How to use the PGC resources
There’s no single way to design a Professional Growth Cycle (PGC). These resources were developed in response to requests from teaching settings to provide guidance and practical support for creating one.
Shaping your PGC
Beyond the required elements, there is no set way to create a PGC. These resources have been created in response to requests we have had from teaching settings that have told us that they would find it helpful to have some activities that would help them create one.
The refresh of the Standards for the Teaching Profession means that each teaching setting needs to revisit and update Element A of the PGC to the new 2026 Standards, at some stage in 2026. If that is all you use these resources for, that is completely fine. However, we took the opportunity to get a group of professional leaders from around Aotearoa New Zealand and across teaching sectors, to create some resources to help those who wanted to refresh any other parts of their PGC.
Each of the eight teaching settings has shared its unique approach to the PGC with us. Over the next few weeks, we will share these with you. Right now, we have available the resources that were provided to the group of leaders – tools designed to prompt reflection and support thinking as leaders shape their PGCs.
The eight people who have been part of this project are:
- Ken Ward – Regional Manager at BestStart Educare
- Glenda Koefoed – Deputy Principal at Tauraroa Area School
- Lysandra Stuart – Principal at Glenbrook School
- Helen Benson – Deputy Principal at Paraparaumu College
- Liz McDowell – Deputy Principal at Avonside Girls’ High School
- Karl Vasau – Principal at Rowandale School
- Michela Homer – Regional Manager at Busy Bees Aotearoa
- Jo Staite – Deputy Principal at Cashmere Avenue School.
We encourage you to begin with whichever Element of the PGC feels most relevant to your current focus. For each Element, you’ll find:
- reflective questions/ exercises to get you thinking.
Over the next few weeks we will also be sharing:
- insights from leaders who participated in the project
- exemplars that show how others have approached their PGC.
From there, you can choose to:
- work through all six Elements to build a complete cycle
- select and adapt aspects from different exemplars that resonate with your context.
Principles of the Professional Growth Cycle
When the PGC was created, the working group that created it came up with eight principles that guided its development.
While the Elements give us content for what must be in a PGC, the principles are a useful way to reflect on whether the design of the PGC in your setting achieves some of the original goals for it.
We took each of the eight principles and wrote them on a piece of A3 paper, and handed them around our leaders from the project as a carousel activity. We asked them how the PGC at their setting achieved each principle, while inviting them to think about what they would want it to evolve to.
We are sharing their collective responses here; they may give you some ideas.
We also invite you to do this activity with your teachers, as a way of reflecting on:
- what you have achieved with your PGC thus far
- what else you might like to do with it.
Resources
While these resources have been created for leaders to create PGCs for teachers, the exercises are also helpful for ECE Professional Leaders and Tumuaki to reflect on and review their PGC.
If you would like to know about the PGC for Principals, Tumuaki, and ECE Leaders, please visit our webpage.
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