Education Gazette 99.9

15 June 2020 | Vol. 99 No. 9

Lunches for learners

Expanding the School Lunches Programme Arts nurture creativity and wellbeing

Taking steps to raise learner agency

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Spotlight on the arts Editor’s note The Free and Healthy School Lunches Programme currently provides lunches to around 8,000 children. As many as 200,000 learners will soon benefit from the initiative, thanks to a Budget 2020 announcement that will see the programme expanded to more schools nationwide. In this issue, we talk to one of the first schools to embrace the initiative – Murupara Area School.

We also explore how teachers and students around the country used the creative and performing arts to support creativity and wellbeing during lockdown and the transition back to school life. Although arts programmes were disrupted due to Covid-19, many teachers explored innovative ways for their students to work within their bubbles, making the most of digital technology and video conferencing platforms.

Among the disrupted programmes is the popular Showquest. Fortunately for the students and teachers involved, the competition will proceed in an alternative digital format. We can’t wait to see what emerges from our talented tamariki!

15 June 2020 | Vol. 99 No. 9

On the cover

Lunches for learners

Expanding the School Lunches Programme Arts nurture creativity and wellbeing

Taking steps to raise learner agency

P2: Amaia from Kaiti School enjoys her lunch from the School Lunches Programme, which is set to expand to other schools.

Regulars 30

Notices

36

Vacancies

2

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“It’s not just about free lunches in schools”: the programme that’s making a difference

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10 Arts support innovation and wellbeing

Nurturing creativity and wellbeing

Outdoor classroom honours legacy

The Showquest must go on

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16 22

Getting back into the swing of things

One school’s journey to raising learner agency

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28

Tertiary and trades Investing in a vision for training package welcome early learning

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TUKUTUKU KŌRERO 15 June 2020

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BUDGET 2020

The Free and Healthy School Lunches Programme is set to expand to more schools.

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Education Gazette 15 June 2020

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BUDGET 2020

“It’s not just about free lunches in schools”: the programme that’s making a difference The Free and Healthy School Lunches Programme is making a positive difference for learners and communities of many schools, including Murupara Area School. A Budget 2020 initiative will see the programme expanded to more schools around New Zealand.

M

urupara Area School was one of the first schools in the country to implement the Free and Healthy School Lunches Programme. But they don’t talk about free lunches; the emphasis is firmly on healthy lunches.

“Because it’s for all of our children, not just those who may not have access to enough food all the time,” explains principal Dr Angela Sharples.

“It’s not about poverty. It’s actually about teaching about healthy nutrition. It does meet a need that was already evident around food security, but more than that, it’s about the teaching and learning; it’s about how it sits within our wellbeing programmes.”

Murupara Area School, located in the remote forestry town of Murupara in the central North Island, opened in October 2016 and has made health and wellbeing a firm focus ever since. The school has just under 300 students from Year 1–13.

Consistent access to food for children is an area of concern for the community. The school had various food support initiatives in place already, including KidsCan and Milk in Schools.

After attending a Ministry of Education-led workshop on the school lunches initiative, Angela decided it would align well with Murupara Area School’s existing programmes, particularly the Healthy Active Learning Programme, a key focus for the school.

The school was pleased to be in the first tranche of 59 schools to participate in the two-year pilot programme.

The Free and Healthy School Lunches Programme aims to reduce food insecurity by providing access to a nutritious lunch every day.

Research indicates that reducing food insecurity for children and young people improves health and wellbeing; supports child development and learning; improves learners’ levels of concentration, behaviour and school achievement; reduces financial hardship amongst families and whānau; and addresses barriers to children’s participation in education and promotes attendance at school.

“Because we’re a new-build school, all our gardens have been planted to be edible. Nothing is allowed to be planted on the school site that is not edible. So this initiative [healthy school lunches] really aligned with our whole whakapapa about whanaungatanga and manaakitanga and our focus on health,” says Angela.

Supporting the community In addition to supporting their learners, the board of trustees also saw the initiative as a way of supporting their local community.

“We wanted to provide employment for our community here so that we maximise the opportunity for everyone, not just the children.”

So rather than contracting a commercial company, Manawa Munchies was established to deliver the service, providing direct employment for three people in the community.

The school took part in food safety training, which included how to work with the Food Control Plan for the School Lunches Programme, developed by the Ministry for Primary Industries.

“This initiative really aligned with our whole whakapapa about whanaungatanga and manaakitanga and our focus on health.”

Dr Angela Sharples

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BUDGET 2020

FLAG

Sistema added its support to the initiative with lunch boxes for the children.

Toi Te Ora, the public health arm of both Bay of Plenty and Lakes District Health Boards, provided access to a nutritionist to support the development of healthy menus.

The school entered into a positive relationship with Whakatane District Council to use one of their facilities close to the school because the school didn’t have anywhere to prepare the food. If provision of lunches in schools becomes part of New Zealand education culture, Angela says she would love to see wharekai become part of school property, to enable schools to prepare food on site.

And Sistema have also come on board to support the initiative, donating reusable ‘Bento Lunch Boxes’ to the programme. The lunchboxes have individual compartments that cut out the need for single use plastic waste.

“I approached Sistema with the idea, and they decided this was a wonderful thing that they would support nationwide. We wanted to use sustainable options,” says Angela.

How it’s working Angela says there are very few fussy eaters at Murupara Area School.

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Education Gazette 15 June 2020

Tamariki at Murupara Area School enjoy their lunch together.

“For the first little while we had some children who didn’t want to eat carrots or tomatoes or whatever it was that they didn’t like – but because we have a very clear policy that if a child doesn’t want to eat something, there’s no fuss made about that.”

Any food children don’t want to eat is put on the koha table. Children with larger appetites may take food from the koha table.

“It’s good for them, but it’s also good for the children who didn’t want to try things. No one makes a fuss about it and then in a day or two they’re more likely to think, ‘hmm, if everyone else is eating the tomatoes, I’ll give that a go’.”

Is it making a difference?

Anecdotally, they are already seeing improvements in behaviour and student engagement.

“Teachers say that students are more settled and more willing to learn. We haven’t seen significant improvements in attendance but we’re not hearing lack of food as a reason for not coming to school. Parents are often embarrassed if their child doesn’t have anything to bring to school.”

But Angela sees the major benefit as the lifelong learning that’s happening around healthy eating.

While it’s early days for the programme, especially with the interruption of Covid-19, Angela says it has helped to bring the school together.

“It’s about teaching children about healthy eating so that they develop the skills for their own whānau – so that when they’re grown up they know about all these healthy foods, they know how to prepare them, they know the tastes and what goes with what.

“We now have routine around eating together.

