Education Gazette 100.1

8 FEBRUARY 2021 | Volume 100 | No. 1

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Contents

Spotlight on the centenary of the Education Gazette

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A significant milestone

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Marking 100 years of education in New Zealand

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From hot metal to digital

10 On the front cover: Dr Michelle Dickinson (also known as Nanogirl) shares some new and emerging technologies with Newlands Intermediate School students Niukini, Sophie and Keya.

On the back cover: The very first edition of the Education Gazette, published in 1921, serves as a backdrop to a still shot taken from the video clip, Moments in Time School Journal.

Interactive covers: To activate the augmented reality experience on both covers, simply hover the camera on your device over the QR codes on the covers.

The minimum requirements for webAR: iOS - iPhone 6S / iOS 14 Android - Galaxy S7 or newer

PUBLISHED BY Education Gazette is published for the Ministry of Education by NZME. Educational Media Ltd. PO Box 200, Wellington.

ISSN 0111 1582 All advertising is subject to advertisers agreeing to NZME. Educational Media’s terms and conditions www.nzme.co.nz/about-nzme/ terms-conditions/

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Overcoming the past and looking to the future – the story of a wharekura

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Bringing the curriculum to life

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Where I’m from, where I’m going

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The many threads of early learning in Aotearoa

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Embracing the identity of Pacific learners

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Evolution of learning support in Aotearoa

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Reflections of a teacher aide

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Celebrating a century at the heart of the community

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Reimagining Christchurch schools

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Whānau has deep roots at Blenheim school

Editor’s note

This is the first of four special editions to mark the 100th year of publication for the Education Gazette | Tukutuku Kōrero.

The Gazette’s centenary provides an opportunity to reflect on the history of education in Aotearoa and the direction it’s taking as we enter our next 100 years.

Over these four special issues we’ll aim to share stories from communities across the country and seek a range of perspectives.

In this issue we visit schools and kura in Whanganui, Blenheim, Huntly, Manurewa and Christchurch, to name a few, and we look forward to sharing stories from other communities around New Zealand as the year progresses.

Please note that listed vacancies and notices will now appear in the online version of the Gazette.

STORY IDEAS We welcome your story ideas.

Please email a brief (50-100 words) outline to: reporter@edgazette.govt.nz SUBSCRIPTIONS eleni.hilder@nzme.co.nz VIEW US ONLINE Web: gazette.education.govt.nz Instagram: @EducationGovtNZ

KEY CONTACTS Reporter Joy Stephens reporter@edgazette.govt.nz Display & paid advertising Jill Parker 027 212 9277 jill.parker@nzme.co.nz Vacancies & notices listings Eleni Hilder 04 915 9796 vacancies@edgazette.govt.nz notices@edgazette.govt.nz

DEADLINES The deadline for display advertising to be printed in the 1 March 2021 edition of Education Gazette is 4pm on Thursday 18 February 2021.

This publication is produced using FSC® Certified paper from Responsible Sources.

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EDITORIAL

A significant milestone

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Secretary for Education, Iona Holsted.

“...the pages of the Gazette have seen significant shifts in educational policy and practice, as well as wider societal changes, over the past century.”

elcome to the first Education Gazette of 2021, which I hope is reaching you after a restful and refreshing break.

This year marks a significant milestone in the history of the Gazette – 100 years since the first issue was published in 1921 to “convey instructions and suggestions to teachers as well as to advise of vacancies in school staffs”.

It goes without saying that the pages of the Gazette have seen significant shifts in educational policy and practice, as well as wider societal changes, over the past century.

As well as reflecting the changing times, the Gazette has also chronicled some of the perennial questions that educators work with. This advice from the very first issue about how best to engage students in mathematics, for instance, may be as relevant now as it was in 1921: “There is no doubt that many of the fundamental ideas about geometry and algebra can be most clearly and easily conceived by the help of models, and there is no reason why the foundation of a sound training in mathematics should be not be laid by model-making in the classroom or in the woodwork or metal work room.”

In another gem from the archives, one of my predecessors, Director of Education John Caughley, informed readers in 1923 that “complaints have reached the Department that in many cases head teachers are not allowing assistants sufficient opportunities of perusing the Gazette every month, while there are also indications in other directions that many teachers do not trouble to read it”.

Mr Caughley’s solution? Each month all teachers would be required to initial their school’s official copy of the Gazette to confirm they’d read it, and this would be held on record and made available to the Inspector on his [sic] visit to the school.

While we won’t be checking up to make sure you read every copy of the Gazette in 2021, I hope many of you will find opportunities throughout the year to peruse and enjoy the stories, insights and ideas your colleagues share with us in our centenary year.

All the very best for 2021.

Nāku noa, nā Iona Holsted Te Tumu Whakarae mō te Mātauranga Secretary for Education

Iona Holsted

Excerpt from Education Gazette, Vol 2, iss 7, p87, 2 July 1923.

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EDITORIAL

Editor Jude Barback holds up a copy of the very first issue of the Education Gazette, published in 1921.

Marking 100 years of education in New Zealand Ministry of Education Chief Editor Jude Barback reflects on the changes and progress of the Education Gazette over the past century.

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had just started working on content for the Education Gazette’s centenary when two big boxes landed on my desk. They were filled with old copies of the Gazette, dating right back to the very first edition published in 1921.

As I began leafing carefully through 100 years of delicate, yellowing editions, I quickly became absorbed by the content. Articles on students’ posture, assessing handwriting, teaching temperance and on the intelligence quotients needed for specific vocations.

Articles ahead of their time, on wellbeing, play-based pedagogies and integrated curriculum. Articles that could only be described as patronising, sexist, racist and discriminating. And articles that simply weren’t there – topics conspicuously absent from the educational dialogue of the day.

Trawling through the past is a fascinating and

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daunting prospect. Some aspects of our history are inspiring, while others are more difficult to confront.

Yet the insights, shortcomings, gaps, and the progress all contribute to where we have landed today – and where we’re heading.

As such, ka mua, ka muri, meaning to walk backwards into the future, is a fitting whakataukī to mark the Gazette’s centenary. Over the course of this year, across four special centenary editions, we’ll publish a range of content, shared through this lens of looking back to look forward.

Our dual covers for this first issue also subscribe to this idea, and we hope you enjoy bringing them to life with the helping hand of technology.

Thank you to the people and communities across Aotearoa who have told us their stories; it is a privilege to share these with our readers.

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CENTENARY

Stepping back in time In 1921, the first edition of The New Zealand Education Gazette was published. To mark its centenary, we have produced a digital copy for readers to enjoy.

To read a digital version of the first issue, visit Education Gazette online or scan the QR code.

Facing page: The Gazette has changed a lot in look and feel over the last 100 years, as shown by the very first issue published in 1921.

Left to right: Issues published in 1987, 1999 and 2000.

“The two chief aims of the Department in issuing this Gazette are to assist teachers individually in their work, and to co-ordinate and concentrate the efforts of all teachers towards effecting some general systematic advance in certain phases of education in New Zealand.”

John Caughley, Director of Education, 1921

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GA ZET TE H ISTORY

From hot metal to digital Education Gazette has experienced many changes in the way it has been produced, but some of the people working on the publication have been involved for several decades.

“I think the Gazette now is modern, fresh and stylish and on a par with publications in the magazine world.�

Eleni Hilder

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hen Eleni Hilder began a typography apprenticeship with the Government Printing Office in 1979, printing was just changing from hot metal typesetting to linotype typography, a hot metal typesetting system that produces an entire line of metal type – an improvement over manual, letter-by-letter typesetting using a composing stick and shallow subdivided trays.

“In those days, all Government work had to go through Government Print: Hansard, Government Bills and regulations, Year Book, Police Gazette, Education Gazette,” says Eleni, who, 42 years later, still works on the Gazette at NZME, managing the notices and vacancies.

Government Print, as it was known, was located in Mulgrave Street from 1966 – just a hop and skip from Parliament. In 1976, its printing operations were relocated to Masterton.

In 1990, the Government Printing Office was sold for $23 million as part of the Government’s financial strategy to reduce public debt by selling assets. Printlink, now known as Blue Star, began to print the Gazette and continues to do so to this day.

