Ngā Whātui

Ngā Whātui

In a school or kura we are the people that do essential work alongside teachers and principals. We support ākonga in the classroom, manage school offices and administration, libraries and science labs and much more – our work is made up of many threads.Every day we see the difference our mahi does – even when it's hard, we know it's rewarding, essential work. But there aren't enough of us and too many of us don't have secure jobs. The Government needs to step up and improve funding for us.Together we are building power to win improvements to our collective agreement – with fair pay, job security and the professional learning and development we need – the essentials!​

Explanation of branding and design​

Ngā Whātui is about the weave in a kete, reflecting how we, as support staff, weave many threads together in our roles to provide support for tamariki.The kete represents knowledge, strength, structure, and support. Like support staff – kete are essential. They help us organise and navigate our daily lives, carrying everything from functional items to precious taonga, ensuring they are safe and cared for.The stitching detail around text boxes and the boxes themselves speak directly to Tui, tui, tui, tuia (sew, stitch, bind it together) and Ngā Whātui are those who do the tying together.In a school or kura we are the people that work alongside teachers and principals doing work that is essential– our work is made up of many threads.Each weave has a purpose – e.g the looser woven kete are used for gathering shellfish or vegetables, enabling the water to drain or the dirt to shake through; and a tighter weave holds the contents safely and securely; weave colour tells the story of purpose, or of the weaver. ​

What is essential for winning?

Negotiations for the Kaiārahi i te Reo and Therapists Collective Agreement and the Support Staff in Schools Collective Agreement began in October 2024.Members have been involved in developing our claims over the last couple of terms. We know the key to getting the wins we need – decent pay increases, job security and access to PLD will be persuading Government that funding a decent settlement is essential to support schools and ākonga.

Things members can do for this campaign

  1.  Double Your Power – recruit a colleague to join your union, the stronger our collective is the louder our voices for change!

    2. Sign our 
open letter and to Government, calling for them to commit to investing in us.

3. Talk to your principal, teacher or parent communities about your work, and the need for improvements in your terms and conditions.

4. Share your stories and build a community-wide understanding that the work we do alongside teachers and principals is essential – but we need more funding.

Resources

Sign the open letter calling for support for better Government investment in a quality public education system, and in us as essential staff.

Here is an A5 flyer you can print off and hand out to people urging them to sign the open letter.

Support staff collective agreements

You can find all of the support staff collective agreements here.

Join support staff Facebook page

You can find out more about this campaign and interact with your colleagues by joining the Support Staff Professionals NZ Facebook group.

Note: This is a closed group, so you will need to answer the admin questions to be accepted into the group.

Sign our open letter

Call on the Government to support essential school staff!