EDITOR
The NZPF national executive had little trouble agreeing on the theme ‘Our Voices’ for this year’s annual Moot event. A change in Government had already heralded a new direction for education with Minister Hipkins calling for collaboration from the sector in setting a new course. He had made it clear that in scrapping national standards and charter schools there would be more changes to follow. These included changes to the way schools would report to parents on their children’s progress, a renewed focus on the breadth of the New Zealand Curriculum, a review of Tomorrow’s Schools, of cohort entry, and ultimately of Communities of Learning (CoL). He said he wanted a solution to the teacher shortage and to lift the status of the profession. The notion of a thirty-year plan for education was on the table, giving the sector hope of stability for the future. There was also a Bill in the House to return ownership of the Education Council to the profession by changing the name to Teaching Council and enabling the profession to once again elect their own members. The Minister signalled that he wanted the voice of the profession to be heard at all levels of these discussions. Regional presidents had been invited to discuss these matters with their associations before coming to the Moot, so that regional voices could also be heard in the debates. Following the opening Karakia led by NZPF Kaumatua Hatarei Temo, Jehan Casinada introduced the day’s programme. No stranger to playing MC at NZPF events, Casinada announced, ‘The last time we met, it was just hours away from the General Election. What a lot can happen in a short time in politics!’
He noted changes already proposed by the new Minister then addressed his audience saying, ‘The question is whose interests should those changes serve and how can everyone’s voice find a place in this important discussion?’ His question had drilled to the nub, indeed, the very purpose of Moot 2018. NZPF President Whetu Cormick Whetu Cormick warmly welcomed the regional presidents stressing the importance and the value of ‘their voice’ in the education debates that were about to be launched across the country. With the Minister of Education and his two Associate Ministers in the room, Cormick took full advantage to imprint their views on the Ministers’ political thinking. He addressed the Minister of Education, Hon Chris Hipkins, emphasising that his national executive and the regional presidents were ready and willing to work with him to develop an improved public education system that would be fair, free and equitable for all, that would be based on democratic principles, and that would provide every young New Zealander with the very best chance of succeeding as confident, contributing citizens. He said he and his colleagues would work alongside the Minister to help raise the status of the teaching profession so that bright young school graduates would once again find teaching an attractive career option and thereby guarantee the sustainability of the future teaching work force. He did not shy away from the problems created by the current aging population of school principals and said lifting the status of the profession would
It was standing room only at this year’s Moot
The Minister has plenty to smile about with (L) NZEI President, Lynda Stuart and (Middle) NZPF President Whetu Cormick
encourage good quality middle leaders to consider applying for principal positions. ‘Great teachers need great leaders,’ he said, ‘and we need a reliable succession plan that works.’ Cormick also welcomed the two Associate Ministers, Hon Tracey Martin and Hon Kelvin Davis. Recognising that learning support systems have not responded to the severe challenges teachers are facing in their schools, he addressed Minister Martin saying, ‘Your determination to overhaul our special education and learning support services is hugely welcomed by all of us who struggle daily to find solutions, especially for our most highly challenged young people . . . Every day I am hearing from my colleagues how difficult it is to access professional support for our young people with learning and behavioural needs, trauma and other mental health issues,’ he said. ‘We want to support you and help you to turn our special education system into a functioning service for the young people who so desperately need and deserve better,’ he said. To Minister Davis, he said, ‘Like you, Minister, we are determined that our tamariki Māori can and will succeed better than they have done in the past . . . We know that where schools are led by principals who acknowledge diversity and where culture, language and heritage is valued we see higher levels of engagement, motivation and success . . . We want to share with you our knowledge and expertise so that the next generation of Māori can proudly take their place within their iwi, in communities, in all areas of our workforce and contribute to making our beautiful country even better.’ He then returned to the presidents in the room, congratulating them on the work they do out in their regions to support principals in their associations. He thanked them for creating networks to support, extend and mentor principals in their regions, and for fundraising to organise professional learning seminars, regional events and local conferences to expand the horizons of their colleagues and expose them to new ways of thinking and new research in teaching practice. He also
reminded them of the importance of their contributions to the NZPF national executive’s work. In conclusion he urged the presidents to participate fully in the question session which Ministers had generously offered. Minister of Education, Hon Chris Hipkins Minister Hipkins opened strongly saying, ‘New Zealand should be the best place in the world to be a child.’ He went on to say that everyone should have an equal chance to lead a rewarding and fulfilling life and so educational offerings need to be diverse and adapted to the modern world. He referred to the front end of the New Zealand Curriculum and said our early learning and schooling has been the envy of other countries. There was little doubt in the minds of the regional Presidents that the Minister’s focus was to return the system to that desirable state as quickly as possible. He acknowledged that recent policy settings that had focused too much on accountabilities and compliance, had worked against us. That meant creativity and innovation were impeded and teachers had insufficient time to teach. ‘These constraints have hampered achievement,’ he said. ‘The drive to improve literacy and numeracy had made them go backwards.’ He referred to all the issues that Cormick had already mentioned as problem areas to be addressed, saying, ‘It is not good enough and we need to do better.’ He told the audience that was why he has established a three-year work plan. Hipkins put smiles on the faces of the listening presidents when he said restoring the trust and confidence of the profession would be a priority as would over assessment of students and teacher workload. The other critical area was special education. ‘We don’t need another review of special education,’ he said, ‘we need an action plan.’ He called for a system of personalized education so that our children can grow into resilient, creative young people ready to meet the needs of the modern world.
