Last night I had the privilege of attending an event hosted by Cognition-Multiserv who are celebrating their 20 year anniversary as a company. Multiserv was established back in 1989 when Tomorrow’s Schools was implemented, and later set up Cognition Consulting to undertake work directly in schools here in NZ and internationally. To mark the 20 year anniversary, Cognition engaged several NZ educators to contribute a chapter each to a book that they launched at their dinner. The book, titled Tomorrow’s Schools 20 Years On, provides some useful insights into the successes and weaknesses of the legacy of Tomorrow’s Schools. Copies of the booklet are to be distributed to all schools in NZ, and made available to educators and researchers.

On the Friday before each of the authors (including myself) presented a summary of each chapter to a meeting of about 50 educators from across the schooling sector who engaged in some rigorous debate about the issues raised. Summaries of the day’s discussions are to be collated and distilled with the intention of informing a research agenda that will be promoted by the newly-formed Cognition Institute.

The Saturday evening event was a huge suggess, with around 300 people attending. It was held in the function room at the top of the Auckland Museum – an amazing venue from which we had a panoramic view of Auckland and were treated to a wonderful programme of presentations and performances – including a number of spectacular fireworks displays we could see in the distance!

A significant feature of the evening was the opportunity to capture the photo on the right of myself and fellow CORE directors, Nick Billowes and Vince Ham, respendant in dinner suits complete with bow ties! Likely to be a one-off opportunity never to be repeated 🙂