Surround yourself with people who are going to motivate and inspire you (Charles M. Marcus)

Two of the all-star English department HBHS 2025

I have lived a charmed life.

When I think back to colleagues that I've shared schools with, I can't help but feel that. There are quite a few now. Schools and colleagues, that is.

English departments have come in for special mention over the blogging years. Notably the mighty earth-shaking Woodford House team (2013-2016), and King John School's rock steady crew (Essex 2004-2006).

The current crew of drones in section 7 G (that I am a part of) is the latest special bunch. Very special. They rate very high on the Wozza-meter. So, here's a list (I love lists) with a pithy comment for each of the ten English departments that I've been a part of or led.

1 New Plymouth Boys' High School. HoD - Terry Heaps. My first English department included Alan Elgar and Rosie Maben. Fun! High powered.

2 Maclean's College. HoD's - Lyn Trenwith and then Roger Moses. Roger was part Viking warrior and part Teddy Bear. Hilarious. The Principal, Colin Prentice, was an inspirational English teacher as well. 

3 Waimea College. HoDs -Aileen Ambler for a term and then...me! Peter Joyce and Annette Sivak were fantastic friends as well as inspirational teachers.

4 Mount Albert Grammar School. HoD - me again for a few years until I took the Senior Housemaster role full time - until then I'd doubled up. Shelley Masters and Brett Wardrope - great people/great motivators.

5 Cambridge High School. I was DP and a part timer in the English department.

6 King John School. HoD - me again for a few years while also doubling up as Assistant Headteacher. Natasha, Catherine, Ei, Mr O and Ali stood out - a gifted bunch fersure.

7 Stratford High School. As Principal I took one Year 11 class of Unit Standards students. The English department is a bit of a blur.

8 Woodford House. HoD - me again with the dream team (seriously): Greg, Amy and Andrew.

9 Three OneSchool Global campuses: As Campus Principal I was a part-time teacher again - taking one junior class.

10 Hastings Boys' High School: HoD - Matt Robertson (a superb non-micromanaging, non-control freak leader. Huh-ZAH!). Some terrific friends and colleagues - you know who you are (everyone can take a bow).

Really though, hats off to all that I've mentioned - you have inspired me in the past, and/or - you are right now motivating me to be better.

That's what it's all about right?

You must have long-range goals to keep you from being frustrated by short-range failures (Charles C. Noble)

I like the idea of Charles' quote. When I was much younger, I had some long-range goals in terms of my teaching career. That certainly helped with short-range failures. One was to be a school Principal.

Yes, that happened a couple of times: 2007 - 2010; 2017 - 2024. When they find out about that, some of my current students ask why I'm still not doing that job.

The answer is simple in each case: after a while the up moments didn't happen enough, and the down moments happened too much.

Having returned to teaching English, the opposite is now true. The up moments happen way more than the down moments.

I am happy to have fulfilled that long-range goal, but also happy to think about some new ones as well. 

P.S. Arsenal lost to the scousers this morning - a short-range failure, I'm sure. We have some big long-range goals this year.

Bone digger, bone digger, dogs in the moonlight, far away in my well-lit door. Mr. Beer Belly, Beer Belly get these mutts away from me, you know I don't find this stuff amusing anymore (Paul Simon)

Photo by Kristine Wook on Unsplash

Sniff. Sniff. Aham. Cough. Weeze. Cough.

Been crook this week. For the second time this year. Outrageous. Egregious. Flagrant.

A not so lovey combo of virus and conjunctivitis has had me in its grip since last week. 

We had a parent teacher night in a freezing hell. Oops. Typo - should be hall. Make the correction please. Thanks.

Later that week... I started feeling out of sorts. Marking all day Saturday knackered me and by Sunday I was feeling rough. Covid tests have been negative, but a fever, runny nose and cough have made it feel pretty gosh darned covid-like.

The virus had an extra card up its sleeve - conjunctivitis. That meant I couldn't even read while feeling sorry for myself. I sent a picture of my better eye to a colleague, and he wrote back - Sweet Jesus!

So, a week off school. The misery is compounded by having to set relief for my classes.

This, believe it or not, is a teacher's worst nightmare. Being away from school sux big time, no cap.

Any of my students reading this will be disagreeing, thinking it's bussin to the max staying home. Yeah nah peeps.

Stay at school kids. You know the rest.

The amount of good luck coming your way depends on your willingness to act (Barbara Sher)

Ah yes. Success.

Last week, I used that saying 'nothing succeeds like a budgerigar' when talking to a colleague/ friend at school, and she gave me that look!

But seriously folks. I've spent the day (yesterday) marking Year 12 and 13 Connections essays and that quote about luck/success from American writer, Barbara Sher, is spot on.

Even so, Qui-Gon Jinn says it even more pithily - Your focus determines your reality. Come on! That's full of pith!

The students who acted on instructions and followed advice? Success.

Those that didn't do either of those things? Not yets.

