Minutes of Subject Association forum15-16 April 2019

Attendance

Sally Birdsall NZAEE NZ Association for Environmental EducationKim Bonnington Drama NZ Drama New ZealandMairi Borthwick ESSE Earth & Space Science EducatorsRitchie Burrows NZHTA NZ History Teachers' AssociationMichael Cabral-Tarry ASSEN Aotearoa Social Studies Educators' NetworkTim Carson MENZA Music Education New Zealand AotearoaAndrea Craig RSTAANZ Religious Studies Teachers' Association of

Aotearoa New ZealandAidan Daly AGTA Auckland Geography Teachers' AssociationRachael Dixon NZHEA NZ Health Education AssociationSarah Dutt NZAHTA NZ Art History Teachers' AssociationChris Eames NZAEE NZ Association for Environmental EducationSian Evans NZATE NZ Association for the Teaching of EnglishMicheal Fleming NZGTTA NZ Graphics and Technology Teachers

AssociationChristine Hardie AMA Auckland Mathematical AssociationTrudy Harvey NZACT New Zealand Association of Classics TeachersRobyn Headifen AMA Auckland Mathematical AssociationChantal Hilier BEANZ Biology Educators Aotearoa New ZealandWendy Hollen-Boen Learning Support Massey UniversityHamish Johnston TENZ Technology Education New ZealandCatherine Kappelle EONZ Education Outdoors New ZealandAlison Kearney Learning Support Massey UniversityFrancis Leslie-Ellis NZAMT NZ Association of Maths TeachersJeni Little MENZA Music Education New Zealand AotearoaJude Maurice NZCETA NZ Commerce and Economics Teachers

AssociationAnnelies Mead STANZA Spanish Teachers' Association of NZ AotearoaColin North NZASE NZ Association of Science EducatorsLibby Paterson EONZ Education Outdoors New ZealandMaria Perreau ASSEN Aotearoa Social Studies Educators' NetworkJenny Pollock ESSE Earth & Space Science EducatorsLisa Ponweiser ANZAAE & CATA Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Art

Educators and Canterbury Art Teachers Association

Peter Rawlins NZAI New Zealand Assessment InstituteJenny Robertson NZHEA NZ Health Education AssociationElizabeth Rothwell TESOLANZ Teachers of English to Speakers of Other

Languages Aotearoa New Zealand Louise Ryan NAME National Association of Media EducatorsMotu Samaeli NZGTTA NZ Graphics and Technology Teachers

AssociationMathew Stenbo MENZA Music Education New Zealand AotearoaMike Taylor NZBoGT New Zealand Board of Geography TeachersPip Tinning NZATE NZ Association for the Teaching of English

Also in attendance: Karina Bird (NZEI), Jack Boyle (PPTA President), Melanie Webber (PPTA Junior Vice-President), Graham Smith (PPTA Executive), Kylee Houpapa (PPTA Executive), Trish

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Tangaroa (PPTA Te Huarahi), Noeline Terere (PPTA Te Huarahi), Johnnie Waititi (PPTA Te Huarahi), Murray Williams (TRCC), Connor Rennie (MoE), Chris Harwood (MoE), Kirsty Farrant (PPTA staff)

ApologiesDavid Housden (NZIP), Karen (NZAFT)

Minutes 2018 forumThese have been circulated previously and were distributed to delegates.Correction to the spelling of Kylee Houpapa’s name.

Moved that the minutes be approved. Melanie Webber/Graham Smith Carried

What’s on top for Subject Associations:

Jenny Little (MENZA) - Tim and Matt in attendance also - In the last year, key work MENZA has done is:

• Set up the Network of Expertise and three Kaiarahi and begin delivering workshops, preparing resources and having ‘peer to peer’ in time support through email, phone calls, staff meetings, mentoring, coaching conversations, video conferencing and fielding social media queries.

• Set up proposal form NoE Facilitator workshops designed to build networks and have workshops fit for purpose to meet needs in our target sectors and regions

• MENZA Advocacy subcommittee work advocacy statements, lobbying Tomorrows School Taskforce

• New website and branding with resources, events and regions to help support and connect music teachers https://menza.co.nz. Website developed by Mike Story and the amazing Judith Bell

• Published 3 MENZA magazines - now archived on new website• Hook, Line and Singalong competition in conjunction with NZ Music

Commission- admin / judging and promotion• Begun planning the 2019 MENZA conference to be held in ChCh.

http://menzaconference.co.nz/• Meeting with Ministry of Culture and Heritage - how support music in NZ

Challenges:• How do we engage with others• Setting up systems to support the kaiarahi

Micheal Fleming (NZGTTA) - workshops around the country DVC curriculum. New resource are being developed. Will run workshops. Re-established regions that were not active. Tech teacher shortage - looking at the impact of trades not getting into ITE. Old teachers retiring - no fresh teachers to replace them. H&S issues where teachers not trained in technology are having to teach tech. Working with PPTA and MoE to address. Watch this space for ways to address teacher shortage. Annual meeting with NAF and NAM (NZQA) to address issues re assessment. They

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managed to get the external and internal team in the same room this year, which lead to some good blue skies discussion about direction of standards and digital. Lucky with NAF - very open to discussion.

Sarah Dutt (NZAHTA) - numbers have grown. Small subject association but membership up to 105 (from 45). They made challenges to NZQA re AS 2.2 and literacy credits. These were unsuccessful. Schol exams - workshops run with UoA. Other regions want workshops in their area with other unis. subject association is Auckland based so that is a challenge. AGM at conference. Comms are being upgraded - website, FB page. Student numbers not growing, possibly due to STEM drive. Interested in NCEA Review and how it will impact.

