National Council of Home Educators NZ 1st Quarter 2011

National Council of Home Educators NZ – Quarterly Newsletter

The National Council of Home Educators (NCHENZ) exists to encourage, promote, inform and advance the cause of home education in New Zealand at a national level.

By sharing this newsletter we hope to improve our communication with our members and the wider home educating community in New Zealand.

Christchurch Earthquake
The NCHENZ committee extends its sincere condolences and heartfelt prayers to our fellow home educators in Canterbury.  There are a super-abundance of agencies offering all sorts of help, but if there’s anything specifically home education related that you need, do let us know.  People all around the country are desperate to help in tangible ways.  We can circulate requests for help (books, stationery items etc come to mind) and I’m sure that between us we can work something out.

In this newsletter
We have a big newsletter this term – see below for details

  • It’s that time again – time to renew your membership to NCHENZ.
  • Yes! your high-school aged student can get a student ID card for subsidised bus-fares etc.  We can organise these on your behalf.
  • Cambridge Students – are you preparing for the Cambridge qualification? *please* read the urgent notice below
  • Are you a new Home Educator? We give you some web links to help get you started with writing your exemption application, and with finding a local support group.
  • Your committee needs your help.  It’s not a lot of work, but we can’t function without you.
  • Want to be kept in the loop regarding NZQA?
  • We have agreed upon a rewording of our Constitution – see below for details on voting to ratify it.
  • Mid-year meeting with ERO
  • [Read more...]

Student id

We offer this service to homeschooled children only ie those with an exemption from the MOE

Paper form here- link at the bottom of the page

You will need to fill this in this form for each child please.

Do click submit each time. Do email us your photo to info@nchenz.org.nz

We process this once a month on the 20th.
$10 for member families** $15 for non member (see below)

Student Id Application

Parent/Guardian Section

  1. (required)
  2. (required)
  3. (required)
  4. (valid email required)
  5. I confirm that the child that I am applying for an student id card is home educated

Student Section

  1. (required)
  2. (required)
  3. (required)
  4. (required)
  5. ( see Education in New Zealand to calculate your child’s school year)
  6. (required)
  7. Please select the type of card*

Payment

  1. Payment
  2. I will pay by

Photo

( see below ##)
  1. Please select
 

cforms contact form by delicious:days

Note

*for Metro (Christchurch, Timaru) see www.metroinfo.org.nz/metrocard.html
For MAXX (Auckland Region)  see www.maxx.co.nz/pricing-passes/childstudent-discounts.html
Plain card for all other regions

Payment

  1. Cheque payments made out to NCHENZ posted to Mail: PO Box 80144, Riccarton, Christchurch 8440
  2. Internet payments to 01-0504-0009447-00 and also email our treasurer info@nchenz.org.nz

If paying by internet banking, please include your surname and initial as an identifier. We take no responsibility for tracking down anonymous payments

Photo ##

Please email your photo to info@nchenz.org.nz

or post to NCHENZ PO Box 80144, Riccarton, Christchurch 8440

** individual member or member of a member group
see www.nchenz.org.nz/join-us/member-groups/ Not a member – please join us – www.nchenz.org.nz/join-us/

Entry to University

One suggestion from Madeleine Flannagan :

Have her/him do the Tertiary Foundation Certificate (1 year, costs a total of about $540) the year before she wants to start her degree.

Pass this and you have as much shot as anyone with good NCEA or Cambridge results at any Auckland Uni degree program – even restricted entry ones. Of course what helps with restricted entry courses are A’s so tell her to pass it well ;-)

The TFC course is an excellent intro to Uni – it is more hands on so there is a lot of guidance, here is how to write essays to Uni standard, it is on campus, run by Uni lecturers, so it is way better than NCEA or Cambridge.

My homeschooled daughter was accepted to Auckland Uni’s TFC program one month after her 16th birthday on the strength of her diagnostic test scores (they run this test twice a year – it is free to sit).

The other way to get into Uni without NCEA or Cambridge is to sit a few no-requisite, easy entry papers at Uni, pass them well, then simply point to them on your application.

