Last year was an intense and busy year for us in education. We’ve all had to learn to work from home, become far too familiar with Zoom, and then get used to commuting to work again. All in the same year that saw the Education and Training Bill become an Act.
The Act was
the biggest change in education legislation since the Education Act in 1989.
This of course means we’re making changes to your SchoolDocs content. The first
round of changes focused on areas that were changing immediately. These changes
were mostly around inclusive education.
Te
Tiriti o Waitangi- Inclusive Education
- Recognition of Cultural Diversity
- Māori Educational Success (formerly Improving Educational Outcomes for Māori Students)
The changes
we made not only cover legislative requirements but also reflect the Government’s
commitments to improving educational outcomes and eliminating discrimination,
while keeping the topics flexible to include your school-specific information.
Check out the What’s New page on your SchoolDocs site (there's a link on your site’s Welcome page).
You can access the Model site from your Dashboard. This is where we show generic versions of our topics with the yellow highlighting that wording we can easily change. You can contact us at any time to make school-specific changes.
TKI has a fantastic resource with
guidelines for helping students feel included. One consistent theme throughout
these resources, and in the Ka Hikitia and Action Plan for Pacific Education,
is building interdependent relationships with students and their whānau. The
key to building this relationship is open and clear communication. Learners
thrive in an environment where their background and identity is valued.
Future Education and Training Act updates
Another stated
aim of the Education and Training Act was to consolidate the major Acts about
education into one act. This means that many of the legislative requirements
haven’t changed or have only had minor changes. We’ll be rolling out further changes
to content as the new Act is implemented.
We’ve also
been reviewing our Enrolment, Performance Management, and Appraisal topics as
the next step in our updates.
