The point and purpose of education isn’t what parents get but what happens day after day in the classroom. And for that to go well you need pros, not programmes.
Bevan Holloway
@bevanholloway.com
Teacher. Investigating anti-democratic curriculum reform in Aotearoa New Zealand. Writing about how learning might become democracy-sustaining.
“Why are they not up in arms at the squandering of their children's vitality, curiosity and their righteous indignation?” This. How much of Ss affect for learning is dictated by framing? Do we teach the curriculum to kids, or teach kids with the curriculum? The framing absolutely matters.
A lot of wasted $$$. All those resources and programs are now gone. Complete 180 to child-focused pedagogy and systems from leaders who actually have backgrounds in education.
The 80% isn’t a research finding — it’s an arbitrary number that everyone, including the people issuing it, knows is arbitrary. 80% is a confession, not a finding. The number exists to make compliance auditable and deviation punishable. It is a loyalty test. open.substack.com/pub/aecnz/p/...
Words 13 -15 year olds didn’t know this week : Facilities / impeccable/and difference in pronunciation between nobly and knobbly. Because no one reads to children and they all get told to use online tools not books. We have to bring back books and JOY into education
Bevan Holloway@bevanholloway.com · 2mo agoYou cannot scope-and-sequence your way to a child with something to say. You can only water the roots. AI has just given away the performance layer of schooling for free. What remains is the question we have been able to avoid: does the child have anything to say.
How does a student get something to say? By reading and playing and experimenting and talking and imagining and observing and questioning and listening. By being in the world. By feeling. By being wrong. By being right.
Just finished Chloe Dalton’s book Raising Hare. What a beautiful, sympathetic, touching and wise book. www.chloedalton.uk/raising-hare
Raising Hare | Discover & Protect Hares – Read More — Chloe Dalton
Explore Chloe Dalton's Raising Hare, an award-winning international bestseller about wildlife, nature, and slowing down
chloedalton.uk
At what point does information become propaganda? And if you were a listener, would you have wanted to know about the deep connection to the Minister’s office?
School Shorts, Stanford's Office, and the Necessity of Parent Persuasion
How the lines between policy communication and podcast content were blurred
substack.com
The Atlas will have whole teams of lawyers poring over the constitutions and laws of target countries to find vulnerabilities to exploit, and ways of running soft, slow or fast coups against democratic norms and any restrictions or limits on fossil capital.
HOW IT STARTED I was interviewed by @mihiforbes.bsky.social on Mata Reports/TVNZ (Jan 2024), & warned Kiwis of the assault on Maori, the constitution (Treaty of Waitangi) & climate policy to be expected from the oily #AtlasNetwork's infiltration of NZ govt. Pls watch! www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/m...
Mata Reports: Episode 5 - Trick or Treaty
The fate of the Treaty of Waitangi is teetering on the brink of a popular vote, as the new coalition government pledges to introduce a Treaty Principles Bill, potentially triggering a referendum.
rnz.co.nz
Dr Jeremy Walker@jeremywalker.bsky.social · 2mo ago"STINKS TO HIGH HEAVEN"🛢️⛽🖤🔥 #AtlasNetwork sabotaging the rule of law in NZ. A climate damage case against NZ's largest corporate polluters was sunk when RW govt changed the law mid-case, following a brief from the corps to PM's advisor Matt Burgess of Atlas front NZI. www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...
"As the song ends, a quote appears across the screen. 'I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible' – Peter Thiel, chairman of Palantir." novaramedia.com/2026/06/01/m...
Massive Attack Is Taking Aim at Palantir
Legendary trip-hop group Massive Attack is using an artistic rendering of notorious spy-tech firm Palantir’s own product against it. Gary McQuiggin reports.
novaramedia.com
The more this kind of behaviour happens, the stronger the case for ensuring that a regulatory regime for lobbying doesn't just apply to ministers, but also to officials. Got to think about the cost-benefit analysis, but if there's untrustworthy behaviour, possibly friction is a price worth paying?
Bevan Holloway@bevanholloway.com · 2mo agoRelated note of note: Erica Stanford also made extensive use of her personal email. Another trick she has used is to have a senior advisor call someone from their phone, and then hop on the call. These are not 'one offs' or 'slip ups' or 'memory lapses' or 'sloppiness'.
The coalition is intentionally trying to hide their corruption. They know how bad it is and don’t want anyone to know it #nzpol
Bevan Holloway@bevanholloway.com · 2mo agoRelated note of note: Erica Stanford also made extensive use of her personal email. Another trick she has used is to have a senior advisor call someone from their phone, and then hop on the call. These are not 'one offs' or 'slip ups' or 'memory lapses' or 'sloppiness'.
