by Rebecca Thomas Oh Minister, Minister — where art thou dignity, Minister? The whole sector — minus the government’s own echo chamber — already knows what Erica really thinks of teachers. We’ve seen it in the tone, the speeches, the little barbs tossed into interviews. We’ve heard it between the lines every time teachers dare to say that supporting children properly might require… well… support. And heaven forbid we mention Te Tiriti while we’re at it. Because apparently sta

by Rebecca Thomas My suggested replacement of the Excellence Awards this year I need to write this thoughtfully. This is not me being bitter. Because I believe in celebrating good schools. I believe in acknowledging kaiako who pour themselves into communities and refuse to give up. I believe in telling stories of hope. But I also sit in Tai Tokerau. And here, excellence does not always look like a polished graph of achievement and attendance scores. Here, excellence looks lik

by ELV RNZ announcement today Today the gruesome twosome arrived for another announcement — staged carefully at a thriving school — a story of delivery. If you’re short on time, or cannot quite tolerate the press-conference smiles, here is the gist of the latest holy grail... Tweedledum and Tweedledee have been busy analysing the same old data again. They say it tells us we have a long way to go. So thankfully our saviours have put in place whole-class interventions. (I am st

By ELV There was a time when I taught children how to spot fake news. I would instruct them to look for reliable sources. Invite them to ask who is speaking. Cross-reference a variety of sources. And most importantly, don’t accept a clip, a headline, or a confident voice as truth. That was even before the AI generation, where fake news and videos now are ever so convincing. Back then we told students: go to the source. Read the thing itself. The horse’s mouth still mattered…

by Rebecca Thomas There is so much anger in the world right now. It coils through comment sections, woven tightly into racist group pages where fear masquerades as fact. We have heard it echo across Parliament benches, sharpened into talking points and policies. If I am honest it sits in me when I type and write about my experiences. I have been trying to make sense of how fiercely my own rage can consume me. Why do I feel so fiercely about the direction of Aotearoa’s educati

by ELV Erica gave her submission today (A helpful summary of 35 minutes at the Education and Workforce Committee so you didn’t have to) For those who couldn’t sit through the full 35 minutes of our Minister of Education, Erica Stanford, appearing before the Education and Workforce Committee, I’ve done the public service of watching it for you. You’re welcome. And good news: if you made a submission opposing the Bill — or felt a flicker of concern about ministerial overreach —

By Rebecca Thomas Photographs by Krista Rossow Courageous Dr. Claire Coleman — the first academic in this moment willing to step into the light and say out loud what many have only whispered. Tonight, as my fingers move across a keyboard that has held joy, rage, grief, and hope in equal measure, they do so with a little more lightness. On the drive home I listened to Claire Coleman s peak truth into a space that has felt heavy for many educators and policy workers for a long

by ELV Christopher Luxon being asked by RNZ why he thinks Erica Stanford's name during his speech received the most heckles At Waitangi, the mood was unmistakable. When the name of the Minister of Education, Erica Stanford, was spoken, the response was not polite disagreement. It was audible immediate booing. It was honest. And yet, Christopher Luxon stood at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds and appeared genuinely surprised. As if the backlash toward his Education Minister had com

By ELV A 15-minute live interview featuring Erica Stanford and Chris Luxon discussing the Government’s new student progress reporting framework quietly disappeared in its original form. What remained—on The New Zealand Herald —was a cleaned version. Softer. Smoothed. Re-presented. Maybe that happened because I had already pointed out the uncomfortable moments in the original footage and where to find them. Shortly after, those links were refreshed. Anyone with even a basic un

by Rebecca Thomas Again and again — eight times by my count — Erica Stanford and Christopher Luxon stood in front of cameras promising a nationally consistent picture of education. Clearer reporting for parents using five-point progress descriptors the Minister says were co-constructed with the sector. Attendance information will be included. Behaviour information will be included. Achievement will be measured using nationally consistent tools, supported by AI-enabled analy

by ELV There is a moment in the life of a nation when pretending becomes more dangerous than speaking. It’s not when mistakes are made. It ’s not even when rules are bent. It ’s when the truth is visible — widely known — and we continue to behave as if nothing is wrong. At Davos this year, the Canadian Prime Minister spoke of a familiar fiction: the sign in the shop window. The one that says we believe in the rules, we agree with this system, this is fine — even when everyone

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