The under achievement of Māori and Pacific Island students did not escape his notice and he again emphasized the importance of having culturally responsive schools that utilize the full breadth of the curriculum. Hipkins concluded with a brief run-down on his intended review of Tomorrow’s Schools emphasizing the importance of establishing a clear vision for education’s future. ‘In the last nine years the Education Act has been amended untold times,’ he said, ‘but never did the Government outline a vision that these amendments were supposed to be realising.’ This time round, Hipkins was clear that he wants a vision for education that everyone agrees with. He wants the Government, researchers, whānau and professionals to set the agenda together,
Question: Before the General Election you had said Communities of Learning (CoL) should be more collaborative. Where do you see the future of CoL now? Answer: I have already triggered a wider review of Tomorrow’s Schools before we will look at CoL. There are interim changes. There are no national standards and we’ve provided flexibility for achievement challenges. There is the wider issue of resourcing because right now it all goes to salaries. That’s a limitation. There is also the question of where CoL fit with the Boards of Trustees and schools. In law there are no lines of accountability. CoL will be part of a
Minister Hipkins listens thoughtfully as President Whetu Cormick outlines concerns to be addressed
Minister Hipkins addresses a receptive audience
so they are pulling in the same direction, achieving change together. He called for broad engagement and shared ownership of what will be a newly focused system of education. A realist, Hipkins acknowledged it was his role to prioritise and then to be the most passionate advocate at the Cabinet table so that he can extract every dollar possible to achieve the collective vision for future education in New Zealand. ‘We have the will to make it happen,’ he said. ‘We will need more resources, and we will do everything to get them but we can’t do this without your commitment,’ he concluded. The Minister’s speech was followed by a lengthy Q&A session which had the full attention of those present. Question: The Secretary for Education recently announced that the findings of a survey had uncovered racial discrimination or as she described it, conscious and unconscious bias, at many levels including from the Ministry of Education and the Education Review Office. How do you propose to deal with this? Answer: We need honest and open conversations. Bias exists in all of us and we have to think this through and recognize it. Only open conversations can address it. The research of Russell Bishop and Mere Berriman is helpful because it talks about what works. Professional Development has a big part to play and making sure that when [focusing on] raising achievement of Māori & Pacific Island students the learning pathway is consistent with cultural practices and beliefs. There can be barriers within the kids themselves, who don’t believe they can do what others do. There is no quick answer. I will be open and listen and do better.