Key source of information

The earliest editions of the Gazette included articles and advertisements, but in the late 1940s the publication changed to focus more on resources and job vacancies.

“Pre-internet, the Gazette was the key Ministry of Education source of information for teachers and featured vacancies, notices, curriculum updates and lists of resources, mainly library-based, such as books and magazines,” says Eleni.

“When I had my children in the 1990s, the vacancies, which had mainly been received by fax, were printed out and couriered to me at home where I would moderate and typeset them,” she says.

By the 1990s, early PCs and floppy discs were used, replacing the IBM electric typewriter used prior to that.

Learning Media (formerly School Publications) within the Department of Education, published and managed the production of the Gazette from 1989. By that stage, the magazine was approximately 16 pages long, with colour pages in the front and back and black-and-white pages in the middle.

In 1999, the publishing contract was transferred to APN Educational Media (which became NZME in 2014). John Gerritsen was employed as editor, and feature articles and advertisements began to reappear in the Gazette. These all went online, along with vacancies and notices, on a new Gazette website introduced that year.

meant improved layouts and design.

In its 100th year, more changes are afoot, following research into educators’ views of the Education Gazette undertaken by New Zealand Council of Educational Research (NZCER) in 2018. The research found the majority of readers valued informative and engaging articles about what is happening in the sector and preferred to access vacancies and notices online.

In response to this feedback, listed vacancies and notices will now be published on the Gazette website from the beginning of 2021, freeing up space for articles about early learning centres, schools and kura around Aotearoa.

The Gazette now has its own e-newsletter, YouTube channel, Instagram account and this year will take its first foray into podcasting.

Old hands and new developments

Some of the old crew are still working on the Gazette: Eleni Hilder; Jill Parker – NZME advertising account manager since 1999; Annemarie Gibbs – Ministry of Education production manager since 2013 and formerly with Learning Media; and Martin Young, who has been with Printlink/ Blue Star since the 1990s.

Eleni says that at times it was difficult to get the older generation of teachers and principals on board, particularly when the Gazette went online, but she welcomes the new developments.

“The print listings in black and white have been virtually unchanged for the past 40 years and were outdated. We have had to move with the times over the years. I think the Gazette now is modern, fresh and stylish and on a par with publications in the magazine world,” she says.

Technology changes

Throughout the 2000s, changes in technology further changed the look of the publication. Digital cameras became more widely available, resulting in an improvement in photo quality. Software developments

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Eleni Hilder has worked on the Gazette for 42 years.

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Stories from the chalk face

By John Gerritsen, editor of Education Gazette from 1999 until 2010.

I became editor of Education Gazette after the companies APN Educational Media and Copeland Wilson won the contract to turn the publication from a black-and-white, text-only listing of vacancies and notices into a fullcolour magazine in print and online with the addition of paid advertising.

teachers and principals doing the everyday mahi of leading teaching and learning with their pupils. It didn’t at all feel like we were doing PR. Rather we were sharing great stories about some of the very best work that schools and early learning centres were doing.

Essentially our brief was to share stories about innovation and good practice from schools and early childhood centres up and down the country and maintain the all-essential vacancy and notice listings.

One of our biggest challenges was taking or finding decent photographs to illustrate the stories. Often our interviews were conducted over the phone and we were dependent on schools sending us their best photos, which was a bit hit-or-miss.

It felt like a huge change and there was a certain amount of nervousness about how our glossy make-over of such a venerable publication would be received in staffrooms and also by parts of the Ministry itself.

LONG-WINDED PROCESS I distinctly recall getting the first edition of the new-look Gazette out the door. It was a very late night as the process of laying-out and doublechecking hundreds of listings went a lot longer than expected.

Fortunately, we had hired Eleni Hilder, who had been responsible for the notices and vacancies for the previous publisher. Her experience was invaluable and ensured we weren’t flying entirely blind!

So far as the articles went, the Ministry would come to us with the initiatives or programmes that they wanted to highlight and together we would figure out which schools and early learning centres to profile and when the story might run.

SHARING STORIES Though the Ministry set the direction, the stories were very much those of the people ‘at the chalk face’ – the

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FROM NEWSPAPER TO MAGAZINE STYLE We had always wanted the publication’s cover to be magazinestyle with a full-page photo but this was initially judged to be too big a jump from the old-style Gazette and we started with a newspaper layout. After a few years, however, the Ministry agreed to the change and it was a big improvement.

The notice and vacancy listings threw up continual challenges in terms of things like word limits and deciding which organisations (beyond schools) were allowed to post their items for free. The listings were, and are, an unparalleled way of reaching thousands of teachers and principals, but they needed constant rule tweaks and policing to ensure they weren’t abused.

One of my jobs was a final overnight proofread of the notices and vacancies so corrections could be made the next day before sending them to the printer. At certain times of the year this was a relatively easy task, but at others, especially October, it felt monumental with

John Gerritsen in his role as editor of Education Gazette through the 2000s.

hundreds of vacancies needing careful attention. It took a lot of concentration to look at each item individually and resist sinking into a mental form of autopilot.

CONNECTIONS TO SCHOOLS Dealing with schools’ enquiries and vacancies created a feeling of connection. Often we would recognise the name of a far-flung school and note that we might not have seen it for some time. That feeling engendered a sense of responsibility to get it right for each school.

I hope the staff in those schools feel a similar sense of connection to the Gazette – after all, it’s been going for 100 years!

John Gerritsen is currently education correspondent for Radio New Zealand.

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Inspiring the Future is an exciting new programme that’s coming to schools across Aotearoa Based on research from Aotearoa and overseas, Inspiring the Future has been created to broaden young people’s horizons, help challenge stereotypes and address unconscious biases that can limit their potential.

At an Inspiring the Future event, young people hear from people in their own communities They learn about different jobs and why people love doing them, how those people got started in their careers and challenges faced along the way.

Designed with the curriculum in mind When you sign up, you’ll receive a resource pack that includes everything you need to run an Inspiring the Future event. The resource pack includes fun classroom activities to do before and after events that you can incorporate into your art, literacy or social studies programmes.

Help broaden their horizons and challenge stereotypes If you’d like to host an Inspiring the Future event, visit: inspiringthefuture.org.nz and complete the expression of interest form.

We’ll let you know when there are enough role models in your area, so you can schedule events online, read their profiles and invite them to attend.

Hana Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke is the fourth generation of her whÄ nau to attend Te Wharekura o Rakaumanga.

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WHAREKU RA M ĀORI

Overcoming the past and looking to the future – the story of a wharekura Established as a Native School in 1896, Te Wharekura o Rakaumanga in Huntly has emerged from a challenging past as a proud and flourishing kura. Education Gazette talks to principal John Heremia and student Hana Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke about its confronting and challenging past, its struggles, successes and aspirations.

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ana Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke is in her final term at Te Wharekura o Rakaumanga when Education Gazette catches up with her. It’s not the first time we’ve met Hana – we profiled Maahina, a book she wrote and published about maramataka, the Māori lunar calendar and its connection with people’s wellbeing in Issue 11, 2020.

“The book has sold out twice now. I honestly thought it would just be my friends who bought it,” laughs the 18-year-old.

Now Hana is pondering how she will continue to manage her maramataka publishing business while studying for a degree in business management and Māori and indigenous studies at the University of Waikato.

It’s quite a different sort of challenge to those her great-grandmother faced as a student at the same school. Hana is the fourth generation of her whānau to attend Te Wharekura o Rakaumanga.

“My great-grandmother was beaten for speaking Māori. This was an English-medium school back then. And then my grandfather, Taitumu Maipi, was still not allowed to speak the reo. He fought for our school to be a full immersion school. He was part of an activist group for revitalisation of the reo. My father was one of the first out of our whānau to speak Māori. And then there’s me today – I’m able to be enriched in my culture through all different aspects.”

Hana is confident that when she has her own children, they will build on this progress.

“I want my children to be able to understand and learn our culture using all their senses, hear the reo, speak the reo, be it, feel it from our tinana, wairua,

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hinengaro – holistically. If they know it confidently enough then they’ll be able to adapt to other cultures, religions, perspectives without being hesitant in knowing who they are, because they have a strong sense of their identity.

“If they have that strong foundation they will be fine. It’s about being exposed to all different cultures – not just being closed off to our own. I know my culture confidently enough to express and learn from other cultures.”

