
NEXT Foundation Review
NEXT was launched with the vision of creating a legacy of environmental and educational excellence for the benefit of future generations of Aotearoa New Zealanders.
NEXT was launched with the vision of creating a legacy of environmental and educational excellence for the benefit of future generations of Aotearoa New Zealanders.
Predator Free 2050 Ltd has announced new funding available for some regions, and for developing new predator free tools and technologies.
One in 15 New Zealand teachers have upskilled in technology through a NEXT sponsored postgraduate programme run by The Mind Lab. The 4000 primary and secondary teachers have graduated with a Postgraduate Certificate in Digital and Collaborative learning.
Congratulations to historian and author Dr Philip Simpson whose book Down the Bay – a history of the Abel Tasman National Park – has been selected as a finalist in the Ockham NZ Book Awards.
Iconic environmentalist Dir David Attenborough has given New Zealand’s ambitious plans to become Predator Free the the thumbs up – telling our Prime Minister Jacinda Arden that the “knees of rats shake when New Zealand is near.
Five years ago Rotorua schools were competing for students. Ngā Pūmanawa e Waru, a backbone educational initiative NEXT invested in since 2015 has changed that.
What does the wrybill – an endangered NZ bird with a wonky bill – have to do with saving NZ’s biodiversity? Former Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Dr Jan Wright explains why – and talks about her new conservation challenge in this edition of NEXT Outlook.
Business success is a relative term. It may mean you’ve built a business, helped build a business, or done very well in the business you work in – to the point where personal comfort and security are no longer an issue.
Could data commons be the the tool kit
for the ambitious goal of making New Zealand
Predator Free by 2050?
Strategic philanthropy (including NEXT), social bonds, ethical funds management and social enterprise trends
are featured in this report by Chapman Tripp released this week.
Impact investment – trends and insights is a report written
by friend of NEXT Phillippa Wilkie.
NEXT Foundation is one of the investors
in the Te Manahuna Aoraki conservation
project – which will eliminate pests and
predators from the Upper McKenzie Basin
and Aoraki Mount Cook National Park.
NEXT is excited to announce a new environmental investment – we are founding partners in a collaboration restoring the biodiversity in the Upper McKenzie basin and Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park, announced today.
NEXT environmental initiative Project Janszoon – which
is restoring the biodiversity in the Abel Tasman National
Park- came in for special attention this week when A list
royals Prince Harry and his new wife Meghan visited the
Park.
Are rats using storm water drains to get around Wellington? That report and more updates in the latest edition of a Predator Free Wellington’s newsletter.
Two teachers from College Street Normal
School in Palmerston North have been awarded the
NEXT Expert Teacher Award after completing a postgraduate
course at The Mind Lab.
Waiheke Island has secured funding
to help eradicate rats and stoats from
the island – and a chance to become
the world’s first predator free urban island.
Radio New Zealand filed this report.
Weather and possums – two
of the many challenges Zero
Invasive Predators is facing
removing predators from the mainland –
in a trial at the Perth Valley on the West Coast.
Wellington city is on a mission to become the first
Predator Free City in the world – and no rat is safe-
not even in student flats! A group called Traplordz
has been formed to tackle the rats in students flats-
as this report in Stuff explains.
Philanthropy plays a crucial part in improving New Zealand society, with private funds stepping in to ease the country’s shortfalls. But what entices people to give away large chunks of their money, and how is the sector evolving?
One hundred Kauri seedlings – from the
iconic Colin McCahon House, have a new home
on NEXT environmental initiative Rotoroa Island.
The seedlings have been planted on the island to
try and save them from the deadly disease Kauri dieback.
The NEXT supported education
initiative Summer Learning Journey
is helping achieve better literacy
results of students who participate
in the programme over the school holidays.
As this University of Auckland Annual Donors Report report says
those students who join the programme are helping to
stave off the “summer slump” – and achieve significantly higher writing and reading scores.
“Of all the proposals we’ve seen Wellington is the strongest in terms of community at work,” NEXT advisor and Predator Free 2050 Limited spokesman Rob Fenwick commenting on the $3.2m boost for Predator Free Wellington announced this week.
Predator Free Wellington’s vision to be
the first capital city in the world to be
Predator Free got a boost this week –
to the tune of $3.2million.
Predator Free NZ 2050 Ltd announced
the financial support to the initiative
founded two years ago by NEXT, the
Wellington City Council and the Greater
Wellington Regional Council.
The Education Hub has announced Mount
Aspiring College teacher Chris Waugh has
won one of its Bright Spots Awards for innovative
teaching practice. The Wanaka Sun reports
on the details of the award – which NEXT funds.
Two Burnside Primary teachers who have
developed an innovative oral language
programme to help new entrants have been named winners
of The Education Hub’s Bright Spots Awards,
for innovative teaching practice.
