We are proud that our VLN Primary schools felt well equipped to transition to online teaching and learning and that for most of our online learners, it was business as usual. However, the Digital Divide was an issue for some and we advocate that more effort is made to reduce this in our communities. Thanks to Covid19 funding support from the Ministry we were able to extend access to more learners and provide PLD opportunities for teachers. We again hit a new record for the number of enrolments and participating schools. You can see more details on our enrolments in our Snapshot of Learning 2020 that follows.

It has been a super busy year for our team to rise to the challenge of growth in participation. We have an amazing group of teachers who have come together as a learning community and developed and shared their professional expertise led and supported by our powerhouse of Lucie, Jen and Jan. Together with the support of teachers in our schools we have demonstrated the kaupapa of Teacher Collective Efficacy; the shared belief that through our collective action, we can positively influence student outcomes. Thank you to all the learning support people in our schools whether you are classroom teacher, Principal, secretary or whānau, your support role is crucial to our collective efforts and students’ success.

Well done to all our tamariki for a successful year of learning in 2020. It is not always easy learning online whether there are challenges with technology or remembering when you have class every week. Our learners are developing their key competencies of self management, participating and contributing and are working together with the support of their teachers to overcome challenges that can distract them from their learning. It is our goal that through developing students and teachers capabilities, improved access to reliable technology and bandwidth then online learning can seamlessly blend as part of everyday learning at school. 

In the last couple of years we have worked more closely with our VLN Secondary colleagues at NetNZ and OLC throughout our Covid response and through our PLD initiative NEX Kōtuitui. With common goals and aspirations for our learners and similar ways of working, we will be collaborating throughout 2021 to align our systems and pathways for learners. This will enable a consistent national approach that will be inclusive of more schools and learners.

I would like to thank the Ministry of Education for the funding and support they have given the VLN Primary over the last ten years. Without their partnership in supporting our operations we would not be able to provide these opportunities for our learners. However, even with this support from the Ministry our schools, especially our small rural schools, find funding is a barrier in accessing the curriculum through the VLN Primary. In the last two years the NZEI collective agreements have resulted in an 18.5% increase in the cost of staffing. Although this is great for our teachers it is challenging for the VLN Primary operational budget that hasn’t increased and for our schools who fund participation from their already meagre ops grant. Curriculum funding, as it is currently allocated, is not equitable for all schools particularly those that are small, rural, remote, or hard to staff. A funding review has been signalled by the MoE as coming up sometime in the next few years and a primary school staffing review is being consulted on now by NZEI Puāotanga. We would like to see a review of school resourcing that reduces the barriers of accessing the curriculum. This could be done by providing additional equity funding for our schools with greater needs, and by creating mechanisms where staffing budgets and teacher workforce can more easily be shared in a networked schools environment such as the VLN Primary. We have made much progress in providing opportunities for online learning for our tamariki but we still have some way to go to embed this as an integral part of our schooling system.

(This is an abridged report, our full Annual Report for 2020 is attached.)