We have karakia and then the children sit to eat before they go and play. Children serve other children so there’s a whole lot of social interaction that’s really positive around the sharing of kai.”

“So there’s all that learning and how that sits with healthy body, healthy mind. Then there’s the flow-on benefits to the wider community in terms of providing business opportunities, skills and employment. It’s not just about free lunches in schools.” gazette.education.govt.nz

Expanding the School Lunches Programme The Free and Healthy School Lunches Programme currently provides daily lunches to 8,000 children, but an expansion of the programme as announced in Budget 2020 will see around 200,000 students benefit from the initiative.

Expanding the programme is also expected to create around 2,000 jobs in local communities. Schools can decide whether to deliver lunches themselves or outsource to an external supplier. The Ministry of Education is supporting schools with this process as required.

The programme targets schools facing the greatest socio-economic barriers. At the moment it is targeted mainly at Year 1–8 students, however the expansion will see this rolled out to secondary schools as well.

The Budget announcement saw $216.7 million in operating and $3.9 million in capital expenditure allocated over the next 18 months to fund the expanded programme, which will be rolled out from term 4 this year.

Flaxmere Primary School is part of the School Lunches Programme and tamariki enjoy their kai together.

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WELLBEING

Getting back into the swing of things The wellbeing of children and young people remains a key focus as they return to school and settle back into school life after the Covid-19 lockdown.

The Sparklers ‘Managing Emotions’ activity 'Dramatic Emotions' produces a happy smile from a student at Breens Intermediate.

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WELLBEING

A

s schools around the country were preparing to welcome students back in May, the senior leaders of a Year 7–13 school in Milton, Otago, were making plans to support their wellbeing needs during the transition back into school. They were expecting students and teachers to have had diverse experiences of distance learning.

“We asked students to do a survey which asked them things like ‘did you feel supported by your teachers’, ‘tell us about things you’d found really good about online learning’, things they had found difficult and what things they would like to see included in their learning structure at school,” says Glenis.

However, Tokomairiro High School’s principal, Glenis Sim and deputy principal, Vicki Wish were delighted that the majority of teachers and students returned to school feeling relaxed, settled and very positive.

The students seemed to have a new appreciation of their teachers and each other.

“The range of answers was huge. There were extremes from ‘don’t change anything’ to ‘we need to change everything’. I shared the data with the staff and we broke up into groups to look at the good things, the difficult things and what they wanted to bring back to school. There was some really good discussion about what we needed to look at.”

“Mental wellbeing for teachers and students was better than we expected. There are very few students that have been identified as being of real concern in terms of their mental space,” says Glenis.

“We didn’t see the pastoral/behavioural incidents in the first week that we would normally expect to see. I was worried that there might have been a lot of online stuff going on between students during lockdown – like cyber-bullying – but in fact they have been really kind to each other on the whole. I think that’s come back into school,” says Vicki.

Since the return to school, teachers have taken time to regularly check in with students, referring them to the school counsellor when they think students may need additional support.

Good start on first day To start on the right foot, the first day back began with a ‘check and connect’ event for all classes which featured a game of Lockdown Bingo. Designed by Vicki, Lockdown Bingo was a light-hearted way for the students to share some of their lockdown experiences with their multi-year homeroom classes.

This was followed by circle time and a game of Brag and Drag – where students talked about the good and bad aspects of lockdown and distance learning.

The majority coped well Teachers were glad to be back because there were concerns that some of their students were struggling with their work and it was hard to tell how well students were coping from a distance.

“I think some of our teachers have been pleasantly surprised by the amount of work students have attempted. Online submissions of work hadn’t shown a true picture in a lot of cases,” says Vicki.

Glenis says some students struggled to do work for a variety of reasons, but many students relished working independently and in their own time.

“From the student survey we gained interesting feedback. Some absolutely loved it, they excelled doing independent work and they liked to spend a few hours on a particular subject rather than changing every hour. They’ve said they would like to carry on with that. Our task now is to see how we can incorporate those things that worked well for students into our days back at school.

“I think some of our teachers have been pleasantly surprised by the amount of work students have attempted. Online submissions of work hadn’t shown a true picture in a lot of cases.”

Vicki Wish

Education Gazette visited Tokomairiro High School in November last year. Some students, from left: Hope, Elliot, Courtney, Nicholas, Ranui, Hayley and Nate. gazette.education.govt.nz

Vicki and Glenis at Tokomairiro High School.

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WELLBEING

“They liked the fact that they didn’t get interrupted by other students and they could zone into something and stay with it until they had finished it,” she says.

Students said they value face-to-face teacher input, Vicki says, but many of the younger students found that without classroom distractions, they got through their work much quicker and ended up with more free time.

Not easy for everyone Some students reported that they found distance learning very difficult and some feel they may have got behind or had fewer learning experiences than they would have had at school.

“We have some students who didn’t have the opportunity to do as much as others because they had to look after younger siblings, or work on the farm or whatever... they might have felt anxious coming back to school because they weren’t at the same place as they knew other people were. As a staff we talked about it and the need to take stock and work out an individual plan for each student for the rest of the semester,” says Vicki.

Glenis agrees. “They couldn’t find exactly what they had to do. They didn’t have a teacher there to help them when they needed it. They didn’t like having to email and wait for an answer – they wanted to know straight away. They just wanted to be back with their teacher to help them. I think a number of our kids developed their appreciation for teachers during the lockdown and they are really happy being back in class.”

more individualised goal setting and incorporating more online learning to provide differentiated programmes for students.

Glenis and Vicki were worried that NCEA students would be stressed but say that developing individual education plans (IEPs) with each student seems to have relieved any stress they might have otherwise had.

“For some of our students in their final year, who have a university focus, there may be some anxieties around NCEA. For others planning on leaving school at the end of the year there may be worries about job availability and what the economy will look like. We may need to further customise timetables and allow students to change their mind on courses as some of their goals may have changed,” explains Vicki.

Some senior students have chosen to leave school and seek full-time employment now, and others have changed tack, realising the path they were on may not be right for them anymore.

Pastoral care With a roll of 240, staff at Tokomairiro High School know their students’ families and backgrounds well.

Changes and opportunities The insights gained from surveying the students about their distance learning experiences will result in changes at Tokomairiro High School. These include developing more autonomous learning skills across the school, looking at independent learning plans for senior classes,

“We know some families where the dynamic at home might not be really stable, so we tried to make contact with those students over the [lockdown] time to check on them. Our guidance counsellor and dean team will be checking in with those students over the coming weeks at school to see how they’re going.

“One thing we are really aware of is that peer relationships are really important for teenagers and they have missed those for seven weeks.

