Source: NZSTA
The curtains have drawn on an action-packed third day of the 33 rd NZSTA Annual Conference in Rotorua, which included the organisation’s AGM, dozens of professional learning workshops and keynote speeches.
The day started with a keynote address from Teaching Council of Aotearoa New Zealand Chief Executive and former school board member Lesley Hoskin.
Hoskin’s presentation was centered around the question “what sits at the heart of a happy school?”. Boards do, she said, as the ones responsible for creating the conditions for a safe, inclusive and nurturing school environment.
She talked about the equity problem among New Zealand schools and the role boards can play in mending the education divide. Hoskin also spoke about the state of the teaching profession. Our world class and passionate teaching community feels “undervalued, underpaid and undermined” she said, and spoke about what boards can do to support their teachers.
Several remits to change the NZSTA Constitution were also passed, including a name change to modernise the organisation’s brand and reflect both its commitment to te reo Māori, and the terminology of the Education and Training Act 2020, which changed the term ‘school trustee’ to ‘board member’. NZSTA will rebrand to Te Whakarо̄putanga Kaitiaki Kura O Aotearoa – the New Zealand School Boards Association (NZSBA).
Near the end of the day, Privacy Commissioner Michael Webster spoke to attendees about developing a strong privacy protective culture in schools. With young people being particularly vulnerable to privacy breaches in the digital age, he called on boards to be privacy leaders and set the tone in their schools, and discussed his aspirations for privacy to be treated as a core focus for all organisations, including schools, as much as things like health and safety.
The conference’s gala dinner takes place tonight, the theme of which is “Back to the Future”, and will be hosted by entertainer and long-time conference emcee, Pio Terei.
The conference concludes on Sunday.
