I have been working with the teachers at Pahiatua Primary School (in the Manawatu) since the beginning of 2025 on ways of teaching students to become writers. From the Teacher Only Day that began our project, Luke Harding (team leader and Year 6 classroom teacher) and Katrina Gavigan (deputy principal and Year 6 teacher) thought carefully about the notion that … Read More
From 1st September 2026, the online subscription resource will be closing and moving to a free model. While I continue to get really good feedback from teachers about the writing lessons within the resource, the truth is that I find the pressure of continually developing new material quite overwhelming as I try to cut down my workload. I’m not getting … Read More
As you know, large parts of a new draft of the English Curriculum came out in Term 3, 2024. I was particularly interested to look at its content, having been a major writer of the 2008 version. Our briefs were obviously very different – we were instructed to condense what was to be covered into an Essence Statement supported by … Read More
Jane Va’afusuaga (who I had the privilege of teaching at Wellington College of Education in the late 1980s) now works with small groups of (mainly Pasifika) students at Favona Primary School in South Auckland at building their English language and literacy. Most of her students speak little English for a range of reasons. Jane, of New Zealand European heritage, spent … Read More
Toward the end of Term Three 2024, I was working with teachers in Hawke’s Bay and two shared great pieces of writing with me that had been written by their tamariki. Although very different pieces – one is as gentle and personal as the other is bloody and gory – both were written by Year 6 boys who often resist … Read More
Dr Murray Gadd introduces the free series of Anzac videos Scroll down for the video or click here Watch The Video Lesson Sharing We recommend that you share this video lesson “in-class” at full screen, when face to face with your tamariki. The main reason for this is because we feel it’s best used as a Teacher Aid. We highly … Read More
Kia ora tatou Here we are, right into the third term of 2024. Hope everything is going well for you and that you have managed to avoid most of the winter ills. I’ve been good though realised how tired I was when the July break started. I think many of us felt the same. I led two Teacher Only Days … Read More
This time period, covering the Xmas/summer holidays, was a great reading period for me. I read (and largely enjoyed) sixteen new novels and one work of non-fiction. After my discussion of them, I’ll conclude with my ‘best of 2025’ list. I also found time to watch (and enjoy) many streamed series that I will comment on at the end of … Read More
This update mainly focuses on the eleven novels I have read over the past six months. Some of this reading took place while I was ‘on the road’ in Europe for three months. I will also comment (albeit more briefly) on films I have watched, theatre I have attended and streamed series I have viewed over the past few months. … Read More
This update is all about the summer reading that I’ve been undertaking; twelve novels in all. I then conclude with my ‘best of 2024’ list. I’ll discuss these books in alphabetical order, by author: BOOKS Martyr by Kaveh Akbar. This first novel by the well-known Iranian-American poet Kaveh Akbar is not a light read but it mostly engaged me … Read More