A drive to build management capacity and improve educational outcomes  in Auckland’s low decile schools is already showing “overwhelming” results, say the people behind the Building Better Schools through Business Partnerships programme (BBS).

 

 


 


Edmund Hillary College Limited Statutory Manager Judy Hucker, left, signs a partnership agreement with KPMG National Chairman Jan Dawson.

An initiative of the Committee for Auckland’s Future Auckland Leaders programme, BBS partners businesses with low decile schools. It encourages them to share their governance, leadership and management skills and apply them in a community environment.

“This is not about imposing a business model on schools,” says Programme Director Lorraine Mentz, “It’s about businesses becoming aware of the complex challenges in schools and finding ways to build capacity and assist at management and governance levels. Schools drive the agenda; there’s an enormous amount of mentoring and professional development going on.”

The steering group is made up of business and educational leaders, many of them alumni of the Future Auckland Leaders programme.

With seed funding from the Lion Foundation, the Committee for Auckland ran three pilot programmes. The  Rongomai Primary/Westpac partnership was the first signed up.

“Since then we’ve had a further 5  partnerships and expect four more by the end of the year,  with  11 more in the pipeline.” Lorraine says.

Some of New Zealand’s biggest companies are involved: names like Westpac, KPMG, ASB, Deloitte, Tonkin & Taylor, McConnell Ltd and Telecom.  No money changes hands – the value is in the skills businesses bring to a school’s board table.

“Corporate social responsibility is an important value with these companies. They know that schools are the heart of the community and they want to be involved with their community,” Lorraine says.

Jan Dawson, KPMG’s National Chairman, says the programme “gives us a reason to celebrate: we are capacity-building in the true sense of the word…and laying the bricks for stronger communities.”

Deloitte Chairman Nick Main echoes that, saying that “part of Auckland being a world class city will be strong educational institutions, a high level of engagement of its citizens and intolerance for highly skewed opportunities dependant of the suburb you were brought up in.”

The teams work on issues such as leadership skills, property management, mentoring and professional development – wherever schools decide they need to grow capacity.

“It’s like an arranged marriage,” Lorraine says. “We align the needs of a school with a business that has the right skills. They then sign a memorandum of understanding for three years and begin working together.”

Penrose High School Principal Iva Ropati says “the opportunity to work alongside a successful organisation and to benefit from its specific experience and skills has been invaluable to a developing secondary school that aims to be a ‘school of first choice’ in our community.”

BBS knows that improving governance skills doesn’t happen overnight. In fact, no measurable impact was expected for at least seven years. But the first school, Rongomai, is already turning its results around.

Eighteen months ago only 6% of 12-year-olds could read at their chronological age level. After a year working with Westpac the figures had risen to 33%. After 18 months it was 72%.

“Good governance is having an effect that’s filtering right down to the children,” Lorraine says. “The businesses work with boards, principals and senior management, in turn teachers’ attitudes have become more positive and that’s having a waterfall effect.”

Results like these have the Ministry of Education taking notice, with MOE Regional Manager Bruce Adin saying the Ministry is interested in encouraging wider development of BBS.

It’s also winning praise at a political level, with recently retired Manukau Mayor Sir Barry Curtis commenting that it “brings together two worlds that would otherwise never meet…it’s a two-way exchange of cultures and values”.

Lorraine says the programme is on a rapid growth curve and welcomes more businesses signing up.

“We’re building a movement,” she says. “We’re seeing the aspirations of the children changing and I’d urge all businesses to come on board and demonstrate their corporate social responsibilty .”

Email   or phone (09) 300 5598.

  • In September 2007 ASBCT granted Committee for Auckland $150,000 to help run and evaluate the BBS programme.