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NZ Herald
05-08-2025
- Sport
- NZ Herald
Beloved ex-Wellington College teacher and athletics coach Neville Paul dies
Prendergast said he was 12 when he met Paul and was still coming to terms with losing his vision to a degenerative condition which left him legally blind. Neville Paul has coached athletics for 30 years. 'It was a really tough time for me in my life,' he said. He had done some running in primary school and Paul approached him to join the college's running team. Paul treated Prendergast like any other member of the team and had an 'innate' skill for working around his blindness. Prendergast described how he would show up at the track and not know where the rest of the team was, only to hear Paul light-heartedly growl his name so he could find his way. 'He'd make a bit of a joke about it . . . it was those sorts of little things that just seem like nothing, but help a young person growing comfortable and build that sense of belonging. 'It's times like this where the gravity of that and how much he has really impacted the trajectory of my life has really shone. 'He met me at my level. That's what he did with everyone.' Prendergast said he was lucky enough to have Paul as his coach through three Paralympic Games, including when he won a gold medal in the 800m T13 in Athens. Neville Paul started teaching at Wellington College in 1986. He has lived in the UK for the last 18 years and has spent much of his time working with schools and organisations to inspire young people with his story. He said much of his work was 'fostered by Nev'. Close friend Ben Ruthe said Prendergast was Paul's greatest success, but in general Paul 'created great men'. 'At times he was raw as hell, but somehow through the rawness, most of the people that he coached were actually quite refined. I don't know how many head boys at Wellington College he coached. Pretty much everyone who was in the senior team ended up being prefects. 'He just kept creating leaders everywhere he went.' Paul exemplified the school's motto, 'receive the light and pass it on', and the people he coached went on to do the same. 'He changed the way I live life, really. For me it's doing all you can to see those around you do well.' He wanted to thank Paul for making all of their lives richer. 'Throughout my life he ended up becoming one of my very best friends in the world.' Ben Ruthe (left), had Neville Paul as a groomsman at his wedding, along with fellow team members Tim Prendergast and James Coubrough. The pair have stayed in close contact for more than 30 years, with Ruthe spending the day enjoying Paul's company at the cross-country championship the day Paul died. Ruthe won his first cross-country title in 20 years that day. He also spent the day talking to Paul about plans for his son, Sam Ruthe, who had just broken the world record for the youngest person to break the four-minute-mile barrier. 'Nev's last full day on Earth was in the cross-country championships yelling coaching advice at me. 'It feels like full circle for me . . . I was sort of Sam's age when my relationship with Nev really started. 'He was really like a father to me.' Paul built an environment 'where people could be brave, because there's never any failure'. 'He really experimented on us in terms of training and approach. He tried things that were really against the grain.' Ruthe broke some junior records during that time, and said Paul had him doing sessions the same day he broke his records, a practice that 'still to this day would be considered a crazy thing to do'. One of the most unusual things he did was to take a group of people training in a competitive individual sport, and turned them into 'lifelong friends with the greatest team morale ever'. 'The environment he created was something unbelievably special.' Neville Paul has been remembered by former students, athletes, friends and colleagues. Paul retired from Wellington College some years ago, but returned to teaching and coaching on a more casual basis and was most recently working at Rongotai College, Ruthe said. Another friend, Allen Yip, said he had known Paul since about 1989 when Paul asked him to join him in coaching runners. 'When I started coaching at the school I realised that Neville actually had a really great relationship with these kids. He really cared about them and they really cared about him.' Yip said running was normally a somewhat 'lonely' sport, but Paul turned it into a team sport. 'All the kids turned up, not just because of the sport but because of each other and because of him.' He said Paul was 'quite a funny guy' who would laugh at 'the most obtuse kind of joke', and had a great sense of humour. Yip fondly remembered playing pranks on Paul, including gathering a group to surround a portaloo Paul was in and give it 'a real good shaking'. He said Paul could never look at a portaloo the same way again. He laughed while remembering how Paul would ferry students from school to the park for training, making them lie down in the bed of the ute whenever they were near a police car. Yip described Paul as a 'genuine, proper Kiwi bloke' who cared for people, showed 'real generosity', and made sure everybody got an opportunity to train if they wanted to. Neville Paul used to take students to training in the bed of a ute, making them lie down and hide when passing police cars. Wellington College shared a post on Facebook remembering Paul's time at the school. He began teaching there in 1986, covering physics, science, and physical education. 