Iona Holsted emphasised the good work that integrated schools do when she spoke at the AIS Conference in June on behalf of the Minister. Iona was gracious in her praise of your work and the difference you make to learners in your schools.  While we have still to determine our long term relationship with the Government we do know that the Ministry understands the part you play in the state’s provision of education.

Minister Salesa, who has recovered from her surgery, has asked for more regular meetings with APIS and we are looking to find dates that can work for all parties. I am hoping that we can progress the issue of Policy Two funding and the perceived changes to the way applications for new schools to integrate appear to be sidelined. Following meetings with the Minister I will report our progress.

 As we come out of Matariki and look to spring and new life in our gardens and farms we will be working to grow the relationship between the crown and the sector.

Ngā mihi,

Paul Ferris, CEO

The APIS AGM in June was well attended.  The annual report has been circulated to Proprietors, but is available from NZCEO if desired.  Draft minutes of the annual meeting have also been circulated, and are available from NZCEO.

The Associate Minister of Education, Jenny Salesa, had accepted the invitation to speak later in the day, but unfortunately ill health prevented her from attending.  A motion expressing best wishes for her recovery was passed at the APIS AGM.

EDUCATION CONVERSATION | KŌRERO MĀTAURANGA

The Ministerial review of Tomorrow's Schools continues. A new online hub has been launched at conversation.education.govt.nz. It has number of resources to help people in communities, schools and workplaces hold their own conversations about the future of education and learning. The website also has progress updates on the Government's Education Work Programme. This programme includes the NCEA Review, the Review of Tomorrow's Schools and two items for consultation have been added - the Progress and Achievement across the National Curriculum and Early Learning Strategic Plan.

REUSING IMAGES FROM THE INTERNET

CoreEd has written a useful post about legally reusing images from the internet, including guidelines for using images from Unsplash, Pixabay and Flickr. Read more here.

LINGUISTICAL AND CULTURAL LEARNING RESOURCES

The Ministry of Education provides a range of supports to enable teachers to build their capability to support linguistically and culturally diverse learners, including:

• Inclusive education online resources to support teachers and providers to create and develop a culture that recognises and meets the needs of all students.
• Dual language resources in five Pasifica languages, as well as professional development in how to use them effectively. The resources are based on the second language acquisition principle that building on the child’s language/s, helps to strengthen English language and literacy.
• If you’d like help with ESOL programmes for culturally and linguistically diverse students, please email Maree Jeurissen Manager ESOL, Migrant, Refugee and International Education at: maree.jeurissen@education.govt.nz

EDUCATION COUNCIL BRINGING SERVICES ONLINE

The Education Council has a major project under way to bring services online. A Teacher Advisory Group has been established to assist in testing and improving the new online services. Design, build and testing is underway, and is expected to be completed by the end of 2018. Rollout/implementation of the new platform timing is to be confirmed.  You can provide input at www.educationcouncil.org.nz/joinTAG. Email feedback and questions to online.services@educationcouncil.org.nz. 

Inspector Ross Lienert,  Manager: Youth at Police’s National Prevention Centre, spoke recently to the Police and Education Partnership about the new Youth Action Plan his team are developing.

Ross told the meeting that Police have a Prevention First model, which expects that all staff will take every opportunity to prevent harm. 

“Prevention First identifies Youth as one our main areas of focus,” Ross said. “Whilst youth offending as a whole has dropped over the last few years, serious offences have fallen less substantially. The reduction has also been less for Māori and Pasifika youth.”

Police are therefore developing a Youth Action Plan to change the way their staff think about young people who offend, and to understand the wider context around their offending. 

“Less than 1% of the total under-16 population become offenders,” said Ross. “We know there are four dynamic underlying risk factors that can influence whether or not these young people offend: whanau, peers, alcohol and other drugs, and education. For the last, getting or keeping young people in some form of education usually results in that individual forming friendships with pro-social peers, resulting in significant reductions in re-offending.”  

