve consistency across the RSE curriculum as a whole.”

“In an increasingly fractured and online world, it is important that parents and whānau know what their rangatahi are learning at school. Nowhere is this more important than in relationships and sexuality education.”

“The 21 key findings and the seven recommendations will make a welcome difference to the experience of RSE for all of our ākonga. In particular, the recommendation to move away from the current ad hoc practice towards a more prescriptive and structured approach is one we support in this case. RSE is too important to be left to chance, and often much of the material is outside of the lived experience of those delivering the curriculum. A structured approach ensures age-appropriate, identity-affirming information is delivered across the board.”

“Students have made it clear what they want to learn, and when. It is essential that student voice is recognised when the curriculum is reviewed. It is also important that any changes are properly resourced. The addition of appropriate teaching resources and professional learning for teachers should also be considered, to support those delivering RSE.”

“We acknowledge the challenge that principals and schools face when consulting with their communities on the RSE guidelines, and that this process can be difficult and divisive. We support the recommendation to consider moving from a two-yearly consultation requirement to one that requires schools to inform parents and whānau about what they plan to teach, and how, before teaching it.

This knowledge will enable parents, whānau, and their young person to make decisions about what is right for them. For the minority that want less RSE, they would be better able to identity the lessons they wish to withdraw from, and the same would be true for those who wish to know more. With a clear understanding of what is not being taught, they can supplement the learning in their own homes”.

“We know that often there is a narrow view of what RSE is. In most cases it is about helping young people understand how to navigate friendships and thinking about others in an inclusive way. These are key skills for being an active member of your community and wider society.”

Source: Post Primary Teachers Association (PPTA)

“A two-tier system of schooling, where one tier is desperately under-funded and under-resourced, while another tiny tier is funded to succeed, is not the way we do things, and not what most New Zealanders want for our public education system”, he said.  

He was commenting on the announcement today of five more charter schools, which will open next year. 

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

Apparently, the small number of young people whose applications for the BUSY school are successful, will have access to the national curriculum as well as a vocational curriculum to improve their employment opportunities, and they will be provided with a wrap around support system.  

“Every young person at risk of falling through the cracks at school deserves this – not just a handful of students chosen at the whim of a sponsor. This is an island in an ocean of need.” 

Chris Abercrombie said it broke teachers’ hearts to see extremely niche schools, such as a Remuera-based French language school, being funded with public money when state schools needed more teachers, building upgrades and pastoral and learning support.   

Chris Abercrombie said an international education report (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) released overnight shows clearly that Aotearoa New Zealand students need a lot more learning and pastoral support to improve their achievement.  

“Yet the Government blithely announces today it is funding an elite language school. Using public money to fund such an elite school amidst so much actual need shows how out of touch this Government is with what is actually happening in Aotearoa New Zealand.” 

Source: Post Primary Teachers Association (PPTA)

“Much of the report reflects feedback that we received from PPTA members last October. The late delivery of resources, particularly assessment exemplars, and lack of effective planning, has been appalling. Clearly, the expertise of teachers and leaders in schools and in the subject associations has been what has got students over the line. Teachers’ professional knowledge and commitment has filled in the gaps left by the NZ Qualifications Authority and Ministry of Education.

“The shambolic implementation of NCEA Level 1 has only served to make already overworked and overloaded teachers seriously consider their future in the profession. Teachers are having to fill the gaps caused by a worsening secondary teacher shortage – they absolutely need the NCEA changes to be supported fully and rolled out smoothly.”

He said teachers supported the quick changes recommended in the ERO report. “In the longer term, more substantive changes need to be agreed with the teaching profession, and they need to be made carefully so we aren’t in the position of being in a change process, on top of a change process.”

The current Government needed to shoulder some responsibility for the implementational shambles this year. “Their requirement for public sector cuts saw almost all specialist support for NCEA implementation removed from the Ministry through a chaotic restructuring at the start of the year.”

PPTA Te Wehengarua members, at their annual conference in October, insisted that the Ministry and NZQA develop an urgent improvement plan for NCEA Level 1 assessment to be rolled out from the start of next year. Young people deserved a fully resourced and well implemented national qualification system.

Teachers supported the changes that were planned through the NCEA review, said Chris Abercrombie. “The proposed changes were positive and broadly aligned with PPTA Te Wehengarua’s original criteria for a valid qualifications framework – that it is fair, inclusive, cumulative, clear, motivating, coherent, constructive and manageable.

