Unteach Racism: a tool for teachers coming soon

Virtual leadership event: save the new date

Principals, tumuaki and early childhood education professional leaders: consultation on appraisal ends

Consultation about revised physical restraint guidelines

Tips for renewing your practising certificate

The meaning behind teacher practising certificate names

Your Governing Council at work

Ngā mihi mahana ki a koe 

These past few weeks, we saw your resilience and leadership called on once again as COVID-19, earthquakes and tsunami threats cause disruption. Our most heartfelt thanks and appreciation from all of us at the Council, especially to those teachers and leaders in Auckland helping prevent the spread of COVID-19. You are clearly illustrating to the whole country at least one of the nine key leadership capabilities in the Leadership Strategy –  as you approach these challenges with “values and showing moral purpose, optimism, a sense of agency and resilience.”  Thank you.

Noho ora mai 
Lesley Hoskin 
Chief Executive 

Unteach Racism: a tool for teachers coming soon 

You may have seen in the news recently a Teaching Council project which supports teachers to identify, confront and dismantle racism in education. We have been working with the Human Rights Commission and other experts, building on their Give Nothing to Racism campaign, to create Unteach Racism. We are excited to share this project directly with teachers and leaders soon. 

Unteach Racism will equip you with the tools to identify, confront and dismantle racism in education. It’s not mandatory or compliance-based – it's a call for teachers to lead societal change. Once again, teachers are recognised as change-makers and leaders of society.  

There will be resources, including an app for self-learning (no data will be collected or shared) and a dedicated website, to support you in building this new knowledge. For now – watch this space! 

Read more information on our website.

This work is for the entire teaching profession regardless of where you work or your position. A link and more details will be sent closer to the event.  

Read the invitation email, if you missed it!

Principals, tumuaki and early childhood education professional leaders: consultation on appraisal ends 

Thank you to the more than 500 people who have given us valuable feedback on the proposed approach for a Professional Growth Cycle for principals, tumuaki and early childhood education professional leaders. The results are being analysed and we will be bringing the working group together again to review them shortly. We hope to update you soon. 

Consultation about revised physical restraint guidelines  

This is a heads up the consultation on physical restraint guidelines is opening soon.  

The Physical Restraint Advisory Group (PRAG) - which is led by the Ministry of Education and includes representatives from the education sector, including the Teaching Council, and disability community - have met regularly since September 2020 and are close to releasing draft documents for consultation with you. 

These draft documents include revised Rules and Guidelines and supporting material that have been updated to reflect legislative changes made to the physical restraint framework made last year.  

As you can imagine, creating guidelines and scenarios is a really challenging task and the draft will  need lots of constructive feedback from teachers to refine it. So, we wanted to let you know now it is coming so you can watch out for it.  

The consultation period provides an important opportunity for tumuaki and kaiako in schools/kura to discuss and review the draft guidance material. We strongly encourage you to provide feedback about how the material can be improved to provide the clarity needed, so all teachers know when and how to:  

• safely and confidently use acceptable physical contact 

• prevent and de-escalate situations that could lead to imminent harm 

• if necessary, as a last resort, safely apply physical restraint to keep students, others and themselves safe. 

We will keep you posted on the consultation period and where and when the draft material can be accessed. 

Read the article 'Changes to physical restraint in schools framework'

• Use your Education Sector Logon (ESL) to create a Hapori Matatū account and apply for a practising certificate online. 

• Find out how to get an ESL.

• A Log in Guide and User Guide have been created to help you use Hapori Matatū. Several questions that we are receiving through the Contact Centre are answered in the User Guide.   

• We understand that it is a busy time, the Contact Centre are here to help, and a little bit of kindness goes a long way. 

The meaning behind teacher practising certificate names 

We introduced new names for the different types of practising certificates last year and all of us are still getting familiar with using them.  

Practising certificates are like ‘poutama’ (levels of learning, progression). Each certificate is located on a continuum of progression throughout your career as a teacher. Te reo Māori experts contributed thinking and feedback to align the intent and purpose of each practising certificate . The names are not a translation of the English.  

At the February hui, your Governing Council:

• participated in a Tapasā Workshop similar to the ones provided by the Teaching Council in the implementation of the framework 

• reviewed their strategic priorities 

• approved seeking proposed legislative amendments to the teachers' disciplinary regime 

•  discussed the Ministry of Education's draft Rules and Guidelines on Physical Restraint 

• discussed Covid-19 related policy for ITE providers 

• approved the 2019-2020 Annual Report 

• approved a draft communications and engagement strategy. 

Congratulations to Pat Newman, entering his 40^th year as a school principal! Pat brings this wealth of experience to the Teaching Council Governing Council as the primary school principals' representative. Pat has been principal at Hora Hora School in Whangarei since 1999 and continues to work tirelessly for the teaching profession as part of Te Tai Tokerau Principals’ Association, NZEI, Māori Achievement Collaborative, NZPF and more.