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Analysis:

When interviewing primary school teachers, two resourcing issues have been raised over and over again – adequate learning support for children that need it, and smaller classroom sizes.Both require significant financial investment from the Government, as well as people.They’ve been the elephants in the classroom. Access to greater learning support requires major system change and poses questions around equity of access and eligibility. Smaller classroom sizes are easier to grasp as a concept...

Canada to pay $800m

Canada has agreed to pay C$800m (US$600m) to settle a land claims dispute with five First Nations, an acknowledgment it failed to honour a treaty signed more than a century ago – and the latest in a string of deals reshaping the relationship between government and Indigenous communitiesOver the weekend, officials with both the federal and British Columbia governments admitted successive administrations had broken their promises to the Blueberry River First Nations, the Doig River First Nation,...

This 20-minute daily practice makes kids ‘better problem solvers,’

There are lots of daily tasks — eating vegetables, doing homework, brushing teeth — that kids might not understand, or care, are beneficial. But forming these habits are necessary for them to become well-adjusted adults. Link to recording and article: This 20-minute daily practice makes kids 'better problem solvers' (cnbc.com)...

Review: Rotorua Musical Theatre cast

A touching story of love, friendship and community is brought to life in Rotorua Musical Theatre’s production of Rent, and is a show well worth booking a seat for.It is running from April 14 to April 29.Set in the East Village of New York City, Rent is about falling in love, finding your voice and living for today.Loosely based on Giacomo Puccini’s 1896 opera La Boheme, it follows a year in the life of impoverished friends who are also young artists and musicians, from 1989-1990.Link to arti...

The Front Page:

Ongoing tremors underneath Lake Taupō have seen the alert level for the supervolcano rise for the first time in history.Geologists are closely monitoring the site in a bid to understand why this is happening.Dr Finn Illsley-Kemp, a seismologist from Victoria University of Wellington, tells The Front Page podcast the volcano last erupted around 1800 years ago, in 232 AD.Link to podcast and article: The Front Page: Tremors under Lake Taupō trigger rise in supervolcano alert level for first ...

Māori knowledge can help us

Around the world, indigenous knowledge is playing a growing role in helping societies respond to the climate crisis. Tribes and other indigenous entities own a high proportion of native forests in many countries, for example and they are applying their traditional knowledge to restore that land and other natural resourcesThis expanding practice is evident, for example, in major chapters on such knowledge in reports by the IPCC, the United Nations’ climate science body, and the roles indig...

Te Tairāwhiti iwi's ambitious rapid rebuild plan

ATe Tairāwhiti iwi is driving an ambitious plan to rebuild homes within six months for whānau left homeless by Cyclone Gabrielle.Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki chief executive Robyn Rauna is leading the charge to replace or repair homes in the small community of Te Karaka.Rauna said many whānau in Te Karaka felt abandoned during the cyclone."When our people are the most vulnerable, somebody's going to go into bat for them."So Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki is coming up with a bold plan to rebuild and repair home...

Former Labour MP Louisa Wall

Former Labour MP Louisa Wall is understood to be thinking about running for Te Pāti Māori in Manurewa in this year's general election.Meanwhile, Buttabean Motivation (BBM) founder Dave Letele has confirmed he is in talks with the party about standing in Māngere.Wall won the Manurewa seat for Labour in 2011 and retained it with a comfortable margin in 2014 and 2017.However, an internal party stoush led to her withdrawing her nomination in 2020. She ended up on the Labour list for that election...

Class sizes ratio announcement

A primary school principal has labelled the government's class size policy a "slap in the face", saying the education minister must be "crazy" if she thinks it will help existing teachers or attract new ones. Jan Tinetti earlier on Monday announced $106 million to put more 320 teachers into classes teaching years four to eight, dropping the average class size for those years from 29 pupils per teacher, to 28.The goal was not expected to be met until 2025, Tinetti saying she was "not happy w...

Damien Grant: Our schools are broken,

OPINION: In the month of April my 9-year-old will attend school for a total of six days. Thanks to Easter, Anzac Day, a teacher-only day and school holidays, he will miss out on the joys of the local school.This may seem disappointing from a pedagogical perspective, but given the quality of education he receives I am not concerned. The teachers, I should say, are great, but they are working in a system and world view that mandates and enforces mediocracy.Link to video and article: Damien Gr...

Watch: Government announces smaller class sizes

The government has announced moves to reduce primary and intermediate school class sizes, supported by hiring more teachers.A Ministerial Advisory Group will also be set up to look at further changes to class sizes.Education Minister Jan Tinetti announced the policy alongside Prime Minister Chris Hipkins at Remuera Intermediate School in Auckland this morning.Both are due to attend a media briefing around 12.15pm.It would see classes in Year 4 to Year 8 - right up until high school - shift from ...

Hawke’s Bay census

The original “due date” for the 2023 census collection has well since passed but in Hawke’s Bay, the mammoth project has only just begun for Stats NZ ground teams.Until early June, a locally led taskforce will be out in the community making contact with those who have not yet filled in their forms.But some areas will require a more careful approach than others, and staff say they are exercising humility and respect as they travel to some of the hardest-hit areas.Gill Scarlett, one of the t...

