Description

Change is inevitable in a school, and managing change can be challenging. Changes you make may be a choice, where you identify improvements that can be made; or there may be changes to legislation, curriculum, or teaching methods that you need to implement in your school. Principals need to learn how to lead and manage change effectively.

My guests are:

• Iain Taylor, principal of Manurewa Intermediate School, former president of New Zealand Principals’ Federation, member of ERO Advisory Board, recipient of Prime Minister’s Supreme Educational Excellence Award in 2017.
• Ann Brokenshire, tumuaki of Hillmorton School in Christchurch since1995.
• Jason Miles, principal of Kaiapoi North School in Christchurch, current vice president of the New Zealand Principals’ Federation.

This podcast was produced for the Ministry of Education as part of Te Ara Tīmatanga mō ngā Tumuaki - The Beginning Pathway for Principals.

You can learn more about this topic by accessing Te Ara Tīmatanga mō ngā Tumuaki - The Beginning Pathway for Principals e-learning modules on the Education LMS: https://training.education.govt.nz

Show notes

Episode themes:

• Change is constant in education, especially in curriculum as it needs to evolve. The tumuaki is the change manager in the process.
• The need to include others, especially senior leaders and teachers, along with you when change is necessary. Empower change champions who can help you promote the change.
• When you’re implementing changes you’re choosing to make you have more time to plan and bring people along for the journey. When change is thrown on you, like after a natural disaster for example, you need to be the decisive person leading the change. Depending on the situation your change leadership style will change.
• With legislation change, make sure you know exactly what you need to do, and make sure you communicate the change well to staff, students and whānau.
• When implementing change in a kura around curriculum, look at what you’re already doing then systematically look at the aspects you’re not currently covering, make those changes and ensure staff have PD for those things. Ensure you’re recording solid data around the results of the change.
• With systemic change in a school, sometimes there isn’t time to spend too long observing before you start making changes.
• Get your senior leadership team involved in change so they know how to manage it before they become a principal.
• New tumuaki can talk to experienced principals, NZSBA, principal associations etc if they’re unsure about change or need advice or support.

Questions

2:01 [All] What are some of the changes that you've had to deal with as tumuaki?

5:46 [All] Curricula evolve all the time. What kinds of curriculum changes have you been through, and how did you go about implementing them?

9:46 [All] You mentioned that people sometimes feel like things are being done to them, not with them. Is that one of the challenges when it comes to change within a school?

11:27 [All] How does the change process differ when you're a tumuaki than rather than a teacher or a senior leader in a kura?

13:20 [All] As a tumuaki there's a difference between making the changes that you choose to make, and making changes that you have to make. When you're making those changes, do you approach them differently? And if so, how, how does that approach differ?

16:42 [All] If you're trying to make a change that some of your kaiako or others don't agree with, how difficult can make things for you as tumuaki?

19:51 [All] In terms of practical things that you need to do in your kura when something is changed in legislation, what changes do you need to put in place to make sure that you can comply with that legislation? 

22:07 [All] What about when there's a requirement to make changes to the school curriculum? How does that process work?

23:38 [Iain] Where do you even start when going into a school to make systemic changes to the way the kura works? Is it a matter of just sitting and watching and looking for a while to see what's not working?

26:56 [Ann] Where can new tumuaki go for information or advice to learn how to manage change within their new kura?