Some of our students will have really struggled with that because relationships are so important in a teenager’s life,” says Vicki.

The Sparklers ‘Trust and Friendship’ activity 'Up and Down' provides some connection and fun for two Breens Intermediate students.

Sparklers goes nationwide After the Christchurch earthquakes, educators and mental health professionals learned that school is the best place for children to be, says Anna Mowat from Sparklers, which is a wellbeing toolkit to help Year 1– 8 tamariki learn how to handle emotions.

“After the earthquakes, we were hearing from teachers and professionals working in schools increasing stories of kids and/ or parents being worried or anxious and teachers not quite knowing how to talk about that. We are going to find the same thing after the Covid lockdown.”

with more than 60 wellbeing activities and suggestions.

Sparklers was developed after the Canterbury earthquakes by the Canterbury District Health Board in collaboration with The Mental Health Foundation.

Anna says they were really keen to create something to help teachers help kids and parents. However, they didn’t want to focus only on children who were displaying anxiety symptoms, because wellbeing and mental health is important for everyone.

“We prepared some ideas for teachers to support the return to school after the Covid-19 lockdown, so they can just go to activities which meet their needs. They can help kids talk about how they’re feeling and learn to understand that worrying is an emotion, but it passes and we can do things to help,” says Anna.

Anna Mowat says teachers did an incredible job of holding and nurturing children when they returned to school after the earthquakes and the mosque attacks.

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Education Gazette 15 June 2020

About 7,000 teachers from all around New Zealand now subscribe to the Sparklers weekly newsletter. Teachers have embraced the comprehensive, easy-to-use resource

At the end of 2019 it was announced that Sparklers would be made available nationwide and the team began developing this at the start of the school year.

See sparklers.org.nz gazette.education.govt.nz

WELLBEING

Wellbeing resource for teachers The Five Ways to Wellbeing, Ētahi ara e rima ki te ngākau ora, have been shown to boost wellbeing. Finding ways to incorporate these actions into the work day supports workplace wellbeing.

Workplaces that prioritise mental health generally have better staff engagement, reduced absenteeism and higher productivity, and their staff have improved wellbeing, greater morale and higher job satisfaction.

The Five Ways to Wellbeing at Work Toolkit is a stepped guide to improving mental wellness in your workplace. It includes fact sheets, tips, tools and templates to make it easy for you to support your teams to build the Five Ways into their daily lives. The toolkit can be downloaded as one document or in sections.

Sparklers ‘mindfulness’ activity Hikitia te Hā at Breens Intermediate.

Resources to support wellbeing Here are some resources that teachers and parents can use to support the wellbeing of children and young people as they return to school and integrate back into the school community. » The Covid-19 Wellbeing Guide is located on the Learning from Home website. It aims to help teachers and parents to support students to develop coping skills, critical literacy, pro-social skills and a sense of agency, contributing to their wellbeing and resilience during and after the Covid-19 pandemic. The first two modules of the guide focus on wellbeing in uncertain times and learning from home. Module 3: preparing for and returning to school provides information and activities that teachers and parents/caregivers can use to support children and young people as they return to school and integrate back into the school community. It includes a wide range of information and activities ranging from games about physical distancing in early learning, to tasks relating to resilience and digital citizenship, to activities that encourage students to think about ways to ‘build back better’.

» 1737: Need to talk? This is a free number that anyone can call or text anytime to talk to a trained counsellor about yourself or someone you know who is feeling out of sorts. » Sparklers: A wellbeing toolkit for teachers of Year 1–8 students.

(See page 8.) » Te Pakiaka Tangata – Pastoral care for secondary schools: This resource, located on the Ministry of Education website contains information and advice for secondary schools responding to traumatic events such as a natural disaster or a pandemic. » Inclusive Education guides on supporting positive peer relationships; managing times of change; and behaviour and learning can all be found on the Inclusive Education TKI site.

These guides provide practical guidance for teachers to help recognise, plan for, and meet the learning and wellbeing needs of diverse learners.

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ARTS

Arts support

innovation and wellbeing Schools may have had to think differently about how they approached creative and performing arts during lockdown – however, the arts have provided a platform for enhancing students’ wellbeing at a time of uncertainty.

I

n the midst of the seriousness of Covid-19, the arts bring joy and playfulness into classrooms and provide a safe way for teachers and students to navigate the emotions, fears and questions children have about a changed world, says Professor Peter O’Connor from the University of Auckland.

“Research shows that creating fictional worlds has always helped people understand the real world, and the arts in these situations provides exactly that opportunity,” says Peter, who has led a project to support primary school teachers with an arts-based resource following the Covid-19 lockdown.

Renee, Year 12, emulates Martha Graham in a pose from American Provincials.

Te Rito Toi (teritotoi.org) provides detailed lesson plans and classroom activities designed specifically for the changed environment teachers and students now face. The resources were supplied by principals, teachers, and academics from the University of Auckland’s Faculty of Education and Social Work.

“The resources are based on years of research and practical work

by University of Auckland researchers who have worked in schools after disasters in places such as Christchurch, Japan and Samoa. We recommend teachers use an arts and wellbeing approach to engage children in this changed classroom environment,” he says.

Gateway to expressing emotions The arts offer a way to think about things that words may not be able to describe or contain and are ways for people to express their feelings.”

“People are anxious, they are unsure of the future, who to trust, how to deal with feelings of doubt. ‘Why am I for the first time scared of the dark?’ ‘Dad says we’ve lost everything – what does that mean?’ These are the sorts of questions teachers will face.

“It’s vital children learn how to name their emotions so they can talk about them. At a very simple level, the arts are the gateway to that,” says Peter.

Peter says that teachers should look after themselves as well.

Sami, Year 12, emulates Martha Graham in a pose from Clytemnestra.

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Education Gazette 15 June 2020

“Teachers need to know they don’t have to be superhuman, that the recovery from Covid will take a long time and the issues of poverty and rising inequality will impact schools for a long time. Caring for themselves first means they can care carefully for children.” gazette.education.govt.nz

ARTS

“We recommend teachers use an arts and wellbeing approach to engage children in this changed classroom environment.”

Professor Peter O’Connor

Wellbeing enhanced in Tauranga At Tauranga Girls’ College, students enjoyed being able to participate in the performing arts during the lockdown as it provided a creative outlet and gave them opportunities to be creative, innovative and engage with professionals from Aotearoa and around the world, says Caroline Gill, who is the school’s digital communications lead and teacher of dance.

“The common thread that’s come through across all departments has been that our students’ wellbeing has been enhanced by participating in the arts, and that became even more evident throughout the lockdown.

That aspect of connection and creativity, particularly, enables student wellbeing.

