Region avoids teacher shortages

While some New Zealand regions are starting the year scores of teachers short, Nelson and Tasman District appear less badly hit.

But local school principals warned they were not “out of the woods” of the teacher shortage, with few suitable applicants in some cases.

The Education Gazette on Wednesday listed 256 full time vacancies at schools and 140 at early learning centres across Aotearoa.

In Auckland, there were 129 vacancies, 45 in Waikato and 34 in Northland, with eight in Nelson Tasman; on a par with Otago, and one on the West Coast.

This time last year, 346 full-time teacher vacancies were listed across the country.

Of 40 principal and deputy/assistant principal roles vacant nationwide this week, three were within Nelson and Tasman District.

Nelson College principal Richard Washington said “a large number of people” were interested in the school’s deputy principal position, listed on November 27.

The job was left open over summer – until the end of January – to try to attract “the best candidates”, he said.

“So people can go away and go, ‘you know what, I want to move to Nelson … I want to try something new’, and it looks like that’s exactly what’s happened.”

In the interim, “very competent” senior staff members at the college were stepping up into higher roles, he said.

The school had filled its other vacancies, which were slightly more than previous years as a few teachers reached retirement, Washington said.

But the teacher shortage was still apparent in some cases, he said.

A business and accounting teacher role had to be advertised twice, after the original appointee’s circumstances overseas changed and there were no other suitable applicants in the first round.

Whether schools struggled to find staff depended on the subject and role type, Washington said.

Relief teachers could sometimes fill short-term or part-time posts, being created as some teachers decided to go part time to reduce the pressure of an increasing workload, he said.

Nelson College for Girls just filled its last vacancy.

Principal Claire O’Fee said the school had mostly recruited teachers with New Zealand training and experience, as more teachers returned to the region.

But it had been a call between two candidates for some positions, compared to typically around four several years ago, she said.

“I wouldn’t say that we are out of the woods in terms of any shortage.”

Waimea College principal Fraser Hill said his school, in Richmond, had filled the eight or nine teaching positions vacant at the end of last year.

The new teachers were all New Zealand trained and included three recent graduates, he said.

There were three suitable applicants for most subject vacancies, including maths – traditionally one of the hardest subjects to recruit for, Hill said.

“[But] the job market is definitely not back where it used to be.

“We get a high number of … applicants from overseas with no New Zealand experience. Some of the [suitable applicant] numbers for some of our positions were quite low.

“We were just really lucky to have really good quality people that we wanted to appoint for those positions.”

Principal of Auckland Point School in Nelson, Sonya Hockley said there had been high interest in her position, for which applications closed on Wednesday.

After 17 years as head of the primary school, “putting in a lot of heart and soul”, the school was in a great place for her to step aside, receiving a good ERO report and with building refurbishments due to be completed this term, she said.

“It’s time while I’m still youngish and fit to undertake some other life adventures.”

After Hockley finished at the end term 1 she would undertake a care-taking role at a school in Northland while the principal there went on sabbatical.

Applications meanwhile for the principal position at Mahana School, advertised from November 28, closed on Wednesday.

Nayland College and Motueka High School have both announced new principals, with outgoing heads Daniel Wilson and John Prestidge respectively taking up jobs at the Ministry of Education.

Kenny Diamond, currently principal of Mountainview High School in Timaru, starts as principal of Nayland College in term two.

Lex Davis takes up the principal position at Motueka High School on January 26, leaving his position as deputy principal at Ormiston Senior College in Tāmaki Makaurau.

Caption: Claire O’Fee, principal Nelson College for Girls, is among principals in the region who says suitable applicants for some school positions remain low.MARTIN DE RUYTER / Nelson Mail

By Warren Gamble, Nelson Mail