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Kia tau te rangimārie ki a koutou
The recently completed AIS Conference was a wonderful celebration of unity within diversity. The communities in our sector are a varied lot with differing special characters and approaches to the challenges and opportunities in state integrated education. From my perspective, this diversity is what draws my attention, and like a pallet of colours in an artist’s toolbox it creates a beautiful landscape of interconnected parts that when collected together creates a unique and vibrant whole. Mahatma Ghandi once said that “our ability to reach unity in diversity will be the beauty and test of our civilization” and it felt to me that our coming together at the AIS conference was an example where we could celebrate this diversity by showing strong support for each other. I felt very proud to be part of our collective.
I must congratulate Mark Larson, ably supported by the wonderful Rhonda Thorp, for the quality of the programme, their dedicated and enthusiastic management of the event and the beautiful atmosphere over the two days of this conference. I must also acknowledge our supportive Ministry of Education team who service state integrated schools not only for their involvement and strong support of the conference but for their work in the background in supporting and championing our interests within the wider Ministry organisation and with the Minister of Education. Their work in support of our interests is somewhat hidden and unknown but it is appreciated by those in our APIS organisation who work closely with this team.
I have received many emails over the last few weeks from schools and proprietors who are very excited about the project opportunities created by the Integrated Schools Investment Package (ISIP). APIS is grateful for the support of the Hon Chris Hipkins in getting this funding through in the latest budget round. The Minister responded generously to our invitation to have him as a guest speaker at the AIS conference and his presence added to the occasion. He outlined the nature of the issues at play in holding up this agreement over the last twelve months and emphasised the need to develop plans for eligible building projects quickly as it is a stimulus package with the government wanting the funds spent rapidly in support of the local economy.
As I argued at my AIS conference workshop, our sector is privileged to have the support of our Government in allowing parents to have the choice of state education with a special character. There are many examples in the world including the USA where there is no government support of special character schools and where networks of special character schools have been decimated as a result. Without government support the ability of parents to choose education with a special character would be curtailed by the issue of affordability, so we have a lot to be grateful for. The Government is a key partner in our work and the very positive outcomes achieved by state integrated schools highlights our continuing efforts in being constructive partners in supporting the government to meet key national education goals. Partnership is an active, symbiotic relationship and the ISIP funding is just one sign that the state integrated sector is seen as an equal and effective partner in the provision of state education. APIS is grateful to Minister Hipkins for this acknowledgement.
2021 Prime Minister’s Education Excellence Awards
The finalists for the 2021 Prime Ministers Education Excellence Awards have been announced. Kadimah School in Auckland is a finalist in the 2021 Prime Minister’s Education Excellence Awards in the Environmental and Sustainability category. Wesley College in South Auckland is also a finalist under the Excellence in Health and Wellbeing category and both schools and their staff, boards and proprietors can rightly feel very proud of this recognition. APIS offers our congratulations to both communities and we wish you well in the lead up to the announcement of the category winners.
ESA - Te Mahau
Te Mahau is the new name for what has previously been referred to as an Education Service Agency (ESA). Members will be aware that one of the findings from the “Tomorrows Schools” report that Minister Chris Hipkins decided to move forward with was the creation of Te Mahau. The purpose was to create a regionalised arm of the Ministry of Education that was more responsive in being able to serve the needs and issues of local schools. In the words from the report it was about:
“Establishing a more responsive, accessible and integrated local support function for early learning services and schools by substantially rebalancing the Ministry of Education towards more regional and local support, through the establishment of a separately branded business unit, the Education Service Agency”.
The Secretary of Education Iona Holsted has started work on this initiative through several internal staffing and restructuring decisions. However, many peak bodies have expressed concern that this work has been started without a full and proper consultation process with the sector. As a result, the Secretary of Education has arranged a meeting with a number of sector leaders to discuss their concerns and APIS will be represented in this forum and looks forward to engaging in this work. Te Mahau has the potential to make a positive difference for schools and boards but many initiatives in the past have failed due a lack of understanding of what works best at the chalk face so I commend the Secretary of Education for showing a willingness to listen to the views of the sector. I look forward to reporting in the future on this work.
Mā te Atua koutou katoa e tiaki, e manaaki.
Kevin Shore
Chief Executive Officer
The Association of Integrated Schools (AIS NZ) held their Annual Conference on June 15 & 16 in Wellington. Audio recordings of Keynote addresses are available, including:
All the conference presentations including audio recordings of all keynote speakers are available in dropbox format by following the links below. A guide to speakers and presentations can be found in the Conference Brochure.
If you attended the AIS Conference it would be very much appreciated if you could complete a short survey by following the link below. Please note that this survey will close on Friday July 9th (end of Term 1).
If you have any further questions or comments please email either Mark Larson at mlarson.aisnz@gmail.com or Rhonda Thorp at info.aisnz@gmail.com
It is great to see that two state integrated schools have been selected as finalists in the 2021 Prime Minister's Awards. Kadimah School in Auckland is a finalist in the Environmental and Sustainability Education category. Wesley College, also in Auckland is a finalist in two categories - Excellence in Engaging, and Excellence in Health and Wellbeing.
Wesley College, South Auckland
Finalist: Excellence in Engaging
The judges said the college started from a low NCEA base and has experienced a good lift. The judges also liked the focus on University Entrance.
The judges were impressed with how well the programme had been developed and how it had drawn on ex-students. They also liked the focus on Pasifika, the partnership with whānau to design educational activities, and focussing on where improvement was needed.
Finalist: Excellence in Wellbeing Education
The judges liked the strong wrap-around support and noted the good evidence of student wellbeing, which were being looked after in a range of initiatives.
The judges said the wellbeing data was implicit, but other data on achievement was explicit.
Kadimah School, Auckland
Finalist: Education Focus Prize
The judges were impressed with the strong cross-curriculum linkages. They noted that the programme had been going for six years and was a nice melding of Judaism and Māori concepts. The judges liked the long-term engagement and development of a wide range of rich programmes, which seemed to be integrated.
The judges felt it was a strong entry with great mahi, given the barren concrete environment. There was authentic learning interwoven with a special charter. They felt the school was using up-to-date pedagogy and got children critically thinking about making good choices for the environment and community.
The new Privacy Act has important implications for any organisation that collects and uses personal information. The Privacy Act 2020 came into force on 1 December 2020, replacing the Privacy Act 1993. The new Act is intended to strengthen privacy protections, and enhance the role of the Privacy Commissioner. A key purpose of the Act is to give individuals more control over their personal information.
Significant changes in the new Act include the requirement that if a business or organisation has a privacy breach that has caused serious harm to someone (or is likely to do so), it will need to notify the Office of the Privacy Commissioner as soon as possible. In addition, the Privacy Commissioner will now be able to issue compliance notices requiring a business or organisation to do something, or stop doing something, if it is not meeting its obligations under the Privacy Act.
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner has put together a wide range of resources to help individuals and organisations understand the new Act:
- A series of information sheets, each covering one of the main changes in the new Privacy Act
- The Privacy Act 2020 is structured around 13 information privacy principles relating to how an organisation can collect, store, and use personal information. Here is a quick guide to the updated Privacy Principles. A full guide to the privacy principles is here.
- A summary of the key changes in the new Act and what they mean for individuals and organisations.
- 'Priv-o-matic' - a user friendly Privacy Statement Generator.
- A Privacy Impact Assessment Toolkit.
- 'NotifyUs' - an online tool to help work out if privacy breaches are notifiable and report them.
- A series of online training modules at the Privacy Commissioner's eLearning site. (Free registration required).
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