“Our staff across drama, dance and music say that one of the most interesting aspects of remote learning was the overwhelming engagement and involvement of students’ whānau. It’s just been phenomenal. One of my students said that her mum entered a video in a work competition which showed a dance task involving

Student kōrero Talia (Year 12) – Drama During lockdown I was fortunate not to struggle with isolation or anxiety but did suffer from intense boredom, which was mostly remedied by the performing arts.

My younger brother and I, and later my father, performed for my family often during lockdown, and these performances would be recorded and sent to close relatives that we could not meet in person.

Those performances were precious to my whānau and me as we could connect with each other under the restrictions.

My grandparents are a musical duo who often play at the Citizen’s Club, parties and markets. However, due to the Covid lockdown, their business had reached a standstill. Despite this, we were able to perform to each other and keep that art we all loved alive. They very much loved our performance and gave many helpful tips to

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counterbalances, where they were creating dance with their whānau. The work competition was for who was the most active/creative/innovative through the lockdown and they came second and won a voucher!” says Caroline.

Creative thinking Staff from across the performing arts disciplines spent the April school holidays preparing a variety of online resources and activities for students, which required a lot of ‘outside the box’ thinking.

“Rather than thinking about the proximity of the actor to the audience, students had to start to learn new skills around technology and videography. Traditionally in the performing arts, we wouldn’t generally do videography – we do a lot of live performance.

“They designed a vision board showing what technologies they would apply – that means costume, music, makeup, props. Then they had to think ‘how do we now get innovative and think about what we can use at home?’.

Tauranga Girls’ College students talk about how the performing arts helped them cope during the Covid-19 lockdown. help us develop and become better. For my grandmother’s birthday the whole family contributed to sending her a modified Happy Birthday song.

Sami (Year 12) – Dance The thing I liked most about doing performing arts work remotely was being able to spend time away from the computer while completing practical tasks. This gave me a sense of freedom away from desk work and also gave me something different to look forward to each day, as the remainder of my school subjects all consisted of written work. I also enjoyed being able to explore the different aspects of the subject (such as learning about a specific choreographer), and I feel that it has increased my knowledge of the processes that go into things such as choreography.

Ella (Year 11) – Music and Drama I enjoyed being able to practise, spend more time on, and improve on particular elements in both music and drama while in lockdown. There were some really cool online competitions and Zoom lessons too, which also was a bit of fun to give a go as well!

Doing the performing arts in lockdown was really key to keeping me motivated and giving me a ‘why’. It was so fun to connect with my friends and perform scripts and was a great way to ease stress a little bit!

I entered an online competition and I dragged my mum and family into helping out with the outfits and filming (which I think they secretly enjoyed!). It was really fun and also created some interesting dinner table conversations too.

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ARTS

“The teachers guided them through thinking about how they could still consider the audience and the students went for it themselves.

They thought about where they could set their drama to give it a time and a place and they instructed their mum, brother or sister how and where to film – they really got very creative with it.” says Caroline.

Covid-inspired melodrama School drama teacher and leader of learning, Tracey-Lynne Cody wrote a melodrama script which explored the Covid lockdown situation. Students and whānau jumped into this opportunity to explore the issues as well as the Victorian theatre form of drama.

“Drama teacher Christina Cassells worked with her children at home to model and video melodrama acting styles and then encouraged students and their whānau to do the same. We had some amazing videos.” says Caroline.

Dance inspiration The dance curriculum was ‘collapsed’ and students were given lockdown challenges to do with their bubble buddies. They engaged in international lockdown challenges such as a global isolation challenge developed by the Martha Graham Dance Company, in which students photographed themselves re-creating evocative poses from the famous dancer in their lockdown settings.

With many dance companies, such as the Royal New Zealand Ballet live-streaming performances, students were not only able to learn and be inspired by professional dances and ballets, but also engage with dancers, choreographers and artistic directors.

“Because everybody was in lockdown, people from the Royal New Zealand Ballet and Footnote New Zealand Dance were very happy to talk to our students, so we arranged Zoom meetings and our students got the opportunity to ask questions,” says Caroline.

New perceptions Prior to lockdown, students had been practising group dances, which they were unable to continue. But the enforced isolation gave them the opportunity to explore what group dance is – and could be.

Taylor-Jade and her sister Carmen-Rose create counterbalance shapes, in which weight is shared evenly between two dancers.

“The girls got thinking about the perception of group dance and whether a group dance really had to be in a physical context or whether we could actually use video technology to be able to connect and show those same key features of group dance digitally.

“We were watching a lot of online dance from all around the world and were seeing that people were using technology to engage across their homes. We had to think about how we would do something if we filmed it in all different locations, how we could use technology to have different screens so we were all performing in unison. The innovation the students were coming up with was outstanding.”

Impressive music resource The music teachers at Tauranga Girls’ College developed an online resource for students during the two-week school holiday break.

Every class had their own tailored programme they could work through. There were YouTube tutorials full of interactive links and students could all work at their own pace. Equity issues were addressed before lockdown, with equipment loaned to students.

Like their fellow performing arts students, music students were just at the point of videoing their performances. Now back at school, they are ready to perform and share with their classmates.

Eyes opened

Ella and her dad Shane working on counterbalances.

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Education Gazette 15 June 2020

“Hearing them come back buzzing about the way they engaged with their whānau and some of the activities they were provided, was really cool. Performing arts is about challenging ideas and norms. Having that opportunity to broadly look at what others are doing nationally and internationally and engage in those challenges has really opened their eyes to a whole other set of skills and opportunities that they can draw on,” says Caroline. gazette.education.govt.nz

ARTS

Visit the Education Gazette online to see teacher Christina Cassells and whānau acting a Covid-inspired melodrama to inspire drama students.

Ellie, Year 9, used twigs from the garden and dramatic makeup to bring her witch character to life.

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“I just wanted to do it for myself, to show that I’m still learning. I really wanted to show my staff that learners are for life.”

John McKinlay, Principal of Gore High School

When everyone in the classroom is a learner, everyone owns the learning.

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PERFORMING ARTS

The Showquest must go on Due to Covid-19, this year Showquest won’t be holding live events around Aotearoa – instead virtual regional events and a virtual national final will be held. But taking the much-loved performing arts showcase online has allowed organisers to broaden its scope and reach.

E

vent director Matt Ealand says that while it was not feasible to offer Showquest as live events this year, the team felt strongly that the programme should be adapted into something young people could do.

“We developed the idea of taking what students have done on stage and putting it on camera so people can watch online,” says Matt.

“Naturally this does open up some complications because some schools are well resourced with state-of-the-art technology or parents who work in a creative industry.