Jude Maurice (NZCETA) - membership is steady. Some schools only register one membership, rather than one for each teacher. This is difficult when the association represents four different subjects. Time is a big factor for bringing together experienced and competent teachers to develop resource (once a term). Hard to find a free weekend. Schools are running more in-house PLD - harder to get traction for subject specific PLD. Practice exams well supported. Keeping teachers up to date with changes. Office manager is fantastic. NoE required a sizeable amount of time to make it a success. As the NZC sets the direction for teaching and learning in NZ schools, our 12 NOE workshops revisited the intent of the NZC, explored how it could be embedded in teaching and learning programmes using three approaches selected from a survey of our teachers. Teachers have been provided with many new resources to assist them on their journey.

Kim Bonnington (DramaNZ) - NoE has taken a different direction. Focussing on development of PL communities in the regions. Building advocacy for the subject - why studying drama is important. Website updated. Selling exams - this funds their licence to dream. Just finished 5 year strategy plan, moving into new one. Distance is a challenge - how do we use tech to provide and promote collaboration?

Christine Hardie (AMA, Cognition Education) NoE – Building Mathematics Leadership Communities. Mathematics leaders and senior leaders leading mathematics education in schools. Encouraging secondary teachers to attend meetings.

Lisa Ponweiser (ANZAAE) - NoE - three centres (North, Central, South). PLD spread across north and south island. Identifying schools in need (Y1-3 esp). Sharing resources between the north and south. Conference next year in Christchurch. There has been a rise in membership both nationally and regionally but struggling to get people along face to face. Challenges around resilience in Canterbury.

Sian Evans (NZATE) - large assoc. Growth in membership over last year. Council changed as well. They are an umbrella for 10 regional assoc. Teachers looking to

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association to fill the gap left by loss of subject advisors. Council moved to portfolios rather than regional structure. Really positive response to change. Helping to identify and fill the gaps. NoE funding - PLD, workshops this year, all council members work to develop the workshop and then all can deliver it. Looking at how to make the model sustainable (once NoE funding has gone). Development of a bank of resources. Concern that NZQA resources are becoming fewer and smaller. Developing full exemplars for internals. Developing practice exams. Scholarships to attend annual conference. Getting an administrator to help with finances and website.

Trudy Harvey (NZACT) - Membership numbers are holding. Membership very active on FB. Often sole teachers in school, so lots of support needed re moderation. Practice exams - big driver for being a member. Conference in July in Invercargill. Looking for new ways to improve membership.

Richard Burrows (NZHTA) - membership is increasing. Mostly joining for exams. FB receives heaps of use for moderation (sole teacher). Often there are subject specific PLD questions on FB page. Lots of TRIVIAL moments, especially in relation to exams. History has had issues with plagiarism. They have a petition to make teaching of colonial history compulsory. NoE – have not applied because they did not know about it. Issue with students not sitting the externals. This may be addressed with the reviews.

Maria Perreau (ASSEN) - established just over a year ago. NoE gained before really establishing a subject association. Working on advocacy role for the subject. Small and committed group of teachers. Y1-10 - concerns. UoA, Waikato, VUW, Cant - working with ITE how to get more SS teachers into schools. Citizenship and Civics Education - getting voice heard is critical. MoE working toolkit/syllabus. Still in nascent stages. Expecting it to be delivered through SS curriculum area. Website up and running. 10 paid up institutional members. 700 members on FB group. Hoping that membership will increase and that there will be better engagement, rather than “click-share” type behaviour. More keen to get what is the thinking behind this. Conference Oct 2019 – ASSEN is not organising it but are interested. Social Studies teaching Y1-13 - there is a real concern re lack of conversation across whole system. Association admin support - wanting to find out how others are doing it. Real challenge - junior social studies being taught by non-experts.

Chantal Hillier (BEANZ) - relatively well organised subject association. QAAMed tasks, PLD, exams, conference. Gaining momentum with NoE funding. This has allowed BEANZ to build capacity. Larger number of regional reps meeting regularly and developing resources. Increasing schols and funding to attend conferences. Schol for distinquished teacher to do further study and provide research into the teaching of Bio. Working with NZASE on development of website. Hoping this will increase connections to teachers.

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Elizabeth Rothwell (TESOLANZ) - additional conferences (Eng for academic purposes) Hamilton. Teacher concerns re lack of PLD...should subject associations and so on be doing this? Shouldn’t this be provided centrally? CoLs – don’t really address their issues for ESOL. Tendrils across every school but concern re mainstream teachers who have English language learners in their subjects. Need more upskilling for mainstream subject teachers to support ESOL students. Concerned re constantly asking the same people to do work. There are teachers that have not connected, therefore not getting support they need. TESOL being subsumed by literacy tag - they are different. Concern re lack of bilingual resources where students are not literate in their first 2 or 3 languages.

Hamish Johnston (TENZ) - implementation of DT curriculum. ICT, Digital Tech, Digital literacy...challenges around unpacking what is the difference between them all? There is a need to address cohesiveness from primary through secondary. Concerned re how NCEA standards review might impact, esp in light of DT implementation. TRCC and ITE - how is it working to support? Non-tech teachers teaching technology is an issue. TENZ is developing a resource library. They are seeding the library with resources to use and learn from. Membership - talking to members and seeing what they need, as well as potential members. Regional supports reasonably well established.

