NZAIMS CONFERENCE for SCHOOL LEADERS
The Science of Leadership
4-6 JUNE 2025 Grand Millennium Hotel, Auckland
| WEDNESDAY 4 JUNE | THURSDAY 5 JUNE | FRIDAY 6 JUNE |
|---|---|---|
| From 8.30am Registration | 8.30am Coffee with sponsors
9am-10am Keynote : |
8.50am Welcome
9am-9.50am Keynote: |
| 10.00am Mihi Whakatau/Performance
Auckland School Conference opening /Presidents Welcome 10.20am-10.50am Hākari |
SPONSOR SPEAK
10am-10.30am Morning tea |
SHORT BREAK/ Speaker change over |
| 11am-11.30am Keynote : Minister of Education-Hon Erica Stanford | 10.30am-11.30am Keynote: | 10am-10.50am Keynote : Sir Gordon Tietjens |
| 11.30am-12.30pm Keynote : | 11.30am SPONSOR SPEAK
11.45am-12.30pm NZAIMS focus groups |
10.50am-11am Conference close |
| 12.30pm SPONSOR SPEAK
12.40pm-1.15pm LUNCH |
12.30pm SPONSOR SPEAK
12.40pm-1.15pm LUNCH |
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| 1.15pm-2.15pm Keynote: | 1.15pm-2.15pm Keynote: | |
| 2.15pm-2.30pm SHORT BREAK
2.30-3.30pm Keynote |
WELLBEING ACTIVITIES
Check out fun things to do and RE-CHARGE… |
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| 3.30pm FREE TIME
6pm Sponsored drinks at Millennium Hotel SPONSOR SPEAK: EdventureTours Prizes 7.00pm Dinner at Grand Millennium (included in your registration) Entertainment … TBC |
Own arrangements for dinner: Restaurants in Auckland…dine in the heart of the city |
Pete Hall
Ask yourself (and/or any other great educator) how they feel about education, teaching, working in schools, or about their students, and one word surfaces more than any other: love. Why is that? And how can love help us to become more effective in our professional responsibilities?
In this upbeat, energizing, and engaging keynote address, Pete Hall (former award-winning principal and author of best-selling “Always Strive to Be a Better You: How ordinary people can live extraordinary lives”) will share a simple and replicable approach to success, using love as a keystone.
Weaving meaningful anecdotes with practical strategies, Pete will leave participants feeling motivated and confident for the year ahead. You already love this work, love your school, and love your students; and now, be prepared to leverage that love for incredible success!
Ferocious Warmth Leadership
Great leadership balances results and relationships, culture and strategy, head and heart. It dances with the paradox of being explicit, yet empowering; co-creating, yet visionary; compassionate, yet challenging the status quo. Ferocious Warmth gives a conceptual framework to assist leaders increase self awareness of their impact. It helps leaders understand both what brings out their best and where their challenges lie in the continual dance of leadership.
Tracey Ezard
The Expansive Element – Professional Learning Cultures That Drive Momentum
This workshop will explore levels of culture that exist in schools and the drivers for improvement and transformation via professional culture – ’The Buzz’ and the three pillars of Collective Growth Mindset, Compelling Environment and Authentic Dialogue. All schools will be invited should they wish post conference to take part in the The Buzz diagnostic, which has had over 500 schools and 11000 people undertake it since its release in late 2018 and prefer in depth data on how the school staff view the professional learning culture.
Gavin Grift
Reimagine The Way Your Collaborative Teams Work!
The definitive program on how to transform your school into an authentic PLCs.
For school teams, one of the biggest challenges is actually knowing what to do in your time together to maximise student learning achievement. Based on the masterful book, Collaborative Teams That Work, this highly practical program provides definitive guidance for teams on the work they must do collaboratively, to have maximum impact on their own learning and that of their students.
You’ll find clarity in the process of working as a productive and efficient collaborative team, and get access to new resources and tools that will help support deeper and meaningful collaboration between team members. We’ll also share alternative approaches that teams can use to fit their own context, while maintaining a relentless focus on teacher practice and student learning. After all, that’s why we’re all here.
Gavin Grift
Navigate your thinking to boost your professional impact and wellbeing
Educators understand the pressure that comes from working with young people, their parents, and school colleagues, while simultaneously navigating their workplace environment. And that’s all while trying to live fulfilling personal lives.
