New Zealand School Trustees Association
Memorandum to Boards: 2015/7
Subject: What’s happening at the moment?
Purpose: There is a lot on at the moment, with a number of changes to legislation, new
requirements and events involving new resources and the need for some reminders. This
memo is intended to draw those together. It contains information on:
Few timely reminders:
 Concurrence Requirements
 Lockdowns
 IT Policies and procedures
Health and Safety
Children’s Action Plan and Vulnerable Children’s Act
Communities of Schools
New forms and templates:
Principal Performance Management (PMS) and Appointments:
Novopay and the leave project:
Professional Development Programmes:
 PD sessions
 Online self-paced modules
 More coming shortly………On the programme in the next few months
Few timely reminders:
Concurrence Requirements: We are getting a number of inquiries following the recent
STAnews reminder on why payments and expenses cannot be paid to board employees for
such things as insurance and registration costs, except with prior approval from the Ministry
of Education. You can get more information about this here.
Lockdowns: The incident of an armed escapee in the central north island has been a timely
reminder to review your lockdown procedures as part of your emergency plan.
IT Policies: Time to check your policies and procedure to make sure that all staff (and
students) are clear on the rules around appropriate use of your IT systems, this includes
emails and social media. For staff these should be reflected in what you have established
as part of the schools code of conduct or expectations of staff.
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Health and Safety Legislation: The new legislation is working its way through
Parliament. We have been working with the Ministry of Education (MoE) as part of the
Sector Reference Group on the impact of these changes. NZSTA are also developing a
number of resources on the requirements of the new legislation and once the final new Act
has been passed we will roll out regional workshops to assist you with the transition to those
changes. Key message at the moment is to ensure your current policies and procedures are
up to date and this will provide boards with a firm base to meet any of the changes.
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Vulnerable Children’s Act: As part of the Children’s Action Plan and the new Act a number
of meetings have been held with sector groups lead by the MoE. Information has been
distributed following consultation with the sector, this includes a useful list of Q and
A’s. Keep an eye out for the Ministry Bulletin for School Leaders for updates. NZSTA are
currently working with Child matters on the design and delivery of workshops for boards on
the legislation. Some of this delivery will be this year and some at the beginning of next year.
We are looking at approximately 80 – 100 workshops in that period. We are also developing
an online interactive workshop.
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Communities of Schools: With the development of new Communities of Schools and more
boards moving to be included, we have been working on resources to support boards
through the process. Both at the development level and implementation (formation of the
community, achievement challenges and recruitment of new roles). This will involve
supporting resources and facilitation of workshops. More on this shortly.
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New forms and templates: As a result of the Novopay leave project (see below) and
changes from new legislation eg the Vulnerable Children’s Act impact on employment
processes, we have updated all of our employment forms and templates available from the
NZSTA web (see employer toolkit). Please use these from this point. This includes the
application form and letters of appointment. Also new forms for the personal file checklist
cover sheet, and personal details form, as well as slight updating to the summary of personal
details form.
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Principal Performance Management (PMS) and Appointments: As well as recently
updating the resources online for PMS and Appointments, NZSTA is building up a
comprehensive list of endorsed consultants. As part of this we have been holding regional
workshops for consultants undertaking this work and discussions with both the Education
Council and ERO on the new Education Council Audit for appraisal processes and the link to
the Practising Teacher Criteria.
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Novopay and the leave project: The MoE, Education Payroll Limited, and the NZSTA are
working together to make a number of changes to employee leave management this year.
This includes system improvements, new reporting and guidelines, and training in leave
management. Following a successful pilot the next stage of leave confirmation process is
underway for all schools and it’s important that those involved:
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Complete the process sooner rather than later, while the training is fresh in your
mind, and while the information in the PDF report is as closely aligned to the leave
bookings and balances in Novopay Online.
Raise queries early (following the procedure within the instructions). This gives both
schools and the Service Centre sufficient time to address queries before CSVs are
due.
Remember you can send the CSV file more than once, even if you’re still checking
the information for some employees. If you have employees for whom you can
confirm leave balances straight away, get these in.
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Do a final check before you send your CSV to ensure adjustments are stated as a
positive or negative amount and updated balances are calculated correctly. This
helps avoid rework.
If you need assistance throughout the process or even in getting started, please refer
to the Where to find help box on the first page of the leave balance confirmation
instructions.
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Professional Development Programmes: A lots happening with PD. We have a
considerable number of PD sessions underway. Check them out on the PD part of the web
site to book. There are also a pool of template resources available on the operation of the
board from policy development to operation. Some other elements you should also be
aware of are:
Hautū: The new Maori cultural responsiveness self-review tool for Boards of Trustees is
being rolled out and proving to be well received by those using it. Clear here for an e-copy
of Hautū.
The Treaty of Waitangi and School Governance -Kei tua atu o te matapaki kōrero ko te
mahi: A New resource containing a booklet, board activities resource and video clips.
Online modules: There are a number of self-paced online modules available on
www.nzsta.org.nz:
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NZSTA: What we do! A useful introduction to NZSTA (3 mins)
Welcome aBoard - An Introduction to Trusteeship (30-40 mins)
Charter Review Module – Chart review and board planning and reporting process
(30-40 mins)
Employer Role – The boards responsibilities as an employer (40-60 mins)
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More coming shortly………On the programme in the next few months are:
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Communities of Schools resources and workshops
Board governance self-review tool – online programme for boards about to be piloted
GovTalks, which is a collection of 2-3 minute videos where people in the sector talk
about boards/governance and other related things of interest.
A new financial risk assessment tool has been prepared by BDO, and is being trialled
Delivery of workshops on Vulnerable Children legislation and on line interactive
workshop
Delivery of workshops on Health and Safety and on line resources
On-line learning modules being developed on:
o Student discipline is being prepared
o A Parents’ Guide to The Role of the board,
o Role of the Chair,
o Principal Performance Management,
o Principal Appointment,
o Health and Safety,
o Student Achievement,
o Governance in a Maori Medium Setting
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