PROGRAMME

Day 1 – Wednesday 23 August: LIFE PASSAGES
8.15am	Registration, networking and coffee
8.45am	Starter: Life Passages
8.55am	Mihi whakatau/Opening
9.00am	Keynote: All they need is love? – The status and future of vulnerable children and young people in Aotearoa New Zealand. Current report card: C. Comment: Must try harder Cross-sector collaboration between all who work with children and young people and intervention where necessary will make a positive difference to their life outcomes by early identification of areas of need, coordinated social investment in education and the provision of support services.	Dr John Langley ONZM Director Outcomes, NorthTec
9.30am	*Evolution of the* *University of Otago’s Dunedin Multi-Disciplinary Health and Development Study* This groundbreaking New Zealand study into the lives of 1,000 New Zealanders born 46 years ago in Dunedin has been described as “the broadest and most in-depth study of human beings in the world”. It demonstrates compellingly how the early years effect the later years and what educators and others need to know and act upon where possible to improve outcomes for young people.	Dr Phil Silva Founding Director, Dunedin Longitudinal Study
10.00am	*Growing Up in New Zealand* -What makes us who we are? Perspectives from the Growing Up in New Zealand study about what shapes children’s early development and how interventions might be targeted at the earliest opportunity to give every New Zealand child the best start in life.	Ass.Prof. Susan Morton Director, Centre for Longitudinal Research – He Ara ki Mua, Research Director, Growing Up in New Zealand
10.30am	Round Table Discussion
11.00am	Networking Break
11.30am	Panel/Forum: Application of longitudinal research findings by educators and social workers	Dr Phil Silva Ass. Prof Susan Morton
12.30pm	Networking Lunch Break
1.30pm	Children in early childhood care and education – how well does this work for children? There has been a social and political shift from viewing parents as neglecting their children if they are in paid employment and use childcare to regarding them as harming their child’s future if they don’t. With more than 96% of children in licensed educational care services before they start school we need to consider more closely how this actually affects children. How much participation is too much, too little, too early, too late, is the quality right? As children progress through the school years and become young adults how can we be sure they have had the best start and what else could be done to make this possible? This session will be part commentary and part audience discussion of evidence from the NZ longitudinal studies and other research, education and social policy, and experience within education…More….	Dr Sarah Alexander Chief Executive, ChildForum
2.00pm	Investing in Early Intervention – Making a difference to children’s life stories Research and practice perspectives into the impact of trauma on children and young people, the experience of children in care and making a difference in the lives of children, young people and their families by investing in early intervention.	Dr Nicola Atwool Social Work Programme, Dept. of Sociology, University of Otago
2.45pm	*Looking through social investment-tinted glasses* Social investment is about providing the right services at the right time for New Zealanders in need. A child with problems at school is more likely to have concerns in other areas, such as health or welfare.To make a difference we need to do things differently. Silos need to be broken down and data shared, to enable a whole-of-system view to be taken….More….	Dorothy Adams Interim CE, Social Investment Agency
3.15pm	Overviews of Concurrent Sessions – (see below)
3.30pm	Networking Break
4.00pm	Concurrent Sessions
Concurrent Session 1	*“I’m not crazy I’m just not you!”* – Discovering where personality, neuroscience and learning connect in order to put human faces on the statistics. If we understand who we are as individuals and why we behave the way we do we can find a way to bridge the gap between ourselves and others. This matters with our colleagues and most importantly our learners who we are all trying to help to reach their unique potential.This workshop introduces fascinating recent research which has matched brain activity with cognitive skills using EEG technology.You will learn, laugh and leave enlightened….More….	Sue Blair Director, Personality Dynamics Ltd

Concurrent Session 2	*What New Zealand children know when they start school* *in New Zealand.* There is a wide range of assessment tools used by schools to assess children at school entry. The lack of consistency of uptake and reporting of results leads to sporadic national data. This highlights a need for a national standardised assessment which can be used as a reliable baseline of what New Zealand children know when they start school and how they progress in their first year. The Performance Indicators in Primary Schools (PIPS) assessment is a valid, reliable and internationally respected school entry assessment. This paints a comprehensive national picture of what New Zealand children know when they start school. The data is useful for the early identification of special learning needs and can be used to gauge the effectiveness of year 1 programmes….More….	Dr John Boereboom Director, CEM (NZ) – Centre for Evaluation & Monitoring, College of Education, University of Canterbury
5.30pm- 6.30pm	Networking Drinks and Nibbles
	Free evening – make up a group and explore Rotorua’s restaurants

