Ray Burkhill
Accredited Facilitator (English-medium) and Project Lead - TER
Qualifications
Master of Education (First Class Hons) – University of Canterbury
Post Graduate Diploma in Education – University of Canterbury
Graduate Certificate in Education – University of Leicester (UK)
Professional experience
Ray has worked for CORE Education since 2012. During this time he has worked across a range of contexts, as project leader for the Connected Learning Advisory, a navigator in the Grow Waitaha programme supporting Christchurch schools and working extensively with schools as a facilitator in the Learning with Digital Technologies programme.
More recently, Ray has supported Kāhui Ako, supporting leaders to plan for, implement and evaluate cluster-wide initiatives designed to help raise student achievement.
Currently, Ray is kaitiaki for the Futures impact area within Grow Waitaha and leads the Grow Waitaha Ōtautahi CORE team.
Prior to working at CORE, Ray was Deputy Principal at Linwood College in Christchurch, where he was responsible for planning and facilitating professional development programmes. He also has twenty years’ experience as a teacher of science, physics and electronics, both in New Zealand and the UK. For almost four years, Ray worked in the Christchurch Ministry of Education office, supporting local schools with resourcing and governance training.
Expertise
Ray has expertise in the following areas:
Supporting clusters of schools
Visioning; developing a collaborative culture across clusters; evaluating the impact of cluster-wide initiatives.
Digital fluency
Strategic planning for implementation of digital technologies to help raise student achievement; using digital technologies to support learning across the curriculum; evaluating the impact of digital technologies on teaching and learning.
Managing change
Working alongside school leaders to plan for and evaluate initiatives; understanding the nature, place and potential of student voice; consulting with staff, whānau and students; using educational research to support arguments for change.
Mentoring
Supporting teachers and leaders to reflect on their practice, identify enablers and blockers and develop action plans to achieve their goals.
Data management
Providing advice and support to schools seeking to optimise their strategic use of student achievement data.
Teaching as inquiry
Helping schools and individual teachers to raise student achievement through a process of professional inquiry based around the spiral of inquiry model.
Conference presentations, keynotes, seminars, workshops
2016: uLearn presentation on strategic planning for digital technologies
Personal statement
My educational philosophy is based on the principle of social equity and the belief that students from all backgrounds deserve the same opportunities to grow and participate as well informed, agentic citizens.
Over 25 years as a teacher, school leader and facilitator in the UK and NZ, I have maintained a healthy scepticism of education ‘magic bullets’, preferring instead to rely on well-founded research and professional inquiry as a means towards making education a visible and understandable process for teachers and students.
