Wednesday, 8 October 2025
Learning Objectives:
- Understand the legal standing of school sports as a right or privilege
- Identify school obligations and risks in managing affiliated sports clubs
Description
Attend and earn 0.5 PLD hour
Attend and earn 0.5 CPD hour
* This interactive online recording includes questions and quizzes requiring critical thinking about the topics, so you have no annual limits to the number of points/hours you can claim with this format of learning. Please verify with your CPD rules
School Sports: A Legal Right, or a Privilege?
- Issues arising for schools dealing with parents raising legal challenges in respect of school sports
- Issues for schools dealing with “School clubs” often loosely associated with the school and end up running autonomously in the school’s name
Presented by James Pullar, Partner, Taylor Shaw Barristers & Solicitors
Chair
David Graham, Principal, Goodwood School
Presenters
David Graham, Principal, Goodwood SchoolDavid Graham is an experienced school leader having led three primary schools across the Waikato. He is currently the principal of Goodwood School (a primary school of 400 students) and co-leader of Te Kahūi Ako o Te Oko Horoi, the Cambridge Community of Learning. David has recently returned from the United Kingdom where he worked with the Anna Freud Centre and the national Partnership for Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools (PINS) programme. His research investigated policy and programmes which support learners who are neurodiverse, their peers and teachers.
James Pullar, Partner, Taylor Shaw Barristers & Solicitors
James is a Partner at Taylor Shaw and is the head of the Civil Litigation and Employment, and Education Law practice. He acts for a wide variety of clients including local and national businesses, School Boards of Trustees, Independent Schools around New Zealand, and private individuals. James regularly appears in the District Court and the High Court across a broad range of civil work, as well as in the Employment Relations Authority and the Employment Court. James is recognised as a senior litigator and employment lawyer. He advises our clients in respect of issues that arise in a workplace environment. This includes disciplinary investigations, strategic advice on restructuring processes, and personal grievances. In civil litigation, James has developed specialist expertise in insurance law, negligence, contractual disputes, as well as contentious trust and estate matters. James also advises clients in relation to matters that arise in a School environment, including suspensions and exclusions, resolving complaints, staff issues, and property matters. James is an active contributor to New Zealand Law Society programmes, including Employment Law conferences and seminars, and the annual Young Lawyers’ Mooting Competition. He currently sits on both the NZLS (Canterbury-Westland) Employment Law Committee and Special Events Committee and is a previous convenor of the Junior Practitioners’ Committee.
