by ELV From our Minister's mouth Why is it acceptable for our Minister of Education to accuse the profession of “fudging numbers” — while reshaping the narrative herself? Because that’s what happened this week. On Mike Hosking Breakfast, the Minister dismissed concern  about the SMART tool as: “a bumbling attempt at some kind of weird political hit job” She accused the sector — including the Aotearoa Educators Collective and Liam Rutherford — of “fudging the numbers.” That’s

by Rebecca Thomas I don’t usually buy into the Mad Max, end-of-oil, dystopian futures people throw around. I’ve never been one to spiral on that stuff. There’s always been too much right in front of me — kids, classrooms, behaviour, kai, the real mahi — to sit around imagining collapse. But something about last night made me dwell on what might become, or what is actually coming. Maybe it was the  clip my son sent . Maybe it was just having a rare pocket of space to actually

by Rebecca Thomas SMART tool — where am I at? Apparently 1,057 schools have signed up. Roughly half the country. I imagine most of those will be School A ( see previous post ) — the ones who will make it work because they always do. The ones who will align, adapt, and absorb whatever lands on their desks without needing to ask too many questions. But not all sign-ups tell the same story. And little did Erica Stanford know, some of us didn’t sign up because we believed in it.

For a school that says “yes” — Te Tai Tokerau by Rebecca Thomas We are looking for a Year 5–6 kaiako. A team leader. This is not a glossy type of job ad. To be honest, I don’t think teaching is, anymore. I also have no doubt this advert in our current teacher shortage could fit more than just our kura as I write this. There are no stock images of smiling children with sharpened pencils and perfectly displayed learning intentions on our website. Nothing you might see on polish

by ELV “It’s important that we get the reform of secondary school qualifications right… we will continue to engage with the sector.” That’s what Erica Stanford says . Engage. Please stop using that word, Erica. The sector did engage when you made the last dumb announcement. We wrote submissions and signed petitions. We spoke passionately. We warned. We wrote letters. We implored her not to rush this. We said “stop” — don’t dismantle a system, it just needs repair. And what ha

by Rebecca Thomas Hoops Being a SENCO, Erica — do you even know what that is? And if you do… what does it mean to you? “I didn’t ask for this.” My son’s favourite line — delivered with absolute conviction — came the day we discovered his homework tucked neatly into the curtain by the front door. A masterstroke, really… insulation meets avoidance. When your brain runs on an ADHD current, sometimes the quickest solution isn’t doing the task — it’s relocating the problem. As adu

by Rebecca Thomas Term 2 is coming. And with it, a new way of being seen. A colour-coded system. Designed, we are told, to bring clarity. But clarity for who? Because for those of us already ostracised by society — already excluded from funding, from support, from the quiet benefits others don’t even realise they have — this doesn’t feel like clarity. It feels like exposure. It feels like a colour-coded league table for communities who have already been measured, judged, and

by Rebecca Thomas Just under three weeks remain until the end of Term 1. Recently I listened as Claire Amos and Liam Rutherford described the landscape and mood of educators in their communities. As they spoke, I immediately wanted to join the kōrero and write a comment. But my comment was too long, my kōrero too disjointed. I needed time to think. There is an apathy growing in the sector. Not the careless kind people sometimes accuse teachers of. Not indifference. Something

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