Gisborne Boys High School Head of
Science Darcy Fawcett has been named
one of the winners of The Education Hub’s
Bright Spots Awards. Darcy has developed
a data interpretation tool to determine if teachers improvements
in practice are effective.
A group of school children from Omaha
School west of New Plymouth are playing
detectives to help the Taranaki Mounga project. They are
trawling through hours of video footage to help
locate where the predators are – so the
Taranaki Mounga team know where
to target their trapping efforts.
A group of teachers from Tauhara College
in Taupo have won one of The Education Hub’s inaugural
Brights Spots Awards – for an innovative teaching
programme promoting STEM subjects at the Maori girls
college.
A group of Taupo teachers developing a programme to encourage young Māori women to enrol in STEM subjects and a Christchurch primary school designing an oral language programme for new entrants are among the winners of The Education Hub’s inaugural Bright Spots Awards, funded by NEXT Foundation, announced today.
NEXT has released a video
showcasing the environmental
initiatives it invests is – as part of its
investment focus on a Predator
Free New Zealand, and healthy rivers.
Predator Free NZ 2050 Ltd has announced
funding for Predator Free Hawkes Bay – kick starting with
$1.6million to remove possums from the Mahia Peninsula.
Philanthropy, arts, science and technology – Kea has published it’s full list
of winners of the 2018 World Class NZ awards – where NEXT founders
Neal and Annette Plowman took out the Supreme Award.
NEXT Founders Neal and Annette Plowman – who are helping fund
the restoration of Abel Tasman National Park – were recognised as
Supreme Winners at the Kea 2018 World Class NZ Awards.
NEXT founders Neal and Annette Plowman have been
announced 2018 Kea World Class New Zealand Supreme
Award winners. The award acknowledges their outstanding
contribution to New Zealand through their philanthropy.
NEXT Founding Chair Chris Liddell, CEO Bill Kermode, the Board and the Plowman family
have paid tribute to NEXT founders Neal and Annette Plowman, upon the announcement
they are joint recipients of the 2018 Kea World Class New Zealand Supreme Award.
NEXT founders Neal and Annette Plowman have
suggested other wealthy New Zealanders consider gifting fifty per cent of their
wealth – in their acceptance speech at the Kea World
Class New Zealand awards.
Neal and Annette Plowman are one of New Zealand’s most generous
couples. We chart their philanthropic journey over the past 15 years.
NEXT supported Cacophony Project
reports on some interesting data around the effectiveness of various
backyard traps, and how many predators they are
seeing around a trap for every one caught.
Wilderness magazine reports on the latest
innovations from NEXT supported Zero Invasive
Predators, and how they are applying new
tools and techniques to eradicating
predators from a test site in Perth
Valley, Westland.
“It’s a privilege to be able to support
teachers who want to better prepare our
future generations of New Zealanders –
there’s no more impactful place to invest in
education,” NEXT CEO Bill Kermode reflects
on the foundation’s investment in upskilling
teachers in technology through The Mind Lab.
The Cacophony Project is the “Let’s rip
up the script/ use Kiwi No 8 fencing wire ingenuity
to solve a wick problem” approach to New
Zealand becoming Predator Free – according
to this report in Stuff NZ.
PwC NEXT Young Leader
Jacob Weaver
has completed his one year
secondment. He shares his thoughts on
how the experience will shape his career.
Leith Comer – who chairs the Ngā Pūmanawa e Waru
Education Trust that NEXT supports, has been made a
Companion the Queen’s Service Order in the Queen’s
Birthday Honours.
A large-scale predator project, the biggest of its kind in New Zealand, was launched in Taranaki today supported by more than $11 million from the Government.
Taranaki aims to be the first predator-free region in the country under the project, called Taranaki Taku Tūranga – Our Place, Towards a Predator-Free Taranaki and is led by the Taranaki Regional Council.
NEXT has announced it is extending the funding
for Talking Matters – an educational initiative promoting
rich language in a baby’s first 1000 days of life.
NEXT supported initiative Zero
Invasive Predators is collaborating
with PFNZ 2050 Ltd to undertake a big
challenge on the mainland. The team is about
to start a project removing possums from
the Perth Valley – forever.
NEXT champion Frank Janssen has been awarded the Plowman medal for his
generous contribution to NEXT’s education
investments. Thank you Frank for your valuable
insights – straight talking – and your philosophy
of giving back.
Zero Invasive Predators Chief Executive, Al Bramley, shares his insights on the Power of Two – the collaboration
between the Department of Conservation and NEXT
to form ZIP.
Al details the journey of ZIP as it
develops tools and techniques to remove predators
from the mainland – and shares his belief that the PFNZ 2050 will
happen – but it will take the power of many.