“So our approach is: this isn’t about who’s got the best gear, or is the most connected. This is ‘who has creative ideas and can relay those ideas well on a screen format’.”

Criteria change “Our judges’ criteria will include looking beyond a nicely shot cinematographic shot – it will be based around what is possible for anyone if they were stuck at home,” he says.

As well as filming a stage show, participants could go offstage and take more of a movie approach with different scenes and locations, or combine elements from on and off stage.

Other opportunities have also been developed that will tap into the elements of Showquest and offer creative opportunities to a wide range of students, no matter where they are located.

There will be online dance, photography, cooking and music competitions. Showquest also has a partnership with the World of Wearable Arts (WOW), who are keen to connect with and mentor young people.

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“We see the importance of having an outlet. Providing these young people that opportunity to still have that creative outlet has a positive outcome in terms of mental health and learning,” says Matt.

“We knew we had to provide something positive. Without a creative outlet, the wellbeing factor of our young people is severely impacted. If we can bring some familiarity back to young people’s world, hopefully that will be a positive outcome for them.”

Positive feedback Matt says that feedback from teachers has been overwhelmingly positive.

“We see this as a really great opportunity to encompass more students within the event. While we have the tech elements within the traditional event on stage – we have a video wall – it’s only an optional part of the Showquest entry.

“We’re very conscious of including the technology element to widen the opportunities for other students.

“This is just a great opportunity for those kids to be involved and hopefully bring the school more together in creating a bit more excitement around what they are doing as a collective. Our great hope will be that while we’re limited to how many students can be on stage during the live events, this platform will allow many more students to play a part in the whole production.”

See showquest.nz for more information.

gazette.education.govt.nz

CREATIVE ARTS

Creatives in Schools The Creatives in Schools programme partners schools and kura with creatives. Applications for Creatives in Schools Round 2 will open late June 2020, with details to be updated on the Arts Online TKI website.

Our recent Gazette article ‘Creative scheme enriches Banks Peninsula community’ outlines how Okains Bay School, one of 34 schools selected for the Creatives in Schools programme, enabled students to engage with local artisans and artists to explore the rich Māori and colonial history of their area.

“We knew we had to provide something positive. Without a creative outlet, the wellbeing factor of our young people is severely impacted.”

Matt Ealand

Photograph supplied by Showquest NZ. gazette.education.govt.nz

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CREATIVITY

Nurturing creativity and wellbeing -

Benee’s advice for students For award-winning Kiwi singer-songwriter Benee (Stella Bennett), lockdown was a chance to let her creativity flourish. Here, she shares with Education Gazette her advice to students on nurturing their creativity and managing stress and anxiety.

Q: What was your experience of lockdown?

Benee: “I mean I think… from talking to my friends, all of us have been feeling really anxious. The whole lockdown thing’s been really scary and weird. I felt kind of caged not being able to get out and stuff. I definitely (experienced) being scared and the whole anxiety thing.”

Q: How did you cope with those feelings of anxiety?

“I have found so much comfort in writing songs and in music… it’s like a diary out of my head for me, you know? You can say anything, and that has been really helpful. I can write a couple of songs and then think, gee I feel really good.”

Q: So your creativity flourished during lockdown?

“I set up a little studio in my room and I had more time. I’ve got my guitar and used Logic on my computer. I was able to go into the studio too… but really, all you need is a microphone to record with. I even used the mic on my computer! You can use GarageBand (Mac) for recording at home too – it’s free and you don’t even have to download anything.”

Q: So has one of the advantages of being stuck in lockdown meant you were able to finish a song from start to finish with fewer interruptions?

“Weirdly yes! Like I wasn’t running around and there weren’t lots of distractions, so yeah I can focus on a song and it’s nice! So maybe yes...

I can now get a whole song done pretty fast on my own. When I’m in the studio, I have really good producers – Josh Fountain and Djeisan Suskov; they are wizards on production, and they’ll whip up a beat, but yeah, I think I have gotten faster.”

"Everyone’s in the same weird, scary waka, and it’s ok to feel anxious."

Benee 16

Education Gazette 15 June 2020

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CREATIVITY

Q: How important are your producers?

“They’re incredibly important, it’s crazy. For example I’ve been working with Josh now for at least three years; he’s taught me so much about how to craft a song. You need to have a really good relationship with producers because you know as a songwriter I’m sharing my ideas and I’m very vulnerable.”

Q: You made the bold move a while back to change direction two weeks into a new tertiary course. Tell us about how you navigated your learning pathway.

“I thought I had it all figured out, you know? I liked school and I wanted to go to uni. But when I got there, to be honest, I just felt like it would be the worst thing to keep going. I just knew if I didn’t follow through and give myself the chance to try it (music) then I’d be unhappy and I didn’t want that… I mean, if you have the chance to be happy and follow what you really love, it is definitely worth it.”

Q: How can teachers help nurture students’ creativity? “… for me, I have dyslexia, I struggled in English even though I loved writing. I wish I’d had assignments with more freedom… I needed more options that were creative, more free thinking. I loved creative writing, but the topics were always ones the teachers got to choose, and the guidelines were really strict… but the best stuff you write, always comes from what you’re interested in – I mean look at song writing.”

Q: What would be your top writing tips for the poets, storytellers and songwriters out there?

“What kind of works for me, whether I’m humming or out walking, is just jotting down random ideas, it might just be one word or one little idea. Record everything, put it in your phone notes, your diary, write it all down, and if you have a beat, voice memo it, it’s just really important to record all the ideas you have when they pop up.”

Q: Where to from here for you, post-Covid lockdown?

“Well, I was supposed to be on tour this whole time [lockdown] so that got put on hold, but Covid has meant New Zealand artists have been networking and talking together. I’ve definitely been thinking. I am so keen to put on a show!”

Q: What is your top tip for students who are feeling anxious about school, assessments and their future pathways?

“I think the important thing is to tell people. I think a lot of people are feeling the same way. For me and my friends, they reached out to me.

Everyone’s in the same weird, scary waka, and it’s ok to feel anxious.

Just speak to someone about it, keep Zooming; it’ll be ok.”

Q: If you were given a class of students to work with, what would you do?

“I think that song writing should be a big part of the curriculum. And there should be assignments where students can write a song and sing or perform their work. It’s creative writing, it doesn’t have to be done a certain way.”

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DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES

One school’s journey to raising learner agency Prior to Covid-19, Waitaha School was on a journey to developing better use of digital technologies in an effort to enhance learner agency. Nothing could have prepared them for how invaluable this learning and development would become as the pandemic took hold and learning shifted to students’ homes – or for how their experiences of learning during lockdown have set them up for success going forward.