'His teaching career spanned over 30 years, which resulted in him teaching generations of WC students. Many fathers and their sons will have fond memories from Neville's time as their teacher,' the post said. 'Beyond the classroom, Neville had a passion for athletics and was a talented coach in cross country and the annual McEvedy Shield athletics competition. 'Neville was a coach, mentor, and a father figure to many of our boys. 'He played an influential role in the development of athletes who went on to achieve honours nationally and internationally.' Associate headmaster Phil Bergen told the Herald they were 'devastated' to lose Paul, who he described as 'one of life's characters'. 'He didn't take life too seriously . . . you never knew what you were going to get when you were talking to Nev. His topics could range from the latest coaching skills to talking about dark holes in the universe to sharemarket crashes. He had a really wide interest, but there was always a laugh.' Paul was 'such a dedicated athletics and cross-country coach' and 'the driving force behind Wellington College's success' in the annual McEvedy Shield athletics competition and the national cross-country champs. His funeral will be held in the main hall at Wellington College on Sunday at 2pm. It will be officiated by former headmaster Roger Moses. There will also be a 1km run at Wellington College at 4.30pm Saturday, open to all. Melissa Nightingale is a Wellington-based reporter who covers crime, justice and news in the capital. She joined the Herald in 2016 and has worked as a journalist for 10 years.
Telegraph
03-07-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Ofsted shake-up could lower house prices
Ofsted's inspections shake-up could lower house prices around top-performing schools, the watchdog's chief has hinted. Sir Martyn Oliver said properties come with a premium if they are located near high-achieving schools, especially those rated 'outstanding' under the current Ofsted system. However, he suggested this was likely to change when one-word Ofsted ratings are replaced with more 'nuanced' report cards from November, which will give schools colour-coded rankings across 10 different inspection areas. Sir Martyn said the inspections overhaul would prove a headache for property agencies such as Rightmove, which show house-hunters the Ofsted rankings of nearby schools. 'Here's a burning question: what's Rightmove going to do?', Ofsted's chief inspector told an audience at the Festival of Education at Wellington College on Thursday. 'It's a serious point. Interestingly, Ofsted is probably one of the best known regulators and inspectors in the world, let alone in this country.' The former headteacher, who built a career turning around failing schools, added: 'All those years of living at least 20 minutes away from my school, sometimes 40 minutes – I ended up sponsoring two special measures schools right where I live. 'And the house prices shot up. They were both in special measures, both went to 'outstanding', and the house prices went up £15,000 within a week. It does make a difference.' Value of single-word judgements In an apparent defence of the former Ofsted ranking system, Sir Martyn said it showed that 'parents obviously put a value' on single-word judgements of schools. Research published by Yopa, the estate agency, last year showed properties in England close to 'outstanding' schools were priced around £116,000 higher on average than those near schools rated 'inadequate' – the lowest ranking under the single-word system. Similar research by Knight Frank in 2021 found that properties in catchment areas for 'outstanding' primary schools sold for 10 per cent more on average than those located further away. Schools will still be allowed to promote their one-word ratings until they are reinspected by Ofsted, which usually happens every three to four years. It is unclear whether estate agents will still be allowed to display schools' ratings on their websites beyond that. It comes after the school inspections watchdog a faced a backlash over its plans to replace single-word judgements with new colour-coded report cards. Under the new system, it will give schools ratings for each area of practice, ranging from a red 'causing concern' up to a dark green 'exemplary'. Last year, the Government announced that it was scrapping the one-word system following the death of Ruth Perry, a headteacher who took her own life in 2023 after an Ofsted inspection downgraded her school in Reading from 'outstanding' to 'inadequate'. Prof Julia Waters, Mrs Perry's sister, has been among critics of the proposed changes, saying in February that they read as if Ofsted has 'fed single-word judgements through an online thesaurus'. 'A fine balance' of complexity needed Speaking on Thursday, Sir Martyn said he had been forced to strike 'a fine balance between providing so much complexity and so much nuance that schools find it stressful… or not enough nuance and not enough complexity that it does them [teachers] a disservice for the great job that they do'. But he added that the new system would deprive the best-performing schools of the opportunity to boast about their success. 'We've been doing something for 30-plus years in a single way,' the watchdog chief said. 'If I look at my phone there will be pictures of people standing in front of their schools with balloons with an O, a U, a T – [spelling] 'outstanding' – and local newspapers up and down the country celebrating. 'It happens all of the time, and we're about to take that away and change it to something else that for more than three decades people are used to.'