Hana’s strong sense of identity has been shaped by her people.

“All the kaumātua around here have instilled in us to revitalise the reo and indigenous knowledge that we try and practice every day in school. It’s about ‘Maaku anoo e hanga tooku nei whare’ – ‘I will build and fashion my own house’ – that covers the physical, spiritual and mental sides; and also the whānau and the whenua.”

The school’s cultural group, Āwhina i te Kaupapa, has also had a profound impact on Hana.

“We travelled over to Hawai’i and Australia and China – we visited those indigenous groups and from there we were able to converse in our indigenous languages and we could see the similarities and each other’s customs. There was so much respect and a shared vision for trying to revitalise our cultures. And all from a rangatahi perspective.”

A part of that history

Tumuaki John Heremia – known by many as Barna – should take credit for transforming Te Wharekura o Rakaumanga into the place it is today, where ākonga

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like Hana are flourishing. He has been involved with the kura for over 40 years, but he’s far too humble.

The school was established in 1896 as a Native School. Under the Native Schools Act 1867, Māori were required to donate the land for the schools before communities would receive support from the Government to set up a school.

“The people from the Rakaumanga area here wanted to build a school because every winter it was very dangerous for their kids to cross the river by punt – there was no bridge back then,” says John.

So a Native School was established on a site near where the Huntly Power Station sits today.

“From a Māori perspective the Native Schools were set up under assimilation policies, more to civilise Māori and get them included as part of society sooner than later. That was part of the primary purpose – also to support Māori boys to be good farmers and girls to be domestic servants.

“Māori kids were beaten like hell if they got caught speaking Māori on school grounds. It was to discourage them speaking Māori and use English as their main language.

“Probably the people at that time thought that was a good thing to do. Te Wharekura o Rakaumanga was part of that history.”

Fast-forward to 1969, and the school became a state primary school – one of the last Native Schools to be redesignated into the state system following the abolition of Native Schools.

Shortly after, the Huntly Power Station was commissioned as part of Prime Minister Muldoon’s Think Big Projects.

“When they decided to build the power station, our school was in the road. The easiest thing to do of course was just smash it down,” explains John.

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Using the levers of the Public Works Act, the Government made the decision to demolish the school and relocate students to the other schools in the community.

But this proved to be a catalyst for resistance. Led by ex-students Māori Queen Te Atairangikaahu and her brother Sir Robert Mahuta (before he was knighted), people began protesting against any further degradation of the right for Māori to have access to a quality education.

“They understood they couldn’t protest to prohibit advancement of the building of the power station, but they were determined that the school should not be lost. They had to go right back to ‘this land was gifted by the Māori people; you can’t just do this.’”

As a result, the school was relocated to its current site in 1974. But the protests achieved more than just saving the school.

“It actually galvanised the people to look upon the purpose of schools and the possible removal of access for their children to education and learning. And it also helped them to think: what is learning?”

John’s story

It was around this point that John’s association with the school began.

Upon graduating from Waikato University, he moved to the Huntly area, where he has remained for over 40 years. He was approached in 1978 to become an Itinerant Teacher of Māori for schools in the area.

These teachers operated in a similar way to Bible in Schools teachers,

“In the early years it was a feeling of determined passion, then a feeling of euphoria when you started hearing little ones say ‘tēnā koe’. Because in this community in the ’70s and ’80s, no one under the age of 13 was speaking Māori.”

John Heremia visiting schools to teach te reo Māori.

“In those days they gave you a guitar and a tape recorder and told you, away you go. I went around teaching kids a, e, i, o, u; tēnā koe, e tū. Rakaumanga was designated as my base school.”

Despite widespread suppression of te reo Māori, John had never let his reo slide. He is of Tūhoe descent, growing up in one of the small pockets of Aotearoa that held onto the language.

Like the Far North, Whanganui River and the East Coast – Tūhoe land had been identified as unproductive land that couldn’t be redeveloped into land block sales for returning soldiers after the war.

“So our isolation firmly helped us retain a lot of those sorts of things.”

This was fortunate as his schooling did little to affirm his identity as Māori.

“In my early years, I was left trying to grapple with why I should be proud to be part of the Commonwealth. Our reading material reflected more about what was happening in England. I knew more about Robin Hood than I did about Te Rauparaha. I knew more about King Arthur

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Top left: Kapa haka practice in session.

Bottom left: Students travel from all over Aotearoa to attend Te Wharekura o Rakaumanga.

Above: Hana Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke says her strong sense of identity has been shaped by her people.

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than I knew about King Korokī.”

John witnessed the full effect of the Government’s policies when he first moved to the Huntly area. He was appalled to discover an absence of te reo Māori in the Huntly area.

“When I first started interacting with this community, I was actually quite shocked because I couldn’t hear te reo Māori being spoken anywhere other than ceremonial occasions on the marae.”

Revitalising te reo Māori

John says the strength and conviction to revive te reo Māori came from older people and academics, as well as from a lot of people who did not even speak Māori themselves.

One of those people was Selby Neill, the principal at Rakaumanga, where John was the only Māori teacher.

“Selby was Dutch and an awesome man. He said, ‘You should revive te reo Māori, you should ensure that Māori culture is being reflected in how we look after our kids’.

“A large number of children who were coming to Rakaumanga were Pākehā and some of them came from Dutch families, and they were talking about the importance of language. They were the ones who were encouraging us to embrace our own language.”

Following its relocation to its new site, Rakaumanga became a bilingual school in the mid-late 1970s. And then

Tumuaki John Heremia has seen a lot of changes during the 40 years he has spent at Te Wharekura o Rakaumanga.

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following in the footsteps of Hoani Waititi, the first kura established by Tom and Kaa Williams with a focus on revitalising te reo Māori, Rakaumanga became a kura in 1986.

John says back then there was initially some resistance to a Māori immersion programme.

“Even when bilingual education was allowed, inspectors from the Department of Education would come round from schools to measure that there was an equivalent amount of time that was also being taught in English.”

But the kura grew. It achieved official redesignation as a Total Immersion Māori co-educational composite (Years 1–15) Tribal Wharekura on 1 January 1995. The first cohort of Year 13 students educated within a Kaupapa Māori programme graduated in 1997.

Fears of decline

John says they experienced the full range of emotions, as the revitalisation of te reo Māori gained momentum.

“In the early years it was a feeling of determined passion, then a feeling of euphoria when you started hearing little ones say ‘tēnā koe’. Because in this community in the ’70s and ’80s, no one under the age of 13 was speaking Māori.

“So, Nan was saying ‘You’re awesome’, Dad was saying, ‘You’re awesome’. Then we went through this period of maintenance and sustainability early-2000s and that’s when the work actually began.”

By the mid-2000s, John believes they entered a period of gradual decline.

“Once you’ve heard one speak Māori, then 10, then 100, 1000, Scotty Morrison, no more pakipaki (applause). And you still need the pakipaki. See that’s the thing with being Pākehā – you don’t recognise the plethora of occasions, the events, mediums that celebrate you being Pākehā.

“For Māori, that was occurring through kōhanga, kura, wharekura and started to trickle out into society. But it still pales in significance to the rich endorsement Pākehā receive for te reo Pākehā, Pākehā values, ways and social etiquettes.”

John is concerned by a burgeoning trend he’s noticing: parents who have been nurtured in te reo and have emerged from their Māori medium education to be successful in both Māori and non-Māori worlds, but are opting to send their children to English medium schools after a few years of kōhanga reo or primary school.

“Although it’s a mere trickle, a concern for me is that this trickle can turn into a deluge easily.”

Despite John’s fears, Te Wharekura o Rakaumanga is flourishing. They have difficulty managing the number of enrolments and enquiries and have seen a big increase in the number of Pākehā children enrolling. Students have even relocated from other parts of the country to attend the wharekura, boarding in Huntly, Ngāruawāhia or Hamilton.

“We are still riding the wave of success, and as any surfer would like to think, the wave is going to continue.

The people themselves have to want it. People who came through kaupapa Māori education, when they start sending their children to non-kaupapa Māori schools, that’s the start of it going under.

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“I think it’s still important that there is still a lot of passion and commitment by Māori in general to keep the wave going. It’s your active participants, the students and the parents of the students and their parents – they have to believe it and own it for it to work for it to carry on.

