The role of a principal is an unpredictable one. Some principals may have a long and successful career without ever encountering any major speedbumps along the way. Others may not be so fortunate. This is why the New Zealand Principals’ Federation strongly recommends principals sign up for the NZPF legal advice and support scheme. The scheme, which has been in operation for more than 20 years and is run by Principals’ Advice and Support Ltd (PASL), is designed to give employment related legal advice to principals who have subscribed to the service through Crombie Lockwood (NZ) Limited. Fiona McMillan and Barry Dorking of Anderson Lloyd Lawyers are the scheme’s primary legal advisers and spoke to NZPF recently. They talked about how participation in the scheme has risen in recent years and now has over 1,000 principals subscribed. Even principals who have never encountered a serious issue before, simply cannot predict the future. ‘All it takes is one
“trigger” event, and then things can begin to snowball very quickly,’ explains Fiona. Although there is no insurance element to the scheme, the legal advice and employment law experience that Fiona, Barry and their colleagues provide can be pivotal in resolving serious employment issues. Members of the scheme who are wary of an issue that could potentially escalate into a serious matter should call the legal hotline immediately. This service provides up to an hour of legal advice on any one issue with no additional charge on top of the scheme’s subscription fee. The scheme is specifically for matters that affect principals personally in their capacity as a principal, and not matters regarding their school. Those kinds of issues are for the school board to resolve. However, if you are unsure whether or not an issue is suitable for PASL, it is recommended that you call the hotline as soon as possible so that Barry or Fiona can clarify whether or not they can help you. The hotline is especially useful as principals are entitled to a reasonable
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time to respond to the matter they are facing, and there is no requirement to mention that you are speaking with a lawyer. This ‘background advice’ is also helpful to avoid confrontation in what can sometimes be an emotionally charged environment. If the problem is unable to be resolved through the hotline, the Legal Support contract will provide specialist assistance from a qualified employment lawyer. This will give the legal advice and representation necessary to try to resolve the matter at hand. This can include mediation in the Employment Relations Service, or pursuing a claim in the Employment Relations Authority or Employment Court if necessary. Your contract covers you for up to $25,000 of legal representation and advice per issue. These kinds of situations can go on for an extended period of time, so it is a good idea to try to keep a timeline of events as well as a file of everything that is happening. It’s very important when recording these events not to be judgmental or opinionated in your writing, but strictly factual. Accurate and clear records can make Fiona and Barry’s task a lot simpler when you come to them for assistance. Fiona and Barry believe that a lot of issues they deal with are caused by the lack of a strong and constant relationship between principals and their board chairperson. This is an easy problem to overcome according to Fiona. ‘Arrange to have coffee once a week with your chair. That way you can keep each other up to date with anything that is happening,’ she recommends. These kinds of regular, informal meetups are especially useful for when you are a newly appointed principal or your chairperson has been recently elected.
It can be difficult to maintain a positive relationship with your board, especially with new members being elected. Your ‘winning formula’ as a principal may suddenly become useless if your new board disagree with your methods. This also applies to principals who take on a new challenge at a different school. Unfortunately, a common issue that Barry and Fiona encounter is people standing for school boards with a personal agenda, such as being determined to remove a principal from their position. ‘Sometimes they won’t be following the policies and rules that they should, and that’s what can really blindside a principal,’ explains Barry. Despite this, try not to panic. Ask for help early, before the real damage is done. Barry and Fiona are occasionally available to present their seminar; ‘Tales from the dark side,’ to principals' associations. Their presentation discusses some of the wide range of issues that Barry and Fiona have dealt with through their work with principals as well as advice on how to minimise the risk of such an event happening. Please contact Barry and Fiona at lawyers@andersonlloyd.co.nz if you would like them to present to your principals’ association.