Louise Ryan (NAME) – they are in a period of rebuild. Change in executive mid last year. They have an active social media presence. Undertook survey to see who members were and where they were. Executive really thinking about their role and what they can offer members. NoE - focus on regional networks. Lots of isolated teachers. Face to face meetings are not always possible so they are exploring what they can do instead and are developing resources. Focus on STEM is a challenge, and is potentially taking students from their subject. The number of other social studies options are taking students away also. Long term sustainability is an issue - who will take on leadership roles? Advertised twice for a treasurer - now done by secretary and president. When they survey members they say “NAME needs to do XYZ”, but who is NAME - it IS the members. A community not an individual.

Annelies Mead (STANZA) – they are a small active organisation. Lots of their work is done through their website. Practice exams - good for isolated communities. Competitions, annual debate (usually in Auckland), speech comps, video comps, resources for primary teachers. Immersion weekend PLD - activities and language enrichment. Challenge (ILETS) - changed to Future Learning Services. What does this mean for the subject association?

Robyn Headifen (AMA) – they ran regional PLD at end of year. Saturday morning PLD sessions – it is always amazing how many teachers are willing to give up their Saturday morning. NoE - concerns re where things are at. This feels like a PLD gap

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filler. They are supporting people to re-establish things that have gone since the PLD catastrophe. Newsletters, informal facebook group (moderated), staffing is a huge concern - cannot find maths teachers. TER - along way behind.

Sally Birdsall (NZAEE) - love to see more EfS taught in secondary schools. Low uptake in secondary schools of EfS achievement standards. Waikato and Auckland - cluster of teachers who would like to see more resources and support re moderation. Many members are in NGOs, not schools. They send four newsletters per year. Often teachers not trained in EfS – EfS achievement standards are offered in science, social studies and religious education classes. They are involved in redeveloping ITE courses. They are really concerned about declining hours for subject specific initial teacher education. This comes about from an increase in general pedagogy, Maori and Pasifika -specific pedagogy.

Alison (learning support coordinators - SENCO) – see their session later in the minutes.

Peter Rawlins (NZAI) – they formed mid 2017, as an advocacy group re assessment. There was a perceived need for a voice to government on assessment.  NZAI involves a range of people from universities plus Sue Chalmers (NZQA) and Robyn Caygill (MOE). They are a voice in terms of policy direction. There are questions about membership – why would someone join and what do you get? As an advocacy body they need members but are still establishing.

Andrea Craig (RSTAANZ) - new executive this year. New president, treasurer and three executive members. There were issues with membership collection last year. They are asking what needs do members have? How do they increase membership? What do schools need? RE scholarship next year. 80% of schools who do RE are catholic schools. How do you ensure that other schools needs are met? RE being taught in Senior SS in non-denominational schools.

Jenny Pollock (ESSE) - NoE funding. They have identified key areas to work on. There is a need to have one or more people who are there to provide one on one help. This is especially important in small/new subjects. There are often small numbers doing subject in school - working to meet the needs of these people. PLD - working to fill the void. They are offering PLD around the country. Helping teachers survive day by day. They are considering how to expand their PLD to get into other areas - eg sci literacy, etc. Resources - a lot of resources online were done a few years ago when the standards were first written. Big job updating these now (many were developed before being taught for the first time). They now have funded admin, building up a broad base of ESS regional support. Regional reps - looking at portfolio type skills. Standards and internal assessment - trying to broaden what investigation means in sciences. Promote digital tech - required for most ESS work. Promote other careers.

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Colin North (NZASE) – communication with teachers is critical. They stopped doing annual printed journal as it was too costly, and now it is totally online. They have two science communicators to run their website. Biennial conference – historically this has been shared around the regions. However, it is becoming more challenging getting people along and organising. They are moving the conference from July holiday. Instead they are going to focus on a main centre in a weekend. The 2020 event will be in Auckland, during a weekend. Supporting ESS. There are questions about whether they need to restructure their executive.

Aidan Daly (AGTA) – They have NoE funding. Subject specific PLD to all regions. Subscriber base from Kaitaia to Bluff. They have provided exam papers free of charge to members, hence broad membership. They are working to build outreach, working with geography teachers to get PLD for those who don’t get it. They run scholarship workshops throughout year and PLD at the end of the year. Website to be updated this year.

Francis Leslie-Ellis (NZAMT) - similar issues to other subject associations. They have 385 member schools and a stable executive. Most been there more than 10 years. NoE - got in first round, both nationally and regionally (8), gaining nearly $1.5 million. It has been a long process to get the money. They are now working to ensure that no region misses out. They continue to struggle to engage primary teachers. Most members are secondary. NZ Primary Teachers’ Conference are trying to get membership from conference delegates to all 11 associations involved in the conference. NZAMT are working with Cognition Education (AMA). Together they are trying to find out what teachers want. They are providing resources for all internal achievement and practise exams. Membership is increasing as people realise that the resources are top quality.

Mike Taylor (NZBoGT) – they were working on their NoE application this time last year, and the discussions at the SA forum helped strengthen application. They have appointed Kaiarahi. The Kaiarahi will be running 17 workshops in term 2. They are hitting regions, not just main centres. Most regions have 2 GIS champions to help with building capacity in GIS teaching. An initial Hui in Auckland with Eagle Technology has been held, before the GIS champions take ideas out to regions. Membership is still an issue (has plateaued for a number of years), as advocacy and NZGS Geo journal do not seem to be enough to encourage new members. Maatangi Whenua competition drives membership, but largely attracts members from the main centres. Therefore, in 2019 developing resources (NCEA exams) to try and increase membership in the regions.