“When we became a kura in 1986, how did we measure success? We don’t measure it with the children we’re working with in ’86, we measure it with their children – intergenerational change and sustainability.”

COMPETITIONS 2021 ... WE DON’T WANT YOU MISSING THE DEADLINES

Looking to the future

Near the entrance of the kura stands an impressive sculpture. It represents the journey the kura has taken from a Native School in 1896, to becoming a state primary school in 1969, to its relocation in 1974, to becoming a bilingual school in the late 1970s, to a kura kaupapa in 1986, to a full wharekura in 1995, to what it is today.

“Once you’ve heard one speak Māori, then 10, then 100, 1000, Scotty Morrison, no more pakipaki. And you still need the pakipaki.”

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John Heremia Wood is not meant to pierce steel, yet it does here, showing that with passion and commitment, anything is possible. The story is welded onto the steel along with all the names of local marae, as a reminder that the school belongs to its people.

“We are still excited about the growth of kaupapa Maori education,” says John. He says 20 to 25 years ago the focus was on growing te kōhanga reo. Now there is a strong focus on helping rangatahi transition into higher education or employment and have meaningful and prosperous lives.

“Part of that role is supporting community and wider society to understand ‘where are these kids coming from?’ Contrary to belief, not everyone knows how to play a guitar and knows all the words to Ten Guitars, but they do offer other world views. We also want employers and businesses to understand that having these Māori people as part of your staff adds value to your company. That’s a work in progress. We also have to work on it ourselves and with our people.”

John says earlier graduates from the kura have done an extraordinary job at setting the benchmark and they’re scattered throughout society.

And now, as she embarks on her tertiary studies, Hana will join the Rakaumanga alumni, paving the way for the next generation to continue to strengthen te reo and tikanga Māori, and emerge, as Hana has done, proud, confident and secure in the knowledge of who they are and where they are going.

8 February 2021

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WHAKAWHITIKIA E TE RAMA HE WAIATA KURA

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Top: Matua HÄ“nare helps Pukeatua School students, Bradley-James and Reihana, discover new ways of working with digital technologies.

Bottom: Pukeatua School teacher Joseph Moeke and students, Ariki and Te RangitÄ ne, experiment with green screen digital technology.

DIGITAL TECH NOLOGI ES

Bringing the curriculum to life Education Gazette explores the importance of putting learner identity and curriculum integration at the heart of digital technologies learning.

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ahinarangi is making a clapmotion movie of a toy cow crossing a road. The Year 5 student giggles as she watches her movie playback, seeing the cow roll over halfway before returning to her feet and continuing her path.

Beside her, Reihana and BJ, both Year 8, are working on a scratch project, while Precious (Year 8), Ryah (Year 6) and Galaxie (Year 7) are performing a Renegade TikTok on a beach in Hawaii, with the help of an iPad and a green screen.

Meanwhile, Ronnie and Potatau (Year 6) are concentrating on creating a course for Dashbots.

The students are from a Māori immersion class at Pukeatua School (Lower Hutt) and are the last class for 2020 to visit Te Papa’s Learning Lab Hīnātore to participate in Raranga Matihiko. The programme is delivered as part of the Ministry of Education’s Digital Technologies for All Equity Fund, which supports the introduction of new digital technologies learning for all schools and kura across Aotearoa.

“My favourite activities are the clapmotion and the green screen,” says Ronnie. “I like creating things. It’s cool making your own stuff for people to use.”

Next up, the students don virtual reality googles to enter a virtual wharenui where they see the panels that they made the day before. Exclamations of “Cool!” and “Awesome!” pepper the room as they see their creations come to virtual life.

Tailored to class needs

Being a creator of digital technology, not just a user, is a core part of the technology learning area of The New Zealand Curriculum. As well as gaining an understanding of computer science concepts, students learn how to

8 February 2021

design quality digital solutions. Under Te Marautanga o Aotearoa, ākonga use te reo Māori to express problems and formulate solutions, and design and develop digital outcomes.

To bring digital technologies and hangarau matihiko curriculum content to life, each Raranga Matihiko programme is tailored to the needs of that class. The facilitators co-design the programme with the teacher, looking at what the class’s inquiry topic is and how they can weave in the technology learning area.

“Curriculum integration and local curriculum are key parts of what we do,” explains Tara Fagan, who heads up Raranga Matihiko.

“One of the things we really wanted to do when we set out to do this programme was highlight how digital tech shouldn’t be taught in isolation.”

Language, culture and identity

The programme is also about reflecting children’s language, culture and identity in their learning, says facilitator Sam Hēnare.

He shares an experience that highlights the importance of this. A recent programme participant was showing no interest in any of the activities. In an effort to engage her, Sam asked her about her whānau and where she was from.

It transpired that her mum had died when she was younger and she didn’t know her dad. All she knew was that she was from Taranaki. So Sam took the student, along with one of her friends and a kaiako, to Rongomaraeroa, the museum’s marae for every iwi, not just iwi Māori but also iwi Pākehā and tauiwi.

“We took her to the pou whakairo relating to Taranaki.

I said to her, ‘I don’t know if they are your tūpuna or not

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“These are our future doctors, lawyers, prime ministers. To approach their learning from a Māori perspective allows them to be true to their identity.”

Joseph Moeke

Tamariki from Pukeatua School engage in a range of digital technologies in the Raranga Matihiko programme.

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but these are people who were from Taranaki – you will have some relationship in your history to these people, somewhere’. You could just see the tears in her eyes. It was amazing.

“We don’t normally like people taking photos of whakairo but I said, ‘This is a relative of yours, so we’ll take a photo of it and bring it back to the class and we’ll see what we can do with it’.”

The photo formed the basis of the next activity involving digital technology tools.

“It’s important to have our tamariki, especially our tamariki Māori, find reconnections – that’s some of the most important work that we do. The digital technology can be a tool to help assist that.

Ideally, we want her to forge a better connection to her iwi, but if the museum and this learning can be the conduit for that, then it has potential to change her outlook on life, her outlook for learning,” explains Sam. Kaiako Joseph Moeke, or Pāpā Jo as the tamariki at Pukeatua School call him, says it is important for the students to incorporate digital technologies across all aspects of their learning in a way that reflects who they are.

“These are our future doctors, lawyers, prime ministers. To approach their learning from a Māori perspective allows them to be true to their identity,” he says.

Read more about Raranga Matihiko in Issue 11, 2020: Weaving digital futures.

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DIGITAL TECH NOLOGI ES

A special centenary cover

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he dual covers of this special issue of Education Gazette provide a small example of the way new and emerging digital technologies can be used as learning tools to explore other parts of the curriculum.

By using the augmented reality (AR) features, teachers and students can get a glimpse into the last 100 years of New Zealand education, using it as a springboard to further explore our history.

The AR experience also provides teachers and students with an opportunity to think about the future of education as technologist Dr Michelle Dickinson – aka Nanogirl – offers her thoughts on the role of digital technology in children’s learning.

To see the full interview with Michelle, visit Education Gazette online.

The cover shoot in progress, featuring students from Newlands Intermediate and Dr Michelle Dickinson (also known as Nanogirl).

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Education Gazette | Blue Star technology grants

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lue Star has been involved with the production of Education Gazette for many years and is proud to support the Gazette’s centenary celebrations, offering $10,000 in grants to support digital technology learning in schools.

About the grants

The Education Gazette | Blue Star technology fund totals $10,000. We will offer four awards of $2500: two to support hangarau matihiko in te reo Māori medium education, and two to support the digital technology teaching in English medium.

Schools and kura have the chance to win one of the four funds when they submit a portfolio of a module of their digital technologies and hangarau matihiko teaching. The funds are to be spent on technology by the school or kura to help further enhance their programme.

of an example of the DT | HM learning happening at their school or kura.

Entries are to be emailed to gazette@education.govt.nz, before the deadline of 11.59pm, 3 May 2021. The four grant recipients – two hangarau matihiko in te reo Māori medium education and two digital technology teaching in English medium – will be selected randomly from the entries.

By entering, schools and kura agree to sharing their DT | HM learning experiences for possible inclusion in a future edition of the Education Gazette.