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aitaha School is a specialist education school in Canterbury split over four sites. It has just over 100 students aged 5 to 21, whom principal Maureen Allan refers to as “superheroes”.

Staff and superheroes alike have learned a lot from their time in lockdown, reflects Maureen, as Waitaha School embraces learning at Level 2.

But the learning started long before anyone had even heard of Covid-19.

PLD best preparation Last year, with Professional Learning and Development (PLD) funding from the Ministry of Education, Waitaha School engaged consultant Matt Richards from Learning Architects to help them raise learner agency supported by digital technologies. The consultant worked with a group of teachers – Da Champions – to explore and create possibilities for digital learning and children with disabilities.

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By the end of 2019, the school had built knowledge, courage and excitement. It invested in a range of digital technologies including 360-degree cameras and Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and gaming equipment. The school began to change the way it worked, using the 360 cameras to connect staff across all four sites for the daily morning briefings.

The 2020 school year began with a workshop, led by the consultant, aimed at supporting all staff to get on board. Maureen says initially the challenge was how to scaffold and support the staff who were worried about embracing technologies, while at the same time helping the enthusiasts to continue to develop.

“We made it really clear that you don’t have to be a whizz-bang technology person to do this.

I can tell you, I am not,” says Maureen.

Visit the Education Gazette YouTube channel to see a video of Waitaha School’s experience of learning during lockdown.

“Communication was beginning to flourish in a different way. But most importantly we were seeing rich engagement.”

Then, Covid-19 And then, Covid-19 came along and the school prepared to hit the pause button.

“But it didn’t stop! It grew and flourished – the platform of learning and confidence my staff had experienced over the previous year began to pay off,” says Maureen.

The week prior to Level 4, as Covid-19 was beginning to make its presence felt around the globe, the school launched into ‘what if?’ mode.

“We kept challenging staff with their thinking. What would we do? How can we use technology to share learning, to connect at the syndicate levels, our learning spaces? gazette.education.govt.nz

DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES

“Again, they chewed it around and came up with some really clever ideas. Ok, we’re already using Seesaw as a platform of sharing. We know about Google Hangout – we can use that. Ooh, there’s Google Meet, there’s Google Classroom, we know about Zoom.

“So at that stage, each learning space talked about how they could use a different medium, the one that suited the needs of their students plus their skillset in the best possible way.”

Connecting with whānau Waitaha School’s focus was on harnessing these tools and exploring ways that they could get into the homes of their learners to continue their learning.

“The level of engagement with our families has really flourished,” says Maureen.

“We are the invitees into their homes and we’re seeing our parents interact with their young gazette.education.govt.nz

person. We’re also seeing how challenging it can be for our parents, the pressures they’re under.

“We can see the way they connect with our students and how they can lead them to learning. And we can see the absolute joy and love. It’s an absolute privilege.”

Maureen says her teachers have told her that when life returns to post-Covid normality, they intend to pick up the phone and ring their students’ families more, simply to check in and stay connected.

“I think hearing that from my staff – I don’t need to hear anything else. Because that in terms of our home-school partnership is tremendous.”

Waitaha staff are also thinking about conducting their Individual Learning Programme process differently in the future.

“Instead of parents coming to school to participate in the ILP, we’re going into the home. We shouldn’t expect our parents, who are already really busy, to drop everything and come to school when we can come to them.”

Mahi kāinga in action Waitaha School refers to learning from home as mahi kāinga.

“I think this helps take away that whole stigma of ‘this is that digital technology stuff’. It’s actually mahi kāinga; we’re working inside your home,” says Maureen.

The Waitaha School community embraced mahi kāinga: cooking lessons, music sessions, daily Google Meets that replicated circle time, teachers sharing videos that can be watched live or at a time that suits.

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DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES

Principal Maureen Allan says home-school partnerships have strengthened during lockdown and she is keen to see relationships with whānau continue to grow.

“I was fortunate to Zoom into a music session. And it was gorgeous.

One of the students was out with his mum on a walk and they knew the Google Music session was coming in at this time – so they stopped their walk and using mum’s phone he was in the classroom. How good is that?

“I also watched a video of a lesson with a teacher and a learning assistant and two of my students on recycling. The teacher and the learning assistant hadn’t rehearsed it but it was absolutely seamless.

And the two students, one of them – remembering that our students have intellectual disabilities – one of these students, I’ve never seen sit still for so long,” says Maureen.

Waitaha Learning Channel

we know they can access learning. We’ve also got children we work with who are in mainstream schools – again the learning channel will be there for them.”

Raising learner agency Maureen says they have witnessed an incredible rise in student agency over the lockdown period.

“One of our high school students, for example, has high anxiety and he doesn’t speak a lot at school. Whoa – he’s our news reporter now! He’s got a voice. And he’s using his voice. He’s engaging. He engages in the morning sessions, whereas at school he just wasn’t able to. So that’s been an amazing celebration.”

As a result of all the videos and digital resources created during the lockdown period, the school decided to launch the Waitaha Learning Channel.

Up to 80 people virtually joined the Friday assemblies, listening to the karakia led by the head girl, joining in the school waiata and celebrating student success.

“Move over Suzy Cato! The learning channel is something we’ll continue to curate and we’ll have it operating forever. Sometimes our children and young people need to spend some time in hospital, so if the channel’s there

And it’s not just student progress that is worthy of praise. Maureen says the weeks in lockdown gave staff the opportunity to really explore

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More connected than ever

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Become a leader in education digital technologies and grow their competency and confidence. The time has also really helped bolster teamwork.

“It’s really built more collaboration than actually being at school and saying ‘just work together in your little groups and sort something out’. People have reached out and people have stepped up.

And that’s just in two and a half weeks. We’re actually achieving more in two and a half weeks than we probably would have in two-and-a-half terms.

“As a school, as a staff, as a community, we’ve really grown and we’ve grown through connection, through communication, innovation, that agency and it’s underpinned by relationships,” says Maureen. “However, I feel the best is yet to come.”

“We made it really clear that you don’t have to be a whizz-bang technology person to do this. I can tell you, I am not.”

Principal Maureen Allan

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OUTDOOR LEARNING

Outdoor classroom honours legacy A small Northland school is honouring a proud legacy centred on the outdoor environment with a sustainable 21st-century outdoor classroom and programme of enviro-activities.

“We’re all about outdoor environmental, active integrated learning and it’s because the students here have that expertise already.”

Rob Arrowsmith

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Students carry the floating duck house they made up to the school pond.

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OUTDOOR LEARNING

O

ruaiti School in Tai Tokerau was once a hotbed of innovative pedagogy, with radical and visionary principal Elwyn Richardson QSO at the helm from 1949 to 1962.