Catherine Kappelle (EONZ) – Big PLD programme this year - EOTC management & new Re-visioning School Camps PLD through Networks of Expertise. Continue to celebrate positive relationships with key organisations. New website to better

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manage membership and fully integrate the important National EOTC Coordinator Database. The executive has a new position on climate change, an important part of their practice. It poses challenging questions - How to reduce carbon footprint/make a difference? Travel to conferences? The national EOTC research project coming to an end. Findings mobilised once released. Kaiarahi - exploring how to pull EfS standards in to OEd programmes. Issues: uncertainty around Vocational Education Reforms. An ITO run qual for teachers validating EOTC management at risk. ITO also offers unit standard resources that are heavily subsidised for members. What is the future of these initiatives? Other issues: schools’ use of outside providers, with equity of access and affordability. Time and resourcing to manage EOTC continues to be problematic.

Jenny Robertson (NZHEA) – They held a TRCC event 2018. It was attended by 100 health teachers. This year their conference is combined with PE. Three members of their executive are casualties of PLD slash and burn – this provides flexibility in terms of how to manage NoE. Primary and secondary - heavily impacted by external providers edutainment. NZHEA has found that their executive time has been spent being very reactive (ERO sexuality education report, chief censor’s pornography report, mental health). Messy spaces in wider school approach to promoting wellbeing. They are working at finding ways to intersect with other organisations. There is a combined PE/Health Scholarship for which the students write a submitted report. Of the NZ top scholar 4/11 gained the PE/Health scholarship, but their subjects do not look like the typical profile of a PE student. Are they actually doing PE?

Libby Paterson (on behalf of Richard van der Jagt - PENZ) - focus of NoE funding has been the NZ Primary Teachers’ Conference, development of 3 micro-credentials and a Health and Physical Education day (HPE day) on September 5 th. All is going well and they are on track to be completed by the end of the year. Also working on the primary school services directory – letting teachers and schools know what services, resources and contracts are available to them. Interest from some subject associations and one Ministry. Aiming to launch February. Costs are $500 per association, which covers compilation, graphic design and a webpage to direct users to each association.

NCEA Review – Kirsty Farrant and Melanie Webber (PPTA)

This report back did not go into the full history of the NCEA review. (The forum minutes from 2017 and 2018 provide more background.) Melanie Webber is part of Professional Advisory Group (PAG). The Ministerial Advisory Group (MAG) was appointed by minister, but did not have a strong connection to classrooms. Big Opportunities publication lead to disquiet and then this resulted in the formation of the PAG, comprised of educators. We are now at the point where three reports

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containing recommendations, from the MAG, PAG and the Ministry, have been placed before the Minister, for him to decide which recommendations enter the next consultation phase (Melanie refers to this as Policy Idol...this is an unofficial name, possibly used only by her). Once the Minister decides, these will be sent to cabinet for approval. Consultation is likely to be June to October. After this a final set of recommendations will go to cabinet (maybe November) before the publication of an implementation plan for 2020 onwards.

The Achievement Standard review will follow the NCEA Review. Achievement Standards have become the default curriculum in the absence of subject specific PLD that is not assessment based. In some ways it feels as if the NCEA review has almost become a default curriculum review as a consequence.

Jackie Talbot (from MoE) spoke at a recent Pathways Advisory meeting and explained what the Review team have heard tso far:

Maori and Pasifika - the system doesn’t serve them well. Achievement has increased, but the quality is often of a different standard. Not necessarily leading to sensible pathways.

Literacy and numeracy are not being served well - a lot of thinking going into how this might change.

Students are not always coming out with employability skills. Cohesiveness is an issue - does it lead them onto a pathway. This is

particularly a concern with non-university pathways. Wellbeing for both teachers and students is a concern. Promises that the

NCEA review will reduce workload ring hollow with us, particularly in the short to medium term.

It is essential that Subject Associations and Networks of Expertise make sure to engage with the consultation (June to October). There is an intention that some change will happen from 2020. This will be unlikely to be day to day change. This could be something like a change to the look and feel of the students’ record of achievement.

Some discussion around the way that Tomorrow’s Schools, Workforce Strategy and attempts to change the moderation process work together (or not). Subject Associations report that the comments coming back on digital moderation are not helpful. Some would like a more collaborative process around this.

Also, be aware that closing on 10 May is the consultation around national priorities for central PLD. https://consultation.education.govt.nz/curriculum-progress-achievement/proposed-changes-to-pld/

Networks of Expertise – Murray Williams (TRCC)

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Murray introduced himself. He joined TRCC on 9 August as Networks Coordinator. He believes that professional development should be for teachers, by teachers (eg. NoE, TRCC, etc). When Murray started teaching the norm was to have subject specific support. Tomorrow’s Schools in 1989 removed the Advisory Service from within the Ministry. In a NoE you cannot be an advisor or be the only answer for PLD in your subject, but there is so much that is vital. There is still a reliance on the volunteer work from teachers, inside and outside networks. Long term, Murray thinks that the only sustainable model will involve secondments to an advisory service.

There was a discussion about the loss of expertise and support, especially for those entering the profession.

