Support staff are essential to the smooth running of a school and need to be valued and paid accordingly. Developing career paths and investing in professional development for support staff is a basic requirement, not a luxury.

2008 National Support Staff Conference

The National Support Staff Conference will be held between 22 and 24 August at the Millennium Hotel in Rotorua. Please click on the links below to download more information and your registration forms.

• Conference Registration Form
• Conference Programme
• Workshop Options Form
• Workshop Information
• Mountain Bike Activity Form
• Millennium Hotel Accommodation Form

NZEI Scholarship for Support Staff

Now's the time to register your ‘Expression of Interest’ for the 2008 Support Staff Scholarship. NZEI Scholarships provide a great opportunity to further your career. Begin planning your proposal now!

Read more about the scholarship here.

Scholarship Recipients

NZEI 2006 Support Staff and Early Childhood Scholarship recipients talk about their Scholarship Projects and the experience this opportunity has provided.

Sue Donnell - Support Staff Recipient 2006 Scholarship
Sue used her scholarship to develop partnerships between Carlson School for Cerebral Palsy, and special schools in Fiji. Read more (0.1mb pdf).

Ramila Sadikeen - ECE Recipient 2006 Scholarship
Ramila has been researching ways that kindergarten teachers can strengthen links with Mäori communities and enhance bicultural practices. Read more (0.2mb pdf).

Scholarships for library and information management

Thinking of augmenting your professional experience with a research degree?

Scholarships are available at Victoria University  for PhD, MA, research degrees in library and information management.

For more details on scholarships contact:

Philippa Hay
Scholarships Manager
Research Office
Victoria University of Wellington
(04) 463 7493
philippa.hay@vuw.ac.nz

Research on support staff professional development

NZEI's 2004 research report on support staff funding found that support staff are commonly not invited or paid to attend staff meetings and do not routinely take part in whole-school professional development. Yet it is increasinly difficult to recruit support staff to fill more specialised roles at the salary levels schools can afford, especially people such as IT staff, librarians, therapists and administration managers. Low wages and an inadequate amount of hours also creates high turnover in roles such as teacher aides, which has a direct impact on the students they work with.