Monday 2 November 2015

Be true to your school
Stuff.co.nz
According to the New Zealand Council for Educational Research, up to 40 percent of parents now choose a school that isn't local. Last year the PPTA reported a growing 'educational apartheid' in our schools, an unspoken racial and social segregation.

Decline in fluent speakers could impact Māori Language Strategy
Māori Television
Flavell says he is seeking services from the Māori Language Commision to measure the number of Māori speakers. The Commission as well as The New Zealand Council for Education Research (NZCER) have commissioned a new Māori language survey, ..

Education Act update gets underway.
Hekia Parata | Education
Education Minister Hekia Parata is urging New Zealanders to have their say on a revamp of education legislation that will help to shape the future of the education system. “When the reforms known as Tomorrow’s Schools were introduced in 1989 they transformed the way education was administered,” she says. “For the first time local communities, not a centralised bureaucracy became responsible for running schools. ...

MedTech Centre of Research Excellence opened in Auckland
Steven Joyce | Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment
The MedTech Centre of Research Excellence, based at the University of Auckland, has been officially opened this afternoon by Minister of Tertiary Education Skills and Employment Steven Joyce. New Zealand's medical devices and health IT industries are an emerging sector of around 150 companies with an estimated value of $1 billion. ...

Education Act review a farce
Scoop.co.nz (press release)
“It is impossible to have a genuine review of the Education Act if the Government has excluded all the most controversial aspects of itseducation reforms, including National Standards, Charter Schools, and the new undemocratic Education Council ...

Govt suggests rewards, punishments for schools
A new system of rewards for good schools and sanctions for those struggling has been proposed as part of a review of the Education Act.

New Zealand's education model to be revamped for first time since 1989 

The model determining how Kiwi children are educated will be reviewed for the first time since it was introduced 26 years ago.

NZQA urges parents to help students prepare for exams
Educators NZ
With NCEA exams beginning in a few weeks, the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) is encourages parents to help their children prepare. Divisional manager Kristine Kilkelly says approximately 145,000 students will be preparing for the end-of ...

More charter school applications
3News NZ
The Partnership Schools Authorisation Board says it's received 25 applications from educators and community groups across the country in its third round application round. There are 10 from the Auckland region, 14 are from the rest of the North Island, ...
Enthusiastic Response to Partnership Schools Applicatication Scoop.co.nz (press release)
Charter school interest a 'vote of confidence' Radio New Zealand

Faltering schools may face closure
Schools with persistent student underachievement will face a broader range of action from officials, including possible closure, under a proposed revamp of education law.Education Minister Hekia Parata also wants to reward high-performing...

Gloriavale, girls, and the purpose of education
Stuff.co.nz
This week Green Party MP Catherine Delahunty took up the invitation from the women of Gloriavale to visit and see how their community andeducational opportunities work. OPINION: The welcome my colleague and I received could not have been more ...

Holiday through term rising trend: Principal
Hawke's Bay Today
Hawke's Bay's school absence rate was 11.3 per cent last year, up on the previous year's 9.8 per cent, according to the Ministry of Education'sAttendance in New Zealand Schools 2014 publication. The attendance survey is a snapshot of school attendance ...
Increase in pupils' absence at school Wanganui Chronicle

Education Minister Hekia Parata asks us to embrace our identity as Pacific...
Gisborne Herald
After education minister Hekia Parata officially opened the exhibition of school children's artworks based on first contact between Maori, Lieutenant James Cook and HMS Endeavour crew, educator Peter Jarratt said the week-long workshop was made up of ...

Maori school families send a message to Bishop of Auckland 

The families of Hato Petera boarding students are putting the Catholic Church and the Bishop of Auckland Patrick Dunn on notice.

Minister makes good on promise to student
Northern Advocate
Following controversy over the run-down state of Northland College, Associate Education Minister Nikki Kaye visited the school in August to announce a $14 million rebuild. While there she met a group of senior students to ask what she could do to make ...