For more information, please visit www.education.govt.nz/ education-gazette-blue-star-technology-grants.

How to enter

Teachers or schools and kura can simply email photos and/or a video, and a short write-up (maximum 500 words)

: s r e h c a

21!

0 2 FOR W O EN B I R SC SUB

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Subscribe to ODT Extra! for 2021 and if your school has got an Education Perfect subscription, you and your students can access ODT Extra! through the EP platform!

TO SUBSCRIBE TO PRINT OR DIGITAL EDITIONS GO TO

www.extraeducation.co.nz 03 479 3555

extra@odt.co.nz

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CENTENARY SERI ES

Principal Peter Kaua has led a culturally responsive approach at Whanganui City College.

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M ĀORI LEADERSH I P

Where I’m from, where I’m going Whanganui City College, which began life as a technical college, now has a proud focus on developing students who know who they are, where they come from and where they’re going.

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hanganui City College Principal Peter Kaua (Ngāti Porou) bursts with pride and aroha for the students, of whom 80 percent identify as Māori, and what they achieve.

When Education Gazette visited the school, he had just had a visit from a former student.

“Students come in all the time to say, ‘Hello, I’m doing this, I’m doing that’. And they’re doing very well – they’ve got good jobs - a future.

“At the beginning of the year a former student came in – he was ex-Military Services Academy. He’s been at the meat works for a few years, has bought his own house and told me he’s going into the Army. A few of us from school went up to his march-out at Waiouru and discovered that he was top cadet of the 100 or so that were on the course – we are so proud,” says Peter.

The Military Services Academy is one jewel in the 300-student school’s crown, says Peter. Another is Te Ara Wairua, an alternative education programme, the result of a partnership between the school and Te Puna Matauranga o Whanganui, the education arm of the local iwi.

Not good enough

But it wasn’t always like that. Peter, who has taught for more than 40 years, became principal at the college in 2008. Efforts had been made to raise achievement, and in 2014, the school was congratulating itself on the best NCEA results they had ever had: 35 percent pass rate at Level 1, 45 percent at Level 2 and 20 percent at Level 3. Peter realised this was wrong.

“Thinking it’s just because we have tough kids is deficit thinking. That year, every teacher including myself got a whānau class: 350 kids, 35 staff, that’s 10 kids to mentor each.

“Zoom forward to 2015, the results were 63 percent pass rate at Level 1, 60 percent pass rate at Level 2 and we don’t have many that do or pass Level 3, but there was a dramatic improvement. So, we’re up there now.”

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Culturally responsive

Peter had been involved in the Kotahitanga programme at his previous school, Western Heights High School in Rotorua. He agrees with the culturally responsive pedagogy that finding strategies that work for Māori learners, works for every student.

Whanganui City College was also a pilot school in the initiative, which supports teachers to improve Māori students’ learning and achievement by creating a culturally responsive context. But when a new approach was suggested by the Ministry of Education in 2014, Whanganui iwi stepped in.

“They said, ‘Nah, nah, we need to be part of this and we need to have a say in what happens in the secondary school’. We started on this journey and from then on, everything changed,” says Peter.

A partnership between Te Puna Matauranga o Whanganui and Cognition Education began. Te Kākahu is a locally developed professional learning approach for secondary schools in the Whanganui rohe, which works with school leaders and teachers on professional leadership and schooling practices, as well as on curriculum design.

Place-based learning

Dr Mike Paki (Ngāti Apa) is iwi representative for Te Puna Matauranga o Whanganui and works with early childhood to secondary education providers in the Whanganui Kāhui Ako. His PhD focuses on indigenous education and he has researched why many Māori have not been successful in the education system. He concluded that they didn’t see themselves in schools and the system.

Through a programme, Ngā Iere o te Whenua - the Voices of the Land, teachers are taken to places of significance to iwi such as the marked spot in Moutoa Gardens where Te Tiriti o Waitangi was signed.

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Head girl Kyla says she wants to go further in learning about her Māori culture.

“I took the science teacher and the deputy principal at City College on a four-day waka journey from the source of the river on the mountain to the Whanganui River mouth. After that he completely changed his approach to the science programme that he was delivering. He rewrote it to incorporate some of the things he had seen and done on the river – it really changed his outlook.

“It’s changed a lot of the attitudes of some of the whānau and the kids, because all of a sudden someone is talking to them about something that is of some importance to them. They sometimes become the tutor, which changes the dynamic and builds whanaungatanga between them because the teacher can learn from the student,” he says.

Learning from Māori culture

From Year 9, akonga at Whanganui City College learn about their local stories beginning with a school camp at Mangatepopo on Mount Tongariro, from where Whanganui River flows.

Head girls in 2020, Kyla (Te-Atihaunui-a Paparangi) and Ani (Ngāti Porou) have experienced the school’s learning journey firsthand.

“If education only comes from one lens and if it doesn’t work for you, then you have students who fail.

But now the lens has shifted.”

Peter Kaua

School was quite different in Craig Smith's day, but he welcomes the changes.

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“I think even while we’ve been at school, we’ve seen quite a lot of curriculum-based changes and I think that City is really headed into more selfmotivated learning,” says Ani. “They were even trialing new stuff when we were juniors, like connecting us to the river and educating us about our Māori history but also incorporating that in science, geography: learning how our ancestors did science and incorporating that into the new world. It’s kind of seeing how everything doesn’t have to be the colonial way of learning – it’s like our ancestors figured things out,” she explains.

“Before starting at City College, I didn’t really know myself and where I came from – my whakapapa and my pepeha,” says Kyla.

“But coming here, I know more about tikanga and kawa (Māori protocol) and the basic te reo.

That’s given me a lot more confidence in myself and knowing that I want to go further in learning about my culture,” she says.

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Success story

Year 10 student, Quinn (Ngāti Maniapoto), is just one of the success stories of the education partnership between the school and Te Puna Matauranga.

In 2019, when he was in Year 9, he was excluded from school.

“I was at the school for about four months and then got into fights, ditching classes, being disrespectful to teachers. It just wasn’t working for me. I was a little shit,” he admits.

“A few months later, Mr Kaua told my brother that there was a spot for me in Te Ara Wairua. I ended up over there. Everything has changed. When I was over here, none of the teachers were helping me in classes. Over there, we get all the help. I was clever in primary school but when I came here everything just changed. It’s like family/whānau.

We have each other’s backs, don’t talk down to one another,” says Quinn.

By the end of Year 10, Quinn had achieved NCEA Levels 1 and 2 in English, mathematics and te reo Māori – he is the first student in the school’s history to achieve this. He hopes to go into farming when he leaves school.

“Being in this programme has helped me know where I’m from and who I am,” he says.

Peter says the guiding light of the programme is Matua Werahiko Craven. “He IS the man. He’s been with us for 11 years, he’s a master carver, he’s from the iwi, he’s got such a nice, lovely nature and the boys just don’t want to upset him. He cares for them, he’s the glue.

“We’ve had a huge success with kids. Quinn isn’t the only one. You go over to the room and there’s the wall of fame and there are all these kids that have NCEA Level 1 and 2,” says Peter.

Military Services Academy

Whanganui City College’s Military Services Academy is ‘one of the best things I have ever done’ says Peter. The Academy, which includes NCEA credits, life skills and community service, is for Year 12 and 13 students and has been in the school for the past 11 years.

Former pupil, parent and chairman of the Board of Trustees at the time, Craig Smith, says the school was offered the opportunity by All Black Buck Shelford, an old school mate of Peter’s, and grabbed it ‘for all it was worth’.

“People may think the military academy is for the kids who are more troublesome and difficult – it’s not that way at all. It’s an opportunity for those people who want to go into the services, whether it’s Police, Fire, Army, any of those usual services.

“It’s not all about grabbing the more challenging students but it says: this is the way you dress, that’s what your shoes are like, that’s your uniform, you take pride in it, you iron it, you get it clean ... you get here on that time, go at that time and while you are here, this is what we do,” explains Craig.

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Quinn with Matua Werahiko Craven, who is credited with much of the success of Te Ara Wairua.

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“It’s been hell of a successful because sometimes if you turn around the more challenging students, they will turn their cohorts around, who may not necessarily be in the Academy,” says Craig.

