PPTA Te Wehengarua has set up a panel of senior educators to monitor and review major changes to national secondary school qualifications, with the Government expected to announce final decisions soon.

“These are once-in-a-lifetime changes that have significant implications for the futures of our young people, so it’s imperative that they are educationally valid, robust and meet the needs of all learners,” said PPTA president Chris Abercrombie.

The panel is chaired by former Aotea College principal and former Secondary Principals’ Council chair Kate Gainsford, and NZ Council for Educational Research advisor Melissa Denzler. PPTA says the group brings experience across curriculum, assessment, Māori education and the equity index, and represents a range of views on senior secondary assessment.

Gainsford said she looked forward to ensuring “far-reaching changes to secondary school assessment and qualifications are being developed and implemented thoughtfully and comprehensively,” adding that “proposals that are thin on detail and tight in timeframe, work against good policy and risk short-changing the important sense of public ownership that characterises a strong education system.”

The panel’s findings will be published as Tirotiro Anō (“with fresh eyes, wide open, we are taking a fresh look”) and presented to the PPTA annual conference in October. PPTA says the name links to a review the union initiated nearly 30 years ago ahead of the introduction of NCEA.

Members include:

• Claire Amos, principal of Albany Senior High School, with system-level curriculum and assessment experience and previous NZQA advisory roles
• Andrew Basher, principal of Buller High School, a long-time NCEA marker and panel leader
• Professor Gavin Brown, University of Auckland, an educational assessment specialist and member of NZQA’s Technical Overview Group Assessment
• Karen Dobric, deputy principal at Papatoetoe High School, with secondary–tertiary and vocational pathways expertise
• Natalie Faitala, head of English at Wesley College and PPTA national executive member
• Pip Osborne, Technology Education New Zealand kaiārahi and University of Auckland professional teaching fellow
• Katy Thorne, mathematics leader at Aquinas College, involved in Numeracy and NCEA Level 1 pilots

Denzler’s NZCER work centres on kaupapa Māori and equity-focused projects, supporting equitable assessment and data practices across the sector.

PPTA says the initiative underscores the role of secondary teachers and principals in leading sector input on significant changes to assessment and qualifications. The union expects the panel’s work to provide a timely, profession-led check on how the forthcoming policy decisions will play out in schools.