Government 'loses education compass' - Voxy

URL: Government 'loses education compass'
Voxy
Such actions send very mixed messages to the education sector. 'We feel that the Government has lost its way with education. From its class size u-turn, chaos over Christchurch school mergers and closures, the Novopay shambles, the Salisbury school ...

Halving class sizes: Impossible or vital? - Stuff.co.nz

Stuff.co.nz

URL: Halving class sizes: Impossible or vital? Stuff.co.nz School class size defines quality time or the lack of it. Numbers above 20 exponentially reduce teacher effectiveness. In a classroom of 30 pupils the slower, shyer, quieter, noisier, and less-focused students participate less and less in learning ...

Partnership schools: don't be hasty - National Business Review

URL: Partnership schools: don't be hasty
National Business Review
At the very least, as we argued in our submission, partnership schools do have the potential to alleviate educational disadvantage. While the impact of charter schools overseas is uneven, the best-performing examples do furnish significant academic ...

Schools of thought - Stuff.co.nz

URL: Schools of thought
Stuff.co.nz
On December 21, after months of delays, official advice on the Government's controversial charter schools policy was finally made public. The advice from Treasury and the Ministry of Education undermined much of the rhetoric and promises made by ...

Expressions of interest for charter schools - Radio New Zealand

URL: Expressions of interest for charter schools
Radio New Zealand
Expressions of interest for charter schools. Updated at 11:48 am today. Expressions of interest in running private charter schools close on Friday. The Government charter school working group has asked for the expressions so it can help potential ...

Rodney Hide: State fails students with costly Soviet style system - New Zealand Herald

URL: Rodney Hide: State fails students with costly Soviet style system
New Zealand Herald
That's why the Government's proposed partnership schools, or charter schools as they are otherwise known, are so exciting. For the first time communities, businesses, charitable groups, parents, teachers and principals are to have the opportunity to ...

Is competition in education the answer? - The Press

URL: Is competition in education the answer?
The Press
On December 21, after months of delays, official advice on the Government's controversial charter schools policy was finally made public. The advice from Treasury and the Ministry of Education undermined much of the rhetoric and promises made by ...

Rufer pushes for own charter school - Stuff.co.nz

Stuff.co.nz

URL: Rufer pushes for own charter school Stuff.co.nz New Zealand's greatest footballer wants to set up one of the country's new charter schools. Oceania Footballer of the Century and devout, born-again Christian Wynton Rufer predicts he will be "adding a bit to the controversy" of the schools being hotly ...

Ministers knew of 147 defects with Novopay - Stuff.co.nz

Stuff.co.nz

URL: Ministers knew of 147 defects with Novopay Stuff.co.nz Finance Minister Bill English, Education Minister Hekia Parata and Associate Education Minister Craig Foss signed off the project in June last year despite advice there were 147 "software defects". But documents released by the Government today reveal ...

Novopay signed off by ministers despite flaws - New Zealand Herald

URL: Novopay signed off by ministers despite flaws
New Zealand Herald
Official documents released today reveal Education Minister Hekia Parata, Finance Minister Bill English and Associate Education Minister Craig Foss all signed off on the system, despite 5913 payslip errors during testing. Mr Key said his ministers ...

Novopay: Testy relationship revealed - New Zealand Herald

URL: Novopay: Testy relationship revealed
New Zealand Herald
Ministry of Education correspondence revealed under the Official Information Act shows Talent2 was told last April it was in contractual default for failing to meet targets in rolling out the system. A breach notice was threatened, however Talent2 ...

Steven Joyce is the minister in charge of fixing Novopay. Photo / APN - New Zealand Herald

3News NZ

URL: Steven Joyce is the minister in charge of fixing Novopay. Photo / APN New Zealand Herald The Ministry of Education has been locked in a two-year battle with Novopay creators Talent2 and nearly scrapped the flawed payroll system four months before it went live. The revelations are among a raft of problems laid bare by the ministry when it ...

New Plans For Novopay

URL: New Plans For Novopay
Media Release 01 February 2013 Attention: EDUCATION AND POLITICAL REPORTERS New Plans For Novopay The recent announcement to appoint Hon Steven Joyce to sort out the six-month-long shambolic saga of Novopay has been met with cautious optimism ...

Hold fire on Novopay, says principal

URL: Hold fire on Novopay, says principal
Scrapping the error-ridden Novopay system for school staff could open the door to a whole new wave of payroll disasters, says a Masterton principal.Gail Marshall, Solway Primary School principal, said she had been working with representatives...

Oversupply of teachers won't last - New Zealand Herald

URL: Oversupply of teachers won't last
New Zealand Herald
Go back another six years and the then Government was bringing in many overseas teachers and pondering whether it should pay young secondary school teachers a $1500 loyalty bonus to stay in this country's classrooms for more than two years. Now, the ...

