Section
Commentary, critique, and advocacy from voices across the New Zealand education sector.
This section publishes opinion pieces on curriculum reform, education policy, equity, standardisation, political change, and the lived realities of school leadership. Contributors include principals, academics, sector commentators, and federation leadership writing in their own voice — not necessarily reflecting NZPF policy. Topics range from the Education and Training (System Reform) Amendment Bill to school culture, staff wellbeing, and the place of equity in curriculum design. Use this section to engage with the debates shaping education in Aotearoa, sharpen your own thinking on contested issues, and hear how colleagues are responding to the political and curricular pressures on schools.
Deputy Chief Executive, Education, Network for Learning It has been almost five years since I left principalship and with the passage of time I now look back at my 13 (mostly) enjoyable years as a principal and realise that principalship is actually a highly complex version of Whackamole! You get one thing under control and […]
Māori Student Agency: If you’re not at the table you are on the menu . . . Helen Kinsey-Wightman We have scored 200 hours of PLD time! Judging by my Principal’s jubilant and faintly incredulous response this is nothing short of a miracle – despite being a woman who is not afraid of a challenge […]
School Lines Hey, Stupid, it’s raising achievement, achievement, achievement! No, Stupid, it’s making progress, progress, progress! Lester Flockton lester.flockton@otago.ac.nz As I write this article, New Zealanders are awaiting a decision on which political parties will form the next Government. For those of us with a vested interest in education policies, we will each have our […]
Got time for professional reading? Helen Kinsey-Wightman Jan Robertson’s book on coaching has been a long time companion – as a first time principal my appraiser loaned it to me and for 6 months it diligently sat on my bedside table. It was briefly accompanied by a copy of 50 Shades of Grey that a […]
School Lines The Rise and Rise of CoLs (Common old Lollipop $yndrome) The Decline and Demise of a Common Sense Lester Flockton lester.flockton@otago.ac.nz Some important Definitions Passion: a forceful driver fuelled by what is believed. Belief: an opinion or conviction that is not necessarily supported by what holds to be true. Polarisation: Division into two […]
A cup of tea . . . Helen Kinsey-Wightman As I write it is the day of our school ball – there is not a hair, make-up or nail appointment available anywhere in town and by tomorrow I predict there will be a local shortage of blister plasters as girls recover from some very unwise […]
School Lines Education Policy Dogma and Obsessive-Compulsive Ideology: Wonderful or Wonky? Virtuous or Vexatious? Lester Flockton lester.flockton@otago.ac.nz Wonderful: marvellous, glorious, superb Wonky: not straight; off-centre, lopsided, skew-whiff cause arises out of tensions between intent (often ideological) and reality (or achievability), and the ability or inability to make insightfully critical distinctions between the means to Virtuous: […]
Teaching our girls to speak out . . . Helen Kinsey-Wightman At a pre-Christmas barbeque I was involved in a conversation about the war in Syria and the bombing of civilians and children in hospitals. A group of men present strongly defended this as an act of war – I commented that this was indefensible […]
School Lines Lead and dig up the diamonds around you! Lester Flockton lester.flockton@otago.ac.nz When Bill English, architect of his Government’s National Standards policy, gave his first press conference as Prime Minister late last year, he quoted the words above from a poem by Selina Tusitala Marsh. It’s a great pity that ‘and bury all that […]
do the most challenging and rewarding work are the special needs teachers and teaching assistants. If we really want to see growth and positive change in our country, we have to start building it from the ground up, brick-by-brick. If we want more skilled workers, we have to upskill our own students rather than importing […]
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feedback, feedforward, Feedup, feeddown lester.flockton@otago.ac.nz ‘Faster, faster,’ demands Ms H Parata. ‘You’ve gotta raise your achievement data.’ ‘But what can we do that will make it so?’ ‘Believe what you’re told by my MoE and my ERO:’ ACCELERATE! ACCELERATE! ACCELERATE! Acceleration is the name of the game, But alas, for some poor kids it’s all […]
