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Annual Conference 2011 graphic

The 2011 Annual Conference was held in Wellington 18 - 20 October.

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The 2012 conference will be held in Wellington 2 - 4 October.

 

Annual Conference is the decision making authority of PPTA.

 

Papers presented to the 2011 New Zealand Post Primary Teachers' Association / Te Wehengarua (PPTA) Annual Conference included:

file icon Accelerated Change in the Senior Secondary School

file icon Class Size – The Struggle Continues

file icon Constitutional Amendment: Branches where a school operates on separate sites in two or more regions

file icon Nau te rourou, Naku te rourou . . . Educative mentoring

file icon Supporting teachers to do their jobs: There’s got to be a better way

file icon There Is Always A Reasonable Alternative (TIAARA); not TINA (There Is No Alternative)



President's speech to 2011 annual conference E-mail

PPTA president Robin Duff's address to the 2011 New Zealand Post Primary Teachers' Association / Te Wehengarua (PPTA) Annual Conference.

Greetings to you all and as I have just said - special greetings to our colleagues from Christchurch, Greymouth and now the Western Bay who continue to struggle with the aftermath of national disasters.

Business as usual for global financial systems

Last time I spoke to Annual Conference was in 2008   when we were still coming to terms with the biggest financial disaster since the great depression of the 1930s.  As we learned about the shady and unethical dealings of banks, finance companies and audit firms, financiers and politicians we waited for justice.  Perhaps it was naive but, at the time,  we imagined that the perpetrators of  the various scams and frauds that turned out to constitute "business as usual" for the global financial system  would be rounded up and if not publicly  executed, at least subject to some public humiliation and be required to make amends.

It has not happened.

There hasn't been a single prosecution of the main Wall Street players because the American government has instead agreed to "deferred prosecution agreements” which means that court cases will not pursued providing the companies agree to investigate and report their own crimes.

New Zealanders exposed to similar shady deals

In this country, crooked financiers have stripped over $20 billion from New Zealanders for which crimes they have received a slap with a wet bus ticket and a tax cut.

Wall Street banks continue to pay huge bonuses out of taxpayer bailout money while at the same time resisting the regulation that is needed if global citizens are to be able to trust financial institutions ever again.   As the Wall Street protesters put it:  “You get bailouts; we get sold out.”

Debt crisis reconstructed as the responsibility of the public sector

And sold out we are.   How can it be that after all this excess and greed and huge government bailouts, the debt crisis has been reconstructed as  the responsibility of the public sector?  In Greece, public servants are being tossed out of jobs because Greece apparently has a “bloated public sector.” Excuse me?  Shouldn’t that be a “a bloated world financial sector?”

Teachers, nurses, firefighters, civil servants made scapegoats for financial crisis

According to our minister of finance, he has only just got started with the public sector in NZ.   So … teachers, nurses, firefighters and civil servants are to be held accountable for the financial crisis and indirectly, the young, the sick and those who, for various reasons, find themselves dependent on the state,  are going to feel the lash.   The logic runs like this:

"To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first and then call  whatever you hit the target.    "

Incredibly, the very same economists who never saw the crisis coming, continue to be wheeled out to offer advice on the future. It’s not like we haven’t seen this snake oil before.   What’s their advice this time?  Privatise, sell state assets, cut jobs in the public sector and introduce user pays into health and education.

Last Updated on Tuesday, 25 October 2011 09:42
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There Is Always A Reasonable Alternative (TIAARA) - 2011 conference paper E-mail

The purpose of this 2011 annual conference paper "There Is Always A Reasonable Alternative (TIAARA)" is to provide New Zealand Post Primary Teachers' Association / Te Wehengarua (PPTA) members with a platform to advocate for an alternative economic model that promotes the production of equitable wealth and educational opportunities.

There Is Always A Reasonable Alternative (TIAARA); not TINA (There Is No Alternative)

file icon There Is Always A Reasonable Alternative (TIAARA); not TINA (There Is No Alternative)
file icon Summary: There Is Always A Reasonable Alternative (TIAARA); not TINA (There Is No Alternative)

The purpose of this paper is to provide PPTA members with a platform to advocate for an alternative economic model that promotes the production of equitable wealth and educational opportunities.

PPTA’s constitution requires us to advance the interests of secondary teachers and secondary schooling. We have long held that the interests of secondary schooling include the interests of our students.

In the past three years, it has become increasingly apparent to the Executive that, in order to fully engage in contesting for those interests, the Association would benefit from providing an economic perspective.

