Volume 36 • Number 3 • April / May 2015 Shoddy schooling in a leafy suburb One parent speaks out PAGE 8 About PPTA PPTA member benefits ISSN 0111-6630 (Print) ISSN 1178-752X (Online) PPTA News is the magazine of the New Zealand Post Primary Teachers’ Association. Approximately 18,000 copies are distributed free to secondary and area schools and other institu- tions. Not all the opinions expressed within PPTA News reflect Education Benevolent Society those of the PPTA. Life Cover - Income Protection - Editorial and advertising Enquiries should be addressed to: The editor, PPTA News, PO Disablement - Living Assurance. Box 2119, Wellington, New Zealand. EBS Health Care provides a comprehen- Ph: 04 384 9964 Fax: 382 8763 sive and growing range of low-cost medical Online: www.ppta.org.nz benefits. 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Establishing teachers' conference 4 A parent speaks out against Mt Hobson Middle School 8-9 PPTA protests against the TPPA 5 Voice health and safety 11 Holding back the iHunch 6 Teachers boycott Educanz nominations process 12 2 PPTA NEWS April / May 2015 President’s viewpoint Authorisation bought ne of the problems with Tomorrow’s The authorisation board may be Schools has been that boards of belatedly learning something that educa- Otrustees may be bristling with tionalists have long known — that closing expertise in a range of fields but they a school isn’t a sensible response to don’t usually have the inside knowledge performance difficulties as it just leaves needed to filter out unsuitable job parents and students stranded without applications. This is important because solving any of the problems. inexperienced, ineffectual or even corrupt Or, less charitably, there's no intention leaders can undermine the educational to ever close a charter school, no matter opportunities for a whole cohort of what it does, because there's too much students. political investment in the initiative. For The Investing in Educational Success example, there's no way the government (IES) initiative begins the process of will subject itself to a debate in the House by Angela Roberts securing students against this risk by about its total inability to retrieve the providing more active support for schools $600,000 of taxpayer money spent by a with appointment processes. private trust on buying a farm. schools and in England it was recently Meanwhile, in the alternative And it’s not just political investment revealed that the head of a charter universe occupied by charter schools, either; charter schools are proving to be school chain was being paid twice the the government is taking a completely a nice little earner for many. As well as prime minister’s salary. Of course, as in different approach. For charter schools, the money being paid to the incompetent New Zealand, this information is hard to the critical task of choosing the school authorisation board members, the come by because even though it is public leadership has been handed over to a management layer in charter schools money, it’s not public information. panel of well-heeled, political appointees is likely to be doing very nicely thank Fortunately, New Zealand is a small who meet from time to make decisions on you. American research shows charter close-knit society and the truth will out. behalf of schools they would never think schools spend less money on teaching (See pages 8-9 for a brave parent’s fight of sending their own offspring to. and more on management than public against secrecy in schools) The members of this group, the Kura Hourua Authorisation Board, have a truly enviable job. They’re paid generously by the taxpayer (around $500 a day) to parcel out vast amounts of public money for which they are completely unaccount- able. When they make poor decisions like giving money to a trust to buy a farm in Northland or handing money to individuals who shouldn’t be entrusted with either public money or other people’s children, there are no consequences for them. One of the charter schools they approved was so inadequately managed, the Ministry of Education had to step in and run it for most of last year. This was completely at odds with the Act Party’s sales pitch for charter schools which claimed that they would be “independent” of the ministry and might just explain why this intervention was kept secret for so long. The Act Party also claimed charter schools would be closed if they didn’t perform, promising this would make them “more accountable”. Instead, resources from the Ministry of Education are being diverted to prop up a school that was always going to struggle and wouldn't have been set up if the authorisation board had done due diligence. 3 PPTA NEWS April / May 2015 Establishing teachers Ideas generation Empowering beginning teachers with knowledge and connections was a big part of the inaugural PPTA Network of Establishing Teachers (NETs) conference. eveloped by PPTA’s Establishing “When I started teaching one of the in the classroom and the possibilities it Teachers Committee and held last most empowering things for me was to provided for collaboration opened partici- Dmonth at the Vaughn Centre on find that you could do your own profes- pants' eyes, Alex said. Auckland’s North Shore, the conference sional development, that it’s free and “We saw that not everybody was at targeted members in their first 10 years that PPTA does these things. To have 50 the same stage and that we were all of teaching and attracted 50 teachers. people all feeling that at the same time learning together.” Committee member Alex Le Long is huge,” she said. The conference allowed teachers to said putting the conference together was The conference included presenta- network and opened their minds to what one of the best organising experiences tions by PPTA president Angela Roberts, was available. “They learned that it’s okay of her life. New Zealand’s chief censor Dr Andrew to work cross curricular and not just focus One of the most powerful parts of Jack, classroom management expert on their own departments,” Alex said. the conference for her was being able to Margaret Ross, teacher wellbeing expert While the speakers and panels were see teachers catch on to the amount of Ian Vickers and coding expert Mike very helpful, Alex would like to see even professional learning and development Walmsley. more focus on networking in future (PLD) that was actually available to them. North Shore PPTA executive member conferences. Austen Pageau also spoke about the role “I would like to see more of an of unionism and the importance of being ‘un-conference’ format where people can When I started teaching one active in the union. share their ideas and drive it from within of the most empowering Lesson plan speed dating went down rather than it being outside driven.” well with conference-goers, despite initial Alex hoped a follow-up conference things for me was to find misgivings of some in the committee, could be held as soon as next year. Alex said. “Every year the amazing activists we that you could do your own “They thought it would be really naff have are passing away or leaving the but once I explained it to them they profession. We need to keep building our professional development." realised it was really cool. Sometimes you up-and-coming activists, showing them just have to go with me on these things.” how to get involved and play a more active “ A section focussing on technology role in the union,” she said.