The purpose of tight entry criteria is to weed out applicants who do not have what it takes to pass at Uni – Uni does not care so much about NCEA or Cambridge, they care about whether or not you can do the course, handle the workload so TFC and passes in other Uni papers are fine because they answer that question.

Some great podcasts

http://www.homeschool.com/podcast/

Looking to listen to something about home education/homeschooling try these wonderful podcasts.

AHE meeting with MOE

You can find notes from the Auckland Home Educators meeting with Ministry of Education regarding the exemption process.

http://www.ahe.org.nz/2010/05/meeting-with-moe/

Reply from Paula Bennett

Please find linked the response from Hon Paula Bennett  to the NCHENZ email of 29  April 2010.

from Paula Bennett

We are asking for homeschooling to be considered mitigating circumstances

“From September 27, DPB claimants whose youngest child is six will have to be available to work at least 15 hours a week.

Failure to comply will see their benefit cut by half, but they will retain additional assistance.

Exemptions will be available for those in fulltime study or with mitigating circumstances such as special-needs children.”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/3498073/Unemployed-face-work-tests

We welcome your comments.
We are asking for homeschooling to be considered mitigating circumstances.

Please join us in emailing Paula Bennett . Her email address is paula.bennettmp@parliament.govt.nz

——————-

Update

The reply from our email so far:

Hello Tarnya

The Hon Paula Bennett, Minister for Social Development and Employment, has asked me to thank you for your email.

Consideration is currently being given to the matters you raise and you may expect a reply at the Minister’s earliest opportunity.

Kind regards

Nicky Uriaro

Private Secretary, Office of Hon Paula Bennett

Minister for Social Development and Employment | Minister of Youth Affairs

—————————

the email we sent:

Good Morning Paula Bennett

We ( National Council of Home Educators www.nchenz.org.nz) request thathomeschooling be considered as mitigating circumstances in regard to the work requirements for DPB claimants. We request that a home educating parent who holds, for their child/ren, an exemption from attendance at a public school also be issued an exemption from these work requirements.

We submit to you that a home educating parent is involved in full-time work, albeit unpaid.

“We understand that exemptions will be available for those in fulltime study or with mitigating circumstances such as special-needs children.”
from
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/3498073/Unemployed-face-work-tests

Regards
Penny Bilton, Tarnya Burge Maddy Maxwell, Dawn Jones and Michelle Campbell
NCHENZ executive committee

www.nchenz.org.nz

Around the Web- Links for Home Educators/Homeschoolers

Got any links to share. Leave them in the comments or email us

Homeschool team Free Range Robotics have won the New Zealand National VEX Robotics Championship for the second year in a row. They also scooped more than their fair share of other awards, winning the New Zealand Championship awards for Web Design (www.robotics.org.nz), the Think Award for Autonomous Programming, the Promote award for the best team video, the VEX Essay Award and the runner up for Programming Skills Award.

Their youtube channel is here


Online homeschool conference http://www.thebroadroom.co.nz/old-schoolhouse-expo/

Interesting podcast about John Holt from a Libertarian perspective John Holt: Libertarian Outsider thanks to Tarnya


Immersion Learning – Resources to bring ocean science adventures to students in grades 4–8. Immersion exposes students to ongoing scientific expeditions in an effort to ignite their interest in real discovery and learning.

http://www.immersionlearning.org/ thanks to LARA

French Website http://www.tivi5mondeplus.com/#live thanks to Margi

Homeschool Planner http://hef.org.nz/2010/free-homeschool-planner/ It’s for a free homeschooling planner that is really simple and looks perfect for anyone who has lots of ideas but never seems to get around to doing them or being organised enough. It’s called “Planned Spontaneity”. Thanks to Erin
http://hef.org.nz/2010/free-homeschool-planner/

Earthquakes for kids  http://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/kids/
http://www.fema.gov/kids/quake.htm Thanks to LARA

Bible maps and timelines http://www.biblestudy.org/maps/main.html Thanks to LARA

Cultivating the Entrepreneur

An interesting Video: Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity

Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining and profoundly moving case for creating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines) creativity