The focus of Police’s new Youth Action Plan is on two key cohorts of youth, namely ‘high-risk, high-needs’ (the here and now) and ‘early intervention’. 

Intervening early to prevent children and young people entering the youth justice system improves their outcomes and reduces harm and victimisation in the community.

“For example, 80% of children and young people who offend have evidence of family violence occurring in their homes,” said Ross. “So identifying child witnesses when Police attend family violence incidents will provide an early opportunity to intervene to prevent them offending later.” 

A key way of dealing with the higher risk youth offenders is through Family Group Conferences.  Out of a total youth offending population of 10,000 (14,000 once the youth justice age rises from 16 to 17 next year), only 1,800 go to Youth Court for more serious offences.

“Considerable work is going into alternatives to remanding these young people in Youth Justice residences, but to still ensure public safety,” said Ross.  “This will involve more community options, with shared responsibility through effective partnerships to change the trajectory of their young lives and prevent them from entering the adult justice system.”

To address the over-representation of Māori in youth offending, the plan will encourage a kaupapa Māori approach to youth offenders, supporting upcoming legislation changes where the Treaty of Waitangi will become a principle of the Oranga Tamariki Act.”

“We’ll work in partnership with iwi, the community, government and non-government agencies to effect positive change. For example, recent evaluations of Iwi Community Panels show that they have a positive impact on reducing re-offending, particularly for Māori aged 17 to 24 years, so the plan will look at developing similar panels for youth under 17.”

Ross finished by saying that Police look forward to working with members of the Partnership (which includes the New Zealand School Trustees Association). “Together we can meet the challenge of reducing youth offending, thus contributing to making New Zealand the safest country.”

The Former CEO of the APIS / NZCEO Office, Sir Patrick Lynch KNZM, QSO, has recently published his memoirs via Random House – Penguin. The memoirs traverse the forty years (1976 – 2016) of the Integrated schools story from an operational view point and are of interest to all of those in the integrated schools sector.

To purchase or for further information, please contact:

Rowena Keeman, Executive Secretary
0210 862 5832
pjlmemoirs@gmail.com

Longburn Adventist College has introduced a new online learning programme using Zoom video conferencing. It allows students, using their laptops or big screens, to link into the class next door, with a school in another part of New Zealand, or which students in other parts of the world. The initiative was described in Stuff.co.nz.

Image attribution Matthew Tso via Stuff.co.nz.

Wā Ora Montessori school was featured in a Stuff.co.nz article for their involvement in a fantastic inititative preparing meals for Women's Refuge using vegetables grown in Rimutaka Prison. Read more.

Think of classroom materials and optics as ‘mirrors’, ‘windows’ and ‘bridges’.  Mirrors reflect students’ backgrounds; windows expose students to other cultures, and bridges provide opportunities for students to connect their own cultures and experiences to those of others. Do not focus on superficial items such as food and dress, but focus on understanding ‘deep culture’, e.g. how kinship is defined, ideas about fairness. Selecting appropriate ‘mirrors’ becomes possible when teachers know their students and what resonates with them.  (from Kappan, February 2017)

Bethlehem College, Tauranga student, Sam Tanner retained his senior boys title at the New Zealand Secondary Schools Cross Country Championships in Taupo.

St Peter’s College, Palmerston North: students Anna Skiffington and Charlie Mollard recently constructed a champion robot to win at the WorldSkills Australia VEX IQ robotics competition.

St John’s College, Hastings: in partnership with Hawkes Bay Regional Prison was awarded an Arts Access Whai Tikanga Award 2018.

Two schools were Prime Minister’s Education Excellence Awards Finalists, De La Salle College, Auckland (Excellence in Teaching and Learning) and John Paul College, Rotorua (2018 Education Focus Prize).

Hato Pāora College, Feilding, Head Boy Caleb Matthews was featured in a Manawatu Standard article about his natural leadership abilities. Caleb was the winner of the impromptu speech category at the O'Shea Shield earlier this year.

For more of the amazing work of integrated school students and staff, click here.