Murray suggests that whenever you are saying what you want, say you want PLD for teachers, by teachers. That is the only way we will get this.

Within the Networks of Expertise:

What has worked? Trying to increase capability by own executive membership, general

membership Digital environment - website, online access to help, support, and resources -

this is a tool that needs to be worked on. Money is well worth spending if it allows you to develop an accessible, user friendly website (eg. BEANZ).

o Is there a way to use economy of scales by having NoEs work together?

Moving away from the large national conference to a more regional based approach - the rippling effect of developing expertise across the country. TRCC Primary Science course is an example of this. Presenters move rather than the participants

Issues Education Act refers to special education, which includes giftedness. There is

a need for the NoEs to look at the full range, ie from those who struggle with learning to those who are gifted.

Primary - there is a disparity within NoE. Secondary subject associations have huge levels of representation (90% of funding went to secondary). Best examples are when primary and secondary are working together. Palmerston North CoL - 17 teachers in science have been through the Royal Society Science Leadership programme. Has led to an across CoL science PLD cluster.

Funding for Networks of Expertise is now closed.

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There was a question asking if everyone can know about all of the networks – who they are and how to contact them. This list is held on the Ministry website: http://services.education.govt.nz/pld/networks/where-can-i-get-support/ However, this list doesn’t include all of them (Note from Kirsty – I am not sure why and will check with Murray to get a full list distributed).

NoEs complete milestone reports, which Murray summarises and themes are fed back to MoE. A question was asked re feedback on the milestone report. What happens to them? Is there any way to get feedback on the report to improve it? Concern that if the report goes to MoE in that form, it may impact on ongoing funding.

Long discussion re disparity in funding and association sizes. History knew nothing- therefore didn’t apply. Others, like Maths got both regional and central funding.

A suggestion was made for subject associations to each have their own generic email address. This would overcome some of the challenges for PPTA who try and manage an up-to-date list of contacts for all subject associations. Between one forum and the next sometimes all of the contacts have changed, so subject associations miss all communications unless they are passed on by members who have left their role. A generic email address for each association would help solve some of the communication issues (eg. presidentXYZ@gmail.com).

Murray was clear that if you have realised that you have not budgeted enough money for something (like website development for example) it is possible to negotiate a change to the way your budget is structured – be open about it and TALK TO MURRAY!

Networks of Expertise – what works? Rachael Dixon (NZHEA)

NZHEA was involved in a NoE pilot with EONZ and HETTANZ. They are now all individually involved with NoE but still work together and share ideas.

Sustainability is a massive issue (what happens when the funding goes? And you have been attracting members with no fees?)

Networks shared what they were doing (very briefly)

Ideas: Shared calendar of workshops – this may reduce the risk of doing workshops

in the same city/town on the same day and fighting for teacher release and relievers.

Newsletters from TRCC Google drive/forum for shared discussions

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Ensure that you have a mandate from members - what do members want? Nationally? Regionally?

One on one is working well in ESS - new subject Shared information - poster template, where are the cheap venues for running

workshops Shared admin support Capacity building - building not just numbers but also the capacity of those

numbers – there needs to be someone to do the executive roles Transparency in umbrella subject associations for smaller associations under

them Make connections across networks and subject associations Find new ways of doing things - don’t fall into the old PLD model. This can

only happen by talking to each other Survey to find ideas Spend money getting website sorted Getting back to the NZC is a real bonus with NoE funding (instead of just

focussing on NCEA) Review - what worked, what didn’t Renegotiate how your funding pie is split if needed - talk to Murray Two models - kaiarahi or upskilling more members to share the load across

regions Sharing ideas re structure, payment for work Ideas about how to do webinars

Through the discussion it felt as if lots of people are reinventing the same wheel over and over again. A key to reducing this repeated financial and time investment would be better communication.

MOE Update – Rob Mills and Maria Lute, MoE

Last year the presentation at Subject Association Forum was very general. This year it is a wee bit more specific but MoE acknowledges not as specific as subject associations would like.

Introduced team:Nigel Mitchell - English/Media studiesKatie Curtis - DT, geo, history, classics, SS, EfS and psychologyJames Gavey - NCEA Review, policy and tech adviceNathan - Health and PE, Technology Mere - languages (all 13 of them)

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RAS and PLD priorities for Subject associations hui.pptx

Terry Fenn - sciences,Lauren Burr - maths and stat, agri-bus, economics, business, RE,

“Walk a mile in our shoes” programme – the team visit schools and shadow a teacher for a day. Reminder of what it is like working in the classroom space.

NCEA Review timeline: Advice from MAG, PAG and Ministry went to minister in February.Recommendations for cabinetConsultation likely to be from June

Review of ASThis is due every 5 years. It has been deferred to 2020 so that it is after the NCEA Review is complete. This year is a planning year. Details are in the attached PowerPoint.

MoE is in discussion with NZQA over a number of things like exemplars and working towards having resources on a single common site.

Within the review there will be elements of cross curricular but it is essential to work out what the critical body of knowledge is for each subject. The goal is to reduce workload for teachers and students. Larger, fewer standards will reduce workload. Minister has made a commitment to reducing workload for both teachers and students. Questions from the floor re workload and the challenge of having an AS review that impacts the same students over three years. Terry - there is more planning and thinking time built in in the years preceding the introduction year (unlike for the alignment).

In trialling years the credits will count (unless there is a major botch up with the standards).