broader agenda. Question: In the meantime, will you allow collaborative models of leadership [for CoL]? Answer: I am getting advice on this. There are some employment issues for the bargaining table, but I am open to that [suggestion]. Question: I surveyed the Te Taitokerau region on CoL. They want the money in special education. We can’t get fetal alcohol assessments in under a year; we have suicidal kids sent home; etc. Answer: We are not doing a learning support review. We want a plan and want it resourced. Its right at the top of the list. I can’t take the money out of CoL. CoL leaders are on two-year contracts. There will be a discussion over the next year about what we do with them. Question: The Restraint Act is not working well and we cannot get training in restraint as we have asked for. Can we have better guidance and access to training? Answer: I sat on the Science & Education select committee when that went through and we didn’t get it right. We believed that guidelines would sort it all out. Well there are negative and some positive [views] about that. Tell us how we can get this right. Come to me with a collective view on this. Question: I commend you on getting rid of national standards and on
Associate Minister Tracey Martin likes to mix with the principals
other changes you have indicated. My question is about the Education Review Office (ERO) and what will you do to ensure that it will not continue to drive us down this narrow path? Answer: As part of the review of Tomorrow’s Schools ERO will shift to an education improvement model. [Its role will be to] put the right support in place for school improvement. That means the role and function of ERO will also be under review. Question: Our operations grant is not enough. The cost of insurances is up; money for children’s learning and maintaining the school is not enough. Will you be looking at increasing our operations grants? Answer: That depends on [bargaining] and what teachers get paid. We need to do this together. There have to be trade-offs on how much we pay teachers and what’s left for the classrooms. Question: How do we ensure quality teachers are coming out of Training Colleges and what are your thoughts on the role of the Teaching Council in supporting teacher training and providing professional development to schools? Answer: Initial Teacher Education (ITE) is a challenge and has been included as part of the work-force strategy [stream of work]. We want [graduates] to have the right skills so they are ready for the classroom. We want to understand why some graduates can’t find employment when they finish even though we have a teacher shortage. How can we address that? We need to recruit more into ITE because over the past nine years we have dropped 40 per cent. Question: I am interested in PLD for leaders. In the past few years it has been very difficult to bring through middle leaders to become principals.
Answer: The Aspiring Principals’ Programme has now gone, but we do have three parties in our coalition and we are all committed to establishing a College of Educational Leadership. We just have to work out where that best fits. Question: Principals and teachers are vulnerable. We have schools dealing with rapid roll growth; we have ‘helicopter’ parents and their unrealistic expectations; we get members on Boards of Trustees that don’t know the difference between governance and management; we get dysfunctional boards; and we get parents taking legal action just to get their own way. How can we better protect principals who are dealing with these issues? Answer: I absolutely understand [what you are saying]. Tomorrow’s Schools created an impossible job for you. It is massively larger than any one person can do. The review needs to look at that. We have to ask which parts are the most important to keep and what should we throw out? We will co-create what principals should be doing and we will provide the PLD teachers and principals need. Question: We have Māori medium and we have English medium. If you are not Māori medium then you must follow the English pathway. There are schools with high Pacific Island student populations that are bi-lingual in Pacific Island languages but we don’t have a Pacific Island medium option. We have to fit in to the English medium. How do we address this problem? Answer: This will form part of Jenny Salese’s work (Associate Minister of Education). I am open to this discussion. If we are going to support more language learning, we will need more resources. Question: NZSTA receive considerable funding from Government and
they take an adversarial position with respect to principals who are left vulnerable. I would like the review to get rid of NZSTA Answer: These are all valid issues for the Tomorrow’s Schools review to look at. What we ask of NZSTA is the question to address. Question: Given you are looking at a thirty-year strategy for education, is there now the opportunity for all parties to be involved so that politics can be taken out of education? Answer: Well three of the five parties are in the Government [coalition] so that helps. We have already invited the National party to join us in reviews. We want to keep them ‘in the tent’ but that’s up to
As Associate Minister for Education in the new coalition Government, Tracey is warmly welcomed by the presidents. Her responsibilities for Education are now focused in the learning support and special education areas, arguably some of the most challenging for schools. It took a while, she said, to figure out a vision and an order of priorities for special education which also had to be consistent with the vision that the coalition Government has for the whole of education. It helped that while in opposition, the NZ First party, Green party and Labour party all had very similar ideas about what was required for a successful education system. In the end, Tracey’s vision for special education and learning support is simple and compact:
You have to take your moments! Cherie Taylor-Patel, NZPF Vice President, shares her views with the Minister, as he cools his tea
Associate Minister Tracey Martin, always a favourite with principal audiences
them. We will do everything to co-construct [the future] with you and them. If we can get consensus and support so much the better. Question: Without national standards we will not know where we sit in the OECD’s international reports such as TIMMS. We know you are thinking about a system like the National Education Monitoring Programme (NEMP) but will it answer those comparative questions? Answer: National standards didn’t give us any information anyway. So answering those questions will be tricky. We have done NEMP well in the past. There is a range of assessment tools for meaningful and useful assessment – formative rather than summative; progress rather than compliance. The International studies give some insights but are just one of many [indicators]. The last two rounds of PISA showed us the huge impact of social inequalities and in New Zealand [the inequalities are] among the largest.