Central to his philosophy was his use of the natural environment to create an integrated programme of art and science. Elwyn valued curiosity and turned to children’s lives and their immediate surroundings to shape his curriculum. Learning was often organised in themes and students worked together on real problems drawn from the local community.

Fast-forward five or more decades and the school’s tamariki are again engaged in active real-life learning. For the past couple of years, the school has been working on a project to build a solar-powered ‘treehouse’ which will be at the hub of a range of environmental projects that include a duck pond, beehives, vegetable gardens, wetlands and stands of kawakawa and manuka, notes deputy principal Rob Arrowsmith.

When there were a few hitches with seeking funds for the ‘treehouse’, the students developed a range of fundraising activities including making beeswax wraps, selling honey, screen-printed tea towels, recliner deckchairs and producing a book about sustainability in partnership with Year 10 art students from the nearby Taipa Area School.

Active integrated learning “We’re all about outdoor environmental, active integrated learning and it’s because the students here have that expertise already. To be able to position the students as experts to begin with, breeds success. For example, with maths, we will give a maths problem based around a context they are familiar with,” says Rob. “Our first week back after lockdown, we thought about how we could get the students hooked back into their learning without

dwelling on the current situation but dust the cobwebs off and do something they could get excited about. We went up to our pond to make a floating duck house for our ducks. We had to use measurement and calculate the area of the duck-house. For them it wasn’t a lesson in the traditional sense, but they got everything out of it that I wanted them to get – and more,” he says.

“It was a solution to a problem as the children came back to school and noticed one of our ducks was missing so they needed to create a solution so the ducks had somewhere to shelter from predators,” says principal Diane Bates.

Hands-on learning She explains that some parents took a while to come around to the kind of learning their children were doing when they are working on fundraising initiatives such as making chairs to raise funds for the ‘treehouse’.

“Back when we were making the chairs, we had some parents asking why students were spending all their time building the chairs, and not working on reading, writing and maths. We needed to explain that all of those curriculum areas were being covered through ‘hands-on, real-life learning.’ The students had to research the angle that would be best for comfort with the chairs – so they were reading to research, then using geometry to create angles, they also had to measure and cut before assembling the chairs.

“Then they had to advertise, they had a website, they created a QR code for the honey products, which links back to the other environmental activities the students have worked on. All that different learning: digital technology, writing, tying everything in wherever we can so the parents and our wider community do understand that all these things go together.

Students survey their floating duck house in the school’s duck pond.

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OUTDOOR LEARNING

Students from Kauri class with teacher Rob Arrowsmith and principal Diane Bates in the great outdoors.

Elwyn Richardson and his groundbreaking work First published in 1964, Elwyn Richardson’s record of his teaching at Oruaiti, In the Early World, was widely used in teacher education in New Zealand and the United States. It has recently been republished

by NZCER and is available from NZCER Press.

For more information about Elwyn Richardson, please see the online version of this article.

Elwyn Richardson photos published with the permission of Margaret MacDonald.

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Students study a wasps’ nest at Oruaiti School in the 1960s.

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OUTDOOR LEARNING

“Now whānau can see their children progressing in many traditional subjects through a wide range of hands-on activities. Parents tell us their tamariki enjoy success in so many ways,” says Diane.

which will power their Chromebooks and things we use for the enviroprojects such as the heat pan we use to make our beeswax wraps, a sewing machine so we can make our tea towels and eco-bags.

They really showed that their in-class learning transferred to real-life projects, says parent Clive Walden.

“We are very passionate about giving real-life context. Everything that we are trying to do in terms of our environmental projects, we’re not doing them for the sake of it – they are real-life problems. We’re now selling our honey through a shop in Cable Bay. The students were the ones talking to the printers about meeting deadlines, they were deciding their profit margins, designing the logos and labels, buying the jars – it’s real!” says Rob.

“It was awesome to see the kids using their hands and getting outside to create something that was a good fundraiser,” he says.

Pedagogy pioneer Elwyn Richardson was a pioneer in learning pedagogy.

“He was both respected and feared by the school inspectors, whom he challenged with his progressive philosophy and innovative methods,” explains Diane.

“All of the learning was linked around the environment and integrated with science and art. We’ve been talking for a long time about what he used to do, and how we can have a more integrated curriculum,” she says.

“It was a two-pronged thing,” says Rob. “We wanted to embrace his legacy and all that rich integrated learning that he was a pioneer of. But also because our school has expanded at such a rate in the past few years, we thought it was a really good opportunity to celebrate the richness and traditions of the past with a new modern approach and embrace technology to recreate some of those things.”

Sustainable treehouse Students from the school’s enviro-group designed the outdoor learning space which will be functional year-round. A draughtsperson incorporated many of their ideas in the final design. The school gained funding from last year’s one-off funding package for schools to complete property projects.

“The selling point for the children is that it’s sort of like a treehouse – it’s outdoors, there are no walls. It will be a pretty neat place to do their learning. It will have a mobile generator, solar panels and a wind turbine

Love of the outdoors Diane says the majority of the school’s children love being in the outdoors and arrive in old clothes and gumboots on the school’s fortnightly envirodays, where parents and grandparents come along and help out with the many projects in which the children are engaged.

“The environmental focus is good for those children who don’t necessarily excel in the classroom – it gives them the chance to be experts. We’ve got some students who just love the outdoors and some of them probably know more than we do. For some of those children having to sit in the classroom and write or do maths, may not be their thing but this gives them the opportunity to shine in some way. It’s definitely reflected in their self-confidence and self-esteem,” she says.

Learning curve While there have been some problems in getting the treehouse off the ground, Rob says that has taught teachers and students resilience.

“Knockbacks are good. Things may not happen the first time or as planned and so that’s the real lesson... teaching and modelling resilience. Having that flexibility and trust in the students to lead it presents problems for teachers because they like to know what they’re doing the next day – it’s been a learning curve for everyone.

“We’re all about inclusion at this school and the treehouse is almost like the tangible outcome of that.”

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BUDGET 2020

Tertiary and trades training package welcome

The injection of funding into the tertiary and trades sectors is expected to help ease the recovery from Covid-19.

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ertiary education and training providers are set to benefit from investment into a range of initiatives outlined in Budget 2020.

Providers will see a 1.6 per cent increase to tertiary education tuition and training subsidies to help them meet cost pressures. Funding for additional tertiary enrolments will also help providers increase student numbers at a time when the Government is keen to see training opportunities maximised as the country recovers from the Covid-19 pandemic.

“As we emerge from this health crisis it is important that we now invest in training and education for people who might have lost their jobs, or who want to move into a different sector where prospects are better,” says Minister of Education, Chris Hipkins.

