Tools to Support Confident School Leadership and Governance
uLead Education tools are purpose-built to support school leaders and boards with practical planning and confident decision-making in a complex and changing education environment. Developed by education consultant Stephen Harrison, each tool reflects deep knowledge of New Zealand’s education system and the real challenges faced by schools.
These tools are designed to help leadership teams move beyond reactive responses by providing clear, evidence-informed insights into staffing, resourcing, and entitlement planning. They support stronger governance, more effective use of resources, and greater confidence when making forward-looking decisions.
Used on their own or alongside Personalised support from uLead Education, these tools enable school leaders and boards to plan ahead with clarity and make decisions that are well-informed, defensible, and focused on student outcomes.
Managing staffing entitlement is one of the most complex and high‑risk responsibilities for school leaders and boards. Each school is allocated a staffing entitlement, funding one year of full‑time teacher equivalents (FTTEs). How that entitlement is used is a local board decision — and it must be actively monitored to ensure the school achieves a nil balance by pay period 22.
The uLead Education Payroll Manager has been developed specifically to help schools do this accurately, efficiently, and with confidence.
School staffing in New Zealand is centrally managed by the Ministry of Education, with schools allocated Full-Time Teacher Equivalents (FTTEs) based primarily on student roll numbers. Entitlements are adjusted annually and influenced by a range of additional factors, including learning support (ORS) and special circumstances.
At the same time, significant teacher shortages — particularly in primary schools — continue to impact the system nationally, making forward staffing decisions increasingly complex.
The uLead Education Staffing Forecaster, developed by Education Consultant Stephen Harrison, is designed to help schools make sense of this complexity by modelling how changes in roll numbers are likely to impact staffing entitlements across the year.