Secondary Principals’ Association of New Zealand, Annual Symposium

E ngā mana, e ngā reo, e ngā hau e whā. Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa. Kia Orana, Talofa lava. Taloha Ni, Fakaalofa lahi atu, Ni sa bula vinaka, Malo e lelei.

Good morning everyone and thanks for your welcome, Patrick.

First I want to speak about the devastating earthquake that hit Christchurch. 

I’ve seen for myself the heart-breaking damage caused by the earthquake. I am hugely impressed by the dedication and determination of principals, teachers, board members and Ministry of Education staff working to get schools up and running for students - despite personal grief and adversity.

Badly damaged schools quickly found solutions to get up and running including sharing sites and using relocatable classrooms. I’d like to thank everyone for their efforts.

I also want to thank those of you who have enrolled students from Christchurch – as well as the many schools that made generous offers of support over the last six weeks.

With schools now operational, the focus is now on repair and restoration. Damage at each school is being thoroughly assessed to determine costs, and the most effective way to repair them.

Options are being worked on to re-open the most severely damaged schools. At this stage, Heaton Intermediate will return to its site during Term 2, Shirley Boys’ High and Linwood College will return during Term 3. Avonside Girls is still being assessed.

Plans to increase the number of sport, recreation, leadership and arts programmes for students are also underway with a number of organisations, including YMCA, Sport Canterbury and youth development providers involved as it’s essential to continue the extra-curricular activities that make our schooling so rich.

NZQA is working closely with schools to ensure that an effective plan for NCEA is developed. It will ensure students are not disadvantaged as a result of the earthquake, and that any measures we put in place are workable for schools and fair to all students.

Initiatives being implemented by NZQA include:

• Advice and guidance on programme planning, including reducing the assessment load to a manageable level. Students can be assessed against fewer credits than may have been planned for in a normal school year, and still meet the requirements for NCEA. NZQA will continue to accept results from schools through to the end of February 2012.
• A simplified process for collecting evidence for internal assessment will be established. A template is being developed which teachers can use to identify evidence of achievement for the purpose of awarding standards and will save valuable teaching and learning time.
• For external assessment, a separate derived grade process called an “Earthquake-affected Derived Grade” will be established, based on the procedures used successfully for Christchurch students for last year’s exams.
• NZQA will also develop a special credit inclusion category. School leavers, who have narrowly missed achieving their Level 3 NCEA and/or University Entrance, can apply for this if their situation does not appear to have been satisfactorily addressed in other ways.
• NZQA will continue to discuss with universities, and other tertiary providers, issues around entrance requirement, and advise them of how NZQA intends to manage results, derived grades, and other data. 
• NZQA will suspend External Moderation for Christchurch schools for 2011, but it will remain available to these schools should they choose to submit material for moderation.
• NZQA will extend the submission date for portfolio-based externally assessed standards in subjects such as Technology and Graphics.

I am not supportive of reducing holiday time for the first and second term break. The holiday breaks, particularly the one coming up, are really needed for both students and staff.

The earthquake showed the need for a flexible education system that can deal with both foreseeable and unforeseeable challenges.

While no one can predict an earthquake, we know your schools face challenges every day – whether it’s keeping all students engaged and learning, or dealing with disruptive behaviour.

This Government is serious about education, and serious about working with you to do the very best for New Zealand’s young people. This is essential to raising achievement and delivering the education success we want.

Let me first address what is a very live issue. I’m deeply concerned by recent media reports showing disturbing, violent attacks by bullies and the impact on their victims.

This has raised questions in the minds of parents and the public regarding the safety of our schools.

Bullying, in whatever form it takes, is clearly damaging for children and young people. It impacts on their wellbeing and consequently their learning. 

I am also well aware that these issues most often have their origin outside the school gates but need to be responded to within the school environment.

We want to transform schools into places where positive behaviour and learning thrive, and students feel safe. We want to ensure school leaders and teachers have the skills and confidence they need to address and prevent challenging behaviour.

I am confident that schools are proactive in their approach to bullying. 

However, I have written to all boards of trustees outlining my expectation that all students can learn in a safe physical and emotional environment. I ask that you work with your boards to review policies and procedures to make sure they address new technologies and changing circumstances, and that the policies and procedures are effective. It is also important that you talk to your students and parents.

I will also be meeting with various groups from the education sector, as well police and Child Youth and Family to discuss the bullying issue, and to ensure that we’re all doing as much as we can to support you.

The Government has taken action to help schools deal with bullying and other forms of disruptive behaviour.

You’ll remember that last year I asked the Ministry of Education to do some work on the search and seizure guidelines in schools, at the request of SPANZ. The Ministry will undertake a two stage approach – guidelines in the short term, which will be restricted to search and seizure in the interests of safety, and an amendment to the Education Act 1989 that will give powers to search.

We are investing $60 million in the Positive Behaviour for Learning Action Plan, developed by the Ministry and eight education sector groups including SPANZ, following the Behaviour Summit in 2009.

During the next three years, staff from 400 schools will receive training in how to promote positive behaviour and lift student engagement as part of the school-wide programme, and more than 7000 teachers will be trained in effective classroom management.

