National standards, term 3 meetings, and Fair Deal Friday (P2P 2009/11e)

In my last ezine to you I indicated that in spite of having successfully gained an extension to the timeline before formal reporting on student achievement against the national standards is required, there was still a need to focus on several unresolved issues.

I am pleased to inform you that the NZEI National President, Frances Nelson, has now met with the Minister of Education to clarify further details of the process going forward – see below for further information.

Naku noa
Ian Leckie – NZEI National Vice President

National Standards

The extended time-frame relates to the requirement to report schools data outside its usual processes. In 2010, schools will be required to work with the standards and determine what this means in the context of their own school curriculum. The standards will be part of the discussion with parents around student achievement.

The following pieces of work are underway to address the feedback from the consultation process undertaken last term -

1. The reporting to parents process - a group set up to work on "plain English" reports, schools will work with their community on what it will look like in each school (the format).
2. The MOE is working on the standards and the material for schools taking in to account the feedback around the levels and the alignment to the curriculum.
3. Issues around how to deal with the data (including protecting it from mis-use) are being worked on and once some potential solutions are identified, work will be done with the sector on this.
4. A Professional Development process will be available to schools late in 2009 and into 2010 to enable them to connect the standards with the revised curriculum.

There is much to be done to ensure an educationally sound process emerges from the debate. As information comes to hand, principals are encouraged to engage with the material and provide NZEI with feedback around the direction of the work

Term 3 meetings with Principals

‘Let’s Meet’ invitations to attend these meetings were sent out earlier this week and should be in all primary schools by tomorrow. I would like to strongly encourage all principals to attend one of these meetings so that we get your ideas and feedback ahead of next year's negotiation of our collective agreement. The full list of meetings is on the NZEI website

Support Staff - Fair Deal Friday

A special thank you to all principals who supported NZEI's Fair Deal Friday by attending a rally, signing the pledge poster or enabling your support staff to participate. The day was a great success and we collected in excess of 12,000 signatures. NZEI is looking to get bargaining back underway in the near future, we will keep you informed of developments."

Principals not receiving the Principal to Principal E-zine

Please check with your principal colleagues to see if they are receiving these e-zines. If they are not, email shelley.struthers@nzei.org.nz and she will put them on the mailing list. As the collective bargaining activities begin to gain momentum it is critical that NZEI is able to be in direct and immediate contact with its principal members.