Students pocket profit from study by selling their detailed exam notes
Stuff.co.nz
A quick search of "university study notes" revealed 2,792 listings which ranged from personal study notes to books. Prices listed on Trade Me ranged from $9 to $30 and most users had sold multiple copies of study notes used for each exam paper. If a ...

Should kids take transgender classes?
Children as young as four are receiving lessons from transgender campaigners - including a man who revealed to primary school classes that he is a "trans man" and was "assigned female" at birth.Thousands of UK pupils have had the...

Future of learning discussion more important than flag debate
The review of the Education Act introduces an important opportunity to debate and build a strong national consensus around what is needed to ensure we have a high quality, free public education that meets the needs of every child.

NZEI supports moves to lift pay for thousands of working women 

NZEI is welcoming the government’s decision to begin negotiations over equal pay for women.

New Plymouth Boys' High school ransoms exam admission for ...
Judy Botha is upset that NPBHS is using NCEA exam admission forms as incentive to pay outstanding fees at the end of the school year. A New Plymouth high school ... New Plymouth Boys' High School was warned by the Ministry of Education on Friday after being told students were expected to complete leaving processes, including having to pay outstanding fees, in order to receive the necessary documentation to sit their final NCEAexams. In a statement, Katrina ...

Kids wait months for help to learn 

Almost half of preschoolers referred to a government service because of learning or behavioural difficulties are not getting help quickly enough.Children with a development or learning delay, a disability or behavioural difficulty...

Students create hoax letter for full body inspections 

Avondale College students have been reprimanded over a hoax letter outlining the need for full body inspection prior to entering their end of year exams. Principal Brent Lewis said the letter, which had been distributed to Year...

World Teachers Day protest over ECE funding cuts 

A crowd of about 100 braved Wellington’s early morning chill to celebrate World Teachers Day and call on the government to reverse funding cuts in early childhood education.

Research output contentious at University of Waikato 

Waikato academics are being judged by how much research they're putting out, the union says, especially those over 55.

Unlawful' students can still enrol in school

Auckland stuff.co.nz
The deadline for 2016 enrolment is drawing near and Ministry of Education refugee and migrant senior support adviser Adel Salmanzadeh is asking Kiwis to reach out. Anyone who knows an "unlawful" family should advise them their children could be ...

Time & Place: Students meditate their way to success
Stuff.co.nz
As the pressure of the exam period approaches and the weight of expectation increases, the students at Auckland's Diocesan School for Girls are taking time out to appreciate the things that really matter. And they're using meditation to do it. Deputy ...

Canterbury University predicts attracting more local students in 2016

Stuff.co.nz
Vice-chancellor Rod Carr said "very positive" feedback from schools, recruitment events and enrolment applications showed good signs of a rise in interest in studying locally by Canterbury school pupils. "It appears significantly more year 13 students ...

Autistic student excluded from school formal and camp
Stuff.co.nz
The family of 16-year-old Australian boy Tyran Fennell, who has Autism Spectrum Disorder, say he was "uninvited" to his Year 10 formal by a teacher who wondered "what he would get out of it". The teenager's mum, Deanne Fennell, of Kearsley, said Tyran ...

Hato Petera to close boarding hostel
Radio New Zealand
... without students, "and if you take away the boarding, you're effectively trying to shut the school down". Another parent, who didn't want to be named, said her daughter had a scholarship that paid her accommodation if she attended a Māori boarding ...
Capital E's 2016 Education Programme Announced
Scoop.co.nz
For students in years 5-9 Hinepau, directed by NZ theatre artist Jamie McCaskill, presents a mythological story about staying true and standing strong, respecting our environment, history, cultural traditions, and understanding how the choices we make ...

e-hubs replace desks at Tairua School
Scoop.co.nz (press release)
The challenge was to develop a “classroom of the future” where, alongside traditional literacy and numeracy programmes, Year 5-6 students would engage in “big question” studies. To support this, there has been significant investment in new technology ...