From the tumuaki | principal 2023 Term 2 Week 2
Kia ora koutou | hello to all of you
I’m writing this from Parramatta, Sydney, as I’m away with about 50 principals from around Canterbury and the West Coast. We’ve been visiting schools and today we meet with their equivalent of our Ministry of Education. It’s been amazing to look at what other schools do and reflect on our practices, learning in many ways. A highlight for me was visiting rural schools inland of the Blue Mountains, where we looked at their farm and received an aboriginal welcome (our first in three trips to Aus!) However, I’m returning with more appreciation of what we have in NZ - it’s not always greener on the other side!
That said, starting teacher salaries are about $75,000 here and ours are about $51,000. This is an aspect of the current industrial actions in which I believe that MoE has to act to sort quickly - we need to attract and keep teachers and asking someone to study for 3-4 years to then be paid $51,000 for a challenging professional job is not going to work. I have written to PPTA and MoE this week to express my frustration with both PPTA’s targeting of students in their choice of industrial actions and MoE’s poor handling of the current education sector issues. Teachers are being asked to manage huge changes in NCEA conditions, then a new curriculum from years 0-13 (in that order, which in itself is topsy turvy); develop Aotearoa New Zealand histories and literacy and numeracy across subjects; individualise learning plans for students who are increasingly diverse and challenging; complete mandatory training in physical restraint and awareness of abuse; get learners back to school; various other aspects of curriculum change and - of course - deal with Covid which is now clearly at higher rates in the teaching workforce than any other sector. So, whilst I am annoyed with PPTA for targeting their actions at students, the Ministry of Education needs to own the mess they’ve made and lead us into a better environment for education. Please be assured that our teachers do value your students and want them at school.
The next PPTA strike day is Tuesday 9 May, so please keep all students at home unless they really need to attend school (as in previous strikes) in which case please let us know. However, with the Careers Expo on that day you are encouraged to come to the Expo with your child, or send them in to our Hall (not for the whole day please as we have insufficient supervision available). Details published separately. We are also expecting the following strike or partial strike actions:
Week 3: 8-12 May
Tuesday 9 May - Whole school, Confirmed
Thursday 11 May - Year 13, Confirmed
Week 4: 15 - 19 May
Tuesday 16 May - Year 9
Thursday 18 May - Year 10
Week 5: 22 - 26 May
Thursday 25 May - Year 11
Week 6: 29 May - 2 June
Tuesday 30 May - Year 13
Thursday 1 June - Year 12
Week 7: 5 - 9 June
Tuesday 6 June - Year 10
Thursday - 8 June - Year 9
There is a chance that strikes won’t go ahead but we only get 3 days’ notice so we wanted you to have as much notice as possible and we’ll communicate if they’re called off.
Next week I want to share more about the incredible sporting opportunities available at our school thanks to the hard work of Pip Deans.
Ngā manaakitanga
Andy England
Key dates:
See https://darfield.school.nz/calendar/
Tuesday 9 May: PPTA full strike, Careers Expo (students stay home unless years 7-9 and really need to attend OR to the Careers Expo, preferably accompanied)
Thursday 11 May (TBC): PPTA Year 13 strike (Year 13 stay home unless really need to attend)