Even though educators love their work, when significant difficulties arise – either on a global scale or a more personal level – it can be hard to focus, find clarity and work out a way to move forward. This could include a disruption at home, trouble with a colleague, a particularly difficult student, or a rate of professional change they feel they can’t keep up with.
Our Relational Intelligence Program, specifically designed for educators, has been created to help participants access the thinking, tools and support needed to develop and sustain clarity, confidence, and motivation – now and for the long term.
Our Country, Our People
Championing Te reo Māori as a source of unifying strength for all New Zealanders has been a passion Stacey Morrison has shared across media, books and education, as a member of Te Pūtahi-a-Toi at Massey University, and through community approach to engagement and language planning. Stacey is a licensed translator and interpreter, graduate of Te Panekiretanga o te reo, winner of Te taura whiri’s Te tohu kairangi award in 2016, and WIFT (Women in Film & Television) award for Te reo Māori Champion in 2020. Co-author of Māori at home and Māori made fun with her husband Scotty, she also authored My first words in Māori and My first words about Tikanga Māori and translated Time for bed Little Kiwi to become He wā moe Kiwi pakupaku. Stacey, Scotty and Professor Meihana Durie also created Toro mai introductory course for te reo and tikanga Māori which has had 45,000 registrations worldwide.
As broadcaster of over 25 years, Stacey has worked as a researcher, writer, reo consultant, director, producer and presenter in shows across the spectrum of entertainment, documentary, comedy, Māori language programmes and news.
Stacey is Board of Trustees member for Pasadena Intermediate in Auckland, also the Board of Governors for King’s College. She is the chair of the Spark Foundation, Co-chair of the E-tangata trust and Ambassasdor for the Breast Cancer foundation.
Dave Wood (Founder and Head Trainer at Integrated Training)
Dave is a specialist in stress mitigation, recovery and mental preparedness for athletes, innovators, leaders and those in the pursuit of optimising their health and performance.
Dave has an in-depth understanding of the human body systems and how they are interconnected and the importance of balancing the body for sustainable peak physical and mental performance.
Dave combines theory-based knowledge and practical experiences gained from 12 years as an Intensive Care Paramedic and Professional Ocean Lifeguard. In these roles, he was required to respond with high acuity to high pressure situations and critically unwell patients. In these roles he acquired and honed his skills in stress mitigation and ability to remain calm and focused under pressure.
Dave runs his own business in human performance, mentoring some of the world’s most elite level athletes in a diverse range of sports from the UFC, sailing and football, to name just a few. He has worked alongside organisations and companies, ranging in professions from lawyers, firefighters, navy personnel and web designers. The foundation of human performance is the same no matter the task.
Mike Allsop
Airline pilot, Everest mountaineer, adventurer and extreme marathon competitor Mike Allsop is an ordinary family man proving that anybody can accomplish extraordinary things.
Mike Allsop grew up in a single parent home in Auckland. Life wasn’t always easy. But Mike never wavered in his dream of becoming an airline pilot with Air New Zealand. He single-mindedly pursued this goal, breaking it down into smaller parts then focusing on each step in turn. He began by obtaining a pilot’s licence and a job with a small commuter airline. Things took a dramatic turn when a flight to deliver a Twin Otter aircraft from the USA to New Zealand led to a crash landing into the sea hundreds of kilometres off the coast of Hawaii in the dark of night. The US Coast Guard colonel who eventually rescued Mike and his crew commented that nobody else had ever survived a crash landing into that part of the ocean!
As well as becoming an Air New Zealand captain, Mike harboured another ambition. One day, he wanted to stand upon the roof of the world and summit Everest. True to form, he broke the goal down and gained the necessary skills and experience by testing himself on difficult and potentially hazardous climbs across 6 different continents. Many were usually only tackled by vastly more experienced climbers. However Mike Allsop is living proof that his philosophy of ‘if you believe you can, you will’.
He has reached every goal in spectacular fashion, including becoming an international airline pilot with Air New Zealand and ascending Everest in an unguided expedition.