Predator Free Community Champion Kelvin Hastie
– who NEXT supported for three years, discusses
the return of native birds in Wellington with Jesse
Mulligan on RNZ.
The Government has flagged extra
funding for Predator Control in next week’s
budget.
Taranaki Mounga is coming back to life!
Another 50 toutouwai – the endangered
North Island Robin, have been released
as part of the restoration initiative NEXT supports.
Wellington is aiming to be the first Predator Free
Capital City in the world – and as Newsroom reports,
there are serious signs in the suburbs that backyard
trappers are making a difference.
The Abel Tasman National Park has been given the tick of approval as a home for pāteke, with the population of rare native ducks increasing dramatically.
NEXT Foundation is celebrating four years since its launch in 2014 – and now supports sixteen environmental and education initiatives.
Thirteen of those investments have been made since the foundation’s inception – and three are continuing support for projects started before NEXT’s launch.
“The Bright Spots Awards are another opportunity for us to support examples of excellence in practice in New Zealand education. We are delighted to be able to partner with The Education Hub in them,” NEXT CEO Bill Kermode commenting on the new awards for teacher innovation, supported by NEXT.
Two teachers have been selected as the
winners of the NEXT Expert Teacher Award
at the Mind Lab by Unitec Postgraduate Certificate
in Applied Practice graduation held this week.
The Mind Lab by Unitec has launched a new
education platform today to enable teachers to develop the skills and understanding to
deliver the new digital technologies curriculum. NEXT is supporting the new
Digital Passport initiative as a natural progression from its investment in sponsoring
teachers to undertake The Mind Lab’s postgraduate technology qualification.
Forty-five university graduates and career changers have begun a new profession this year –
teaching at some of New Zealand’s lowest income communities. They are the Teach First NZ:
Ako Mātātupu 2018 cohort – a NEXT supported initiative addressing inequality in our
education system.
Wellington has ramped up its efforts
to become the first Predator Free capital city
in the world – giving it extra priority in the
draft 10 year plan released this week.
A new predator control project is in the pipeline which
could be significant in New Zealand’s ambitous goal to
be Predator Free by 2050. NEXT supported Zero Invasive
Predators is planning an intensive operation near Whataroa – where
the Perth River could act as a natural barrier to keep predators
out – forever.
‘The benign neglect of Māori and Pacific Island children
in our education system is a disgrace. The Manaiakalani
digital education programme for low income earners is a triumph-
it is liberating these children who have been ignored too long.
Tai has been successfully sniffing out whio in Taranaki. He is one of the first Conservation Dogs certified to locate whio in the region and has helped to locate a record number of 64 whio chicks on eight rivers this season.
More than 500 primary and
intermediate schoolchildren from
low decile Manaiakalani schools have
been blogging over the holidays under
the NEXT supported Summer Learning
Journey. Seven Sharp journalist Michael Holland caught
up with two girls from St Pius X school in
Auckland to check out what the programme and
the “summer slump” is all
about.
“The Tomorrow Accord has emerged as a
blueprint for private/public conservation that
is … probably here to stay”. Wilderness
magazine reports on the groundbreaking
agreement between the Government and
NEXT Foundation to ensure environmental
gains are guaranteed by future governments.
“I learnt classical music so I could get out of study and hide in the music rooms…” Mike Chunn – friend of NEXT, music mentor and Play it Strange Trust CEO
takes us back to where his passion for music began – how Split Enz was born –
and how NEXT and his music charity are travelling side by side
for a better New Zealand.
“Students who didn’t practice
or flex their literary muscles over summer experienced a
loss of literary fitness that took lots of hard work
and training to regain .
The NZ Government has granted the iconic
Taranaki mountain a “legal personality.” The Chairman of
the NEXT supported Taranaki Mounga project; and Chief negotiator
for the Taranaki iwi Jamie Tuuta has described it as “significant to
Maori people nationwide.
Project Janszoon; a NEXT supported environmental initiative
restoring Abel Tasman National Park, has
published its 2017 annual report.
Click here to read the report.
Taranaki Mounga, a NEXT supported
environmental initiative restoring
the National Park; has published its
2017 annual report.
Click here to read the report
For our final newsletter of 2017 we bring you the wisdom of the wonderful
leaders in education and the environment that NEXT supports. We asked them for a short quote or anecdotal story that resonates with them.
“Often the arteries of government policy fail to be implemented within the capillaries of the community . . . ” a blog from NEXT CEO Bill Kermode following a recent visit to US philanthropic organisations.
“Summer Learning Journey is an excellent example of a well structured education innovation with robust evidence and a scalable model,” – NEXT CEO Bill Kermode in the NZ Herald, in a report about NEXT’s latest education investment.
