The concept of TPRO grew out of work on Towards Full Registration: A Support Kit for Schools (published by the Ministry of Education and the New Zealand Teachers Council in 2004), during which some principals and teachers raised concerns about the time and effort needed to manage and coordinate the various systems in their schools for professional development, registration, appraisal and responsibility records. Schools appeared to be operating a range of hard copy (and often separate) systems for these records, and many principals and teachers expressed their desire to manage all the information more efficiently, for both professional development and compliance purposes, especially registration.
A particular problem identified by some primary school principals in 2003 was that many Beginning Teachers / Provisionally Registered Teachers were working towards full registration by teaching part time in more than one school (over a period of time), and there were associated difficulties with the transferral and validation of records relating to their Advice and Guidance programmes. This situation was often problematic for the Principals who were finally responsible for the attestation of the BT/PRT's registration.
As a result, The Biddulph Group (www.thebiddulphgroup.net.nz) developed an independent, efficient and secure online professional records system, which supports principals and teachers and addresses issues raised by them. The development process extended over two years and involved ongoing consultation and trialling with a number of principals and teachers. NZEI, PPTA, Teachers Council and the Ministry of Education were also consulted. Schools have been using TPRO since early 2006 and the feedback from users is very positive.
Given the success of TPRO for the schooling sector and the interest expressed in TPRO by a number of Early Childhood educators, The Biddulph Group developed ECE TPRO to meet the requirements of the ECE sector. The development process included ongoing consultation with and detailed feedback from:
- a range of Early Childhood educators (including service managers)
- the New Zealand Childcare Association
- a large Kindergarten Association
- NZEI
- Teachers Council
- Ministry of Education