Time for us all to brush up on these. snyder.substack.com/p/on-tyranny
On Tyranny
Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
snyder.substack.com
Just days before giving a Dame-hood to Elizabeth Rata, Erica Stanford's inspiration, Michael Gove, signs off on this for the magazine he is editor of.
Snigdha@snig.bsky.social · 2mo agoMichael Gove publishes, in The Spectator, the explicit promotion of the racist Great Replacement conspiracy theory, white nationalism and a call for Enoch Powell and NF "remigration" policies.
Rata’s version of a knowledge-rich curriculum precludes critical thinking. Having your kids learn from a workbook designed by a corporation, not involving your children’s teachers, is a fucking nightmare. I will never teach to a textbook. They’re a tool, not a curriculum #nzpol
Bevan Holloway@bevanholloway.com · 2mo agoPeople, being patient, building responsive, accepting classroom cultures, mean a classroom becomes a space where trust reigns. That’s how learning becomes deeper, and achievement lifts. Not workbooks. Not a scope and sequence. Not a [inset subject] kit. Not a knowledge-rich curriculum.
A child won’t tell you what they really need if they don’t trust you. And they only trust you if they feel safe with you. And they feel safe with you when they know that you see and accept who they are. And this happens when who they are – their culture, background, interests – is visible and valued
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Dame Liz.
Recapturing the Senior English Curriculum
Who swapped Māori and Pacific authors for Shakespeare?
open.substack.com
Correction to my previous post, giving Elizabeth Rata a Damehood for services to Education is like giving Andrew Wakefield a Knighthood for services to Vaccines.
Bevan Holloway@bevanholloway.com · 3mo agoElizabeth Rata sat on stage with Erica Stanford and said she was proud to be the lead writer of the senior English curriculum, and that she wanted to use curriculum to "end decolonisation's success".
Dame Elizabeth Rata now. White supremacy pays dividends under this government.
Bevan Holloway@bevanholloway.com · 3mo agoElizabeth Rata sat on stage with Erica Stanford and said she was proud to be the lead writer of the senior English curriculum, and that she wanted to use curriculum to "end decolonisation's success".
At what point does information become propaganda? And if you were a listener, would you have wanted to know about the deep connection to the Minister’s office?
School Shorts, Stanford's Office, and the Necessity of Parent Persuasion
How the lines between policy communication and podcast content were blurred
bevanholloway.substack.com
Here’s how I sum up the Budget for education. Hundreds of millions are being spent on things that are lifeless: workbooks, kits, strategies, assessment. Nothing on relationships and connection.
At what point does information become propaganda? And if you were a listener, would you have wanted to know about the deep connection to the Minister’s office?
School Shorts, Stanford's Office, and the Necessity of Parent Persuasion
How the lines between policy communication and podcast content were blurred
bevanholloway.substack.com
Kids are really being ripped off when the best the Budget can do for them is music kits and workbooks.
Any reporters asked Nicola Willis if she recognises this toaster?
Now my time has freed up considerably, I’m going to give myself a short breather then I’ll be cracking my knuckles to see what I can do and where! #nzpol
Bevan Holloway@bevanholloway.com · 3mo agoIt's easy, as democratic backsliding accelerates, to feel overwhelmed and hopeless. This is exactly the time when we need to get tight, get organised, get coordinated. That’s how we gain the power to say No, not on our watch. That’s how we can feel hope.
I'd add: these people are ripping the wiring out of our country. Inertia in the system has prevented a lot of the damage from showing yet but what they're doing won't be popular and it's not structurally sound. We are will have opportunities to push back IF we're ready to take them #nzpol
Bevan Holloway@bevanholloway.com · 3mo agoIt's easy, as democratic backsliding accelerates, to feel overwhelmed and hopeless. This is exactly the time when we need to get tight, get organised, get coordinated. That’s how we gain the power to say No, not on our watch. That’s how we can feel hope.
It's easy, as democratic backsliding accelerates, to feel overwhelmed and hopeless. This is exactly the time when we need to get tight, get organised, get coordinated. That’s how we gain the power to say No, not on our watch. That’s how we can feel hope.
Stanford said she takes the Treaty very seriously. But in the Bill she has just introduced to the House giving her unlimited power to create curriculum, there is not one reference to Te Tiriti in the section that grants her that power. Nothing that directs her to act as a partner. Nothing.