A significant milestone

This year marks a significant milestone in the history of the Gazette – 100 years since the first issue was published in 1921 to “convey instructions and suggestions to teachers as well as to advise of vacancies in school staffs”.

It goes without saying that the pages of the Gazette have seen significant shifts in educational policy and practice, as well as wider societal changes, over the past century.

As well as reflecting the changing times, the Gazette has also chronicled some of the perennial questions that educators work with. This advice from the very first issue about how best to engage students in mathematics, for instance, may be as relevant now as it was in 1921:

“There is no doubt that many of the fundamental ideas about geometry and algebra can be most clearly and easily conceived by the help of models, and there is no reason why the foundation of a sound training in mathematics should be not be laid by model-making in the classroom or in the woodwork or metal work room.”

In another gem from the archives, one of my predecessors, Director of Education John Caughley, informed readers in 1923 that “complaints have reached the Department that in many cases head teachers are not allowing assistants sufficient opportunities of perusing the Gazette every month, while there are also indications in other directions that many teachers do not trouble to read it”.

Mr Caughley’s solution? Each month all teachers would be required to initial their school’s official copy of the Gazette to confirm they’d read it, and this would be held on record and made available to the Inspector on his [sic] visit to the school.

While we won’t be checking up to make sure you read every copy of the Gazette in 2021, I hope many of you will find opportunities throughout the year to peruse and enjoy the stories, insights and ideas your colleagues share with us in our centenary year. 

All the very best for 2021.

Nāku noa, nā

Iona Holsted
Te Tumu Whakarae mō te Mātauranga
Secretary for Education