FM Update 9 December 2023

An item for my Kiwi readers as they begin their week.

FutureMakers Newsletter 9 December 2023 Tēnā tatou katoa! This week I had the privilege of working with a school leadership team to create a rather ambitious plan for the future, involving the wider community in working towards a future-focused vision for their tamariki, and for their community. This is challenging and difficult work, particularly in times of exponential change. In this newsletter I’ve included some articles and links that may be helpful when considering how we must approach the future. In this newsletter… PL For Principals Building coherence in school and system design The challenges we face in education PISA report for 2022 Strategic Intelligence Outlook Using data form monitoring and evaluation Choice and Fairness – an Australian Perspective PL for Principals I’m excited to announce a new initiative being launched jointly by FutureMakers and HMWLead, with my friend and colleague, Maurie Abraham. Refresh, Reconnect, Refocus is an exciting professional learning opportunity for principals seeking to re-orient themselves as future-focused leaders in their schools. Our programme addresses areas of personal wellbeing, goal-setting and vision, and tools and strategies for making change and having a meaningful impact in your role. We have places for just 20 principals in this 20-week programme that begins with a two-day retreat in Hanmer Springs in March next year. Register your interest now to reserve a place. Building coherence in school and system design The team at GettingSmart have just released their Portrait Model, a really useful framework for for aligning leaders, learners and school communities toward a shared redesign vision. It highlights some of the great work that other districts and communities are doing to make these visions tangible. Many schools in NZ have been working with the notion of a Portrait of a Graduate, or Graduate Profile, for a while now – but I really like the way this framework extends the idea of a Portrait and applies it all the way out to the system and the leaders in that system. Clever stuff! The Challenges we Face in Education The focus on ‘solving the problems of education’ was certainly high on the agenda of the various political parties in the recent election, and it would seem like we’re in for yet another round of the ‘solutions’ that have been tried in the past or in other jurisdictions – all of which adds to the sense of ‘overwhelm’ that is a key part of the issue. In this blog post I explore these ideas a little further and offer some suggestions for how we might move forward to address these challenges. PISA report for 2022 The release of the 2022 PISA results last this week has made headlines in all sorts of places, particularly because they reveal a continuing overall trend of decline in achievement across most countries in the world. The challenge with understanding the implications and lessons from a report such as this is the complexity that lies within the data sets that isn’t clearly understood when looking simply at the headlines. I’ve explored a few thoughts on this in my blog post following my participation in the panel at the launch of the NZ results with Andreas Schleicher. Strategic Intelligence Outlook Each year the World Economic Forum releases an update of their Strategic Intelligence Outlook. This includes a dynamic transformation map that enables users to explore and make sense of the complex and interlinked forces that are transforming economies, industries and global issues. If you haven’t explored this before I encourage you to subscribe and spend some time exploring what there is to explore and understand. Using data for monitoring and evaluation  An important part of any planning activity is ensuring you have the data available to inform what you are doing. Not only must you have access to that data, but you need to tools and skills to make meaning from it. Evidence for Learning (E4L) and The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) have just released this resource to support leaders in schools to use data effectively. The simple, 7-step process provides a really useful framework to use as a school when making sense of data. Choice and Fairness – and Australian perspective The Australian Learning Lecture is a ten-year initiative by Koshland Education Innovation designed to bring big ideas and new approaches in education to national attention. The release of their latest publication, Choice and Fairness: A Common Framework for all Australian schools,  puts forward a proposal to create a new equitable framework of how we fund and regulate our schools. There’s lots in here that will resonate also with NZ Educators who are interested in achieving more equity in our education system. The ‘vicious circle’ illustration on page 5 would certainly apply! But wait, there’s more… At FutureMakers we use a range of forums to curate good ideas and resources. Check out the following… Derek’s Blog – regular posts available on the FutureMakers website Previous newsletters – access all of the previous editions of the FutureMakers newsletter from this one place Resilient Schools Online Community – brought to you in partnership with Transcend My slideshows from recent presentations curated on SlideShare Hybrid Learning – a collection of resources on the FutureMakers website Learner Agency – another collection of resources on the FutureMakers website If you’ve enjoyed reading this newsletter please feel free to forward it to others to read, or better yet, ask them to become a FutureMakers subscriber so they will receive their own updates delivered to their mailbox. Subscribe to The FutureMakers Newsletter I’m always interested to hear your feedback or ideas about what you’d like to see included in future newsletters – please use the link below to email me with your suggestions. Email Derek

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