He moana pukepuke rau e ekengia e te waka; Swells of the ocean can be mounted by the canoe.

Ngā mihi nui kia koutou katoa, warm greetings to you all.

I spent three days last week at a leadership conference in Christchurch, where educators from across the whole sector - ECE, primary, secondary and tertiary, all came together to share and explore research around leadership in education. This is one of my favourite educational gatherings, and I always come away feeling very energised and hopeful. 

Hope and optimism were key themes across the three days; the need to stay optimistic and identify the actions we can take to keep us moving forward in our quest to ensure ngā tamariki (our children) are seen, valued, and ready to take their place and contribute their unique gifts in the world. Interestingly, hope was the key message from Dr. Emma Woodward a few weeks ago, when she spoke about raising and teaching tamariki so they can flourish. Dr. Woodward spoke of hope as the thing that gets you up off the floor when you have fallen, the thing that keeps you going. In the current educational climate, with so much change and uncertainty, this message about hope is a really important and timely one. 

Last week, NZEI (the largest educational sector union) and the NZ Principals’ Federation sent a joint statement to the Government, asking to pause the fast tracking of the curriculum changes going ahead. A key message here is that we do not want changes to the curriculum to be stopped; we all want the very best for ngā tamariki, and an effective, clear and consistently implemented curriculum across the motu (country) will help hugely with this. However, the speed with which the changes are being implemented are an impediment to putting these changes into action thoughtfully and effectively. Both the English and Maths curriculum have had significant changes in their current draft forms, and neither curricula are yet confirmed. Putting these into action for Term 1 next year, simultaneously, is not a considered or reasonable timeframe. 

The statement sent to the Government asks for the changes to be slowed, and for either

i) The English curriculum refresh to be implemented in 2025, and the Maths curriculum refresh to be implemented in 2026, as per the original timeframe; or

ii) School leaders to be able to choose either the English or Maths curriculum to be implemented in 2025.

It is important to be mindful that curriculum frameworks are tools. Very important, necessary and valuable tools, but tools nonetheless. It is through teachers making sense of the frameworks and putting them into practice in the best way possible for their ākonga (students) and in their contexts, that makes the frameworks work effectively. This process of making meaning from a framework takes time, it is not a ‘point and click’ mechanism. Ensuring that the curricula and the supporting resources are completed with due care, consideration, and input, and giving our leaders and teachers enough time and support  to engage with the content, understand it, and know how to implement it effectively, will ensure that ngā tamariki will be getting the high quality teaching and learning they deserve and need. 

We will keep you updated around the response to this request. In the meantime, have a fabulous weekend. Here's hoping the weather is kind to us and we continue our progress into spring.

Hei tērā wiki, see you next week for the final week of Term 3.

Ngā mihi nui,

Urs