You don't get me, I'm part of the union (Strawbs)

My history with the Post Primary Teachers' Association (PPTA) began in 1983 and ended when I went to England to work in 2004. 

On becoming a principal, I joined the Secondary Principals' Association of New Zealand (SPANZ). That lapsed when I went to the Middle East as an advisor and then China. 

Upon returning to Nu Zild and teaching again, I didn't bother rejoining the PPTA and my move to a private school meant a union was redundant.

But now, in 2025, I've rejoined the PPTA. 

Why? If you've been reading my posts about the AI revolution you'll get an understanding about the disquiet I feel for the future of my profession. AI marking is just the beginning.

The clincher was watching a news clip of our Education Minister and 'Crusher' Collins moaning about the proposed industrial action. The sight of two political hypocrites lamenting the plight of the 'poor kids' being abandoned for a strike day was my tipping point.

First, they tell me NCEA is untrustworthy, and in the next breath that 'the kids' will be disadvantaged by missing a day. Make up your minds!

The next night the Health Minister was trotting out the same party line after nurses also signaled strike action. The poor patients, missing nurses for a shift. That should signal something to the minister you would think. In maternity (where Jacky works) midwives and doctors get a taste of short staffing for a day - excellent. 

So, I'm a union man again! 

All together now, with Strawbs:

Oh, oh, you don't get me, I'm part of the union
You don't get me, I'm part of the union
You don't get me, I'm part of the union
Until the day I die, until the day I die

Tell me all you need to tell. Why is it you whisper when you really need to yell (The Staves)

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

In Fathers (an anthology compiled by Jon Winokur), Arthur Ashe writing about his father's influence says:

I have a very low exasperation level for people who use the lack of education or opportunity as an excuse to do nothing because I saw my father, functionally illiterate, in a racist situation, make a success of himself.

At the moment, I must admit, I have a very low exasperation level for some of my students who refuse to even try to do a personal writing assessment (for English Achievement Standard 1.2).

A galling thing for me, is that I know they are capable of completing the task to a good standard, but they just can't be bothered. 

This is bothersome to me. I've tried a variety of approaches but in the end I had to cut them loose. As the deadline approached, it was obvious that, having given up, they would not/ could not pass.

But, it's more than their attitude, it's also my exasperation at not being able to help them.

This goes against my whole philosophy of never-give-never-surrender. This Achievement Standard precludes any kind of feedback and personal intervention on my part while the students are doing the final assessment. In practical terms this means that for the last two weeks I have been an observer.

In my opinion, this is bollocks, and against everything I am as a teacher. I hate being forced into a position where I can't help a student. 

So, for me and a few of my students, this standard is a lamentable and preventable disaster.

The teacher stands in front of the class but the lesson plan he can't recall (Rage Against The Machine)

We could sense it was coming, but we didn't think it was going to be the blunt kind of announcement that came last week.

The rest of the world doesn't care much about education in New Zealand, but a big change has just been announced here, along with some revelations about the use of AI to mark student work. 

For the last twenty-ish years we've been preparing senior classes for their National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) - a standards-based assessment system. 

It was announced on Monday that it will be scrapped.

Over the next few years, it will be replaced by new qualifications. Not overtly standards based, but 'subject based' (whatever the heckfire that means), marks out of 100, best four subjects counted.

That precisely describes what I did at school from 1973 to 1974 (it took me two years to get School Certificate by 'passing' four subjects with marks over 50%).

My immediate thoughts:

• How will my current students sitting NCEA react to this scrapping of their qualifications (Year 9 to 13 students will leave without the new qualification)? Will they abandon their efforts given the criticisms by politicians (David Seymour doesn't let facts stand in the way of his opinions - NCEA has Excellence standards that are damn hard to get).
• For twenty-ish years I taught English for School Certificate, Sixth Form Certificate, and University Bursary students. For twenty-ish years I taught English for Level 1, 2, 3 NCEA.
• I don't have another twenty-ish years left in me. I do have a few though and I'd like to think they had some purpose other than preparing students for an 'untrustworthy' qualification.
• This is a real reverting to the pre NCEA years and all of the gains from a standards-based approach, UCL approach will be lost for a while (these things are cyclic).
• Twenty-ish years of textbooks written for NCEA are now useless.
• Will a change of government mean they scrap all these proposals and revert to a standards-based qualification again? Potentially, it's a clear point of difference in an election.
• Did we know about A1 taking over teaching marking? Like all of my colleagues, I missed that memo. Apparently, the Common Assessment Activities (CAA) in numeracy and literacy are marked by A1 now - it takes 6 weeks for students to get their results. Six weeks!! Will teachers' job be safe from A1 in the future? I think I know the answer.

The more I thought about all this, the angrier I became, which is disappointing. I can only control my reaction. I have zero control over political decisions. I told myself off. 

Instead, I need to think about the possibilities, the benefits, the areas where I can contribute. That may take me a while, but it needs to happen.

I will be very interested in how all this shakes out.

BTW the students' response to all this was - meh.