The Principals (Aotearoa | New Zealand)

In this episode, we mark 100 episodes by hearing again from tumuaki across the motu about the realities of the job, then turn to anyone quietly wondering whether principalship might be for them. Our guests talk about what being ready looks like, how to prepare now, common misconceptions about the role, why governance matters and the questions to ask yourself before you apply.

Hosted by Eleisha McNeill.

Our guests are:

Isaac Day, chief advisor in the Ministry of Education’s education workforce leadership team and former tumuaki of Enner Glynn Primary School in Nelson

Kate Gainsford, immediate past principal of Aotea College and immediate past chairperson of the Secondary Principals’ Council

Rebekah Watts, leadership advisor for the Ministry of Education in Central and East Auckland and former principal of Panmure District School in Auckland.

Additional information

Aspiring Principals Programme https://workforce.education.govt.nz/current-teachers/career-and-professional-development-opportunities/aspiring-principal-programme

Govhub, governance support for school boards https://www.tewhakaroputanga.org.nz/our-services-2

In this episode, we speak with Billie Jean Potaka-Ayton, tumuaki of Kaiti School in Tūranganui-a-Kiwa Gisborne, about the work behind the school's improvement in student engagement and attendance. When data showed PB4L wasn’t working at Kaiti,  particularly for Māori boys, the school replaced it with a framework built around tipuna Māia. We discuss how that framework was designed with whānau, iwi and staff, what changed in classrooms as a result, and how the school lifted attendance after the cyclones.

In this episode, we visit Kaihere School, a rural school of 46 students on the western hills of the Hauraki Plains, where regular attendance in the term before Ngaire Harris started was sitting at zero percent. Eighteen months on, it's tracking at around 80 percent and the roll has nearly doubled. Ngaire talks us through her three-part plan of place, people and purpose: clearing nine horse float loads of rubbish out of the classrooms over the summer, reconnecting with the whānau and mana whenua who gifted the school its site in the 1940s, giving students a reason to walk through the gate, and a decision to take the school off devices.

Hosted by Eleisha McNeill.

In this episode, we speak with Melissa Bell, former principal of Maniototo Area School, secondary school winner of the New Zealand Education Excellence Award for Student Engagement and Attendance. We discuss how her rural kura lifted regular attendance from 51.5% to 82.5% in just two years, how family responsibilities in a farming community shape school attendance, and the flow-on effect the changes made have had on co-curricular participation and NCEA literacy and numeracy results.

Hosted by Eleisha McNeill.

In this episode, we continue the conversation with Regan, Lysandra and Jess on the practical side of AI. We discuss policy, staff training, how to work with the risks rather than shut things down, what advice they would give a principal who is only just starting out, and what a principal's role might look like in 10 years.

Hosted by Eleisha McNeill.

Our guests are:

Regan Williams, tumuaki of Te Kura o Rotokawa in Rotorua

Lysandra Stuart, tumuaki of Glenbrook School in South Auckland

Jess Ward, tumuaki of Paraparaumu Beach School on the Kāpiti Coast

Additional information

ERO report: Ready or not: How are schools responding to Artificial Intelligence? Summary Report https://www.evidence.ero.govt.nz/documents/ready-or-not-how-are-schools-responding-to-artificial-intelligence-summary-report