Other support for schools includes a new rapid response service following the most extreme behaviour incidents, and an Intensive Behaviour Service to target the most complex and challenging students.

We are transforming the Resource Teacher Learning Behaviour service, so it delivers more support to schools and students. We're considering combining Supplementary Learning Support with the RTLB service, with stronger governance and management, and better targeting of the available resources.

There will also be a stronger focus on specialised support for secondary schooling, an issue this group has raised with me before on a number of occasions.

Families also have an important role to play. More than 15,000 parents in at-risk families will be supported to build more positive relationships with their children.
I am working with the Ministers of Social Development, Justice and Health to see how we can build better support across different government agencies for children with challenging behaviour.

The Ministry is also undertaking a fundamental rethink of its approach to student attendance and engagement. 

This year we’re piloting a new long-term approach to better manage student attendance and truancy in South Auckland and Gisborne – the areas with the highest truancy rates in the country.

These pilots combine the local District Truancy Service and Non-enrolled Truancy Service into one integrated service. 
The pilots are helping identify the best ways of addressing truancy, which will then be applied to a new national service next year.

Of course the media’s focus on issues like bullying and truancy doesn’t reflect that most of our young people want to be successful and to contribute positively to their local communities.

Every day you all see young people flourishing in all areas of life. All young people have different talents and career aspirations, and the challenge for government, schools and parents is to make sure they get the qualifications and skills that will set them up for life.

This is what our Youth Guarantee is all about. We need to do some things differently, so all students can succeed and progress in life.

We are also acutely aware that we need to achieve better results for Māori, Pasifika and students with special education needs.

The traditional classroom is not for everyone, and this Government understands the need to provide learning opportunities that better suit the many students who learn best through a flexible, hands-on approach.

So we’ve brought together schools, tertiary institutions and employers to achieve a smoother transition between secondary school, professional training and employment. 

We’re achieving this through the Youth Guarantee, Trades Academies and Service Academies.

These initiatives will retain 4000 students in education and skills training in the year ahead, instead of dropping out of the system.

And I’m delighted we are over-delivering with the Youth Guarantee. Budget 2010 invested $48.1 million over four years to raise the number of places to 2500, but the actual number of places this year will be just under 2700.

In addition, eight Trades Academies have opened this year, with school students earning NCEA credits and a tertiary qualification, while gaining practical skills in the workplace.

We have also expanded the number of Service Academies to 19, giving a military-focused programme to young people at risk of disengaging from education, while allowing them to work towards NCEA qualifications.

For too long, teenagers who don’t fit within the system have been lost to education. We are ensuring that the system is more flexible, so that every youngster is given the opportunity to succeed.

The next step in the Youth Guarantee is to offer vocational pathways, which cover five broad industry sectors – manufacturing and technology, construction and infrastructure, primary industries, social and community services and service industries.

Schools, tertiary providers and Trades Academies will be able to offer the pathways from next year, which will provide choices to further tertiary education, apprenticeships and work for young people.

The pathways will allow a student’s course of study to be specific enough so that they can pursue further learning and employment in an industry, but be flexible enough so that they can change direction later, if they need to.

As principals I look to you to take advantage of the Youth Guarantee, and explore the learning opportunities you can provide your students.

Strong leadership in schools is, after all, critical to the success of students.

Last year the Independent Workforce Advisory Group provided me with a report setting out a vision for New Zealand’s teaching profession.

There are a number of things we really need to get right – initial teacher education, ongoing development of teachers, and leadership of schools and the profession.

We received more than 900 submissions to the report – with many principals providing insightful responses. You can access a report summarising key themes to emerge from the consultation on the Ministry’s website.

I am pleased that representatives from SPANZ will be attending this week’s Education Workforce Sector Forum, which will provide an opportunity for the sector to have an important discussion on the future direction of the teaching profession. I’ve also invited a number of principals whose associations made significant submissions.

I want to work constructively with the sector to create a vision for education, for principals, for teachers and for students.

Finally today, I want to look ahead to this year’s Budget.
As you well know, all of the work we are doing is taking place in an extremely difficult financial environment.

We have come through the recession in better shape than most, but the road to recovery is slow and difficult.

The full implications of the Christchurch earthquake are not yet clear – but they will be substantial, and the wider economic impact of the earthquake, combined with already slower economic growth, means difficult decisions need to be made in this year’s Budget.

The Prime Minister has already announced that education, health and justice are the only areas likely to get an increase. Money will be tight for the foreseeable future, and now more than ever, we need to invest in the areas that most benefit students.

How we responded to the Christchurch earthquake shows us what can be achieved if we’re focused, think outside of the box and find solutions.

What Christchurch schools have achieved over the last six weeks shows government and everyone in education what is most important - the student needs to be at the centre of everything we do.

But let me assure you all, there isn’t the money for great, new projects – it’s steady as she goes.

While young people have different backgrounds, different talents and different futures, what they all have is potential. We want an education system that gives every young New Zealander the opportunity to reach their full potential; we want New Zealand’s education system to be recognised as great – very good is not good enough.

Thank you and all the best for the remainder of your conference.