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NEWSLETTER

Strategic Planning


A new Government a new direction!
The new Government has been quick off the mark to establish it's intentions to carve out a new sense of direction for 'our' country.
A new inclusive dialogue is replacing the competitive 'market forces' ideology. The emphasis is being placed the development of conditions to create growth rather than relying self interest and competition that determined the previous government's policy. An appreciation of the need to consider the 'common good' and the return of the public service ethic will contribute to a vision that, if we all work together we can create a fairer more innovative NZ. Such a vision is certainly preferable to waiting for wealth to 'trickle down'!
There is a feeling that we are returning to the ideals of true participative democracy. The new Government has the opportunity to lead the way to developing the capacity for all make a full contribution for the good of all. If this can be achieved a new identity can be developed for NZ that we can all feel proud to be part of.
'The driving force for change in the nineties has not been what is good for public services like health and education, but, rather how to fit them into an ideological straightjacket to satisfy market purists'.
Helen Clark Prime Minister
Early signs of change in Education
Real changes, we believe, are yet to be announced in the educational scene but there have been more than signs of an impending shift of direction.
Bulk funding has been placed on hold because of its divisive effect. Education 2001, a Secondary Curriculum Initiative, has been delayed for a year to give schools time to sort things out. Principal's 'bonuses' have been stopped. Student loan interest issues have been addressed. These changes we believe are but a start.

Teacher's Voices
For too long the voice of teachers and parents have been excluded from the educational debate. The new Government would be well advised to listen to the voices of it's teachers, to feel the pain and confusion that that they have had to live under. Teachers need to given credit for the dedication and creativity they have shown in spite of the demands placed upon them.

'Today's schools are not Tomorrows Schools. That's a fundamental misconception'
David Lange
Ministry has lost it's way!
Tomorrow's Schools according to David Lange was an arrangement whereby parents and their community were empowered to get the best schooling for their community. The Ministry Lange says has 'lost it's education ethos'.
While it is fair to say the Ministry is now realising the error of it's way and providing more support to schools it is all a little too late to reverse the 'managerial' ethic that up until now they have had to impose on schools.

Wanted: a new Metaphor!

This nonsense has to stop. Our schools are not businesses.'
Helen Clark PM
What is needed is a new metaphor to base future educational directions. The 'School as a Business' metaphor is wearing thin. Schools are becoming exhausted through complying with endless requirements that have been the price to pay for their so-called 'self management'. Teachers and BOT's are beginning to realise that the real power is more than ever in the hands of the centralised bureaucracies - the Ministry and ERO.
'Over the past ten years, both deliberate and poorly thought out decisions have been taken…(that have) summarily dealt with critical matters about the adequacy of the curriculum, about assessment of what student might and actually do learn, and what actually happens in the classroom.'
Dr Judith Aitken ERO
We would venture to predict that the Ministry will the bureaucracy that will be most changed by new political agendas rather than ERO!

The School As A Community
The new metaphor that we need is for all to 'see' schools as Learning Communities based on shared values. The Governments role should be to create the conditions to empower school communities. Conditions to assist schools to develop the capacity to thrive in a continually changing environment.
The Government could retain but revise the National Curriculum Framework by placing more emphasis on values, essential skills and the development of student talents. Other than the above they need to simplify core expectations re curriculum freeing schools to release the creativity of their teaching teams to focus on teaching and learning. There is no place for the current system that determines every learning objective.

We have an entirely different vision for education… We see education as an intrinsic good. We know well of its contribution to economic growth and prosperity. But we know too of education's importance in enabling people to know about and participate in our society and to know and care about our world'.
Helen Clark PM
Community Councils
World-wide research indicates that self managing schools have not in themselves led to improved student outcomes for all but rather has resulted in an increase in the gap between the best and worst achieving students'. NZ studies also confirm a growing gap between the rich and poor communities. Differences in school population are the greatest variable in school achievement. Solving this social equity problem is a political challenge.
Tucked away in Labour Party Policy is the concept of developing Community Education Councils. This would seem a good idea to explore to break down each schools isolation from each other and an increasingly distant Ministry. Such a Council could provide support for both curriculum and school development as well as introducing a community input.

Some Suggestions for the Government.

Place the Focus on Teaching and Learning
Schools up until now have spent far too much energy on documentation of the National Education Guidelines. School's are currently adrift with endless clear folders containing policies, procedures, curriculum delivery plans, assessment programmes etc all notable for their complexity. The time is now right for educational philosophy to become the driving force in future educational change.

'If a thing is not worth doing it is worth doing badly.'
G K Chesterton
The Ministry in it's 'School Review Newsletter No 4' now ironically is leading the charge out of the compliance nightmare it encouraged school to create!
This Newsletter not only points out the need for the primacy of a shared vision but also more importantly encourages simplicity and clarity in all documents. It asks schools to review their documentation by asking
  • Is what is written happening?
  • If not why not?
  • Do we still agree with what the document says?
  • What change, if any, do we have to make?
All a breathe of fresh air!
Prizes in the future should go to schools with the simplest, the most user friendly, and even the most beautiful documentation
'Our lives are frittered away by detail... simplify, simplify.'
Henry Thoreau
The New Key Phrase: 'Capacity Building'
What is required in all organisations is the capacity to thrive in times of unpredictable change. This capability needs a new mindset aligned behind the energy provided by shared beliefs. A 'mindset' that sees growth as an organic and often unpredictable experience rather than planned and linear.
'Schools are over-managed and under-led'
Maurice Gionotti
Leadership
There is a real need for leadership at all levels. Leadership that celebrates the central role that creative teachers play in the development of quality learning environments.
'A little rebellion now and then is a good thing.'
Thomas Jefferson
What is needed is leadership that encourages openness and trust, not conformity and competition. Leadership that broadens not narrows visions of education. Creating the environment to develop this new leadership attitude is a challenge for the new Government

The wrong picture!
Since Tomorrows Schools isolated school's have invented systems for dealing with the barrages incoherent changes that have confronted them. Slowly as schools have begun to interrelate the various systems, the pieces of the jigsaw have come together to reveal the wrong picture!
The real 'big picture' should have been to focus on creating a learning culture. A culture recognised by the realisation of shared beliefs, high teacher morale, and most of all in the positive attitudes of the learners themselves.