Yahoo
03-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Ofsted chief inspector apologises for short notice on school inspection reforms
The chief inspector of Ofsted has apologised that schools will no longer get a full term's notice before inspection reforms are introduced in England. Last month, the watchdog said it would delay setting out its final plan for school inspections until September – just weeks before new report cards are due to be rolled out in November. School leaders' unions have threatened to tell their members to quit as Ofsted inspectors unless changes are made to the timescale for inspection reform. Speaking at the Festival of Education, Sir Martyn Oliver, chief inspector of Ofsted, said he was 'sorry' about the delayed timescale as he acknowledged it was 'difficult' for schools. At the event at Wellington College, Berkshire, Sir Martyn called on school leaders to 'judge' him on the Ofsted's revised inspection model once it is published at the start of the academic year. Last year, the Government announced that headline Ofsted grades for overall effectiveness for schools in England would be scrapped. Previously, Ofsted awarded one of four single-phrase inspection judgments: outstanding, good, requires improvement and inadequate Under proposed report cards, set out in February, schools could be graded across at least eight areas of a provision using a colour-coded five-point scale. They would receive ratings, from the red 'causing concern' to orange 'attention needed', through the green shades of 'secure', 'strong' and 'exemplary' for each area of practice. During the Q&A session at the event on Thursday, Sir Martyn suggested that Ofsted ratings can alter local house prices by thousands of pounds because parents 'value' them. When asked whether Ofsted's new report cards could affect house prices, Sir Martyn said: 'Well, I don't know.' But Sir Martyn, who used to be an academy trust leader, spoke of how he had supported two 'special measures' schools where he lived and the house prices 'shot up' after they received better Ofsted ratings. He told the audience: 'They were both in special measures, both went outstanding, and the house prices went up £15,000 within a week. 'It does make a difference.' Sir Martyn added that 'parents obviously put a value on it'. Ofsted had planned to publish its formal response to its consultation on proposed inspection reforms in the summer term ahead of the changes coming into effect in November. But Ofsted will now publish its full response in September due to the scale of the feedback it received. When asked whether this delay was fair on school leaders, Sir Martyn said: 'I think that is difficult and again I'm sorry about that.' On single-word judgments, he added: 'We've been doing something for 30-plus years in a single way. 'If I look at my phone, there will be pictures of people standing in front of their schools with balloons, with an O, an U, with a T – 'outstanding', and local newspapers up and down the country celebrate. 'It happens all of the time, and we're about to take that away and change it to something else that for more than three decades people are used to.' Sir Martyn said: 'Here's a burning question, what's Rightmove going to do?' Currently, Rightmove includes the Ofsted ratings for local schools in its listings for houses for sale. In a speech at the event, Sir Martyn said children are increasingly receiving life lessons from influencers or 'AI-generated summaries'. The Ofsted boss argued that classroom learning with human interaction 'has never been more important' as many children spend much of their lives online. He said: 'Young people are growing up in an increasingly curated world in which their favoured influencers or corporate algorithms can have a disproportionate impression on their views and opinions. 'It's more important than ever that young people are able to lift their eyes from the screen and connect with their teachers, in person.'
