Why the NCEA Review misses the blueprint for change

I have been enjoying the invitation of the NCEA Review to dream big and look again at the structure of our national assessment. At school we have talked regularly about the ‘Big Opportunities‘ and there have been other conversations across the Wellington region too amongst the Loop schools. Everyone has had plenty to say and there […]

Growing digital smarts? Check our biases…

‘Tis the night before the #edchatnz conference and I am mulling over the session I am hoping to facilitate… It’s been just over a month since I joined NetSafe as their new Director of Education, and I have thoroughly enjoyed getting my head around a ‘same but different’ view window on education. The ‘same’ being broad, effective […]

Five tips for holding ideas lightly

Note: This post was my final piece for the CORE Education blog, published last week. I will be exploring these ideas at their ULearn16 conference in October. Join me? Go on — it’ll be fun:) “One should never bring a knife to a gun fight, nor a cookie cutter to a complex adaptive system.” — […]

Key Competencies book review | The future’s bright….

I must confess that, the references to ’21st century education’, and the memes that surround it, are ones I am increasingly trying to avoid in favour of more precise descriptions of what we are actually trying to achieve with education that suits our learners, their needs if they are to thrive in society, knowledge and understandings […]

10 ideas changing the face of English teaching…?

Time magazine’s 10 ideas that are changing the world (last week’s edition) has seen me mulling over what an educationally themed list, with an English twist, might look like? Everyone loves a list. There’ll be something to condemn, something thing that strikes a chord and plenty of mulling about what has been omitted. Here’s my […]