‘Every child gets the support they need to do their best.’ Top of Tracey’s list was that we work on this together because it is the profession, she says, that ends up doing the job. She was quite clear that once parameters are set the profession will get all the information to participate in constructing a better system. She talked about the pilot learning support model running in Tauranga where a ‘Super’ Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO) supports the school. Knowing how the model works in theory is not enough for the new Associate Minister. She wants to know what the individual schools think of this model and how it works in the practical day to day school setting so intends to visit the schools and find out. If she is told that a SENCO in every school is the best option, then that is what she will advocate for. As with all portfolios, there is only ever so much money to go around and in special education there are even further challenges. As Tracey said, no data has been kept on special education and learning support so we can’t say whether we can afford it or not because we don’t know what the numbers are! She was very clear that she wants no additional administration or paper work for schools as this important data is collected. She also wants to see this data widely shared by the professionals concerned so that there are no gaps in children’s support. In this way it is hoped that gradual improvements will be made and the demand for high level support further down the track may be reduced. Simplicity of systems is also important because it is well known that support is available to schools for challenges like dyslexia, but despite their eligibility, some schools are not applying for this help when they need it. Other challenges were also on the new Associate Minister’s
Tracey Martin, Associate Minister of Education (Special Education & Learning Support) The New Zealand First Party’s education policies have always sat comfortably with the teaching profession’s views. Many would say they reflect the profession’s position almost perfectly, so similar are the philosophies and thinking that drive them. Tracey Martin, who has long led the education portfolio for her party, has been admired for her vision for education and her policies. She is especially appreciated for the fearlessness with which she advocates for change.
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agenda including truancy and transience. She noted the complexities of these problems being clear to say that while both involve education, education is not necessarily the cause. ‘What I find is that attendance service reports tell you what you already know but don’t create a solution.’ That, she said, is because the circumstances of the families involved are often a mix of social, housing and economic issues. On transience, she said, families might be running away from Oranga Tamariki or from increased rents or over-crowded houses that have become dysfunctional. ‘We need to learn how we can best protect these families’, she said. ‘One thing we do know is that schools can’t be held accountable for kids that aren’t attending.’ Her last topic before question time, was alternative education and residential schools. ‘I can tell you right now, that Salisbury [Residential] School won’t be closing,’ she said. ‘Alternative education has been starved of resources, but residential schools do have their place in our system. It doesn’t mean that mainstream schooling has failed. It means one size doesn’t fit all,’ she said, to the applause of the presidents. ‘Our job is to examine the mission for these options. If the mission is no longer relevant then we will alter it and make it applicable to now,’ she said. She concluded her address on a high drawing loud applause from the audience who have always found her energizing, sincere, real and at one with the profession. Question: This Minister does get out and does talk to the people. I applaud her. We estimate that the needs of 13 per cent of the school population are not met.
We don’t have specifically trained teachers – general trained teachers can’t do it. We had a well-trained special education teacher from Finland in our school. Our teachers stacked up well against this teacher as would most NZ teachers. This teacher had to leave because she couldn’t cope with the work load. There is also no career structure in place for special education. Answer: Once there were special advisors. We also had SENCOs in every school. Now we have a work force problem. We have trained teachers that have a passion for [working with] high needs children. One of our questions about Salisbury relates to Initial Teacher Education (ITE) and how the State can take more control and get better training for teachers [of high needs children]. [with respect to Salisbury] We keep asking how can we get the best out of this asset? There are independent living units on site. This creates the ability for trainee teachers to stay on site and learn from those expert teachers already there, who are so highly skilled. We cannot pretend that general teachers can provide for all needs with no support. [We admire] Finland and our idea for a thirty-year plan for education is to get politicians out of your space, because you are the profession. But Finland has no diversity as we do, so we are not trying to be Finland. What we do in our classrooms is world leading but we have over-burdened you and made you fight for help. We need to stop that. Question: Ninety per cent of my time, as a principal, is spent on special education. I don’t mind that, but my time is spent fighting agencies. I resent that the child is not the most important
