Independent Schools To Meet Next Week

2nd September 2005

Independent Schools To Meet Next Week

Independent Schools of New Zealand (ISNZ) will meet in Queenstown 7 - 10 September for their annual conferences, but there will be no politicians on the agenda. Instead the 2005 ISNZ Visiting Scholar is an architect, Craig Brown from Melbourne. "Craig has won several awards for his work in ensuring that school development and redevelopments are best suited to the environment from all perspectives", said Joy Quigley Executive Director of ISNZ.

He will be joined by other speakers also looking to maximise both innovation and sustainability. This fits with the conference theme of "a remarkable future".

· John Somerset from William Buck, Business Consultants and Accountants, (Brisbane) and

· Prof. James Lockhart (Massey University) will look at financial governance and strategic planning respectively.

· Jamie McKenzie, "From Now On", a USA-based educationalist and frequent visitor to New Zealand, will also speak several times. Jamie has published and spoken extensively on the introduction of new technologies to schools. In recent times he has paid particular attention to information technologies, questioning and powerful teaching, exploring how they might best transform classrooms and schools to support student centred, engaged learning. (ISNZ is grateful for financial support from the Ministry of Education Quality Teaching Partnership Fund.)

· Prof. David Whitehead (Waikato University) will be returning to the conference to talk about his latest research into the structure and implementation of developmentally appropriate core literacy and thinking skills.

· Rob Verkerk from Scope Information Services will conduct a day long seminar with the 'Bursars' on Project Management

· Gillian Heald and Nicola Meek, from Secondary Futures, a Ministry of Education-sponsored group, have developed good techniques to encourage delegates to consider different ways of looking at education and

· Daniel Rechnitzer will end the conference with an entertaining and informative look at new marketing techniques.

· Nine workshop sessions will consider these and other aspects of ensuring school sustainability into a remarkable future.

A highlight of the ISNZ conference will occur at the conference dinner on Friday night when the three inaugural excellence in teaching awards for exceptional professional performance will be announced.

Ms Quigley said that the Principals and Governors have wished for several years to honour the great teachers in ISNZ member schools who contribute that extra dimension to students and other staff members' learning and teaching. The assessing team found it extremely difficult to make the final deliberations from the high quality list of potential winners - hence it is hoped that unsuccessful nominees from this year will be renominated in future years.

The three successful recipients have been provided with registration, accommodation and travel expenses to attend conference, plus each will receive a $2,000 cheque. These awards have been made possible with the generous support of Konica Minolta, Distinction School Furniture and Fisher and Paykel Finance. Education media looking for a break from political campaigning are welcome to join the 170 conference delegates, including 15 from Australia, at The Millennium Hotel in Queenstown 9/10 September.

ENDS

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