Ko Tainui te waka Ko Ngāti Raukawa ki Wharepūhunga te iwi Whetu Cormick
National President, New Zealand Principals’ Federation
There was a collective depressive sigh from teaching professionals when the Digital Technologies Curriculum was announced by then Minister for Education, Nikki Kaye in 2017. It’s not that we don’t agree young people need to understand digital technologies. It’s not that we don’t agree that future work will be heavily influenced by digital technologies. It’s that here we have another curriculum area to teach and understand and where is the on-going professional learning and development for teachers and principals? Do we have sufficient capability across our teaching staff to even start learning this new curriculum topic? What we do know is that the Digital Technologies curriculum is not about how to use devices. It’s about the design and creation of digital solutions. There are two main areas. The first is computational thinking and then designing digital solutions. We were told the new curriculum content would be implemented by schools in years 1–10 by January 2020. Integration of this new curriculum across other areas of the curriculum would be considered great practice. When examining the content and expectations carefully, it soon became clear that we do not have a teaching workforce ready to deliver the content. To illustrate, here is one expectation: They [students] can independently decompose a computational problem into an algorithm that they use to create a program incorporating inputs, outputs, sequence, selection and iteration. Many of our teachers and indeed many principals still struggle with the operational aspects of devices. Trying to decompose a computational problem into an algorithm is definitely a step too far. Given that teachers and principals are already stretched for time and given the ever-increasing demands they face it is not surprising that few have made any progress towards being ready to deliver this curriculum by 2020. The Ministry has developed different levels of PLD according to the sophistication of the teachers’ knowledge and understanding. But even if teachers did have ample time to devote to digital technology learning it is unlikely that they will progress from the lowest level to being competent to deliver the whole curriculum in time to meet the implementation deadline. A recent study by ERO showed that 95 per cent of a sample of schools were aware that the Digital Technology Curriculum existed, and those schools with a dedicated staff member or champion in digital technology were well informed about the content. The Technology Online Website was found to be the most useful for information. About one third of principals reported they found it easy to identify PLD needs of staff but 39 per cent
had not even asked yet. Locating content information was also difficult for 35 per cent and 14 per cent had not even tried. Those who had located information reported that the language used is very dense and difficult to engage with. About 64 per cent were actively engaged leaving one third who have not yet done anything. Those engaged had mostly opted for digital fluency PLD, which is not very sophisticated. As always there were those who found the Ministry PLD application process unnecessarily difficult and frustrating and others reported they had been turned down. A smaller percentage had accessed PLD from external providers and found their services easy to access and better tailored to the needs of the teachers. In the end only 7 per cent reported that they had a good understanding and enough knowledge and skills to start
New Zealand’s Leading Provider of Electronic School Signage
igns, nce S Entra unity Comm ards, ebo Notic Video r Indoo ctronic le E , s ll s Wa board Score
implementation in 2020. When it came to understanding links between the NZC and Digital Technologies curriculum only 8 per cent said they saw the connections. Those schools with a champion in digital technologies had higher levels of readiness. Most of these were secondary not primary schools. The capability of teachers and the time available to pursue training and development were by far the two biggest barriers to making progress. The progress has been very slow to date and the ERO report concluded that most schools will not be ready to implement the digital technologies curriculum by 2020. More time and resources are required. I am not surprised by these latest findings of ERO. It is not all that long since a different study by NZARE found that the greatest use of technology in schools was practising skills, researching on the internet and creating documents or power point presentations. These activities are a long way from what is being expected of teachers and principals through delivering the Digital Technologies curriculum. Until the difficulties around sourcing information and accessing Ministry PLD are resolved it is not likely that there will be any more progress towards implementing the Digital Technologies curriculum, no matter how relevant we may think it is.
WiPath Communications Ltd Phone: 09 302 1142 Email: info@wipath.co.nz Web: www.ledsigns.co.nz NATIONWIDE SERVICES
feeling down,worried or stressed? SPARX is an online game to help you cope with feeling down, worried or stressed SPARX is FREE – all you need is a computer with internet connection.
