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

by Steve Saville Let's hope the Fikas in all of our schools don't get lost in all this current craziness.

by ELV Created in Aotearoa to honour Māori and all Indigenous peoples whose voices are being silenced. Te Tiriti o Waitangi lives in our classrooms, our whānau, and our hearts. When a government chooses erasure over equity, the world must listen. A teacher folds away a classroom poster of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. A child asks why it’s gone. That is where this story begins — in the quiet acts of erasure happening across Aotearoa New Zealand. The pain and onslaught on our tamariki

by Steve Saville A few years ago I read Owen Eastwood’s wonderful book “Belonging.” Even though Eastwood wrote more from a sporting leadership/culture perspective I found his book perfectly captured all that I believed to be important with regards to the purpose of a school and of school leadership. It was profoundly rewarding and comforting to see what I held so dear articulated so clearly and logically. If you are feeling a bit despondent right now [hardly surprising] and h

by ELV What was once co-designed is now being shredded — and the Ministry’s name is on every balloon. We are loving the open letters and the passionate campaign to refuse to teach the shocking curriculum. It’s heart-warming to see some of us trying to make the best of it—trying to hold the line while everything around us spins. And still, Erica continues to tell lie after lie, removing herself from any wrongdoing, deflecting blame like it’s sport. As we consume story after st

by Rebecca Thomas Lay Your Dreams: A kōrero for our tamariki — past, present, and rising. They are the dream-carriers. Like so many others on this page — and in the circles of education that still hold our tamariki and their whakapapa with deep reverence — yesterday I was all things at once: Angry. Frustrated. Ashamed. Utterly heartbroken. The release of NZC 2025 ( I refuse to address it as Te Mātaiaho) was one blow — but what broke me was the sound of our Minister’s voice o

by ELV Governor Hobson, hands behind his back — a carving that speaks of concealed intent. Let this not become the image of our curriculum. MOE: Not in our name. Let’s be really explicit. To take a framework gifted by Māori, reshape it through a Western epistemological lens, and then present it back to the sector as if it still holds the same mana — is cultural misappropriation. It is colonising. It is a theft of worldview executed through framework manipulation. It is a br

by ELV ​​We’ve all been waiting, haven’t we? For someone — anyone — from Camp Roadshow to step forward and tell us what really went on. Not the soundbites, not the policy gloss, but the actual story behind the speeches, the data, and the packed rooms. Well… Erica decided to let someone speak on her behalf. Not a kaiako. Not a principal. Not even a New Zealand education leader. No — she let her overseas admirer take the mic. Last night, RNZ’s Emile Donovan sat down with forme

by Rebecca Thomas — looking out to the horizon where every wave carries the memory of promises made and the weight of what we risk losing. As a nation, when we greet others or show our gifts to the world, we begin with pōwhiri and haka. These are the ways the world knows who we are — the sound and spirit that remind everyone we are not Australian. We wave the cultural flag proudly when it suits us — at stadiums, on stages, in speeches. But when it comes to weaving those same