Conversations with NZQA re NZQA’s push to go digital. This continues to be a significant challenge for some schools (infrastructure and hardware). There are also issues with US re credit values and parity of esteem.

Subject Experts – these are the go to people in the MoE for your subject area. Their job is project management.

Funding - people involved in expert groups for the Achievement Standard Review will get TRDs. They are still having discussions around NoE funding into the future.

PLD Priorities

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Locally focussed PLD funding priorities get reviewed every 3 years. Consultation closes 10 May (https://consultation.education.govt.nz/curriculum-progress-achievement/proposed-changes-to-pld/ ) .

Tomorrow’s Schools review – Bali Haque

Bali began by acknowledging the whole team. They began the review in April last year. They were specifically looking at issues around equity and excellence and how the system was not meeting the needs of groups of our students. They are seeking a future focussed system.

Between April and December they went to around 200 meetings for consultation before releasing the report.

They wanted cross party agreement, so met with Nikki Kaye as well as Chris Hipkins.

Post December they have had around 150 meetings, but would have liked more meetings with teachers and probably parents (regular, not board members).

3,200 responses to the online survey, 25 oral submissions, 1,100 written submissions.

Opinions are hugely polarised with Auckland being much more suspicious than the rest of the country.

Final report deadline has been extended to the end of June.o There is a need for change. A transformational, cultural change.o Teachers are overwhelmed because there hasn’t been a coherent

systematic approach supporting them. Advisory services are missing, and we’ve taken that for granted.

o Principal’s lack support, and are focussed in on their own schools. o Boards of Trustees are also overwhelmed.o People want to hold onto the autonomy that they have. o We need to start thinking about ecosystems rather than micro-systems.

If we can support our teaching and get the teaching right, everything else will work.

We need a teacher workforce plan - how do we encourage more teachers into the system?

ITE - should we be looking at different ways to train teachers? An apprenticeship model? What advisory services might look like 5 or 10 years down the track?

CoLs should be part of the hub structure, but we should be more relaxed about how schools cooperating within them. The within schools / across schools model is not flexible.

Hubs will be designed for the communities - it may have 4-5 offices dotted about the community, but the opportunity for schools to connect

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They haven’t considered the private sector. Some people who oppose it say there will be a massive shift to private schools, he doesn’t think this is true.

There will be more information about integrated schools in the new reports. Jenni talked about the incredible innovation going on in area schools. She

feels they could really benefit from this model. Query about the focus on governance. They are trying to set up a structure

that will enable the curriculum, the teaching. They see the hubs as a home for a solid advisory service. They want to reconfigure the ministry to have more of an interest in curriculum and assessment.

A national service in Wellington focusing on curriculum development - teachers seconded in.

Mary Chamberlin’s Progress and Achievement work was mentioned as something teachers should be looking at. Very few people were aware of it.

Concerns around the additional tier of management. Would like a flatter hub system where people move between schools and the hub. Bali said this was what was intended.

They want the decision making to be closer to schools, rather than a top down model.

Talking about what’s working well (or not) - the Secondary Success contracts were mentioned. The difficulties of being a subject leader and the impacts on your classes.

Changes need to have a timeframe that gives minimum disruption to students. Discussion of the incredible lack of resourcing for subject specific PLD. ‘You’re relying on the generosity of people on Facebook’. Louise talked about making sure smaller subjects weren’t disadvantaged. Jenni said experienced teachers are being bled dry. It’s a capacity issue in the

profession because we are missing the workforce planning. By teachers for teachers works, but it needs to be resourced not just in

money, but in time. What can we do to keep New Zealand trained teachers in our schools? We

need to look at ITE and who is coming in as well as how we are training them. It’s about the status of teachers and how we train them. How do you encourage expert teachers who mentor beginning teachers without stepping into performance pay?

Bali encouraged people to make contact with the review (although submissions have closed) particularly in relation to PLD needs.Learning Needs - Wendy Holley-Boen and Alison Kearney (Massey University)Changing the pace, place and face of Professional Learning through Networked Learning Hubs

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Professional LEarning through Networked Learning Hubs.pdf

Wendy and Alison introduced themselves, then begin with a look at unpacking a Learning Hub. The story begins when Wendy and Alison offered a blended PLD [un]course in 2016 for SENCOs across Aotearoa/NZ with a follow up survey of 75 Senco.  There were unexpected outcomes where it became obvious that a network of support was both required and needed in the area.

Professional identity in a co-op Professional practice/role Evidence-based practice Professional wellbeing Professional reputation ‘mana’

It became evident that the course attendees did not need a teacher, they needed a space - to connect and share.  

Discussion from the room  That forum space is invaluable for people to share Online platforms are not the only place that people want to be - online is hidden NZEI - it is not about tying down the position and job description - it is about identitying the role (?)

MOE funding for a PL Network for SENCOs was secured.  

The challenges were: Acknowledge that learning is life-long, life-wide, life-deep Blur formal/non-formal/informal learning credential/non-credential/recognise authentic PL Design PL with teachers/for teachers/about teachers

Mantra is always ‘by Teachers for teachers/by SENCO for SENCO’ and after the Network was established, a SENCO was seconded to deliver the content.  