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[person] in the room. Oranga Tamariki has made it worse. It Ministry’s job should be to support you. Whilst not wishing to is a huge amount of work because agencies are failing our kids. add to the answer, Minister Davis agreed. There are high [mental] health needs not catered for, like suicidal Question: children. There is no funding in the North [for suicidal children]. We suffer from a lack of trust and [healthy] relationships We need to ask, ‘What does the child need?’ Then we should [with experts]. Speech language therapists and psychologists provide it. Politicians can’t be delving into operational matters. don’t understand how schools tick. Would you be open to the Related Comment: idea of teachers and leaders doing courses to become experts Our kids are being triaged every day and they don’t get to see in these fields? any one. The system is broken. We give bandages and plasters Answer: to teachers. Yes! I agree. I will put that [idea] to the Ministry and be Answer: persistent about it. I agree. Since the dyslexia/dyspraxia inquiry, we know there Question: is no argument. We don’t have the work force. For example, Is there any discussion around the huge social investment [for there are 2,800 children on children] in their first 3 years? the waiting list for speech and Answer: language therapy. I had people from ‘Early Question: Interventions’ in my office I rang about our highest last week to talk about Early needs child. We needed the Childhood Education. We Crisis Intervention Team, so are screening earlier. We we filled out the forms. Nothing are getting rid of the deficit happened. When we talk to risk analysis model. We people in the Ministry [they] are introducing a universal don’t get the picture. proportionality model where Answer: everyone will get financial Tell us what would have solved assistance to help with the the problem. It’s a systemic first three years and if a family thing. What do we need to do income is under $50,000 we so the people [in the Ministry] will continue that assistance. The lunch break gave the regional principals time to meet and respond appropriately? If a child needs intervention, talk through the issues together Question: we do not want to wait until SENCOs in schools have the relationship and that’s so the child is already at school. There once was a system of important. I’m glad you cross portfolios because we need all professionals going into homes. [that may or may not be a good those to change systemic problems. We have a model and we idea for the future]. In terms of a wellbeing strategy, that sits want to put it up against Tauranga. with the Prime Minister. Answer: Question: I’m going to Tauranga to observe because it makes more sense There is a whole lot going on in Special Education and there to me to put SENCOs in schools. needs to be change. [In my view] we have to get the National Question: [opposition party] around the table now [so that they also Please keep functions [like special education] out of CoL. We support the changes] do not think they will survive. We have a flood of children with Answer: social and emotional needs and high anxiety and low resilience. Nikki Kaye [Education spokesperson for the National party] The Ministry does not cater for these needs. has contacted our offices and we will pursue this. We want a Answer: thirty-year strategy [for your sake] and don’t want any change We are looking at piloting counsellors, with a mental health of Government to derail that. focus, in schools. We’ve done OK with nurses in schools, but Question: we need mental health counsellors in primary schools. If we How do we make sure SENCOs won’t just assess but will work streamline data and keep it closer to you, when a student with children? How do we ensure we have a SENCO network transitions the information can be passed on more quickly. That working where they need to be? way, the supports a student needs, follow that student. Answer: Question: Going back to the thirty-year strategy, we will have a vision There are culture barriers between the Ministry and the of what success looks like and it won’t be [86 per cent pass rate profession. I was at a hui on the restraints policy review. Why for] NCEA 2. We will be communicating that to the Ministry. are we discussing restraint? There was a small group of principals We start this work in May but recognize that a culture change present and those collecting data are lawyers. This hinders the will be required. Ministry’s ability to support the profession. There’s a distrust of I do not think that SENCOs can perform their role part-time. our narrative about lots of things, especially special education There is too much work to do. I believe it will have to be a issues. We are not taken seriously by the Ministry. dedicated role and funded appropriately. As we progress this Answer: work, we want to hear from you. We want to get this right. I agree with you that the relationship between the profession and the Ministry has been a combative relationship when the
Kelvin Davis, Associate Minister of Education (Māori) based best practice is relevant for [delivering] the curriculum Kelvin Davis needed no introduction to this audience. He was and how we can build stronger relationships with the [young] one of them. Before becoming a Member of Parliament, he had people and communities we work with.’ been a school principal himself. ‘Education plays an important ‘The student-teacher interface is where learning occurs,’ role in making our said Minister Davis. children great,’ he He then explained said. He was telling how, as a principal his audience nothing in Kaitaia, he and new. his colleagues tried He quickly drilled to strengthen that down beyond the relationship for obvious saying, ‘Kids Māori students in will only be great if the North. the conditions are ‘A t K a i t a i a right to make them Intermediate great. Our job is to S cho ol, we met create the conditions monthly with local in which you can do Iwi. We wanted to that.’ build relationships ‘Educators lack the with our local resources, money and communities and time and struggle to asked them to tell us get the right people what they wanted in our schools,’ he the kids to learn. Associate Minister Kelvin Davis, at home with a room full of principals said. He went on to We were trying to say that we had never lacked enthusiasm and innovation and develop a Far North curriculum including Karakia, whakapapa told his story of winning a Wolf Fisher Fellowship to attend and special places of interest. We wanted the kids to learn about Harvard. ‘There were ideas coming out of Harvard at the time the history and stories that my Grandfather knew as part of his that we were already implementing in Kaitaia,’ he said. natural world.’ ‘Today,’ he said, ‘we still lead change, asking what research The Minister explained the barriers to progressing this work. They included a shortage of Māori teachers and Te Reo teachers. Sometimes those holding the knowledge were not so forthcoming which also created frustrations. He said they recognized that Māori identity and language was important to Māori students’ progress. They wanted to bring the stories to the surface and create relevant and meaningful professional learning and development so that this learning became a natural part of the students’ education. They had an agreed aim to integrate Te Reo into the curriculum by 2025. ANNUAL PR INT He reiterated these ambitions and said as Minister he CO-CURRICULAR recognized the need for investment by the Government. ‘We need to recruit those who have the skills and we will work alongside LICENCE your schools to do that.’ Non-educational, students only, M USIC He noted that the time was right because there is now general rained out sports days, before and after school care, special treat. good will towards that goal, and Māori children have the right to have their language integrated. L A U IS V ‘We have eight or nine years to do it,’ he said ambitiously. He AU DIO COM M U N ITY listed the popular Te Kotahitanga programme and Ka Hikitia SCREENING document as key to making the changes. He observed that all in Government shared the aspirations of LI C E N C ES Chris Hipkins, the Minister for Education, and that just between Including members of the the Labour and NZ First education manifestos alone, there are general public, community MOVIE ENTERTAINMENT engagement, fundraising. fifty-four points of agreement. Minister Davis concluded his address by referring to this year’s Waitangi Day. ‘The Prime Minister had nothing thrown at her,’ Representing major Hollywood studios and local independent he said, ‘but she threw a challenge to all of us, her Ministers. distributors, and only available from Roadshow. There is a distance between the Māori House and the Pākehā House and it’s our job to bridge that distance. We will be held to For more information contact roadshowppl@roadshow.co.nz account because she said to Māori that day, I want you to hold Freecall: 0800 662 886 us to account!’ ROADSHOW ‘We can’t do this on our own. We need those on the ground to
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help us achieve these goals so all of our children can be great.’ Question: Resourcing is hard and today we are hearing about the need for more expert professional development to upskill teachers so that we have quality Te Reo in schools. How will you provide that? At the same time, in the wider Canterbury district we are grappling with mental health issues and there aren’t enough experts. How do we satisfy all these needs? Answer: You are dead right! We don’t have Te Reo Māori experts right now. The Budget round is coming up and we are hopeful that we will get extra resourcing. On the mental health issues, I see it through [my] Corrections [portfolio]. We are holding an inquiry into mental health because we have anxiety in our five-year-olds. We think that mental health issues are rare. They are not. We have children in school with depression. You will have a voice in that inquiry. Question: There is institutionalised discrimination in the Education Review Office (ERO) and the Ministry. The Māori Achievement Collaborations (MACs) are designed to address valuing our Māori culture. Some principals are declined access [to the MACs] and some principals are approved for funding. It is confusing trying to ascertain the reasons why. How will you support change in these institutions [so decisions are more transparent]? Answer: I have personal investment [in these matters]. Education is also a key factor for reducing the prison population. We are trying to work out what needs to happen too. We want to find ways for you to have a say in making changes. We want to engage with you guys to get the feedback we need to hear. The Prime Minister has said we will do things differently but not on our own. We have access to research, but we are in the development stages and need your help. Question: When we have a conversation about achievement we have a conversation about Māori and Pākehā and Pacific Islanders are an add on. The Pacific Island Education team in the Ministry has been disbanded. They are displaced. The Pacific Island plan was completed in 2017 but has been rolled over to 2018. My concern is that we haven’t had an inkling of when it will be updated or implemented. Are we leaving it too late to help our students for this year? Answer: Associate Minister Jenny Salesa will feed back to you on this one. Ministers had dominated the morning but the afternoon belonged to the regional presidents who spent the rest of their day reflecting on what they had just learned and applying it to a new set of questions, some relating to the topics covered. Following the Moot there would be a call for submissions on many of these topics and NZPF was looking for a steer in forming a representative position. The regional presidents generously obliged, sharing their collective ideas later in the day. Concluding the day, the NZPF President, Whetu Cormick thanked the presidents again not just for their regional work, but for the support and ideas they had shared with his own executive that day. ‘Your feedback is highly valued,’ he said, ‘and without it, NZPF could not do its work.’
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