He has since gone on to conquer numerous other mountains, pitting himself against the limits of human endurance and the unpredictable weather conditions that abound at extreme altitudes. He’s narrowly dodged a fatal avalanche in Peru, risked being shot in Russia and returned a replica of a stolen Yeti hand to a monastery in Nepal. Mike is also one of a handful of athletes who have ever run 7 marathons in 7 days on 7 continents. This raised NZ$75,000 for New Zealand charity KidsCan. Most recently, Mike returned to the Himalayas to run the world’s highest marathon around Everest – a feat never before attempted. Backed only by a Sherpa team, he trekked to 5,630 metres above sea level. There he ran a distance of 42.2 kilometres
(22.6 miles) in temperatures of -30 degC (-22degF), setting a new world record. This feat is captured in the documentary film ‘Chasing Altitude’ aimed at young people everywhere, showing that they too can achieve their dreams and ambitions by overcoming the fear of failure and breaking each goal into a series of smaller steps.
Jamie Fitzgerald
Performance Through People
Strap yourself in to explore research from peak performing teams and effective leaders, and what it looks like in action. Jamie will share stories from his extreme adventures around the world and lessons everyone can benefit from. He will also share tips and practical tools from his role in leading the Waikato Management School Leadership Academy – helping supercharge careers and impact through leadership.
Sir Gordon Tietjens
Sir Gordon Tietjens is one such leader, with a record for winning and achieving that is surpassed by no other coach in New Zealand Rugby history. Gordon will speak from the heart and share his philosophies that have helped him bring out the very best in so many people over a 20 year span, to motivate and drive you to aspire to the same levels of dedication and commitment that the people he has coached to the top of their game have consistently reached. Gordon is a compelling and fascinating speaker who will motivate and inspire you to achieve the most you can.
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Fi McMillan
Tales from the Dark Side
In this session you will hear the Patient’s Tale, of the principal who successfully defended her position when her Board did not want her to return to school from sick leave. You will be inspired by the Knight’s Tale of the brave principal who went to Court to challenge her unjustified suspension, and you will be shocked and saddened by the Dog’s Tale.
When you are busy balancing competing demands from parents, students, staff, the Board, the Ministry, ERO and other agencies, it can be hard to find time to look after yourself. Just like any employee you are entitled to have a safe and healthy work place and to be treated fairly and reasonably. Sometimes this gets overlooked. This series of cautionary tales may be alarming, but the tales are, unfortunately, all true. Being aware of some of these potential issues can help you avoid becoming the next Tale.
Maori Leadership
Ko Taumarere te awa.
Ko Puketohunoa te maunga.
Ko Ngati Manu te hapu.
Hon Kelvin Davis is a successful former teacher and school principal who turned a struggling Northland school around, and enabled the students to achieve beyond their potential.
In the 2020 Labour Government, Kelvin was appointed Minister for Māori Crown Relations: Te Arawhiti, Minister for Children with responsibility for Oranga Tamariki, Minister of Corrections and Associate Minister of Education.
In the 2017 Labour-led Government he was Minister of Corrections, Māori Crown Relations: Te Arawhiti, and Tourism, and Associate Minister of Education.
He has held roles on a number of Select Committees including Māori Affairs (Deputy Chair), Law and Order, Local Government and Environment, Education and Science and Transport and Industrial Relations.
Kelvin has also held the spokesperson roles in Corrections, Biosecurity, Education (including Special Education and Māori Education), Māori Affairs, Tourism, Regional Affairs and Justice (Sexual and Domestic Violence).
Kelvin visited Australia, including Christmas Island in 2015 to advocate for the rights of New Zealanders living in Australia, particularly those in detention centres
Born and bred in the Bay of Islands but now living in Kaitaia, Kelvin is a man of the north who brings skills in education and Māori issues to the Cabinet table to improve outcomes for all New Zealanders educationally, financially, culturally and socially.
He is a person with common sense and pragmatism who is able to relate across all sectors of society, but is most at home either fishing or up in the bush of his beloved Karetu Valley.
Glen Savage
Our MC Glen Savage
Tena koutou katoa, my name is Glen Raana Savage of Ngati Awa and Ngati Porou.
I am currently an Associate Principal at Northcross Intermediate in Tamaki Makaurau. I have been teaching for 27 years, predominantly in West Auckland before moving across the bridge to the beautiful Hibiscus Coast.
I am the proud father of two teenage daughters who are actively involved in surf lifesaving, volleyball and netball. Outside of school I am involved in Surf Lifesaving, golf and have been on my own personal journey in learning Te Reo me nga Tikanga Maori these past few years.