Thursday May 16 2019 is International Support Staff Day and this year our theme is Making a Difference - Whakamahia he Rerekētanga.
This is our chance to reflect on how much support staff do to make a difference for our schools, kura, kindergartens and centres, for children and young people, and for our communities. It's a great opportunity to think about all of the different roles that support staff play throughout the education sector and show our appreciation for this mahi.
We've put together some resources for the day on this page to help schools, kura, kindergartens and centres celebrate support staff and highlight the ways they make a difference.
To tie in with our black and white theme for our mana taurite pay equity campaign, we're encouraging people to wear black and white on International Support Staff day to show solidarity and support for support staff to be paid fairly.
We've included a pay equity quiz to help people understand the process and how they can get involved. By pursuing pay equity for thousands of school support staff, we're putting an end to our work being undervalued just because it's been traditionally done by women. As part of this work we are also making sure we get better resourcing for schools.
We'd love to see how you celebrated support staff day on social media with the hashtag #SSMakingADifference
Resources
Making a Difference - Whakamahia he Rerekētanga - selfie poster (A3)
Write the name of a support staff member in your school, kura, kindergarten or centre and what they do to make a difference. Hold it up and take a photo to post on social media with #SSMakingADifference - or put it on the wall!
There are English and te reo Māori versions, and there's a version for support staff to fill out themselves too.
Mana Taurite Pay Equity quiz
If you're having a gathering to celebrate your support staff, this is a perfect opportunity to test their knowledge of the Mana Taurite pay equity process.
Facebook profile picture frames
Tautoko International Support Staff Day 2019 by adding a frame to your Facebook profile picture!
Group activity / game
An easy activity to run as an ice breaker for a meeting or morning tea that will get people thinking about all the different jobs that make a difference in education:
- In teams, participants brainstorm all the roles they can think of in the education sector (apart from teacher and principal). Each team writes a list.
- Get one team to start by reading out their list. All other teams cross out the same job titles that they have on their list.
- Repeat this until each group is only left with job titles no-one else came up with
- The winner is the group with the most unique job titles.