News Flash

One Day School is back ... in Rotorua!
The One Day School programme was a highly successful innovation created by the George Parkyn Centre back in 1996 to provide a central location for children from schools too small to create their own groupings. Starting with just 40 children, the programme eventually grew to some 600 children, at 18 venues, along the way developing a number of unique and effective strategies. However, when financial considerations led to the ODS combining with another programme, most of the original approach was lost. Now, out of the blue, funding has been made available through an initiative by a local trust to re-create the programme in Rotorua, with Rosemary asked to serve as director. We’ll have more news about this development in due course, but meanwhile, we’re summing it up as our most exciting development in years! Go to One Day School page.

Gifted Education makes the New Years Honours List…
To their surprise, both Rosemary and Pearl found themselves featuring in this year’s Honours List, Rosemary as an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) and Pearl as a Member of the same Order (MNZM). Both women admit to feeling pleased at a personal level, but both are adamant that the main value of the Award and their reason for accepting it lies in its significance for gifted education as a whole. They both point out that this is acknowledgement by the highest powers in the land that support for gifted learners genuinely matters, surely sending a message to all school principals that they too should ensure the gifted learners in their schools are recognised and supported.