I recently had the privilege of sitting down with Philly Wintle, Deputy Principal at Albany Senior High School, for a conversation that reminded me why I love talking with educators who are still in the classroom, still working with students every day, still navigating the beautiful chaos of school life.
Philly’s been teaching for nearly 19 years and in that time has had experience in a range of contexts, but what really struck me about our conversation wasn’t just her experience – it was her passion for supporting early career teachers and her vision for what education could be.
Future-Focused Doesn’t Mean Tech-Focused
We kicked off talking about the future of education, and Philly shared something that really resonated. Prompted a conversation with her husband who works in the software industry, she’s come to believe that futures-focused education isn’t primarily about technology at all. Instead, it’s about something much more fundamental: people.
“The world and our communities are becoming increasingly diverse,” Philly explained. “If we are supporting young people to move into a future that will be more colourful and more diverse and more vibrant than the one we’re living in, then people are going to need to know how to make genuine, kind, warm, authentic connections with other people.”
Those core capabilities – communication skills, critical thinking, empathy, collaboration, the ability to integrate perspectives different from your own etc. These aren’t new ideas – they’re already woven through our curriculum. But Philly’s point is that these human skills are becoming more critical, not less, as our world evolves.
The Post-COVID Reality
To illustrate her point Philly described a moment from her own recent experience. She was trying to run a simple group activity with her tutor class, watching eyes roll, seeing students literally leave the room rather than engage with peers they didn’t know.
“I do feel like it’s harder for young people to do that now than it used to be,” she shared. She recalled the stark difference when students returned after Auckland’s extended lockdowns -how activities that used to work seamlessly suddenly “tanked like nothing had ever tanked before.”
But here’s the thing – Philly didn’t give up. She persevered with a simple cup-stacking activity using rubber bands and string. By the end, everyone was laughing, and the most reluctant student had stepped into a leadership role.
It’s a powerful reminder: our young people still need us to create spaces where they can develop these essential human skills, perhaps now more than ever.
And here’s the challenge for educators to embrace. How do we ensure our approach to working as an educator truly addresses this need – particularly in a climate where the emphasis on knowledge acquisition remains a primary focus of our curriculum?
The Forgotten Cohort: Early Career Teachers
Our conversation became more positive and action oriented when we began talking about early career teachers – those in their first decade of teaching.
Philly reflected on her own early career experience, from 2007 to about 2017, as a kind of “heyday” of professional learning opportunities. Twitter networks. ICTPD clusters. Conferences. Webinars. A smorgasbord of PD that helped her grow as an educator.
But the past five or six years? Philly senses they’ve been different. Between COVID, curriculum changes, NCEA reviews, changes of government, new matrices, and now another U-turn with NCEA being reconsidered altogether – teachers in their first ten years haven’t had the same breathing space. “Education continues to be a political football,” Philly noted, “and it’s exhausting.”
These teachers – the ones who need about five years just to feel confident they know what they’re doing – have spent their formative professional years in constant reactive mode. They haven’t had the same opportunities to be creative, to connect, to find joy in the profession.
And this matters. Because teacher retention matters. Because the quality of education depends on engaged, enthused, skilled educators who stick around.
An Invitation to Join the Conversation
This is why Philly sees the opportunities to work with the EdRising initiative as so important. She and some other colleagues are creating space for teachers in those critical first ten years to connect, collaborate, engage in shared inquiry, and rediscover the joy and possibility in teaching.
As she put it: “We are so lucky and so privileged to be doing the job that we’re doing, working with young people at the most tumultuous, vulnerable and hectic time of their lives. And what better way to be supporting those young people into their futures by making connections with other teachers who are doing the same awesome job.”
Watch the Full Conversation
I encourage you to watch or listen to the full podcast. Philly’s energy and insight shine through in ways that a blog post can’t quite capture. We covered so much more – from how Albany Senior High’s unique environment shapes their approach to teacher induction, to the importance of schools developing their own authentic cultures, to the challenge of preparing teachers for diverse school contexts.
View our conversation below…
Your Turn
Whether you’re a principal thinking about the early career teachers in your school, or you’re in those first ten years of teaching yourself, I’d love to hear your thoughts:
- What’s been your experience navigating the changes in education over recent years?
- How do we better support teachers in that critical first decade?
- What would meaningful professional learning and connection look like for you?
Drop your thoughts in the comments, or reach out if you’re interested in being part of the growing EdRising network. Because as Philly reminded me, our strength comes through the networks we build – and education’s future depends on keeping passionate, skilled teachers engaged in the profession.
