Union Meeting 7th Sept 2016
Dear Parents/Caregivers
The Government has announced a proposal to dramatically change the way schools are funded. Principals and Boards of Trustees would have to make trade-offs between teaching staff and other costs schools face.
Teachers are very worried that the global budget would lead to:
- fewer teachers and larger class sizes
- less job security for teachers
- lower quality teaching
- fewer hours for teacher aides and support staff
- more complex financial work for Boards of Trustees
The Government's current funding review is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to better fund education. NZEI Te Riu Roa and PPTA are the unions that represent more than 60,000 teachers and support staff from birth to year 13. They have asked all members at our school to attend meetings in September to hear more about the proposal and help determine the education sector’s response. It is important for union members in our school to attend these meetings to have a say about how we get better funding, not bulk funding.
The meetings are paid union meetings, which means that normal classroom instruction will not be continuing after 12:30pm. While the school remains technically “open” there will only be a few staff members remaining to supervise children who have no choice than to be at school while staff attend the meeting.
To support our staff we ask that you pick your child up 12.25pm. If this is impossible, please contact your child’s teacher as early as possible so that we can make appropriate arrangements for the care of your child.
I apologise for the inconvenience this causes and thank you for ongoing support.
Warm regards,
Simon Thomas
Principal