How a smile can make your day - Stuff.co.nz

Stuff.co.nz

URL: How a smile can make your day Stuff.co.nz Everything is set out for the students when they arrive on their fifth birthday: a name tag hangs on the wall, marking the spot for their school bag; their desk is set up for them and many of them have spent time in the classroom on school visits. They ...

Spike in child abuse cases as schools sound alarm - The Dominion Post

URL: Spike in child abuse cases as schools sound alarm
The Dominion Post
Principals said the spike in abuse and neglect had resulted in increased skin diseases such as scabies, and aggressive and violent children in the classroom. Social workers in schools are heavily relied on and at Cannons Creek Primary School the public ...

Sabbatical reports recently added

URL: Sabbatical reports recently added:
Sabbatical reports added in January 2013 look at the following...

Whaihanga nui for Gisborne's only kura kaupapa - Gisborne Herald

URL: Whaihanga nui for Gisborne's only kura kaupapa
Gisborne Herald
The kura received a Ministry of Education grant of about $5 million for the whaihanga nui (big construction) project to build a new library, staffroom, administration block and new classrooms for senior students. There are also plans for a new gymnasium.

New flaws in payroll, say Bay principals - Hawke's Bay Today

URL: New flaws in payroll, say Bay principals
Hawke's Bay Today
The Novopay debacle was one of several issues, including proposals around bigger class sizes, charter schools and national standards, that caused tensions between teachers and the Education Ministry last year. Mr Pearse said schools were dedicating too ...

Teachers owed $12m thanks to Novopay - Stuff.co.nz

URL: Teachers owed $12m thanks to Novopay
Stuff.co.nz
The Ministry of Education has been forced to pay out almost $2.5m in manual payments, which are made when the Novopay system fails to pay teachers and their school requests a manual payment. Schools have paid almost $700,000 in manual payments to ...

Novopay Errors Running Down Schools Funds

URL: Novopay Errors Running Down Schools Funds
1 February, 2013 Immediate Release Novopay Errors Running Down Schools Funds News that over 12,000 teachers and school support staff have been wrongly paid to the tune of $12 million in non-payment and under-payments by Novopay is not news to two ...

Polytechnic scores exceptional results in survey - Scoop.co.nz (press release)

URL: Polytechnic scores exceptional results in survey
Scoop.co.nz (press release)
“It is pleasing to note our consistently high results for work-integrated learning and active learning, given that we focus on providing both theoretical and applied learning to prepare our graduates for the workplace.” He sees the results as an ...

courses lead to work - Stuff.co.nz

URL: courses lead to work
Stuff.co.nz
This means that apprentices go straight into year two and do not need to do the year one correspondence, year one block course and year one work placed assessment requirements. This leads to a huge saving in cost for a potential employer." All nine ...

Pacific preschools say fees keeping kids at home

URL: Pacific preschools say fees keeping kids at home
Pacific language preschools are struggling financially because more and more Pacific parents can't afford to pay fees.

Why I teach: Creating Kiwi can do-ers - Stuff.co.nz

Stuff.co.nz

URL: Why I teach: Creating Kiwi can do-ers Stuff.co.nz Our schools are full of these teachers, despite working in a system where talks of performance pay, school closures, National Standards and even the media challenge their worth and undermine their true effectiveness. What I do isn't about creating ...

Teacher's classy example - Auckland stuff.co.nz

Auckland stuff.co.nz

URL: Teacher's classy example Auckland stuff.co.nz "We look at our classroom rules, so how we want our class to be, and getting the kids to come up with ideas as opposed to me saying 'welcome to the class, this is what is going to happen'." Despite having a solid action plan Miss Ikinofo says it has ...

Kapiti College keeps on growing - The Dominion Post

The Dominion Post

URL: Kapiti College keeps on growing The Dominion Post Construction of a new lab and classroom will be completed in two weeks. In the meantime, some classes are being held in rooms above the gym, and others in unused areas across the school. "You name it we're using it," he said. Mr Kane said the increase ...

'Quite astonishing what you can do' - Southland Times

URL: 'Quite astonishing what you can do'
Southland Times
Principal Andy Wood said a significant amount of time and money had been spent before the start of the term, rearranging the undamaged areas of the school into temporary classrooms. Part of the library had been commandeered and staff had transformed ...

A Kiwi who built a school - Nelson Mail

Nelson Mail

URL: A Kiwi who built a school Nelson Mail The new school building has three classrooms with chairs donated by Downview Primary School in West Sussex, England. Two other teachers have been recruited to teach. Joel has handed over the school to British-based not-for-profit organisation called ...