by Rebecca Thomas There’s a phrase that resurfaces whenever education drifts back into political conversation. “Just teach the basics.” I’ve never known a day in my teaching career that felt “basic”. Teaching is many things — joyful, exhausting, surprising — but simple has never been one of them. Still, it’s the kind of sentence that reassures adults who haven’t stood in a classroom for a while. It suggests learning is mostly about content — facts delivered, knowledge transfe

by Rebecca Thomas Christopher Luxon during the State of the Nation speech. Photo: RNZ / MARIKA KHABAZI Today, Christopher Luxon addressed the nation. He spoke of progress. Of momentum. Of certainty. He spoke to an Auckland business audience about the state of the nation and the road ahead — and education reform was positioned as one of this Government’s defining achievements. Fixing the basics. Raising standards. Preparing young people for the future. For parents listening in

by Rebecca Thomas Before you meet your students, you have already been told how learning works. You have read the books. You have signed up for the PLD. You have nodded along as the language of “what works” settles into your planning, your spreadsheets, your professional conversations. You have traced your finger across the refreshed curriculum — knowledge-rich, carefully sequenced, densely intentional — and wondered, privately, how all of this is meant to arrive intact insid

by ELV Click to hear Willow's maiden speech Dear Willow-Jean, I’m writing this from Te Tai Tokerau — from the place I always write from — close to our tamariki, close to real classrooms, carrying the ache that comes when education is mishandled. I have been an educator for 26 years. Long enough to know that teaching doesn’t break people in one moment. It wears them down slowly — when care is overridden, when trust is eroded, when decisions arrive in classrooms already sealed

by ELV Admittedly, there is nothing I can say or do to stop the rollout of Janison’s SMART tool. My own school has already been approved for six months of PLD to support its use. This is not a piece about refusal. It is a piece about understanding. Because SMART feels like a scab — raw, inflamed — one that no matter how much we pick at it will leave a scar on our children. There is plenty to say about the shoddy procurement, about a Minister planning this tool years before

by Rebecca Thomas Fear has two meanings. F orget  E verything  A nd R un. Or F ace E verything A nd R ise. This year asked us to choose — again and again. Not in one clean moment. But in the slow accumulation of unease. In inboxes that filled faster than hearts could keep up. In announcements that arrived without warning and reforms that arrived without us. At first, fear didn’t shout. It whispered. It sounded like “maybe this will make sense soon.” Like “perhaps we’re miss

by ELV When the architecture comes first: the senior decision-makers linked to procurement planning that pre-dated the System Reform Bill. Why this Bill matters — and why the process should concern every New Zealander You may be aware our dear Erica has asked Parliament to push through the Education and Training (System Reform) Amendment Bill on 18 December. An inspired choice of timing, really — when schools are closing, educators are exhausted, and most of the country is

By Rebecca Thomas Tania Waikato - Lawyer 1840 schools spoke up — the same number as the year Te Tiriti o Waitangi was signed. It’s more than coincidence. It’s a message. “There is nothing stopping schools promoting Te Tiriti o Waitangi… but they must make closing the achievement gap for tamariki the priority.”— Erica Stanford, RNZ Morning Report , 17 Dec 2025 Pause. Breathe. Now smile. If the Minister believes honouring Te Tiriti and closing achievement gaps are two separate

by ELV To 'familiarise' yourself with SMART click here The Testing Paradox “Don’t upload samples” vs “Answer everything online” For years, teachers were given clear guidance about assessment data. Keep it private. Shred what you no longer need. Protect children’s responses with care and integrity. Most of us did exactly that — not because we were told to, but because it felt right. Even when I first trained with AI tools like ChatGPT, the very first advice I was given by Dr

by ELV When Power Learns It Can Get Away With Anything If you want to understand how power-drunk this Government has become, start not in a school, but on the world stage. The United Nations — the global body created after two world wars to prevent genocide, protect Indigenous rights, uphold human dignity, and call out governments drifting toward injustice — issued its strongest critique of New Zealand in decades. It warned that current policies were weakening Māori rights a

Do You Know What It Would Take to Ban Under-16s From Social Media? When a Minister jumps on a podcast and promises to ban every under-16 in Aotearoa from social media before the next election, it sounds simple. It sounds decisive. It sounds like someone doing something “for the kids.” And I’m sure it’s a slogan B416 will absolutely adore — clean, comforting, and perfectly engineered for a campaign poster. The target is obvious: our parents, their next voters. A promise polish

by ELV Back in September, the Teaching Council was put under the microscope. After a formal complaint, Minister Erica Stanford asked the Public Service Commission to investigate how the Council handled a procurement process and conflicts of interest. The investigation launched. Headlines were written. Council Chair David Ferguson fronted with a carefully worded statement: no staff had been stood down, and they wouldn’t comment while the process was underway. It was serious.

by ELV After watching the four-hour Education and Workforce Committee video and feeling that familiar mix of unease and sadness settle in, I decided to wrap the whole thing in a little festive mischief — if only to make something so grim feel a touch less evil. Every Kiwi down in Schoolville Loved honesty a lot… But the Grinches in Wellington? Oh no — they did NOT. They hated the truth, Every fact, every thread. They twisted them, bent them, And sugar-coated instead. And high

by Steve Saville

by Rebecca Thomas Albany High School AEC Curriculum Roadshow A story of truth, light, and our young people Some time this week, the numbers will leak. How much was spent on the curriculum Roadshow our Minister rolled out in the middle of strike action. The one principals quietly — and firmly — boycotted. The one where rumour says MOE staff were flown from Tai Tokerau to Wellington just to fill the empty chairs. Those revelations will spill soon enough. The invoices. The trave

By Steve Saville Once upon a time, in a kingdom a long, long way away [yes it is going to be that kind of a story] — there was a small village nestled in the middle of a great forest. A ngāhere full of kōtare calling at dawn, tūī arguing in the treetops, and winding paths that bent like rivers because nobody there believed life should be straight when the land itself curves. It was just a normal type of ‘fairy tale’ village. All the villagers knew it was not a perfect village

by ELV Why Our Sector’s Response Has Been Right All Along Some days I sit with my coffee and wonder why Erica is so fiercely attached to the Education portfolio — clinging to it like a lifeline, insisting in every interview that she wants “nothing else,” even as her actions betray something deeper. Some days it feels coy, a rehearsal for a future she desperately wants. Other days it feels like she simply needs the validation that comes from being the “fixer,” the “rescuer,” t

by ELV A Misleading Headline Brought You Here — Good. Let’s Talk. It ’s simple enough, really. Anyone who works in education — teacher, leader, PLD facilitator, data analyst, or that quiet kaiako who colour-codes their spreadsheets with reverence — understands how learning data works: how progress is measured, how validity is checked, how growth is actually tracked. And we know when someone is twisting the numbers to feed a narrative. So let’s start with the obvious. When Acc

By Steve Saville

by ELV SMART Tool Provider, Australia On the way home, I cried. Tears stung the unhealed cold sore on my lip, and the aircon dried them hard against my chin. I didn’t cry because I was exhausted from breaking up a fight before morning tea. I didn’t cry because a recently solo mother — shaking, ashamed, trying to soothe her furious son — looked at me with that silent question: “What do I do now?” I didn’t cry because one of our girls fell forward on the concrete, grazing half