Elevate hard and soft/warm skills and make reputation visible   Facilitating identity development - becoming through belonging

Learning Support Network Hubs

Hub One Acknowledge that learning is life-long, life-wide, life-deep An open network to share

Hub Two - a membership network ($250 for a year’s work)Design PL with teachers/for teachers/about teachers Elevate hard and soft/warm skills and make reputation visible  

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The cost was charged at a rate in consultation with Principals and Maori/PI SENCO - the average rate of relief for a teacher. A plus-one model exists - where each SENCO can bring another teacher from their school along with them

Hub Three (included in Hub Two)Blur formal/non-formal/informal learning Made up of six 40 hour short courses that align with Teacher Registration Criteria and also can be used towards a Post Graduate Diploma (Hub Four)

The aim was to lift the credibility of the group - a very flexible qualification that incorporates what SENCO are doing everyday in their practice.

Certain digital badges can be claimed by teachers who complete the modules.

There are a few different forums for different purposes - conversations and requests for help, curated resources with tips for teachers on top of the basics (the resources are generally uploaded by SENCO but are then filed and organised by the seconded SENCO).  

The calendar on the site compiles a list of events/PLD etc that is relevant to SENCO nationwide.  

Google docs and folders are used throughout the site as teachers find that medium easy to use and access.

A curated page of RSS feeds and Podcasts is found in Hub 1

The network is ‘married’ with RTLB clusters rather than Kahui Ako as it seemed a more natural connection.  Each of them has a locally configured private space within the site.

Every Thursday from 4-30 there is a webinar on a different topic While there is not always many people ‘live’ many other do access later.  If watching live, you are able to ask questions during the webinar. Jo (SENCO) then adds a curated body of resources.

Top Tip Zoom is free for 40 minutes! 3 - 100 viewers Discussion from the room Webinars are quite difficult to do but worth doing. Teaching Council website also has a series of webinars. Core has a few as well.  It seems that Primary and Secondary SENCO practice is very similar

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The Knowledge space is a ‘deeper dive’ We looked at ‘Universal Design for Learning’ has a range of resources, readings, links - where the students are in charge of their own learning.  

Spotlight on Practice SENCOs working in schools share things that have worked well

Hub Three A little more formal Six short courses that contain readings, resources and learning activities that can be completed and credited towards a postgraduate certificate in Learning Support

Micro Credentialing was discussed.  

It’s a difficult space - not many universities want to move away from traditional models of assessment.  What interaction have you had with the Teachers’ Council? Not a lot of depth but their approach is similar - look where you want to be and work backwards rather than reading the criteria from left to right.

The room was then given a log in for the site (for the day) in order to have a look around the site.  

DiscussionHow to get the message out?  Emailing doesn’t always work.  Advertising in the Gazette doesn’t always work.  Suggestions were FB as an extension of ‘word of mouth’.

If you have funding - use it to get someone competent to get the network up and running.  Don’t try and do all the work yourself. Upload videos onto YouTube to avoid paying for bandwidth.

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TLN pays the SENCO administrator Jo half of her salary as it’s a .5 position.  There is a meeting between all four (including) Jo every Monday with a Google Doc agenda/minutes.  There is one face to face meeting a term where all four get together. The contract was initially for a year - but with funding secured, the contract will be extended for a further two years.

There is a tension between charging people for the hub and being able to provide a sustainable platform.  Hub One remains open access.

Discussion We must remember that, as professionals, we are responsible for contributing to our profession.  Where do we blur the lines between paid work and voluntary status and then being professional?  The fact is, it costs money - whatever you do. So,while we are representing teachers and need to make it accessible but it needs to be valuable and that costs money! As a NEX, we are providing a lot more than the SA ever did, and it must remain sustainable.  While we need to spend the money - we need to be careful. There is a risk - if we set ourselves up to require a lot of funding, what happens if the funding goes. Murray - I take the view that the more you do to prove the worth, you show the value of what you have created.  You just put more onto teachers if you take other things away.

The local pot of money available for the ministry needs to be put towards subject associations to enable them to support teachers and schools through the review of NCEA.  

When you know your level of expertise is finite - how do you go about preventing a reliance on expertise of experts? This is a critical question.  When setting up your network - what is the kaupapa of your community.  For this one, it’s about learning. What is going to be the culture of your Community of Expertise.  

We need to move away from a hierarchy - it’s about community.  We need to move more towards this model.

Being more and more professional breaks down communities in a way.  To be professional you might feel that you need to be ‘perfect’. To open yourself up and manage a quality of voice.  ‘Failing Fast’.

What does quality look like?  Professional ‘experts’ perhaps can provide examples of what quality looks like and then let people go.  

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A request for the platforms that any SA are using for forums.  

Another request from ASSEN that maybe each SA allows guest access to each other’s networks in this setting up phase.

Grappling with the ethics of charging is ameliorated by having a free area of a network forum site.  

NZQA - Assessor Support Model - Lynne Gill, NZQA

Lynne began by checking in that everyone knew how the new model was working. Majority of the room wasn’t aware there was a new model.

They’ve delivered 93 workshops (10 of which were online). Some subject associations are using more than others.

You used to need 18 people to have a workshop run. Now it’s 10 (because they’re using a model where they don’t have to hire a venue etc.) Online equivalents are still available for more remote areas.

There were two cluster meetings in Wairarapa and Nelson. The schools all closed, and they delivered a number of workshops on these days across a wide range of subject areas. These work well because schools don’t have to pay TRDs.

With this model, regions can request assistance on what their teachers need. For example with Maths - Inference Standards Level 2 and 3. Or Languages need help on integration standards across all three levels.

88% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that the aims of the workshop were met.

o Making assessor judgements workshops - generally where the moderators have noticed that there is a national issue. $120 including GST. Face to face or online.

o Speaker requests - targeted support for regional clusters or national subject associations.

o Transforming Assessment Praxis (TAP). A 9 week online programme. $120. Aims to assist teachers to change assessment resources to better meet needs of their students; and to explore different ways of collecting evidence (includes case studies)

Clarification that they don’t need a task. They will look at the student work against the standard. People in the room reported back that they had had issues with principal’s nominees around this.

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Assessor Support Model.pptx

With integrated standards people had been marking up work to show which evidence worked for which bit. This is not necessary as a matter of course for external moderation.

Ongoing concern that information does not always make its way through Principal’s Nominees.

Trying to be future focussed on what may spill out of the NCEA Review.

Links for this workshop are here.

There was a discussion around the lack of full exemplar for internal assessments. The mood in the room was very much that these were required.

It was suggested that work from moderators reports could be used as benchmarked exemplars, but it was pointed out that there was not enough feedback given by moderators to know where this was.

They recognise the workload issue in organising workshops regionally. They can push this out through the subject Facebook pages. They can also invoice directly through NZQA to individual teachers / schools for these. The organiser will be free of charge.

https://www.nzqa.govt.nz/bpws Email workshops@nzqa.govt.nz Email ams@nzqa.govt.nz for moderation queries.

NCEA Online update - John Oldroyd - Programme Manager, Digital Assessment Transformation

Taking NCEA Exams at level 1, 2 and 3 and putting them into a digital format so they can be done through exams.

The aspirational goal was 2020, and they’re aiming for having 2/3 online by then.

o 2014 - 2018 - Past - Digital exams were designed with schools to test ideas, processes and system performance through digital Trials and Pilots.

o 2019 - 2020 - Present - Most text-based subjects will be available digitally as direct substitutes of the paper exams. Schools are being supported to offer more digital exams (substitution)

o 2021 onwards - Future - Digital exams will be different from the paper versions, assessing the same things in new ways. More innovation in exams introduced. Modification and redefinition. We’re at the cutting edge with this in terms of assessment globally.

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NCEA Online Update.pptx

As the technology improves to deliver exams with more specialist features they will begin to bring these online.

Since 2014 almost three quarters of NZ secondary schools and around 30,000 students have experienced at least one online examination. There is very positive feedback from students, but there have been some issues. Last year there was a glitch that saw Excellence students marked as Not Achieved.

There is a significant increase year on year. “I preferred completing the exam digitally rather than on paper” - 95% “Overall, I found completing this exam digitally was a positive experience”.

97% The Digital Only Level 1 Science Trial was less positive - 49% said “I liked

doing this examination better than an examination on paper”. The graphing was clunky.

In 2019 NZQA expects to offer exams online for 25 assessments across 15 subject areas.

They’ve divided subjects into categories for o Category 1 - Largely written text based - the ones they’re already

doing.o Category 2 - Languageso Category 3 - Music, Science, Maths, Geographyo There was a question about why Drama was in Category 3 when its

exams are written. Jenni asked about Assessment when Ready. John said the suite they had

purchased could do this, but there are broader questions to be asked around this.

Classical Studies - their students really enjoyed it, and experienced better results.

John says it is possible to have online marking but people are resistant from a humanistic perspective.

Social Studies - how will students manage with assessments that currently have a resource booklet.

o They’re working on user experience around this.o In the meantime they’re providing printed books.

Final follow ups: Investigating sharing costs around website development We are group of people that need to stay in touch - how to we ensure that

we’re all sharing information and not reinventing the wheel on our own. If membership is a measure of the networks success, what sort of access are

they giving for services? Because if it’s Ministry Money, resources should be available for everyone. What’s the incentive then for being an Association member?

Murray putting together a generic document for submissions.

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A request for some guidelines - how much do you pay people for what? Alison asked if there was an email list for all the people involved or a forum.

Murray has put a proposal to the Ministry about this, but it has been declined. Alison is going to set up a Google Drive for us to start with this.

There was discussion of how you go about changing your budget. An encouragement again to submit around the PLD National Priorities before

10 May. There are concerns about priorities that will sit alongside a MAJOR system change with the NCEA and Tomorrow’s Schools reviews. (Keywords pld priorities education conversation will Google this up for you).

We used to be encouraged to call what we were doing with Networks of Expertise ‘support’ so as not to confuse it with centrally funded PLD. Has that changed? Are we able as subject associations to offer subject specific PLD. There are a lot of semantics involved.

Concerns about legal responsibilities and the legislation.o Maths - people are self-employed and invoice monthly which means

the network are not being held responsible.o There are concerns around this though.o Charity Services has certain requirements when you go from Tier 3 to

Tier 4.o Everyone is having to worry individually about this. It would be good to

have an organisation that could administer this. We are volunteers trying to work out this whole new landscape.

o Suggestion for some Governance workshops for this. Could we have some webinars!

o Should we be charities? Shouldn’t we? There is an administrative overload. There’s self-employment or using your own school based system. BUT you can then get support from elsewhere.

o Loomio is a good way to share conversations - it’s a cross between a bulletin board and an email.

o Katherine will put a template of an independent contractor agreement into the Google Drive

o Matthew Stenbo will set up a Loomio for us.

Subject Association Forum 2021: 19-20 April (TBC)

This is planned to dovetail with the PPTA Professional Conference (21-23 April) which is also in Wellington. We are still awaiting confirmation of our venue.

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