(1 October 2009)  Photograph - giant raspberry blown at ACE cuts  

(1 October 2009)  Successive New Zealand governments survived two world wars and global depression – without having to cut night classes, CLASS (community learning association through schools) president Maryke Fordyce said.Her dismay at the current government’s plans to slash 80% of adult community education (ACE) funding was reflected by participants at PPTA’s annual conference – with an attempt to blow the world’s biggest raspberry.

(30 September 2009)  Adult education, curriculum support days and teacher staffing will all be casualties of National’s plan to cut costs in the secondary sector. Education minister Anne Tolley found herself faced with a sea of yellow placards saying ‘don’t let the sun set on night classes’ when she addressed the PPTA annual conference this afternoon. Despite repeated calls from schools, students and communities to re-think her decision to slash 80% from adult community education (ACE), she refused to do so.

(30 September 2009)  Plans to tackle anti-social behaviour at schools, announced by education minister Anne Tolley today are a step in the right direction – but will not be enough to help teachers already dealing with disturbed and violent students, says PPTA president Kate Gainsford.

(29 September 2009)  At least five percent of the students in our schools need specialist support that teachers aren’t trained to provide, PPTA executive member Ana Rees said.Student behaviour issues have a significant impact on teacher and student wellbeing she said - during the opening speech for a paper on student behaviour at PPTA’s annual conference.

(29 September 2009)  Excessive compliance, a climate of mistrust and too little control over their working lives is undermining satisfaction levels for New Zealand secondary teachers, PPTA president Kate Gainsford says.Gainsford told the 142 teachers gathered at PPTA’s 2009 annual conference that there was too much mistrust, too much bureaucracy and too little personal autonomy, when it came to secondary teaching in New

(24 September 2009)  National’s Youth Guarantee scheme is an extravagant exercise in smoke and mirrors that only marginally addresses the problem of disengaged youth – PPTA president Kate Gainsford says.The scheme, which purports to help students at risk of disengaging from education or training, is tackling the issue at the wrong end.