Term 2, 2026 Course A
May 21: Andrea Magson, BSc (Hons) PGCE MA(Ed), will present “The Unique Perspective of a Large Secondary State School”
Andrea is the ‘Second’ Principal at Burnside High School. She is responsible for all daily operations and planning at the largest school outside of Auckland with student roll of more than 2,600.
May 28: Justin Fields, MA (Ed), will discuss “How did we get here?! A journey to making a difference for disengaged students”
Justin is Principal of Christchurch North College. From 2016-2024, he was principal at Chisnallwood Intermediate and prior to that served as Deputy Principal – Pastoral Care at Catholic Cathedral College. He serves on the Boards of the Schools International Education BusinessAssociation (SIEBA) and the Okains Bay Museum.
June 4: John Everatt, PhD, will address “Supporting Neurodiverse/Dyslexic Students”
John is Professor of Education and Director of the Centre for Assessment and Monitoring at the University of Canterbury. He has lectured on special education and psychology programmes at universities in New Zealand and the UK. His talk will consider dyslexia from the perspective of assessment methods and intervention support, focusing on literacy difficulties and additional consequences among young learners and adults.
June 11: Darnelle Tudor, BA (Ed), Teaching Diploma, “Every learner, known and valued…Why inclusion matters”
Darnelle is the Learning Support Coordinator at Northcote School Te Kura o Matarangi. In this role, she provides all supporting resources to ensure children participate, belong and succeed in education. She also delivers support to parents at home and at school. Darnelle will explain her role and discuss the practice of Strength-Based education in the currentchanging education environment. Strength-Based Education is a learner-centered approach that focuses on identifying and leveraging students’ individual strengths to enhance their learning and outcomes. This approach is based on research from social work, positive psychology and business. Its aim is to build student confidence, promote effective behaviors and support lifelong learning.
June 18: Dr Mark Sheehan, Okeover member, will debate “Not a Good Fit: NCEA and designing a fairer qualifications model”
Mark is a historian and has been a teacher/researcher in the school/university sector for almost 50 years. NCEA was set up to make our secondary qualifications more fair but has done little to address the unequal nature of our schooling system – it may well have made it worse. In his talk, Mark will explore why NCEA was a flawed model and how we can replace this with a qualification thatsuccessfully equips all our young people with the skills and knowledge they need.