Photo: RNZ / Richard Tindiller
It has written to its members telling them to consider refusing Ministry of Education directions to accept such children unless they are certain they will get enough support.
The federation, which represents hundreds of primary and intermediate school principals, has been complaining for several years about a growing number of students it says are traumatised by their home lives and who pose a danger to other students and to their teachers.
The federation s president, Perry Rush, said schools were not getting the help they needed to safely include violent children in their classrooms. There is a national outcry at the moment, a national call for help from principals who are experiencing just being in the vice between the ministry s requirement to have these young people at school and the damage that these young people are causing to the wellbeing of young people and their teachers, he said.
However, they said students were already feeling anxious after just two-and-a-half days of disruption to studies. There were concerns about how students would cope with disruption so early into the school year and what it could mean for the year ahead. Secondary Principals’ Association of New Zealand (SPANZ) president Deidre Shea and Onehunga High School principal acknowledged that a lockdown so early in the year was challenging for students, particularly those without internet access or devices at home. This was also the case for Birdwood School, in Rānui, West Auckland.
LAWRENCE SMITH/STUFF
Papatoetoe High School principal Vaughan Couillault talks to Stuff reporter Troels Sommerville, as queues continue at the school s pop-up testing centre.
Demand for secondary teachers was also projected to grow year-on-year out to 2025, due to the number of primary school students moving into secondary school. However, teachers were still needed in hard-to-staff subjects such as te reo Māori and STEM and in the Māori medium sector and in certain schools. In 2018, the ministry forecast being short of 260 primary school teachers and 130 secondary teachers in 2019. Ellen MacGregor-Reid, the ministry’s early learning and student achievement deputy secretary, said the gap in supply and demand had “reduced greatly” compared to previous years.
Stuff
The Ministry of Education’s Ellen MacGregor-Reid acknowledges there are supply and demand gaps for particular schools and subject areas.
Luck, timing, and a deadly virus: How Hawke s Bay s teaching shortage solved itself
4 Feb, 2021 09:42 PM
8 minutes to read
Covid-19 has caused huge upheaval for education in Hawke s Bay, but it s also eased one of its biggest problems. Shannon Johnstone reports. Teacher Richard Fenwick knew he and his family wanted to come back from Zimbabwe to Hawke s Bay.
Life, and the timing of a deadly virus, nearly got in his way over the course of a chaotic seven-day journey to get home. Hastings Girls High School teacher Richard Fenwick returned to Hawke s Bay from Zimbabwe where his family lived for seven years. Photo / Warren Buckland