Focus on schools – no excuses, no exceptions

Media Release

Focus on schools – no excuses, no exceptions

More than 650 school trustees from all over New Zealand will gather in Auckland next month to tackle some of the big education issues.

The theme of the conference is “Effective governance: no excuses, no exceptions, high expectations”.

NZSTA president Lorraine Kerr says there is never any reason to let students fall through the cracks, and boards need to aim to raise the achievement of all students, including the most troubled or difficult.

“Governing schools really well doesn’t just mean doing OK by eighty or ninety per cent of the students, we need to aim higher. We need to help every student, to face up to the hard stuff and we need to start now.”

Lorraine will discuss how boards can do this during her opening address.

The conference is being held from July 3-5 at the Skycity Auckland Convention Centre and to date the level of interest has been pleasing.

Over the three days many other subjects affecting trustees will be covered in the 30 seminars and workshops.

Topics include:

• Boys education – how to raise achievement
• Privacy issues – it doesn’t need to be hard for schools
• Fraud in schools
• School safety – our high rates of bullying

The conference will be addressed by Education Minister Anne Tolley, herself an ex Board of Trustees member, as well as the secretary for Education Karen Sewell.

Keynote speaker Mary Delagardelle, deputy executive director of the Iowa Association of School Boards, will talk about research showing school boards can and do influence student achievement.

ENDS

© Scoop Media