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Archived Directors Message
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DIRECTOR'S MESSAGEDecember 11 2006 Tēnā koutou, Greetings. Last week I sent you an important message about renewal of practising certificates. This week, my message contains general items of news from the Teachers Council. The Council's Annual Report for 2005-2006 has been tabled in Parliament and it is now available on the Council's website. You can view it as simple text or with the graphics as in the published version. This year we have tried to 'tell the story' of what the Council has achieved over the year, as well as provide the output information required by the legislation. I think you will agree that the Council has made significant progress, particularly in fulfilling its professional leadership function. I welcome any feedback from you on the Annual Report. Recently we posted to all teachers with a current practising certificate an individual copy of our newsletter forteachers mō ngā kaiwhakaako. A number were returned by the postal services because of incorrect or incomplete addresses. It would be most helpful if you would urge your teachers to ensure the Teachers Council has their current, correct contact details. They are likely to also miss out on other key communications otherwise, such as reminders of when they need to renew their practising certificate. Meantime, you should have received the school or centre's copies of the newsletter. It is also able to be viewed on our website, along with past issues. In this message:
Reference groups have been established by the Council for three significant professional projects that will run over the next 12 - 18 months. Induction Research Project The first is a research project to investigate the support to provisionally registered teachers in early childhood, Māori immersion and other school settings. The reference group has provided valuable input to both the initial shape of this major research project and to feedback on its development. NZCER won the contracts for both the literature review and survey of PRTs. The third stage will be a series of case studies in 2007. Right now, surveys of Year 2 PRTs are being completed and NZCER are hoping for a high response rate. There is a questionnaire for PRTs teaching in schools and a separate one for teachers in early childhood settings.Please encourage any of your PRTs included in the sample to respond to the questionnaire! This information is vital for a national picture of induction practices in New Zealand.Both the teachers and their schools may win a Whitcoull's voucher. Code of Ethics for Registered Teachers Workshops The second project for which a steering group has been established is to run a series of nationwide workshops on the Teachers Council Code of Ethics for Registered Teachers. The Council is committed to providing professional leadership for teachers and these workshops will be an opportunity for teachers from early childhood, primary and secondary settings to discuss some of the dilemmas faced by teachers from day to day when dealing with professional relationships and issues. The workshops are being run by a team from the Faculty of Education at Massey University. They recently placed an advertisement in the Education Gazette (November 22, inside back page) which will be repeated on February 5. If you want to know more, they have established a website at http://ethics4teachers.massey.ac.nz. These workshops are free, although schools and centres will need to cover their own relief teacher costs. Review of the Satisfactory Teacher Dimensions This third major project began with a wide ranging discussion involving a large reference group from the education sector on 31 October. The review of the Satisfactory Teacher Dimensions clearly has links to the research project on the induction of PRTs. It will also need to take into account other work of the Council, such as the Graduating Teacher Standards and other work happening in the sector, such as the career pathways strand of the Long Term Working Parties of the teacher unions and the Ministry of Education. The Council is committed to full consultation with teachers and other stakeholders in this project which will continue through 2007 and 2008. Non Teacher Police Vetting Thank you to all the schools and centres that have sent in applications over the last year. If you know who you may be appointing next year and/or have staff who will come up for their three yearly renewal of their police vet please: Get your applications in before the New Year rush! It is mandatory to have all your non teaching staff police vetted and any contractor and sub contractors that are working on school or centre grounds 'regularly' within school or centre hours. (Education Standards Act 2001, Part 1: Section 18 78C, 78 CA, 78 CB and Part 1: Section 37 139 AZD)
We do provide a service for:
The Non Teacher Police Vetting Unit does not process vets for:
For further information regarding the Non Teacher Police Vetting process and application forms please visit www.teacherscouncil.govt.nz/ntpv Policy Reviews Two policies currently under review are the Good Character and Fit to be a Teacher requirements for registration and the Limited Authority to Teach (LAT) policies. The 'Good Character' draft policy was circulated late last year and a second round of consultation in August sought agreement on key principles that arose from responses to that first draft. The Council is proposing new definitions, suggested by stakeholders, to replace the historical definitions used by the Teacher Registration Board when it first set up the criteria for Good Character and for Fit to be a Teacher. A second draft will be developed for stakeholder consultation early in 2007. The LAT policy is also being reviewed. Early this year the Council surveyed about 600 professional leaders, who had employed people on a LAT in 2005, to identify the needs and issues they had with the policy and its administration. Meetings were also held with specialist groups such as representatives of school guidance counsellors and of itinerant music teachers. Some clear themes emerged which has resulted in a draft revised LAT policy that was circulated in September - October. As well as consulting key stakeholders, the draft policy consultation was sent to the same sample of principals who were surveyed in February. The draft policy has created three categories of LATs which can be applied for, each with a different length of time being authorised. Most will be of one year, as is the case now, but in some special cases, it is proposed that a LAT may be issued for two or three years. One of the most difficult issues to resolve is those Guidance Counsellors who have a counselling, but not a teaching qualification, and who therefore require a LAT if they are in a teaching role at all. Some respondents have argued that the counselling role itself is a teaching role but currently there is no legislative basis for that construction. One of the areas being addressed in the revised policy is the special concerns of some settings such as kura, who as of January 2006 needed to meet the requirements of teacher registration and only employ registered teachers or persons authorised by the Council to be in a teaching position. Availability of enough suitably qualified teachers in Māori immersion settings is a particularly challenging issue to work through, for which the Council needs to provide support. Without weakening its commitment to the need for a fully qualified teaching profession in New Zealand, the Council believes the proposals in the revised LAT policy will address some of the specific practical issues facing some schools in particular circumstances. The Council is grateful for the strong and positive response to firstly, the survey of professional leaders, and secondly to the consultation on the draft policy. Making a direct link with so many of you though those surveys has been a very helpful exercise in our communications. Telephone Survey with Tūmuaki of Kura He mihi tēnei ki ngā Tumuaki o ngā kura i whaiwāhi ai ki te kōrero a waea ki a mātou e pa ana ki ngā āwangawanga o te rēhita kaiako me te whai LAT. He huhua ngā kōrero whakahirahira i puta mai, noreira ka nui te mihi. Ko naianei kei te arotahi mātou te whai huarahi hei whakarite. Noreira, kei te mihi, kei te mihi. The Council wishes to thank those principals of kura who participated in our telephone survey seeking information about registration and LAT issues. Important and valuable data emerged from this survey and the Council is focusing on progressing and resolving these issues. Our thanks again for your participation. Updating Details
It is really important, and much appreciated, when teachers update their personal details when ever they change. These changes may be any or all of:
I welcome comment and feedback from you on any of these matters or other issues you may wish to raise with me. You may contact me at peter.lind@teacherscouncil.govt.nz>. Wishing you a relaxing Christmas and holiday season.
Dr Peter Lind This document can be downloaded in PDF format by right clicking here and choosing 'save target as' Click on a date below to view archived messages from the director. December 2009 | October 2009 | September 2009/18 | September 2009 | August 2009 | June 2009 | December 2008 | September 2008 | July 2008 | March 2008 | November 2007 | July 2007 | 12 April 2007 | 12 Feb 2007 | 11 Dec 2006 | 6 Dec 2006 | 2 May 2006 | 6 Mar 2006 | 6 Dec 2005 | 31 Oct 2005 | 31 Aug 2005 | 30 Jun 2005 | 6 Jun 2005 | 5 May 2005 | 15 Dec 2004 | 3 Nov 2003 |
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