A blogging programme for school children – to help them maintain academic grades over the summer holidays – is to expand significantly with support from NEXT Foundation.
The Summer Learning Journey has been developed through a partnership with Manaiakalani teachers and the Woolf Fisher Research Centre at the University of Auckland to counter the “Summer Slump” – where school students can lose a year or more of their academic progress in writing when they break for the six-week summer holiday.
The NEXT supported environmental
initiative The Cacophony Project has
made significant gains in developing
heat cameras to help detect predators –
an effective tool in the ambitous
goal towards Predator Free NZ 2050.
Conservationists are celebrating
at NEXT supported environmental
initiative Taranaki Mounga after
three Toutouwai/North Island robin
breeding pairs were discovered with chicks.
It is the first time the species has
bred on the Mounga for 112 years.
NEXT supported environmental
initiative ZIP has had some great
success in a predator eradication
trial in South Westland.
The aim was to rid the area completely
of rats and possums using a modified
method of aerial predator control.
NEXT Foundation has announced it is investing in an educational support programme for new parents and their babies – SPACE.SPACE for you and your baby is a programme run through early childhood education and community organisations offering parent education, parent support and community connectedness.
NEXT is privileged to have the support of
PwC as part of our vision to make New Zealand
a better place for our land and our people.
“If any country can pull off an eradication blitzkrieg
New Zealand can..” International recognition for
New Zealand’s ambitious Predator free 2050 goal
in an article in bioGraphic, part of the California
Academy of Science.
The NEXT supported education initiative
Ngā Pūmanawa e Waru was recently
selected as a finalist for the prestigious
Rotorua Westpac Business Excellence Awards.
The Rotorua district-wide initiative brings together the best of teacher practice coupled with an appropriate future focused learning pedagogy with the endorsement and support from parents, caregivers, community, business and iwi.
In this newsletter – The Cacophony Project reveals developments with a high resolution heat camera to better detect predators. It’s part of its mission to bring information technology into predator management.
Naturalist and environmental advocate Ruud Kleinpaste talks to NewstalkZB about how collaboration is the key for a Predator Free NZ. NEXT Predator Free Community Champion Kelvin Hastie and the Wellington City Predator Free Project come in for special mention.
Taranaki Mounga and Taranaki Kiwi Trust have teamed
up to give kiwis released onto the Mounga a better
chance of survival.
As this video shows, some of the kiwis released onto the Mounga this month have been fitted with transmitters
for better protection.
One of the education initiatives NEXT
Invests in – Springboard Trust – is celebrating its 10th birthday.
Springboard offers strategic leadership advice to school principals and in the video below its Chairman Ian Narev outlines its success over the past decade.
New innovations in possum trapping,
rat detection and new prescriptions for
1080 are highlighted in the ZIP annual
report published this week.
NEXT invests in ZIP – which
is at the forefront of developing new technology
to assist with the challenge of New Zealand
being Predator Free by 2050.
The endangered takahē – once thought to
be extinct, has now reached a population of 300.
Radio NZ reports on the history and recovery efforts
of this unique species.
NEXT’s environmental initiative Rotoroa Island is home
to a breeding pair of takahē and a chick as part of an innovative
conservation programme between DOC, Auckland Zoo and Rotoroa Island.
Friend of NEXT Annette Culpan offers up some advice on when charities are investment ready – including some insights from NEXT CEO Bill Kermode.
NEXT environmental advisor Sir Rob Fenwick talks conservation and farming on this week’s episode on TV One’s Country Calendar.
Do you have an ambitious Predator Free
project and looking for funding?
PFNZ2050 is inviting applications in its inaugural
EOI funding round. Applications close in
October.
Sandy Bornholdt from Mt Manganui’s Te Kura o Matapihi has been recognised as the country’s top digital teacher, winning the prestigious NEXT Expert Teacher Award at The Mind Lab by Unitec’s graduation in Auckland last week.
“He waka eke noa.. we are all in this together. We need help, let’s paddle the waka together..” Jamie Tuuta, Maori Trustee, CEO Te Tumu Paeroa, Chair Taranaki Mounga, on kaupapa Maori iwi and philanthropy, shares his insights into Maoridom today; philanthropy – and how iwi and philanthropists can work together for a better New Zealand.
Technology is helping parents realise the benefits of richer language with babies
in their first 1000 days – the New Zealand Herald report on the device being
trialled by NEXT education initiative Talking Matters.
In the NEXT September Newsletter we highlight our education investment in the First 1000 days
with an opinion piece from the Children’s Commissioner; and some technology trials in Talking Matters.
We also bring you an environmental update from Project Janszoon and introduce some young Canterbury songwriters
in our Meet the Musicians series.