19 Feb 2025
Protected: Aotearoa New Zealand’s histories – a healing curriculum
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Features
19 Feb 2025
Protected: Te Pūherenga: Preserving pūrākau for future generations
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15 Jan 2025
Charting indigenous futures
How can educators tautoko and empower young people to feel equipped to lead in the changing climate they will inherit? Researchers from the University of Canterbury and Ngāi Tahu have been working with rangatahi Māori and Pasifika in Ōtautahi to explore the ways ākonga view climate change. Ako finds out about the project.
4 Dec 2024
Creating change: Students leave lasting legacies
In the past two years, Ōmokoroa Point School in Bay of Plenty has been the centre of two community-changing projects that have impacted the entire Ōmokoroa community. Years 5 and 6 teacher Deirdre Duggan shares her experience of supporting students to stand up for what they believe in.
29 Nov 2024
Music, magic, mana reo: Waiata in early childhood centres
Educators across the motu are building brains through music. It’s unseen and often undervalued work, but that mahi is helping tamariki thrive right across the curriculum. AKO spoke to kaiako who love using music to build communication, wellbeing and impulse control in tamariki.
1 Nov 2024
Enhancing the mana: cultural leadership in Taranaki
Last year, NZEI Te Riu Roa won an allowance for existing teachers who hold cultural knowledge and expertise to recognise the work they are already doing in kura, schools and kindergartens. It came into effect this year and the applications for the funding were overwhelming.
Ngāmotu-based writer Emma Hislop (Kāi Tahu) sat down with a few of the kaiako who received the Cultural Leadership Allowance in Taranaki, to find out about their roles – and what receiving the funding meant to them.
3 Sep 2024
Inclusive education: being a teacher with ADHD
In schools and centres across Aotearoa, a growing number of kaiako and support staff are sharing with colleagues that they have a neurodivergent diagnosis. In doing so, they’re helping to break down prejudices and promote inclusion. AKO spoke with three members of NZEI Te Riu Roa about their experiences as educators with ADHD.
26 Aug 2024
Let’s celebrate the learning support staff of Aotearoa
One in five children and young people need extra support for their learning. Whether it’s teacher aides, classroom and ECE centre teachers, specialist roles including RTLBs, SENCOs/LSCs or school leaders, almost all professionals in education connect on a daily basis with unmet need in learning support. Here, we profile a range of NZEI Te Riu Roa members working as learning support specialists, as part of the inaugural Learning Support Awareness Day, intended to raise awareness of the gaps between learning support need and provision.
20 Aug 2024
Bacon, eggs and te reo-speaking astronauts: the life and career of Laures Park
After a decades-long career in education that has been focussed on transforming the system in order to uplift Māori students and educators, NZEI Te Riu Roa Matua Takawaenga Laures Park (Ngāpuhi, Ngāi Te Rangi, Te Whānau a Apanui) has been awarded a prestigious international prize. Here, we look back at her life and singular career.
15 Aug 2024
Advice to your past self: reflections from Mt Cook School
AKO visited Mt Cook School in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington to talk to five NZEI Te Riu Roa members. We heard their reflections on their careers in education and the changes they’ve witnessed over time, and then asked them one powerful question: what advice would you give your past self starting out in the profession, knowing what you know now?
13 Aug 2024
A cautionary tale from England: how a future of charter schools could look for Aotearoa
James Kerr, a London-based teacher and national executive member of England’s National Education Union, visited Aotearoa in early August to meet with NZEI Te Riu Roa members – and present to Parliament – about the impact of the UK’s academy schools, a model of schooling similar to our Government’s proposed charter schools. He talks here about how what was promised did not transpire.
6 Aug 2024
Diary of a head teacher sabbatical
Last year, NZEI Te Riu Roa kindergarten members won a new addition in their collective agreement: ten-week-long paid sabbaticals for up to 20 head teachers each year. We are honoured to share excerpts from a generous and insightful diary written during one of the first sabbaticals earlier this year, thanks to Shelley Shennan, the head teacher of Parihaka Kindergarten in Whangārei.
18 Jul 2024
Inclusive education – let’s talk about OCD
When obsessive compulsive disorder is misunderstood, students and staff living with OCD are alienated from classrooms — how do educators create more inclusive learning environments for all? A psychologist, a teacher living with OCD, a student and his mum share their perspectives.
11 Jul 2024
Learning from Te Taiao
Bush school, cold dips, and local conservation projects with rats traps, Half Moon Bay School on Rakiura/Stewart Island make sure all the opportunities are possible for their tamariki.
20 Jun 2024
Nurture, emotional regulation and neuroscience: laying the foundation for tamariki to learn
Some tamariki come to school carrying invisible backpacks. Glenview School and Papanui High share the invaluable role learning assistants and support staff play in ensuring all children can feel safe to learn.
21 May 2024
Digital pioneers: the world of Esports
Through digital literacy skills, collaboration and teamwork, two intermediate schools in Ōtautahi Christchurch are equipping tamariki exciting new ways to dream of the future.
Winter/Spring 202313 Dec 2023
A family devoted to education: the Huntleys’ remarkable teaching legacy
It’s not unusual to have two educators in the family, but have you ever heard of six? Ako meets the Huntleys, a family from Marlborough who have dedicated their lives to teaching and their community.
Winter/Spring 202315 Nov 2023
It’s time to end streaming in Aotearoa
All students deserve opportunities to achieve. The move to end streaming is a way of challenging socio-economic inequalities and the institutionalised racism that continues to persist in our teaching practices.
Winter/Spring 20231 Nov 2023
Mana taurite: the mahi behind the scenes
NZEI Te Riu Roa has launched its biggest pay equity claim so far – for all teachers. We talk to members who have been through the process and some involved in the new claim, to find out what out what’s involved – and why it’s worth it.