“At the march-out I always cry because I see their parents can see they have some potential and I know where some of them have come from. It sets them up and a lot of them get work easily,” says Peter.

Prefect Bryleigh graduated from the Academy at the end of 2020 and hopes to join officer training in the Army.

“I feel the Services Academy has helped me out quite a lot due to me going in there not knowing what I want to do and me coming out wanting to go in the Army or the Navy. Being in this course helped me identify what it is I wanted to do. I definitely wouldn’t have thought I was a leader when I was younger,” she says.

Kyla, Bryleigh and Ani are looking forward to bright futures.

Racism and inequities

Racism and inequities in society and the education system will continue to dog Māori students, says Peter, who says he was a haututū (mischief) at school.

“I just went to school to play sports. When I got to secondary school, the teachers realised that was my hook. I had good teachers at Western Heights High School in Rotorua – and then I went back there as the deputy principal!

“They wouldn’t let me do sport unless I did my work. Then they said to me, ‘You’ve got brains, use the bloody things’,” he remembers.

Since 1911, the school’s motto has been ‘All is overcome by working’.

Peter says that the colonial values are still upheld but intermeshed with new ways. Today the school’s WERO (challenge) stands for: Whanaungatanga, Empathy and Resilience combining in Oranga, which is a healthy future.

“If education only comes from one lens and if it doesn’t work for you, then you have students who fail. But now the lens has shifted. If my kids – Pākehā and Māori – can walk in both worlds when they leave here, they are unique,” he says.

For extended interviews and more about Whanganui City College’s journey over 110 years, see this story at Education Gazette online.

Proud and happy: principal Peter Kaua.

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EARLY CH I LDHOOD EDUCATION

The many threads of early learning in Aotearoa In conversation with Emeritus Professor Helen May, Education Gazette explores aspects of the history of early learning in New Zealand. This is the first of a two-part series.

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t was 1975 and with nine years’ primary teaching experience in play-based junior classes, Helen was keen to return to teaching following maternity leave after the birth of her first child. A hunt for childcare for babies in Wellington was fruitless, the exception being the Victoria University Crèche that had a centre for ‘under twos’. So instead, Helen completed degrees in anthropology and education and became a part-time ‘childcare worker’ at the crèche – the term ‘teacher’ was not used in childcare then.

“This was a wonderful place for children, bursting with creative play – including for the babies,” recalls Helen.

“Several staff had Playcentre qualifications. It was also a wonderful place for student mothers. Quite a few women professors of my generation are indebted to the university crèches.”

In 1978, Helen was appointed the co-ordinating supervisor at the crèche.

This marked a turning point in terms of her commitment to early childhood education and in particular advocacy for childcare (later termed education and care). She worked with Sonja Davies, Ros Noonan and childcare workers to establish the Early Childhood Workers Union and became the union’s first president in 1982.

Researching the history and politics of childcare for her master’s thesis that same year was the start of researching the wider history and politics of early years education; this body of work is ongoing, with 15 book publications to date.

“The early childhood sector of today, with its range of services, has roots stretching back 150 years with do-it yourself endeavours by groups, mainly women, on a mission for education reform, social change and social justice.

“Advocacy and protest characterises its development and acceptance as part of the education system. Much has been achieved, but there are ongoing campaigns,” says Helen.

Staff of the Mt Albert Day Nursery guiding children into the nursery vehicle, 1947.

New Zealand Free Lance : Photographic prints and negatives. Ref: PAColl-5936-51.

Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/22319178

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Kindergarten movement

The first kindergarten was established by Frederich Froebel in Germany in 1837, with the idea arriving in New Zealand in the 1870s. Kindergartens presented a radical model of education with a curriculum of blocks, outdoor play and gardening, games, music, movement and craft occupations.

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Teacher demonstrating Froebel’s first block gift at Walker St Kindergarten, Dunedin. Otago Witness, 16 July 1902 (out of copyright).

Morning tea at Logan Campbell Kindergarten. NZ Graphic, 8 May 1912 (out of copyright).

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The first kindergartens in New Zealand were established by a few progressive primary schools and infant classrooms gradually adopted some kindergarten activities.

The first free kindergartens for city children ‘on the streets’ were established in Auckland and Dunedin in the 1880s. Overall, the numbers of children attending was small. Nevertheless, political and education interest was strong but there was resistance to incorporating kindergartens into the school system due to cost.

Kindergartens were dependent on charitable fundraising – even after a small government subsidy per child began in 1909.

By 1914, there were kindergarten associations operating in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin. A national organisation was established in 1926 with a total of 28 free kindergartens.

However, in 1931, with the backdrop of the Depression, the kindergarten subsidy was removed. While this came as a blow for the sector, it also helped to galvanise support across society for the work of kindergartens.

The subsidy was reinstated in 1935, along with increased support for kindergartens. These efforts were interrupted by the war, but the idea of government-supported pre-school became part of the postwar blueprint for education.

In 1945, a Preschool Consultative Committee was established including representatives from kindergarten, school, Plunket and the fledging Playcentre movement.

The Committee’s report was released in 1947, recommending that the state take over the kindergartens. This did not happen due to objections from kindergarten organisations and a partnership compromise was agreed: Government had regulatory control and funded the infrastructure of a national kindergarten system.

Ownership remained with kindergarten associations.

Thereafter, every town and suburb embarked on establishing their own kindergarten. Waiting lists grew to meet the demand and did not subside until the 1980s.

Education and childcare movement

Parallel to the growth of kindergartens were the first institutions providing all-day childcare for the children of working mothers.

Gaining support for these nurseries and crèches was a harder road.

Short-lived attempts were made to establish crèches in the 1870s and 1880s. There was resistance to the potential of encouraging mothers to work, or providing a childcare solution for unmarried mothers.

In the early 1900s, three successful charitable/church crèches were established in Wellington, Auckland and Gisborne, alongside ventures for the ‘unfortunate’ such as a maternity home for unmarried mothers, a soup kitchen and an orphanage. By the 1930s there were a

Children at Logan Campbell Kindergarten in Auckland.

NZ Graphic, 22 Nov 1911 (out of copyright).

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“The early childhood sector of today, with its range of services, has roots stretching back 150 years with do-it yourself endeavours by groups on a mission for education reform, social change and social justice.”

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few community crèches, some with City Council funding now seen as a support to mothers.

During the war, some workplace nurseries were established. The government asked kindergarten associations to open day nurseries. Auckland Association firmly rejected the idea, but in Wellington three full-day kindergarten nurseries were established.

Challenges through the decades

The 1947 preschool report did not support proposals to fund day nurseries as they “deprived children of normal family life” and there was the issue of cost.

“So childcare faded from the government agenda and became hidden from view, in contrast to the rapidly expanding half-day playcentre and kindergarten that did not contravene ideals of a breadwinner father and an athome mother,” explains Helen.

The post-war years were a time of economic growth and more mothers were working. A raft of childcare centres, nurseries and crèches, both private and community-owned, discreetly opened in family homes, halls and backyards. Some provided caring environments, although mainly with untrained staff. Others were more akin to baby-farming and harmful.

It took a newsworthy crisis and scandal to shed light on this.

In 1958, police raided a home in Auckland declaring ‘it was too shocking to give all the details’. They found a child with a broken leg and children with skin infections.

The owner was caught running away. Within three weeks, Mabel Howard (Minister of Child Welfare) announced the introduction of regulations.

The 1960 regulations placed ‘childcare’ centres under the government umbrella of welfare, not education.

There were other challenges. Most centres could not meet the standards and only 41 centres initially attained a license. There was no funding to support centres to upgrade or train staff to meet the requirements for an A-grade licence. The education component only required that ‘suitable toys be available’.

Advocacy and subsidies

Sonja Davies (later an MP and recipient of the Order of New Zealand) was the licensee of the Nelson Day Nursery whose landlord refused to install another toilet. This prompted the formation in 1963 of the New Zealand Association of Childcare Centres, as an advocacy voice on behalf of childcare.

The first subsidies to parents who could not afford fees began in 1973. Not until 1984 did subsidies for trained staff begin as a consequence of huge advocacy from union and women’s organisations. In 1987 childcare was shifted into the Department of Education alongside kindergarten and playcentre, although each was funded differently. An early childhood movement was now emerging.