Support for trades and apprenticeship training Building and Construction Industry Training Organisation (BCITO) chief executive, Warwick Quinn was pleased to see trades and apprenticeships training feature in the Budget 2020 announcements.

“This is the first significant economic shock that I can recall where the Government recognises the importance of continuing to invest in trades training and apprenticeships even though work is expected to shrink.”

While the building and construction sector is looking healthy at the moment, as projects are resumed following lockdown, Warwick says a slump is inevitable.

“We know that when the market recovers we are always desperately short of skills and we struggle to respond. And when we recover this time, we may not have access to migrant workers like we have in the past – which has often been our safety valve as we don’t continue to grow our own,” says Warwick.

Budget 2020 includes free trades training in critical industries.

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BUDGET 2020

He says there is typically a significant lag to feed the sector. Often it takes around 12 to 18 months until a firm feels confident they can take on an apprentice following a recovery, and then three or four years until the apprentice completes their training and comes out the other side of their apprenticeship.

The $1.6 billion Trades and Apprenticeships Training Package will go a considerable way to help ease these pressures. The package includes targeted investment support for free trades training in critical industries; support for employers to retain and keep training their apprentices; investment for a Māori Apprenticeships Fund; and funding for group training schemes to retain apprentices.

Supporting rangatahi Employment Minister Willie Jackson says the Māori Apprenticeships Fund will help provide tailored support for Māori employers to take on Māori apprentices.

“Māori community groups will partner with the Crown to establish and design group training schemes that employ Māori as apprentices and support the placement of apprentices across a range of workplaces.”

The Budget also funds the expansion of He Poutama Rangatahi, a programme to support young Māori who are most at risk of long-term unemployment and who are not in education, employment or training.

Helping people retrain Chris Hipkins says making targeted vocational training courses free – for all ages, not just school leavers – over the next two years will help people who have lost their jobs retrain and also allow new employees in some essential services to train on the job.

“It will include courses linked to industry skills needs, in building and construction, agriculture, and manufacturing, and also vocational courses like community health, counselling and care work.”

Nigel Udy, head of the School of Primary Industries at Eastern Institute of Technology (EIT), says the funding will help them support people who may have been displaced from their work to retrain in industries like agriculture or horticulture.

“The agriculture and horticulture industries have both identified that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity where there are some

very competent people with excellent personal and work skills who may be reviewing whether the industry that they have been employed in is now the right industry to continue their engagement because they’ve lost their job or due to the volatility of that industry.

“Both these industries to some degree have been quite dependent on migrant workers so here’s an opportunity to say not only do we need people but there are actually people who have a whole bunch of really good skills that could be transferable skills to our industry,” says Nigel.

Workforce Development Councils Budget 2020 also funds the establishment of Workforce Development Councils (WDCs) to strategically plan for the recovery of industries and jobs from the impact of Covid-19.

Tertiary Education Commission’s Jane Duncan, who has been leading the WDC project, says that Covid-19 has highlighted the need for a unified and sustainable system to provide support for all stakeholders: learners, employers, providers and industry.

“It will include courses linked to industry skills needs, in building and construction, agriculture, and manufacturing, and also vocational courses like community health, counselling and care work.”

Minister of Education Chris Hipkins

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BUDGET 2020

Investing in a vision for early learning Budget 2020 included investment into the early learning sector, taking a significant step towards a more equitable and higher quality system.

A

manda Coulston, Chief Executive of Whānau Manaaki Kindergartens, which operates kindergarten and home-based education and care services in the lower North Island, says the Government’s investment into New Zealand’s early learning sector is a step towards a more equitable system.

Early learning equity important

Budget 2020 included a funding boost over four years to improve the pay of many qualified teachers working in education and care services.

It is expected to help bridge the pay gap between kindergarten teachers and teachers in education and care services.

For this reason, the former primary school principal supports a move towards centres employing only qualified teachers, like in our school system.

“It’s as much about fairness and investing in a vision for a professionalised early childhood sector, as it is about the pragmatic aspects of injecting money during these challenging economic times,” says Amanda.

“It’s not just madly throwing money. What they’re doing is they have a plan and they are investing the money to cement that plan. So the announcement around pay parity and funding the people on the lowest rung of the salary scale needs to be applauded. It’s something that the sector really needs.”

Why is equity so important in early learning?

Amanda is unequivocal in her response. “Because every child deserves the best. It might sound a bit like a slogan, but it’s true.”

“Parents know that no matter where they are in the country, if they send their child to a school, that state school will have qualified registered teachers in every classroom.”

Now steps are being taken towards a fully qualified early learning workforce too. As part of Budget 2020, Minister of Education, Chris Hipkins has announced the restoration of a higher funding rate for services that employ fully qualified and registered teachers.

The current requirement is that at least 50 per cent of the staff required to meet adult-to-child ratios in early childhood teacher-

Budget 2020 will see the restoration of a higher funding rate for early learning services that employ fully qualified and registered teachers.

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BUDGET 2020

led centres must have recognised early childhood education teaching qualifications. However, almost all (96 per cent) of teacher-led centres employ 80 per cent or more qualified and certificated teachers. The new 100 per cent funding rates will apply from 1 January 2021.

“Research shows that high-quality ECE can improve children’s learning and developmental outcomes, particularly for children in low socioeconomic groups,” says Chris Hipkins.

Amanda agrees. “When you think about the fact that 90 per cent of a child’s brain is formed by the time they’re five, if anything, the staff in early childhood should be more qualified because the subtleties and complexities of nurturing very young children is very complex and it’s so important we do it well.”

“It’s as much about fairness and investing in a vision for a professionalised early childhood sector as it is about the pragmatic aspects of injecting money during these challenging economic times.”

Amanda Coulson

Powerful message Amanda says that while a mandate for 100 per cent of a centre’s staff to be qualified would be a great mechanism and incentive for centres, it would also help articulate the value placed on early learning in New Zealand.

“It’s also a really powerful message to the whole country of the importance of those early years in children’s learning. We just take it for granted because our school system is of such a high standard.”

Te Rito Maioha Early Childhood New Zealand Chief Executive Kathy Wolfe says the reintroduction of the funding band will encourage more people to train as early childhood teachers, which is much needed given the current shortage of qualified teachers.

The early learning Budget 2020 announcements also included a cost adjustment to subsidy rates and additional funding for home-based early learning services, kōhanga reo and playcentres.

Overall, the investment in the early learning sector is intended to support the move to higher quality early learning that prioritises the learning, wellbeing and identity of every child as set out in the Early Learning Action Plan.

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TUKUTUKU KŌRERO 15 June 2020

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