Ngā Whātui

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. ​

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.

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.

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

We have an A5 flyer (in English and te reo) you can print off and hand out to people urging them to sign the open letter.

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.

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