In 1989 the government’s Before Five reforms created a uniform administrative, regulatory and funding framework in an attempt to improve equity within the sector but some entrenched inequities remained.

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Playcentre movement

The first Playcentre – a parent-led early childhood centre – was established in Wellington in 1941 as a support to women whose husbands were at war but also as a smallscale initiative whose founders had an awareness of progressive education ideas and the psychological needs of children and mothers.

Operating with fewer children in makeshift accommodation with volunteer mothers, a Playcentre was easier to establish than a kindergarten that required government-approved plans, funding and teachers.

Unlike kindergarten there was not a whiff of charitable philanthropy and the organisers decided against fundraising. By 1946 there were 40 Playcentres.

The distinctive belief of Playcentre was that parents are the best teachers and parent education became the hallmark. The first training course was underway by 1945, spearheaded later by the arrival of Gwen Somerset in Wellington in 1948 combining both early child and parent education. Somerset’s book I play and I grow (1949) became the philosophical guide for Playcentre and a standard text for kindergarten.

With the post-war demand by families for pre-school education, Playcentre expanded across towns, suburbs and into rural areas too small for kindergartens.

Playcentre provided what academic and political activist,

gazette.education.govt.nz

Student Kindergarten teachers demonstrating teaching methods, ca 1928.

Wellington Free Kindergarten Association: Photographs. Ref: PAColl-0981-1-09-1.

Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/23051350

Geraldine McDonald described as an “acceptable career for mothers at home”. As childcare grew, Playcentre supervisors became its mainstay staffing, making play and education more visible and routines more relaxed.

By the 1980s, with more mothers in employment, Playcentre numbers had declined, but to this day, Playcentre still meets the needs of families wanting a hands-on involvement in the early education of their children.

Māori activism for early education

Prior to the 1960s, few Māori children attended preschool.

Throughout the 1960s there was a flurry of reports promoting the idea of Māori children benefitting from preschool – initially by encouraging attendance at a kindergarten or Playcentre.

This did happen – particularly in Playcentre, but Pākehā institutions felt alien to many Māori families.

Sponsored by the Māori Education Foundation and the Māori Women’s Welfare League, many Māori communities established their own preschools, typically in schools, marae and halls, and with some affiliated to Playcentre.

By the 1970s most of the preschools had ceased to function. The mainly voluntary task was too huge to sustain. Soon to be established in its place was a

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movement driven by significant Māori concern for the revival of te reo Māori.

The kōhanga reo (language nest) movement was based on the strategy that the language should be ‘caught’ rather than ‘taught’ in the early years with the child learning the language in the context of an immersion environment.

Under the auspices of Te Kōhanga Reo National Trust comprising founding representatives from the Department of Māori Affairs, the Māori Education Foundation, Māori Women’s Welfare League and the New Zealand Māori Council, kōhanga reo were rapidly established around the country.

The Waitangi Tribunal noted in its 1986 Te Reo report: “A remarkable thing has happened. During the last three years an extraordinarily vital development has taken place among Maori people. This is the Kohanga Reo Movement.”

Indeed, between 1982 and 1985, almost 400 kōhanga reo were formed with more than 6,000 mokopuna attending – explosive growth compared to mainstream preschool formats.

The Trust oversaw development of the movement; kaumatua and kuia, fluent in Māori were brought out of retirement to immerse the children and whānau in te reo. Adults were immersed in tikanga and te reo, initially using what affectionately became known as the Blue Book Syllabus and were able to be awarded a Kōhanga Reo

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National Trust Certificate as they became kaiako (teachers or instructors) themselves.

Overall, kōhanga reo funding remained with the Department of Māori Affairs until the 1989 Before Five reforms. At the same time, kōhanga reo were brought under the umbrella of the Ministry of Education and were thus treated by the Crown as part of the education sector.

Pacific patterns

The mid-1980s saw the emergence of what were initially called Pacific Islands Language Nests by different Pacific communities, showcasing the language and culture of their respective Island group for children mainly born in New Zealand.

The first reported Pacific group was in Tokoroa in 1972-3 established by Samoan and Cook Islands women.

There were Samoan and Cook Islands initiatives in the early 1980s in Wellington and Auckland with around 10 Language Nests by 1984, rapidly increasing to around 172 by 1990.

Support came from Pacifica women’s organisations and churches, but centres did not meet the criteria for government funding. A’oga Fa’a Samoa attached to Richmond Road School in Auckland became the first licensed Pacific centre in 1990.

The issue of qualifications was a barrier. This was resolved when the renamed New Zealand Childcare Association established a fast-track course for four women with teaching qualifications not recognised in New Zealand. With the awarding of the Association’s Childcare Certificate, these women ran training courses among Pacific communities under the umbrella of the association. This was the fledgling beginning of a distinctive Pacific early education movement, one that had many distinctive cultural patterns from respective Pacific Islands.

Professionalism and parity

The issue of qualifications has been a challenge to each early childhood service. From its beginnings in Germany the kindergarten movement held to the idea of the professional teacher.

Kindergarten Associations in New Zealand established their own training, with students working in kindergartens in the morning and studying in the afternoon. This was the pattern until the 1948 when government-funded two-year courses in the four city associations.

“Kindergarten teachers were always disadvantaged compared with primary teachers, even after kindergarten training shifted into Teachers Colleges in 1974 with a two-year diploma compared with the three-year primary diploma.

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Kindergarten pedagogy

“There were positives in this move but kindergarten pedagogy was undermined by the dominance of the school subjects with primary teaching staff often winning appointments over kindergarteners,” says Helen.

Similarly, the New Zealand Association of Childcare Centres established its own field-based childcare certificate. In 1975, after much advocacy, a one-year certificate course began at Wellington Polytechnic. This was followed in the 1980s by one-year courses offered in Teachers Colleges.

Neither childcare nor kindergartens were happy with their lot and campaigned for training programmes equal to primary. Eventually in 1987, the Government announced a three-year integrated early childhood diploma. There was some regret amongst kindergartners at the loss of their stand-alone kindergarten qualification.

Unified movement

This was a huge policy win and again hastened the move towards a more unified early childhood movement, says Helen. The programmes were launched across 1988-1990 and later became degree programmes. The Childcare Association similarly upgraded its certificate to a fieldbased diploma and later a degree.

Equivalence with primary teacher education removed a barrier to the long campaign by kindergarten teachers for pay parity with primary teachers, which began in 1973 but not won until 2002. Teachers working in childcare immediately began a campaign for pay parity.

Helen’s academic career in early years education coincided with these new political times. With an appointment to Hamilton Teachers College in 1987, and in 1995 as the New Zealand’s first Professor of Early Childhood Education at Victoria University, and later in 2005 as the foundation Dean of the University of Otago College of Education, she has relished the opportunity to be involved in creating a graduate, postgraduate and research culture in early childhood education, as well as continued engagement in political advocacy as early childhood education battled for recognition and funding.

The second part of this article will be published in Issue 5, Volume 100 of the Education Gazette, the next special centenary edition to be published this year.

References: Helen May, ‘I am five and I go to School’ Early years schooling in NZ 1900-2010, I (Otago University Press, 2011); Discovery of Early Childhood (2nd edition) (NZCER Press, 2013); Politics in the Playground: The world of early childhood education in Aotearoa New Zealand (3rd edition), (Otago University Press, 2019).

gazette.education.govt.nz

Playground at a Playcentre in Eastbourne, 1944.

Original photographic prints and postcards from the file print collection, Box 19. Ref: PAColl-7985-80. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/22767382.

8 February 2021

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This year Animals & Us are launching a new set of free digital resources for high school students that focuses on issues affecting humans and animals.

With these resources, students are encouraged to engage with and explore compassionate lifestyle choices.

Each resource includes a series of readings, videos, activities and NCEA Achievement Standard assessments.

Following on from a successful series of print textbooks, the first three digital resources look at animal sentience, healthy eating, and a story of a farmer transitioning away from animal farming.

Animal Sentience takes a look at the capacity to feel, perceive and experience, and how it affects our understanding of animals.

The resource explores feelings, sensations and emotion, the philosophical history of sentience, speciesism and New Zealand’s Animal Welfare Act 1999. With this resource, students are encouraged to consider compassion and engage in critical analysis of why we treat animals the way we do in today’s society.