Last Updated on Tuesday, 06 September 2011 10:33
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Supporting teachers to do their jobs: There’s got to be a better way - 2011 conference paper E-mail

This New Zealand Post Primary Teachers' Association / Te Wehengarua (PPTA) 2011 annual conference paper "Supporting teachers to do their jobs" considers the reasons why the collective bargaining process for secondary teachers and principals has become so fractious and adversarial. One would think that if all the parties were committed to the best outcomes for students and were informed by the best research about secondary education, common ground would emerge immediately and a settlement would follow soon after.

Supporting teachers to do their jobs: There’s got to be a better way

file icon Supporting teachers to do their jobs: There’s got to be a better way

file icon Summary: Supporting teachers to do their jobs: There’s got to be a better way

The paper examines the reasons why the notion of collaborative educational change with unions as active partners has proved so elusive in New Zealand, except for a brief period (2003 to 2010) when the Ministerial Task Force proposals were in place.

The recommendation calls on PPTA to pressure political parties to develop a more constructive approach to national bargaining.

Last Updated on Tuesday, 06 September 2011 10:21
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Nau te rourou, Naku te rourou . . . Educative mentoring - 2011 conference paper E-mail

The purpose of this 2011 annual conference paper "Nau te rourou, Naku te rourou . . . Educative mentoring" is two-fold: to bring New Zealand Post Primary Teachers' Association / Te Wehengarua (PPTA) members up to date with the current status of educative mentoring in New Zealand secondary schools, and to make recommendations on how to further support the training and work of mentors.

Nau te rourou, Naku te rourou . . . Educative mentoring

file icon Nau te rourou, Naku te rourou . . . Educative mentoring

file icon Summary: Nau te rourou, Naku te rourou . . . Educative mentoring

There is now wide recognition that used in the right context, educative mentoring offers a powerful lever to develop and support quality teaching in secondary and area schools.

Provisionally registered teachers have a right to a quality programme of induction and mentoring, which needs to be ‘hard wired’ into schools’ regular business.

Mentoring skills have also been identified as a key career development area for experienced teachers, middle and senior management, and principals.

Network Learning Communities offer a forum for developing good mentoring practice and sharing knowledge.

Last Updated on Monday, 05 September 2011 16:13
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Accelerated change in the senior secondary school - 2011 conference paper E-mail

This New Zealand Post Primary Teachers' Association / Te Wehengarua (PPTA) 2011 annual conference paper "Accelerated change in the senior secondary school" carries on from the work that the 2010 PPTA Conference did around making the NCEA workload more manageable.

Accelerated Change in the Secondary School

file icon Accelerated Change in the Senior Secondary School

file icon Summary: Accelerated Change in the Senior Secondary School

The paper summarises the efforts made to date to reduce workload and includes appendices that list the proposals made by the NZQA Workload Group (Appendix 1) for reducing workload, and the response from NZQA and the Ministry of Education to the proposals (Appendix 2).

Reducing the amount of moderation, reducing the number of credits per course and providing more Teacher Only Days are all seen as critical to a long-term solution.

The paper also considers initiatives at the secondary/tertiary interface and questions whether the money being removed from secondary schools to support the youth guarantee policy is really the best thing for students and the best use of the funding.

The paper is also critical of the Careers New Zealand proposal to assist careers advisors by providing them with performance benchmarks when they really need time and professional support to do the job.

Last Updated on Monday, 05 September 2011 16:13
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Class size: The struggle continues - 2011 conference paper E-mail

This New Zealand Post Primary Teachers' Association / Te Wehengarua (PPTA) 2011 annual conference paper "Class size - the struggle continues" updates members on progress on our class size claims resulting from settlement of the Secondary Teachers' Collective Agreement 2011-2013.

Class Size – The Struggle Continues

file icon Class Size – The Struggle Continues

file icon Summary: Class Size – The Struggle Continues

The paper considers parent concerns about issues related to class size, as well as the current political context.

The paper seeks direction from members on the direction the Executive should follow for our class size campaign.

Last Updated on Tuesday, 06 September 2011 10:20
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Constitutional amendment - 2011 conference paper E-mail

This New Zealand Post Primary Teachers' Association / Te Wehengarua (PPTA) 2011 annual conference paper seeks to amend the constitution to validate the existence of those PPTA branches that operate as part of a national entity but on separate sites.

Constitutional Amendment

file icon Constitutional Amendment: Branches where a school operates on separate sites in two or more regions

file icon Summary: Constitutional Amendment

Rule 14(i) in the PPTA constitution assumed that each school would have only one PPTA branch. It did not envisage the situation we have now, where a single school may have a national existence. For example, Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu (The Correspondence School) now has full sites throughout New Zealand; the trend to multi-campus schools is expected to continue. This constitutional change is to validate the existence of those PPTA branches that operate as part of a national entity but on separate sites.

Last Updated on Tuesday, 06 September 2011 10:26
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