Kia ora koutou katoa Iain Taylor
National President, New Zealand Principals’ Federation
The theme of our conference this year, ‘Knowledge in our on CoLs issued in the last ‘Principal Matters’ newsletter of last Hands’, inspired me and made me reflect. It got me thinking term said exactly that. about all the knowledge and experience that we as leaders Being a principal is an immensely complex job. We are collectively hold and the passion we have for our kids and well aware that some less experienced and indeed some quite our profession. It made me realise that these factors mixed experienced principals struggle with the demands of leading their together make for a potent cocktail for innovative teaching school for a variety of reasons. So for the past three years NZPF and learning; for risk taking has been pursuing a system-wide and new opportunities; and for If there had to be a choice between service for principals to advise, creativity and problem solving. mentor and coach principals It made me think New Zealand getting immersed in the latest to strengthen professional can have a nation of kids so practice across the country and much better off for having gone policy detail or staying focussed on build capacity. As you already to our schools! know four Principal Leadership kids’ learning, the kids would We have this knowledge and Advisors are already appointed we are innovative. So why are win every time. with two in Northland and one we not seeing more exciting ground-breaking initiatives in our schools? Why is it that bright ideas are not dominating every conversation we have with each other? Where are all these good ideas hiding? I did some digging and the answer was two-fold. First, principals are stressed out, working long hours and even though most say Red Alert Paintball is the they are still satisfied in their role as leaders of schools, they best place for some fast are feeling the pressures. Secondly, they are feeling bogged paced, strategic, adrenaline down with policy changes, legislation updates, health & safety; pumping action you’ve been the Vulnerable Children’s Act; funding reviews, IES; CoSs and waiting for all these days. CoLs . . . the list goes on. They feel like the parade of new policy will never end and with each new policy comes even more threat and uncertainty. I thought about that and then thought about the kids we teach. If there had to be a choice between getting immersed in This includes the latest policy detail or staying focussed on kids’ learning, the entry gun kids would win every time. We cannot cheat our kids of the best mask and $20 per we can give them because we are bogged down with things that 150 paintballs person are not making a difference to their learning. They are at school each for a short period of their life and it is our duty to make their schooling the best it can be. That led me to say at conference, take a back seat on policies Bookings like CoLs for example. Our recent survey on CoLs showed that essential there are many unresolved issues especially the lack of flexibility The more Twlight Rd for the leadership roles and the lack of innovation being shown kids you Clevedon bring so far in the achievement challenges. There are many concerns the more p 0800 4 733 25 about the funding that CoLs may receive, especially PLD funding freebies or 0275 488 955 and fears that schools might miss out by not joining a CoL. My you get message to you is to ignore those fears because PLD is still under review and no decisions have been made about where it might sit in the future. There is no rush to join a CoL. Our statement
Red Alert Paintball
School Special
www.redalertpaintball.co.nz email courtenay@windowslive.com
each on the East Coast and in Southland. NZPF is immensely proud to have driven this concept and developed a structure for principal advice and support which the Ministry wholeheartedly supports. We continue to pursue this concept with the Ministry and hope to make further progress towards expanding this service within the next few months. That is where our energy is going. It is going into achieving positive outcomes for school leadership that are practical, needed and valued. The other area of growing success is our Māori Achievement Collaborations (MACs) programme in partnership with Te Akatea and the Ministry. Principals throughout New Zealand are coming to recognise what a transformational programme this is and as school cultures change, participant schools are seeing a positive difference for their Māori children’s learning, attendance and engagement. These are the things we want to put our energies into because they reap benefits for our kids. Stronger, more confident leadership means stronger, more confident teachers. That leads to our kids experiencing more innovation in their learning. I believe our kids deserve nothing less.
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