Yahoo
03-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Ofsted chief inspector apologises for short notice on school inspection reforms
The chief inspector of Ofsted has apologised that schools will no longer get a full term's notice before inspection reforms are introduced in England. Last month, the watchdog said it would delay setting out its final plan for school inspections until September – just weeks before new report cards are due to be rolled out in November. School leaders' unions have threatened to tell their members to quit as Ofsted inspectors unless changes are made to the timescale for inspection reform. Speaking at the Festival of Education, Sir Martyn Oliver, chief inspector of Ofsted, said he was 'sorry' about the delayed timescale as he acknowledged it was 'difficult' for schools. At the event at Wellington College, Berkshire, Sir Martyn called on school leaders to 'judge' him on the Ofsted's revised inspection model once it is published at the start of the academic year. Last year, the Government announced that headline Ofsted grades for overall effectiveness for schools in England would be scrapped. Previously, Ofsted awarded one of four single-phrase inspection judgments: outstanding, good, requires improvement and inadequate Under proposed report cards, set out in February, schools could be graded across at least eight areas of a provision using a colour-coded five-point scale. They would receive ratings, from the red 'causing concern' to orange 'attention needed', through the green shades of 'secure', 'strong' and 'exemplary' for each area of practice. During the Q&A session at the event on Thursday, Sir Martyn suggested that Ofsted ratings can alter local house prices by thousands of pounds because parents 'value' them. When asked whether Ofsted's new report cards could affect house prices, Sir Martyn said: 'Well, I don't know.' But Sir Martyn, who used to be an academy trust leader, spoke of how he had supported two 'special measures' schools where he lived and the house prices 'shot up' after they received better Ofsted ratings. He told the audience: 'They were both in special measures, both went outstanding, and the house prices went up £15,000 within a week. 'It does make a difference.' Sir Martyn added that 'parents obviously put a value on it'. Ofsted had planned to publish its formal response to its consultation on proposed inspection reforms in the summer term ahead of the changes coming into effect in November. But Ofsted will now publish its full response in September due to the scale of the feedback it received. When asked whether this delay was fair on school leaders, Sir Martyn said: 'I think that is difficult and again I'm sorry about that.' On single-word judgments, he added: 'We've been doing something for 30-plus years in a single way. 'If I look at my phone, there will be pictures of people standing in front of their schools with balloons, with an O, an U, with a T – 'outstanding', and local newspapers up and down the country celebrate. 'It happens all of the time, and we're about to take that away and change it to something else that for more than three decades people are used to.' Sir Martyn said: 'Here's a burning question, what's Rightmove going to do?' Currently, Rightmove includes the Ofsted ratings for local schools in its listings for houses for sale. In a speech at the event, Sir Martyn said children are increasingly receiving life lessons from influencers or 'AI-generated summaries'. The Ofsted boss argued that classroom learning with human interaction 'has never been more important' as many children spend much of their lives online. He said: 'Young people are growing up in an increasingly curated world in which their favoured influencers or corporate algorithms can have a disproportionate impression on their views and opinions. 'It's more important than ever that young people are able to lift their eyes from the screen and connect with their teachers, in person.'
South Wales Guardian
03-07-2025
- Politics
- South Wales Guardian
Children are receiving ‘life lessons' from influencers and AI
Sir Martyn Oliver will argue that classroom learning with human interaction 'has never been more important' as children are spending their lives online. In a major speech at the Festival of Education, the Ofsted chief will say schools are places of 'refuge', connection, friendship and humanity for children. Sir Martyn will tell the event at Wellington College, Berkshire: 'Right now, many children live much of their lives online. 'Socially, they are never 'off' and always in touch with their friends. 'And they increasingly receive life lessons from influencers or AI-generated summaries. 'I would argue that the place of learning, real learning, classroom learning – with human interaction – has never been more important.' The Ofsted boss will add: 'In a way there's something cloistered about living one's life in a curated online environment. 'You may be able to find 'the best that has been thought or said' if you go looking for it. 'But who's guiding you through it? Where's the human connection? And of course, where's the protection?' His comments come amid calls from the Conservatives for the Government to bring in a statutory ban on smartphones in schools. Schools in England were given non-statutory Government guidance in February last year intended to stop the use of phones during the school day. Sir Martyn will say: 'Schools have never just been places of learning. 'They were, and are places of safety, even refuge. Places of community and connection. Places of friendship and humanity. 'They are citadels of childhood: communities within communities looking after their own and helping children develop into well-rounded adults – capable of looking after others in turn.' On Thursday, Sir Martyn will hit back at cynics who 'decry the norms of education' and who say Ofsted enforces an 'out-of-date, joyless system'. In his speech, he will say: 'For Ofsted, teaching a full, rich range of subjects isn't just a nice to have, it's fundamental to a great education. 'Music and art and sport aren't add-ons to the core curriculum, they are some of the most important subjects to study, in terms of developing a child's awareness of the world around them. 'And in a more macro sense, feeding into the cultural evolution of our country and pushing civilisation on.'
