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

by ELV After the Government removed Boards’ legal duty to give effect to Te Tiriti, more than 1,000 schools united — not out of politics, but principle. Boards Were Not Just Ignored — They Were Contradicted In the same email, Boards were told: The Government alone would carry Treaty obligations. Boards should instead focus on “student achievement.” The explicit Treaty clause was removed because “parents and volunteers” shouldn’t hold constitutional responsibility. Yet over 1,

by Rebecca Thomas There is no hiding from the weight we carry. The past two years have left a mark on every educator, every Board member, every kaimahi who stepped through school gates each morning determined to give our tamariki a chance at learning, joy, and belonging. The load has been unfair. The expectations unethical. The demands relentless. And it wasn’t only teachers who carried it. Our Boards — unpaid, unseen, and often isolated — held the line when others faltered.

by Steve Saville

by ELV People have been getting in touch with ELV asking what we’ve done to our Minister. Where is she? Why has she ghosted the media? Why has she vanished from the front of the waka she keeps steering into rocks? Despite lacking the guts to face reporters after Willow-Jean Prime served her a Te Tiriti reality check (a moment that finally gifted our exhausted educators a much-needed laugh), she hasn’t disappeared. She’s simply gone underground. While the public sees a Ministe

by ELV Don Brash - Hobson's Pledge Leader. Image Ghetty I didn’t go looking for it — it wandered straight into my newsfeed. A Facebook page with a cheerful name and a grim pulse, dripping with racist slander about tikanga, reo, Māori media, Māori achievement — anything that didn’t fit into its tiny, trembling worldview. Ironically, the page tried to post on DisruptED, convinced it had found a captive audience of teachers ready to applaud its confusion. The page calls itself M

Just Who Is Willow-Jean Prime — and What Does She Stand For? By ELV Willow-Jean Prime and Rāhui Papa ELV holds no political allegiance. We are simply a flicker in the darkness —a candle lit for honesty, a mirror lifted to power, a voice that speaks for those working in classrooms long after the headlines move on. Since COVID we have held that mirror to everyone in the system: PLD providers, politicians, “collectives”, tamariki, the Ministry, the Media, ERO, and even ourselves

By Steve Saville

by ELV Oops! Despite waking to the news that the Education and Training Act had been passed — and thinking we had no words left — there is nothing like a dawn paddle in the waters of Waitangi, a hot coffee, and a warm custard doughnut to reignite the spark. After all, there’s no point burning hot if you can’t also burn something down. The Clause She Should Have Double-Checked On 4 November a quietly bold move was made. Willow-Jean Prime found a chink in the dragon’s armour. A

by ELV URGENT INTEL — Erica Stanford is making a play for teacher performance-related pay — and we know this. We said it before about the Curriculum Shitshow. We proved it with the Learning First intel (thanks to Bevan Holloway for his OIA that proved it on 3rd November). Trust us again. This is the next stage. While the media noise distracts everyone with test scores, teacher shortages, and “dire training” headlines, the real story is unfolding quietly under the cover of bur

by Steve Saville "... while we were promised a knowledge-rich curriculum, it’s now becoming more of a Frankenstein monster — stitched together from parts no one asked for, with an Australian accent and a data dashboard for a heart." — Rebecca Thomas

by Rebecca Thomas No thought control. I keep thinking back to the beginning — before the light dimmed, before leading felt like walking through shadow. There was a time when schools glowed with hope, when leadership meant lifting others, not just holding on. But somewhere along the way, the light began to fade. The alarm bells started softly — in policy, in tone, in silence — and we didn’t yet realise they were warning us of what was to come. How did education, once a place o

by ELV AEC — Electrifying the truth. There’s a difference between being surprised — and being strategic. And after listening to Dr Michael Johnston’s interview on The Detail this morning, it’s obvious: what’s playing out is not accidental. It’s a carefully executed narrative — a deliberate takedown of the Aotearoa Educators Collective (AEC) at a time when their critique is hitting uncomfortably close to the truth. Let’s not be naïve. This isn’t about a surprise heckle.  It’s