Day 2 – Thursday 24 August: LEARNING PATHS
8.15am	Registration, networking and coffee
8.45am	Starter Review/Preview
9.00am	Keynote: Preparing our Future Workforce: Change, Uncertainty and Unbundling Learning The pace of technological change has fundamentally changed our world of work, but it is merely a ripple compared to the tsunami that is looming. The demands on the future workforce is rapidly evolving and continues to reshape the notion of a stable career prospect. More than two thirds of young children entering into primary schools today will work in roles that don’t exist currently. How do tertiary institutions prepare learners for the world of work in such growing uncertainty where a qualification is no longer the passport to prosperity and rapidly acquired, ongoing skills development is becoming the new labour force currency? This conundrum is both an opportunity and a risk where institutional agility to respond effectively to evolving change and authentic stakeholder connectivity are the key building blocks to ensuring ongoing success.	Dr Leon de W Fourie Chief Executive, Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology
9.30am	*Life passages and learning pathways: rethinking individual and organisational assemblages* Dr Kamp engages with longitudinal data to reflect on the concept of life passages and learning pathways via two cases. The first is at the level of the individual: the young parent and their child in the context of an educational journey. The second is at the level of the organization: the ‘un-easy’ notion of collaboration as a social policy agenda, a mechanism to allow young people to ‘do better’. She foregrounds the factors that contribute to the development of passages and pathways before considering the implications for policy and its implementation….More….	Dr Annelies Kamp Head of School of Educational Studies & Leadership, University of Canterbury
10.15am	*Lifecourse research and graduate outcomes of Maori university students* Lifecourse research has already revealed a lot about the wider New Zealand population. Moana’s work leverages off this and uses longitudinal methods to understand more about the positive impact that education has on Māori health, social and economic outcomes. She introduces some interesting preliminary findings from the Graduate Longitudinal Study New Zealand, which follows new university graduates from throughout New Zealand for 10 years. Moana’s focus is on the outcomes of the 600 Māori participants in the study to determine the benefits of university education not only for the graduates themselves (e.g. their careers), but for their whānau, communities and society more broadly. The study suggests that success at university reduces inequalities in labour market outcomes for Maori and Pacific post-graduation. She relates these new findings to previous research with the Dunedin and Christchurch Studies etc….More….	Dr Moana Theodore Co-Director, National Centre for Lifecourse Research
11.00am	Networking Break
11.30am	Plenary Panel Helping young people manage their learning and career pathways. The Government’s vision is for a student-focused education system, underpinned by high quality information and strong links to the world of work. Young people need to be able to plan and manage their learning and career pathways, and are increasingly undertaking learning in mixed secondary-tertiary settings. Strengthening links between education and employment to support pathways is more important than ever. So is early positive intervention when young people have gone off the rails or are in danger of doing so.	Jackie Talbot General Manager Secondary-Tertiary, Ministry of Education Val O’Reilly IP President, CDANZ Roland Hermans Coordinator Schools, National Prevention Centre, NZ Police Ross Lienert Manager Youth, National Prevention Centre, NZ Police
12.30pm	Networking Lunch Break
1.30pm	*Evidence in action: Productive collaboration for educational improvement* New Zealand exemplars of timely learning interventions and powerful pedagogies which bring communities of learning to life.	Dr Adrienne Alton-Lee Chief Education Advisor, Ministry of Education
2.15pm	*How data can be used to inform decision-making across all levels of the education system* Educators are increasingly recognising the importance of measuring not just the attainment of students but the amount of learning progress they make from one time point to the next.	Dr Craig Jones Deputy Secretary of Evidence, Data and Knowledge, Ministry of Education
2.45pm	Drawing the threads together	Dr Phil Silva and Friends
3.45pm	Forum Concludes