Advice for Branch Chairs

Before the meeting:

▪ Talk with your teacher representative on the School Board. They will need to request an
agenda item for the next possible Board meeting. They can advise you what timelines you are
working to in order to hold your branch meeting and get your feedback to them in time for the
Board meeting.

▪ Talk with your school principal so that there are no surprises for them at the next Board
meeting. They may wish to be involved in the feedback if they are a PPTA member.

▪ Decide how you will collect feedback on the various learning areas. This could be by setting up
a shared document that teachers can contribute to. If you want some ideas about how to
structure your feedback, see the advice below
Structuring your feedback

▪ Decide your timeline and set dates for the Branch meeting and the deadline for giving
curriculum feedback. 

At the meeting:

▪ Follow the PowerPoint provided, using normal PPTA meeting structures.

▪ Note that the discussion section should be a discussion of whether or not to present the
Branch’s concerns to the Board, not a discussion of the curriculum changes themselves.

After the meeting:

▪ Share the outcome of the meeting with branch members who couldn’t be at the meeting, and
make sure they have access to whatever method of collecting feedback.

▪ Get the feedback to the teacher representative in time to meet their Board deadlines.

▪ Let the Branch know the outcome of the Board meeting.

▪ If applicable, share the letter that the Board has written to the Minister with your branch and
with PPTA by sending it to curriculum@ppta.org.nz

Structuring your feedback

How you gather your branch’s feedback is entirely up to you. Below are the prompts that we gave
to members making a submission to the Ministry of Education about Phase 4 of the curriculum.
They may be of use to you when considering how to organise the information you give to your
Board. 

For feedback about curriculum content:

Structure: Consider how your learning area is organised and whether the divisions between
subjects or domains are functional. Does the structure work?

Progression: Consider how a student’s understanding develops as they move through the phases.
Do concepts build logically?

Content: Consider the actual knowledge, skills, and examples provided within the proposed draft
curricula documents. Is the content set at the right level for the age group, is it appropriate, is
anything missing or included that is unnecessary?

For each of these categories you can consider:

• What do you like in the draft curriculum - what would you keep as is?

• What would you want to modify to meet the needs of your students?

• What would you rather wasn't in there at all?

• What do you think is missing or has been lost in the changes that you would want to bring
back? 

For feedback about curriculum elements that will affect school structures and timetabling
considerations, you could consider:

• For your subject, what would the proposed time allocations mean for the current teaching and
learning programme?

• Would these changes reduce the time available for meaningful learning in your subject?

• Would there be sufficient subject specialists to meet demand in areas where hours increase?

• Is there a risk that teachers in your subject area, or others, may be asked to teach outside
their area of expertise?

• What professional learning, mentoring, and workload support would be needed if that
occurred?

Note: if there are individual teachers who are worried that the changes might affect their jobs
significantly, they should contact their local field officer. They can find their details here.
Contact us | PPTA