Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Lynda Stuart: May Road Primary School Principal on the new attendance and teacher-only day policies

Transcript

Lynda Stuart: May Road Primary School Principal on the new attendance and teacher-only day policies · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The school strike for climate has happening today, the last
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: day of term. David Seen was on a warpath about it.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: He says kids should be in school learning, protest in
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: the holidays. I next Monday, he reckons, same goes for
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: teacher only days during term breaks. Only please, this is
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: part of a plan to turn around the awful attendance record.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Linda Stewart is the Main Road Primary principle in west Auckland.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: She's with us this morning.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: Linda, Good morning Maunna Ryan.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: What's wrong with a teacher only day being just in
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  Speaker 1: the breaks?
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  Speaker 2: Well, I think there's an interesting, sort of in complex
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: situation here because I know in our school that our
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: teachers are basically limping towards the end of the term.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: It's been a really hard term. We've had a lot
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: of teacher illness. But apart from that, it's our teachers
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: are working really really hard in a situation where overall
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: the underresourced for the sorts of needs that we have
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: in our schools, and so it's been a rare, really
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: hard term. So I would expect that they need some
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: time to recuperate, then they are back in their classrooms
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: preparing for next term. So our teachers don't have long
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: holidays as some people would think.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: I have how long I'm here just so weak? How long?
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  Speaker 1: Because it's twelve to thirteen weeks off, how many of
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  Speaker 1: those would be full days of work?
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: I would think that most of our teachers are back
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: in school and working hard for probably if you think
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: about the annual leave that people take during a year,
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: I would think that our teachers are either on professional
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: development or in their classrooms preparing teachers. Actually it's not
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: a job, Brian, it's a service that we do.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: I'm just wondering how much.
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: Not actually well understood.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: But we'll tell us twelve to thirteen weeks off, how
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: many weeks doing full time work.
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: I think it would look very different in different places.
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: And I think it's a hard question.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: For me enough, and it's different for everybody, Linda, But
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: can you not see the point that there is room
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: for teacher only days to take place in the breaks
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: without disrupting parents. Surely you want your students to have
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: as little disruption as possible.
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: One of the things that happens, Ryan, is that that
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: already happens. There are already staff only days in the
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: doom breaks, but the teacher only days are often teacher
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: only days that are given to us by the Ministry
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: of Education, and then we make up. We have to
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: do a certain amount of days per year, and we
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: make up any days that we take that are over
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: and above that we make up. So I think there's
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: a real atmating standard.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: How how long can we just be honest? Do teachers
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: get more annually or more time off them than we get?
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: You know, we get four weeks sore at my school
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: or a couple of weeks, whatever it is. Teachers get
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: more than that, don't they.
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: It's very interesting, Ryan, because if that was the true
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: case of teaching and learning in this country, you would
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: have cues of people who are lining up to be teachers.
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: At the moment, we can't get teachers in our classrooms.
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: We can't get relievers in our classroom. So if that
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: was the reality of a teacher's life, we would see
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: a very different scenario. And I think that's the issue
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: that we've got at the moment. There's a real lack
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: of understanding from some of our politicians and certainly from
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: some of our journalists around the reality for a teacher.
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: I ask you to come into our school and see
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: what our teachers do, and then say that our teachers
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: don't deserve Monday and Tuesday of this week of next
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: week to actually recuperate from some of the ween doing.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: Linda, thank you very much for your time this morning.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: Linda Stuart the May Road Primary Principle in west Auckland.
• 4:07
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• 4:09
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• 4:12
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