We have reached the end of a busy term and I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a restful yet productive holiday break.

I am currently in Phuket, Thailand, where I delivered a workshop at the 3rd International Conference on Education 2018 ”Education, Leadership and Innovation in Learning Society“ run by Prince of Songkla University. This university has five campuses throughout Thailand and we have been developing a relationship with them over the past three years. It has been a challenge delivering a three hour workshop on STEAM education to a room of people who speak English as a second language and who come from an educational approach that has not encouraged discussion or debate. Listening to some of the other presenters however, has been reassuring in terms of where the New Zealand education systems sits in relation to other countries around the world and where Otago Girls’ is at in terms of implementing future focussed learning approaches.

I have just listened to speakers from Finland and the US who paint quite different pictures of the health of their relative education systems. The Finnish Ambassador to Thailand spoke about the Finnish education system and recent changes to their curriculum. Finland's education system is recognised around the world as the gold standard to which other countries aspire so it was interesting to hear how closely the Finnish curriculum now resembles New Zealand's. It was also clear that the high level of government investment in education, funded through their very high level of taxation, is a key contributor to the quality and equality of their system. All education is free, down to school lunches and transport. The teaching profession is highly valued and highly trusted with only one in ten applicants for teacher training being accepted. All children attend their local school meaning their is no competition between schools and much greater levels of co-operation and collaboration as a result. 

The situation in the United States however is considerably different and although the focus of the speaker's presentation was on higher education, the implications of the "anti-intellectual" movement in the US at present, ongoing reductions in funding for universities, associated increases in tuition fees for students and growing student loans are resulting in massive issues for schooling. Teaching is no longer an 'affordable' career choice with some states seeing first grade class sizes ballooning out to 40 to 45 students per teacher. It was also interesting to note that in some states teachers are being provided with support to meet housing costs where rental prices are beyond the ability of someone on a teaching salary to pay. A similar approach is part of the PPTA (secondary teachers' union) pay claim as a way of attracting teachers to Auckland. 

The value of the level of government and local resourcing that has gone into the establishment of ICT infrastructure in New Zealand schools has also been made clear to me as I have talked with Thai teachers about the difficulty of incorporating digital learning when their schools have only one computer lab in which students can use computers and teachers do not have access to laptops. The fact that I was able to watch Wairua Puhou's performance at the National Kapa Haka competitions streamed live while those back at school were able to do the same was just one simple example of how IT has opened the world. 

On the topic of Wairua Puhou, congratulations to everyone involved in their journey to Palmerston North. Students, parents and staff have worked tirelessly to make this trip possible. These students have truly developed the 21st Century Skills of creativity, collaboration, critical thinking and communication; skills that will serve them well in all aspects of their lives. 

Thank you to everyone who has provided us with feedback on the "Finding our Why" statements. I will report on progress early in Term three.

Parents of students in Years 9 and 10 will be able to access their daughter's report through the parent portal from today. Please contact the school office if you have any problems with this.