Greg Bruce:

Last week, I went inside New Zealand’s education system. Recent reports had given me some idea of what I might find: Teachers holding their fingers to the wind, hoping lesson plans would fly out of the Beehive and stick to them, pupils dancing around bonfires on to which they were throwing the books they’re unable to read, parents wailing at the realisation their children will never be smart enough to lead the Act party. Based on recent rhetoric, I half-expected to emerge from my experience ...

Urban Māori are delivering what their communities want -

West Auckland urban Māori organisation Whānau Waipareira are delivering what their communities have been asking for - whanaungatanga and connection through a series of Whānau Street parties.For the past six months Te Whānau o Waipareira have been visiting and gathering vital information from neighbourhoods from Henderson to West Harbour. Along with feeding and entertaining whānau at the impromptu street gatherings, the kanohi o te kanohi aspect is what has shaped this week’s community hui...

Government rolls out $1.3m digital literacy training

Seniors will have the chance to become more technologically confident via a digital skills training programme the Government is rolling out for up to 5000 people across the country today.The 2022 Budget has allocated $1.341 million over three years for the Office for Seniors to expand its digital literacy training programme.In announcing the programme, Minister for Seniors Ginny Anderson said barriers to digital inclusion can include a lack of access to devices or connections, the skills needed ...

The life of JB Heperi-Smith - a man

Mourners are gathering at a marae south of Takapau for the tangi of Ngāti Kahungunu Iwi board member and recent former deputy chairman John Barry (J.B.) Heperi-Smith, who died on Friday, aged 58.He was on Saturday afternoon being taken to Rakautatahi, beside State Highway 2, where his funeral service will be held on Tuesday, starting at 11am.Heperi-Smith was in his fourth term on the board, serving 10 years after having been first elected in 2013 as representative of the Tamatea rohe (Central H...

‘Riding roughshod over rangatiratanga’:

An influential legal scholar is warning the Government not to repeat past mistakes by legislating to control rongoā Māori.University of Auckland emeritus law professor Dr Jane Kelsey says the new Therapeutic Products Bill, which would have rongoā regulated by a government bureaucrat at the Ministry of Health, echoes the 1907 Tohunga Suppression Act — the act that outlawed the practice for half a century until 1962.“The bill itself says it’s aiming to ensure people who use therapeutic pr...

Rotorua Three Waters reform:

Rotorua households could save nearly $4000 a year by 2054 under the revised “once-in-a-generation” Three Waters plans, the Government claims.But the city’s mayor, Tania Tapsell, says there’s no evidence of how it would be a fair deal for Rotorua and worries locals will end up footing other district’s bills.Local Government Minister Kieran McAnulty today announced the Government had scrapped a major part of its Three Waters reforms, ditching the four mega entities that would have delive...

Newsable:

An online security expert says constant vigilance and better online education are the best ways to counteract a seeming glut of online and offline scams.Last week journalist Oriini Kaipara was forced to take to Instagram to warn followers against buying weight loss and gambling products she supposedly ‘endorsed’.And text scams seem to be another method du jour, with a common one purportedly from Waka Kotahi urging the recipient to pay an overdue speeding fine.Link to podcast and article:&nbs...

Two wāhine Māori

Two wāhine Māori, Sheena Tepania and Ngaroma Tahana, were sworn in as judges at ceremonies at their respective marae on Saturday.Judge Sheena Tepania was made a judge of the Environment Court and District Court at Waihapa Marae near Kāeo in Te Tai Tokerau.Based in Auckland, Judge Tepania, who is Ngāti Kahu ki Whangaroa, Ngāti Rua, Ngāti Kuri, Te Aupouri, Te Rarawa and Ngāpuhi, was announced as a new judicial appointment by the Attorney General at the end of February.Before her appointment...

Concerns this year's Māori census turnout

Raw figures released to 1News show just 649,200 forms have been returned from people of Māori decent so far – about 64 percent.The numbers aren't an official figure and could include duplicates, but they show we're a long way off the 90% participation target for Māori set by Statistics New Zealand."We would have liked to see a higher turnout from Māori and Pacific people because they are underrepresented in almost all the data that we have from them, Stats NZ deputy government statistician ...

Meth, other drugs detected in Auckland CBD air – study

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Emergency housing motels:

People wanting emergency housing in Rotorua are now being “carefully screened” by Government agencies to ensure they are from Rotorua or have family in Rotorua, the city’s council boss says.The revelation came at a Rotorua Lakes Council meeting this week. Chief executive Geoff Williams said the undertaking was given by the Government when Rotorua mayor Tania Tapsell signed the Rotorua Housing Accord in December.Government agencies and politicians have always said emergency housing was avai...

Column: How to use your te reo Māori words

David Karena-Holmes is a Nelson-based writer and tutor of grammar in te reo Māori.Column: It’s one thing to learn the English meaning of a Māori word – that the word whare, for instance, means “house” or “building”, or that the word waiata means “song” or “to sing” – but it’s quite another thing to learn how such words are used in sentences in te reo.The sentence-patterns of another language may be picked up in childhood simply by imitation of someone’s speech – and...

What is ‘algospeak’?

A linguistic arms race is raging online – and it isn’t clear who’s winning.On one side are social networks like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. These sites have become better and better at identifying and removing language and content that violates their community standards.Social media users are on the other side, and they’ve come up with coded terminology designed to evade algorithmic detection. These expressions are collectively referred to as “algospeak.”Link to article: Wha...