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The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) 119th Conference Birmingham UK Liz Hawes EDITOR The UK may be 18,700 kilometres from New Zealand, but on Educational Excellence Everywhere. One of the key features of any day you can hear the educational concerns of British Head the ‘White Paper’ is ‘Academisation’. Teachers echo in the corridors of Kiwi schools. Assessment, A new term, ‘Academisation’ refers to replacing Local testing and curriculum, academy schools (aka charter schools), Authority run state schools with Academy schools. Professor funding, special education, recruitment and Andy Hargreaves when last visiting New retention of teachers and workloads were all Zealand referred to the UK Academy on the agenda of the annual conference of schools and warned that they operate the National Association of Head Teachers as brands, sometimes chains of brands (NAHT) this year. and the school’s first loyalty must be to NAHT members met in the second largest that brand, not to the local community city in England at the central Birmingham that the school serves. Academies are Convention Centre to form policy positions similar to American Charter Schools on these pressing issues and did not rule which follow the same model as our out national strike action if their request ‘partnership’ (charter) schools in New for a shift in direction is not heard. The Zealand. What irks Head Teachers in the New Zealand delegation felt right at home UK is that ‘Academisation’ is being forced NZPF President Iain Taylor amongst the debates. The issues and on them no matter how well their school congratulates newly elected NAHT arguments were frighteningly familiar. is performing. It is not a choice. The Hon President Kim Johnson. Of course there are variations between Nicky Morgan told the conference that she the UK and New Zealand systems and always have been. The intends for all state schools to be Academies by 2022. funding of state schools in the UK, for example, occurs through ‘I am giving you a clear sense of direction,’ she told the Local Authorities, which in turn are funded through central delegates. Government. Like all education funding systems the UK model She went on to explain the advantages of being an Academy is complex. But there are some advantages. Perhaps the most school. important of these is that when funding is administered close ‘It is collaboration and support that gets success,’ she said. to the school’s locality, there is greater understanding of the ‘We can swiftly build a scaffold for struggling schools and the particular community’s context and needs. There is a relationship Academy system makes it easier to spread good principals between the Local Authority and the people of the community. across more schools.’ ‘Most schools,’ she said, ‘will work in local All of that could be rapidly changing in the UK. Secretary of clusters.’ The UK system enables one principal to lead multiple State for Education, Hon Nicky Morgan told the conference that Academies. Recent changes to our own education legislation in the way of the future is outlined in the ‘White Paper’ entitled New Zealand also enable one principal to lead many schools.
Delegates at the NAHT Conference take a lunch break on central Birmingham’s Broad Street.
The Mayor of Birmingham addresses the delegates at the NAHT Conference opening ceremony.
practice, participate in PLD, and use (expert) teachers to extend their reach across a group of schools rang crystal clear bells for the New Zealand contingent. They had heard it all before only in the context of the New Zealand Government’s ‘Investing in Educational Success’ policy which espouses Communities of Learning (CoLs). The single difference between the Kiwi CoLs and the UK MATs is that in the UK the MATs are built around Academy Schools that were once all state schools. In New Zealand CoLs are built around state schools . . . The UK Government’s ‘White Paper’ states ‘Academisation’ is about autonomy and putting power in the hands of school leaders so that they are free to make the best decisions for their children. At the same time Morgan says MATs would make it easier to recruit, train, Panel of speakers at the opening ceremony of the 2016 NAHT Conference in develop and deploy better teachers and they Birmingham. could be incentivised to remain in the profession She then went on to explain further benefits of ‘Academisation’, through new career opportunities. Again the New Zealanders saying, nodded in recognition. The CoLs in New Zealand have also been ‘Junior schools can form a local group together creating promoted as career pathways for teachers and principals who are Multi Academy Trusts (MATs). From this position there will incentivised to take on CoL leadership roles. Add the changes to emerge professional development opportunities, school support, education legislation to allow principals in New Zealand to lead teachers extending their reach locally to support other schools more than one school and you almost have the MATs model in its to succeed, sharing best practice and models of excellence all entirety. This was a bit like getting a privileged forward viewing based in a single Authority area.’ of what could be New Zealand’s future education system. The idea of local schools grouping together to share best So what do Head Teachers in the UK think about this new approach to education? NAHT out-going President, Tony Draper laid it out in his final column of Leadership Focus saying ‘The government’s plan to turn all schools into academies by 2022 A PD package for educational centres creates risks and opportunities for all of us’. He went on to say A critical guide to Māori and Pākehā histories of Aotearoa the worst feature of the academies was the way it is being forced on schools. ‘It won’t be appropriate for every school, and it won’t guarantee success in the many ways the government says it will.’ ‘There is no problem that ‘Academisation’ is supposed to fix because 80 per cent of all state primary schools are rated as good or outstanding.’ ‘Academisation’ was seen by school leaders as masking the real issues they encountered every day such as budget cuts, a recruitment and retention crisis, accommodating roll growth, low pay, overworked staff and policy overload. Turning state This curriculum programme resource (CPR) is now available schools into academies would not address any of those issues. for all educators. Russell Hobby, the General Secretary of NAHT in his Is your school still struggling to effectively meet the wider goals column in Leadership Focus went further saying ‘The only clear of the Ministry and other policies, to provide responsive education beneficiaries of mass ‘Academisation’ are lawyers, uniform for Māori as Māori with Te Tiriti o Waitangi as part of the context? suppliers and school sign manufacturers.’ NAHT Director of Or to teach NZ histories to all ethnicities effectively? The CPR can practically support implementing these policies and NZ histories research and policy development, Lesley Gannon, in the same curriculum more effectively. publication, said, ‘I think it’s fair to say universal ‘Academisation’ Mainstream and Māori pathways can successfully use the CPR. has been poorly received by almost everyone.’ There are deep Schools can choose from a range of timeframes for reading & concerns about ‘Academisation’ and about the testing regime in delivery. The CPR covers these topics in 6 Unit Booklets for staff to UK schools. NAHT officials saw no evidence that autonomous read and create their own unit plans, lesson plans, and assessments to deliver. ‘Academy’ schools will result in improved learning outcomes for UK children. For PD information, rave testimonials and Gannon identified further changes as outlined in the ‘White costings view www.criticalhistories.nz or Paper’ to address teacher recruitment and retention problems. contact tamsinhanly@xtra.co.nz at 09 630 2188 ‘New entrants to the profession would not be required to undertake any Initial Teacher Training (ITT). Instead they The CPR is a single programme to help schools plan and teach their could just start teaching and gradually make their way towards approach to New Zealand’s Māori and Pākehā cultures and histories accredited status over time. This is, according to the government, in a cohesive way.
in order to make it easier to get skilled experts in shortage areas into our classrooms.’ It is predicted that debt burdened students are much more likely to take this route into teaching than to take a full ITT course. Consequently the UK would see higher rates of unqualified teachers in schools than ever before. The New Zealand contingent was stunned at this suggestion and its obvious effect on the quality of teaching, little realising that by the time they had travelled back home, our own Minister would be hatching a similar policy, allowing teachers still in training to be employed in full time unsupervised teaching positions in schools. Guest speaker and educator David Cameron, not to be confused with the now former Prime Minister David Cameron, suggested things would get worse before they got better and believed the government had gone too far in its ideological commitments, dividing its own supporters and alarming parents. He referred to the divisions within the Tory (Conservative) party on education reform and on the particular policy which would no longer require parental representation on school governing boards. The 125 page UK ‘White Paper’ covered many other issues including curriculum and assessment issues. The testing regime in the UK has reached a point now where school leaders find the curriculum has been narrowed considerably to focus on the test areas. Inevitably curriculum debates abounded at the conference, alongside work overload issues and teacher morale. The ‘White Paper’ proposals for education reform in the UK have not been well received, and for good reasons. The most important objection is that for all the investment required to make these changes, there is no evidence that UK children
Central Birmingham, location for the 2016 NAHT Conference.
would receive a better education. There is no evidence that those students currently struggling to attain will have better prospects in the future, yet that is the rationale for change in the first place. Sound familiar? References Draper, T (2016) ‘Let’s Work Together’ Leadership Focus (73), May 2016 p.3 Gannon, L (2016) ‘Are there any good ideas in the White Paper?’ Leadership Focus (73), May 2016 p.29 –30
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