“However, teachers have been deeply disappointed and frustrated by the lack of proper resourcing and grossly inadequate implementation of the changes.

“The Government also needs to step up and resource vital roles like the Principals’ Nominee, who is the teacher in a school that is responsible for ensuring the NZQA requirements for assessment are met.”

Source: Post Primary Teachers Association (PPTA)

Commenting on the release of an Education Review Office report into the issues, he agreed with the agency that the current model for managing school attendance was not designed to succeed.

“The issues causing the increase in chronic non-attendance over the last 10 years are complex and varied. If we want to see a long-term reduction in these rates, schools and school attendance services need more staffing, more time and more resources.

“Schools and attendance services are stretched to the limit. They don’t have the time and resources that these issues need. Young people who are chronic non-attenders, and their whānau, need a lot of ongoing time, attention and support that currently just is not there.”

Chris Abercrombie said the report made it clear there was no quick fix, evidenced by the fact that the attendance of many students who return to school after chronic non-attendance, starts to slip again after about two months. “When these students return to school, it is a challenge to reintegrate them – schools need more support for this.

“We need lasting, meaningful and integrated solutions – both at the community level, with other agencies and supports, and at the school level with appropriate funding and resourcing for gateway, alternative education and activity centres, pastoral care and learning support.

“Alternative education has been chronically under-resourced for years, a point which has been made previously by ERO.

“It’s deeply disappointing that the Govenrment has chosen to pour hundreds of millions of dollars into a vanity project such as charter schools, when  issues such as chronic non-attendance are crying out for adequate funding.”

PPTA also had serious concerns about the report’s recommendations for more parental prosecutions. “All this will do is put people who are struggling financially further into debt, and / or give them a criminal record.”.

Governments needed to be bold and brave enough to address the underlying causes of chronic non-attendance. These included poverty, housing insecurity, and mental health.

Source: Post Primary Teachers Association (PPTA)

Te Huarahi Māori Motuhake (THMM), the national Māori governing body of the Post Primary Teachers’ Association, PPTA Te Wehengarua, are united in our opposition to the Treaty Principles Bill. We share the view that the Bill is based upon ‘a disingenuous historical narrative that distorts the language of Te Tiriti and undermines social progress and cohesion.

The principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi provide a mechanism to address Treaty breaches and improve relations between the Crown and iwi and hapū and should not be used to alter the intent of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.  Tampering with these principles is a regression of the last 50 years of positive movement forward for Te Tiriti relations. Tangata whenua, educationalists and tangata Tiriti have worked hard over many years to understand and enact practices that give life to Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and we want to ensure this hard work is not wasted.

The cultural development to honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi in public education is threatened through this Bill. This is an attempt to rewrite history and change the intent of our tīpuna. It will also absolve the Crown’s obligation to work with and actively protect the rights and interests of Māori, particularly the educational needs of ākonga Māori and mātauranga Māori. We oppose any actions that deliberately undermine the status of tangata whenua and relinquish the Crown’s obligation to uphold Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

Te Huarahi Māori Motuhake leads cultural knowledge, expertise, and insight essential for crafting policies and practices to ensure the Association’s constitutional objective, ‘affirm and advance Te Tiriti o Waitangi’, is upheld and culturally led at PPTA Te Wehengarua. Te Huarahi Māori Motuhake are adamant in our opposition to the Treaty Principles Bill and are committed to affirm and advance Te Tiriti o Waitangi. We will work tirelessly to ensure the promises within Te Tiriti o Waitangi are upheld.

Source: Post Primary Teachers Association (PPTA)

“This is an incredibly busy time for schools with exams looming. staffing appointments in a particularly tight job market and end of year awards and planning for the start of 2025 in full progress,” says Kate Gainsford, Chair of the Secondary Principals’ Council.

“Principals and staff have loads of work to get through in the time left before the start of 2025 and gathering information for a tiny lobby group appears to be pretty wasteful of government resources.”

Kate Gainsford said many principals were disappointed to receive such a request in this day and age. “Te Reo Māori is an official language in Aotearoa New Zealand and tikanga is a very significant part of ensuring that schools are welcoming, comfortable places for ākonga Māori and their whānau, and all young people growing up in New Zealand.

“Schools have worked hard over many years to meet Te Tiriti partnership responsibilities so that all students can be given the opportunity to learn te reo Māori and tikanga – it is part and parcel of being a good Te Tiriti partner.

“The OIA request asks schools to set aside their usual work so they can do research for the lobby group but provides no clarification about their motivation or what they are seeking to shed light on for what public good.”