Teacher recognised as leader in the field

EXPERT: Solway Primary School teacher Pam Paterson has been recognised as an Advanced Classroom Expertise Teacher under a new scheme that will operate in schools across New Zealand from next year. PHOTO/LYNDA FERINGA

Veteran Wairarapa educator Pam Paterson has won recognition as an expert teacher under the new Advanced Classroom Expertise Teacher (ACET) scheme.

Mrs Paterson, who has been teaching in Wairarapa schools for more than three decades, is one of 336 teachers nationwide to have won recognition as experts. The ministry were unable to advise how many other teachers in Wairarapa had also received ACET recognition, but confirmed there were 49 teachers deemed expert in the wider Wellington region.

Mrs Paterson has worked for the past nine years at Solway Primary School, where she today heads Year 5 and 6 students in the Kahikatea class. She started as a teacher at the former Cornwall Street School and today specialises in teaching gifted and talented children.

Mrs Paterson has experience as deputy principal at St Teresa's in Featherston, an enviro-teacher in Carterton, and as a specialist and reading recovery teacher at several other schools.

"I've been lucky to have been able to do all these different types of teaching and now I'm back where I started as a classroom teacher."

Mrs Paterson was "excited and privileged" to have been appointed under the scheme, she said, which she expected to start early next year.

Dr Graham Stoop, Ministry of Education head of student achievement, said the ACET programme was developed in discussions with the NZEI about "how best to recognise expert primary school teachers for the outstanding work they do" and the scheme was designed to "keep our best primary school teachers in the classroom".

Prospective ACET teachers, nominated by their respective principals, had submitted portfolios that a panel of "seven independent experts" had assessed. Dr Stoop said 336 teachers nationwide were accepted for recognition, including Mrs Paterson, and each would receive an additional annual allowance of $5000 "for as long as they continue to meet the eligibility and ACET professional criteria".

"The allowances will enhance the career paths of teachers who want to remain in the classroom with the children they teach, rather than pursue management opportunities," he said. The ministry had initially aimed to have 800 teachers approved under the ACET scheme and Dr Stoop said the lesser number had been acceptable. The ACET allowance was introduced last year as part of the Primary Teachers' Collective Agreement that runs until next year, Dr Stoop said. Successful candidates had demonstrated exemplary teaching practice in the classroom, he said, and had been "at the maximum step of your qualification group for three consecutive years in a New Zealand state or state-integrated school prior to application, with successful attestation against the Experienced Teacher standards in each of those years".