The real challenge
'What Worth Fighting For In Our Schools' written by Fullan and Hargreaves provides us with the ultimate challenge. They believe public education is at stake and with it, we are to avoid creating a society of 'have and have-nots', the notion of a participative democracy. Their challenge to us is to go 'deeper' into the heart of our professionalism and in the process rediscover the sense of hopefulness, passion and moral purpose that makes teaching and learning exciting and effective. They remind us we can't do it alone, quoting the old African proverb, ' It takes a whole village to raise a child' they also add 'What does it take to raise a village'?
Once again the ball is back in the Government's court.

'Too much educational reform and restructuring is destroying teachers' confidence, draining their energy, eating up their time and taking away their hope'
Fullan and Hargreaves
The new NAGs
Are the new NAGs a step in a new direction or simply an attempt of the previous Government to fine-tune a faulty model?
Introduced in the dying days of the past Government they will need to be looked at carefully by the new administration.

Revisionism is in the air.
Already Ministry officials are in full revisionist mode (and who can blame them). Evidently now that all the Learning Areas have been completed the Ministry now feels they are beyond the ability of any one teacher to put all into practice! News from the front 'trickles up' slowly.The requirement for a Balanced Curriculum and has been replaced with the need now to provide 'success in the Learning Areas'. There is also the realisation that not all Learning Areas fit comfortably the Strands Levels Objectives Model e.g. English. Currently the Ministry is having a 'stocktake' of all the Curriculum Areas with the intention of 'slimming down' requirements. Naturally it is the Ministry's view that this is part of a natural process of improvement!
The new Government needs to look closely at the underlying ideology of the Curriculum Framework.

'Schools are among the very few institutions that have remained almost entirely unchanged for most of this century'.
Judith Aitken ERO
NAG New Directions:

'Living' Charters
Schools and their communities will need to dust off their Charters reflect on their beliefs and values so as to create a new shared vision. Charters will need to be injected with 'heart and soul' and reshaped as 'living' dynamic documents to be used as a self-reference for every action.

'There is a road to the heart and it doesn't go through the intellect.'
GK Chesterton
Principle led schools
The School Beliefs and Local Goals will have to be aligned with the Principles of the NZCF in the revitalised School Charter. These principles should be the basis for continual self-reference and review to ensure all actions are aligned. They also need to be an integral part of any appraisal system.

School Reviews
School Self-Review need to be more important than an external review. The new Government should reshape ERO to confirm the school review and to indicate means to solve issues uncovered. This is evidently the practice in Scotland.

ERO reviewers seek the answer to two disarmingly simple questions; What do you ( the BOT and the professional staff) expect the students to learn, achieve and enjoy in the time they are enrolled with you; and How do you know when that happens?
Judith Aitken ERO
Strategic Planning
Focus and simplicity should be the hallmark of this 'new' requirement. The best strategy is for all to be aligned behind the shared beliefs of the school. The key is to focus on developing a range intentions or scenarios to achieve the School Charter, Vision and NAGs. The Annual Plan then budgets and actions selected goals.
'Simplicity is the new competitive advantage.'
Bill Jenson
Some Key Points of the 'new' NAGs
  • NAG 1 will allow schools to implement the NZCF to accommodate the needs of their students. The phase 'balanced curriculum' is no longer included and instead schools are asked to give students 'success' in the various areas. Integrating Learning Areas becomes a greater possibility, as does a focus on developing student talents.
  • Primary schools are asked to focus on Literacy and Numeracy as 'foundation skills' recognising what many primary schools are doing, or have wanted to do.
  • 'Barriers to learning' have been removed. This may turn out to be an error because in some cases it is the schools themselves that are the barrier to student achievement. The new requirement is to focus on helping students who are 'at risk'. Assessment is also to be equally focused.
  • NAG 2 promotes the importance of Self Review and requires a Strategy Plan to be in place to outline how the school intends to realise it's vision/ Charter, and to ensure success for identified students 'at risk'.
The message being given by NAG 1 is that schools will have more flexibility along with clearer expectations. NAG 1 also asks schools to encourage a 'breadth and depth of learning related to the needs, abilities and interests of the students' and then to the NZ Curriculum. This should encourage schools to develop student talents. An added emphasis on 'developing and implementing teaching and learning strategies' could equally encourage teaching of thinking across the curriculum.

A Platform for Change All the above provide exciting challenges for schools and are to be welcomed. Recent Ministry moves towards recognising their responsibility to school at risk through regional support groups (the beginning of Community Councils?) and encouraging collaboration through clustering to the point of combining BOTs, provides a platform for the new Government to take advantage of.
Schools could well be seen as a key element in the new Governments vision to rebuild NZ as a country all citizens can be proud of.
With the right conditions the creative capacity of schools can be realised. The goodwill of teachers is there for the taking. Conversely expectations of teachers is equally high. Teachers could potentially be the new heroes in the journey to build a better, fairer, more creative, more democratic and innovative NZ.

'Nothing is ever achieved without enthusiasm'
Ralph Waldo Emerson
This vision would indeed be worth fighting for.


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