FEEL BETTER WITH SPARX
PLAY SPARX TODAY WWW.SPARX.ORG.NZ SPARX IS FUNDED BY THE MINISTRY OF HEALTH
ADVERTORIAL
STRESS FREE SCHOOL FINANCIAL SOLUTIONS Accounting for Schools (AFS) are school accounting specialists. AFS use Xero and other cloud-based systems to streamline the financial process, provide concise explanations and create efficiencies. AFS understand how difficult it can be for Principals managing all aspects of the school, so AFS are here to help with the finances. AFS achieve this by providing financial insight via clear reports and with plain English explanations. This ensures Principals can direct more of their time and the limited school funding to driving greater student outcomes and supporting the staff. AFS financial reports summarise how the school is tracking, provide an accurate financial position and provide insight around the future; this allows the Principal and Board to have confidence in the numbers, allowing them to divert more energy to the other key aspects of the school. Having an accurate view of the schools uncommitted funds, essentially cash less liabilities, provides certainty when assessing new initiatives or contributing to the likes of building projects. AFS utilises the power of Xero, a New Zealand developed online accounting system, to manage the processing of financial transactions, allowing AFS to provide value-added advice. By utilising Xero, AFS eliminates the double handling of financial information, delivers transparency and allows the school to have control around making payments. Along with being Xero Platinum Partners and Certified Advisers, AFS are Certified Partners for systems such as Hubdoc, ReceiptBank, Approval Max and Vend, which means AFS can deliver an end to end financial solution, not just for the smaller schools, but also the 2,000+ student high schools. AFS believes that every school is different and as such, requires a different level of support and assistance. While AFS can provide full
monthly reporting assistance to schools, they can also just provide adhoc support, carry out Xero implementations or just complete the year-end accounts. AFS believe in tailoring services to a school’s individual need; AFS does not believe in a one-solution-for-all schools approach. By offering flexibility, AFS can often save schools thousands of dollars in annual support costs, while delivering more value. By utilising Xero, Google Drive and other cloud-based applications, AFS can assist and support schools throughout the country, at any time. The cloud-based systems facilitate collaboration between the School, auditors and AFS, which ensures a no hassle, no fuss audit process. AFS also provides training to Principals, Boards and Support Staff. Twice yearly, AFS provides group training sessions at no cost, which provides a chance for school administrators to catch up, ask questions and share ideas. Using an AFS solution will ensure greater transparency, understanding and accuracy of your school’s finances. So, if you want a higher level of support and a solution that could create and almost certainly save your school real cash, give the team at AFS a call today. Contact Accounting for Schools for a no obligation chat and let them help you, help your school.
Accounting for Schools Ltd Ph: (04) 909 7729 Email: admin@afsl.nz www.afsl.nz
CLARITY Talk to the school || FINANCIAL TIME SAVING PROCESSES accounting experts. | FUTURE PLANNING
Principals
Executive Officers
Trustees
ENJOY COMPLETE FINANCIAL TRANSPARENCY
SAVE VALUABLE TIME WITH SIMPLIFIED PROCESSES
FOCUS ON LEARNING WITH SIMPLIFIED FINANCIALS
We ask the right questions, understand your unique requirements and add value by helping you plan for the future. For a FREE consultation contact Ben Duflou on 04 909 7729 or 021 915 233
www.afsl.nz AUCKLAND | WELLINGTON | CHRISTCHURCH XEROPARTNER PARTNERLOGO LOGOCOLOURS COLOURS XERO Xero XeroBlue Blue Print: 90M:M:00Y:Y:15 15K:K:00 Print:C:C:90 Screen: 183B:B:227 Screen:R:R:00G:G:183
PLACELOGO LOGOON ON WHITE PLACE WHITE
Dark DarkBlue Blue Print: 100M:M:35 35Y:Y:35 35K:K:00 Print:C:C:100 Screen: 130B:B:155 Screen:R:R:00G:G:130 Bronze Bronze Print: 30M:M:62 62Y:Y:72 72K:K:13 Print:C:C:30 Screen: 163G:G:103 103B:B:75 Screen:R:R:163
BLACK & WHITE BLACK & WHITE
Print Print White: White: C: 0 M:0 Y:0Y:0 K: 0K: 0 C: 0 M:0 PLATI NUM PLATI NUM P ARTNER P ARTNER
Screen Screen White: White: R: 255G: 255B: 255 R: 255G: 255B: 255
PARTNER STATUSPARTNER STATUS
PARTNER STATUSPARTNER STATUS
Print Print White: White: C: 0 C:M:00 M: Y:0 0 Y:K:00 K: 0 Black: Black: C: 0 M:0 Y:0 K:100 C: 0 M:0 Y:0 K:100
Silver Silver Print: Print:C:C:00M:M:00Y:Y:00K:K:40 Screen: 167G:G:169 169B:B:172 Screen:R:R:167 Gold Gold Print: C: 0 M:19 Y:100 K: 0 Print: C: 0 M:19 Y:100 K: 0 Screen: R: 255G: 204 B: 0 Screen: R: 255G: 204 B: 0
GREY & WHITE GREY & WHITE
This colour treatment forfor useuse in newspaper or or Similar to ‘Black & White’, this this Thisisisthe thepreferred preferred colour treatment Primarily Primarily in newspaper Similar to ‘Black & White’, ofofthe logos. similar, where black andand white areare thethetreatment should onlyonly be used when theXero XeroPartner Partner logos. similar, where black white treatment should be used when only options. fullfull black is too strong. only options. black is too strong.
SILVER PART NER SILVER PART NER
PLATI NUM P ARTNER PLATI NUM
Never place Never place the colour logo the colour logo onon a coloured a coloured background. Please background. Please use an alternative use an alternative colour treatment. colour treatment.
Screen Screen White: White: G: 255B: 255 R: 255G: 255B: 255 Black: Black: 0 R:G:00 G:B:00 B: 0
R:
R:
Reverse Reverse Colours as above Colours as above
PARTNER STATUS PARTNER STATUS
PARTNER STATUS PARTNER STATUS
PrintPrint White: White: C: 0 M: C:0 0 Y:M:00K:Y:00 K: 0 Grey: Grey: K: 50 Darker thanthan K: 50 Darker
Screen Screen White: White: G: 255B: 255 R: 255G: 255B: 255 Grey: Grey: Darker thanthan Darker R: 122G:122B:122 R: 122G:122B:122 R:
Reverse Reverse