Animals & Us textbooks Our original set of Animals & Us print textbooks are still available free to teachers across New Zealand. These interdisciplinary textbooks cover a range of issues, including animals in entertainment, animal experimentation, animal rights, and factory farming.

Order your free set of textbooks online at: www.animalsandus.org.nz/order-textbooks/

Eating Healthy for You and the Planet is a home economics resource that looks at how the food we eat affects the health of our planet. It explores the nutritional needs of different people, cultivated meats, and the future of food. The resource has a range of activities, including many delicious and affordable recipes that are good for people and the planet.

Eating Healthy for You and the Planet explores food production and how our day-to-day dietary habits contribute to the climate emergency and our environment.

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Sign up for updates on these resources: animalsandus.org.nz

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Is your classroom filled with curious young animal lovers? Access free resources available through Animal Squad, a group designed specifically for children aged eight to 14 years.

Animal Bites newsletters are available for free to Year 1 to Year 8 teachers and students. Each issue of Animal Bites takes a child-friendly look at a different animal and the issues affecting them. These newsletters include animal facts, activities, competitions and a large foldout poster. Teachers can sign up their class to receive three sets of newsletters each year, and students are invited to take part in regular competitions.

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38

Education Gazette

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PACI FIC EDUCATION

Embracing the identity of Pacific learners An increasing awareness of learner identity is helping teachers respond to the diverse strengths and needs of Pacific learners.

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Understanding the needs and identities of every learner is at the heart of the culture at Rowandale School.

8 February 2021

isiting the Pacific Islands is high on Brittany Wilson-Connal’s wishlist.

She is of Cook Island Māori and Samoan descent and was born in New Zealand. Her parents were born in New Zealand. Her five-year-old daughter was born in New Zealand.

“We don’t do much with my daughter around her culture at home,” says Brittany. “But she gets exposed to her cultures at school – and not just her cultures, but a wide range.”

Brittany’s daughter has just started at Rowandale School in Manurewa, where Brittany also works as a learning support assistant.

“Sometimes she’s coming home and she’s teaching me how to say ‘hello’ in Indian and Chinese and her own language, Samoan. She’s also part-Māori from her dad’s side so she’s teaching me some Māori words that I didn’t know before. It’s amazing – she’s teaching us, and her Nana. Which is good.

“The language weeks are a bit OTT, but we love it,” Brittany laughs. “But the good thing is we’re not just waiting for the language weeks – cultures are recognised here on a day-to-day basis.”

Brittany and her daughter are typical of many of the families at Rowandale School in that they were born in New Zealand and can trace their heritage to several ethnicities.

Late last year, Education Gazette met some of the school’s children such as classmates Malynda and Heleina who are both Niuean and Māori.

Heleina loves the arts. “We did all sorts of art this year, including cubism and mosaic.”

Meanwhile Malynda enjoyed their class project on water. “We learned about tsunamis through that.”

Aorangi is Māori and Samoan and loves sports, especially league and basketball.

“I got to perform the haka for the kindergarten visit this year,” he says, looking visibly proud as he recalls the occasion.

Kaedyn is Cook Island Māori and Samoan.

“My favourite thing this year was a project where we got to build rocket ships with bottles and paint.”

It’s all about visibility

With such a wide range of cultures and ethnicities, such a wide range of interests, strengths and needs, are we doing right by our Pacific learners in New Zealand?

Tukutuku Kōrero

39

Karl Vasau.

Things have certainly improved since her schooldays, says Roberta Hunter, who is Professor of Pasifika Education Studies at Massey University. Roberta is of Cook Islands and European heritage and recalls that there was no Pacific education in New Zealand when she was at school.

“There was no visibility in any of my schooling in the ’50s and ’60s. Right through to the 1990s we were still saying ‘Pacific Islanders’ as one homogenised group and we were teaching children about them as people who lived on an island and climbed coconut trees. It was about ‘this is how they live’. We didn’t see them as people who lived in New Zealand,” says Roberta.

“In this century we’ve started looking at the identity of Pacific learners in New Zealand, not just that they came from the islands, but looking at first, second and third generation Pacific people living in New Zealand.”

Rowandale School principal Karl Vasau fits this profile.

He is of Niuean, Samoan, Tongan and European ancestry, and was born and bred in Grey Lynn, Auckland.

“Seventy per cent of Pacific children were born here. Most have never seen a coconut tree. This is their life – right here,” he says.

Shifting the focus

Roberta’s daughter Dr Jodie Hunter says the focus is now shifting to how to make children’s identity central to their learning.

“There’s a lot more basic awareness needed around valuing children’s cultural identity. But the missing piece for me in terms of where we need to head is: how to do that in the classroom?

Brittany Wilson-Connal.

“We’re building global citizens and if you want to be a global citizen you have to know where you stand in this world.”

Karl Vasau

Georgina Manuele.

“I finished teaching in 2008 and there’s been huge progress since then. I think that critical consciousness has become much more apparent. And that’s a huge first step,” she says.

The celebrated Massey researcher says it’s about authenticity.

“I think we do things that we think are drawing on cultural heritage, but then when you look at it critically, they’re not really.”

Jodie gives an example of a school she visited recently where the teacher was using an exercise using tapa cloth patterns.

“The teacher was doing all the right things. But then she asked, ‘How do you make tapa cloth?’ and one of the kids said, ‘We made them in school. You get a piece of paper, and then you soak it in tea and then you draw patterns on it.’ It made

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me really think. That’s so tokenistic and not at all how you make tapa.

“Twenty years ago, I guess we would have been celebrating the fact that we were using tapa cloth in the classroom without really critically looking at how. It’s a tricky one because I think teachers do the best they can but we’ve still got a way to go.

“I think the point where we need to keep moving is, that you don’t appropriate something like that, that you keep the cultural context as a really important aspect of it, and you show that you value that, so that it becomes integral in our teaching.”

Valuing children’s experiences

Jodie says it’s important to recognise that children have much to contribute to their learning from their own lives.

“I feel like 20 years ago the main approach was to give kids experiences. Now teachers are thinking more about ‘what are the kids’ experiences that we can draw on?’”

Dr Lesieli Togatio, who has been influential in the development of five Pasifika Education Plans up until 2012, says language, culture and identity has become increasingly valued as an integral part of learning.

“What’s important is who you are and what knowledge you have to bring into the system. Half the trouble was, in those days – and it still happens now – is that educators think, ‘Here’s an empty vessel, I can fill that up’, instead of thinking, ‘There’s somebody there – who are they? What do they bring into their learning?’”

Culture and curriculum

Jodie says that by drawing on what children know – their identity, language and culture – teachers can tap into many curriculum areas, including maths, science, art and literacy.

“Twenty years ago, we were thinking of art, art, art – we’re now able to see the multitude of different connections we can make. And then you’ve got the processes which you can link to the key competencies in terms of: How do you work together?

How do you develop leadership? What roles do people take?

What are the values of these sorts of things? And then how do we use these in the classroom?”

Both Roberta and Jodie have done a lot of research into mathematics teaching and learning for Pacific students.

Roberta explains that the fundamental basis of their work is recognising the social and cultural elements of mathematics and allow children to see themselves in the maths.

“So the mathematics they do in their home life should be reflected in what they are asked to do in school,” says Roberta.

“For instance, you start to look at tapa and you can see very strong algebraic patterns. It doesn’t necessarily have to be tied to the islands either – and that’s really important – it’s also about reflecting their popular culture, from their daily lives in New Zealand.

“Children can start to realise the absolute cleverness that’s involved with constructing those. When they start to see that, they can start to identify mathematically and start to see themselves.

“After doing that, the children shift from the familiar to the unfamiliar. So if we can see that patterning and we can work out the algebra involved with that, then we can actually do it in any other setting.

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“Suddenly they can do a whole lot of things that teachers thought they couldn’t do and it’s all because they were struggling with the context of the problem, not actually the maths. And through that they can get a very good sense of identity: ‘Actually as a group of people, aren’t we clever at mathematics?’”

Planting seeds

Karl Vasau believes in encouraging kids to dream big.

“The curriculum asks us to provide an education where children can come into a school and see themselves, hear themselves. It’s about building the confidence and pride of these kids in themselves. We’re building global citizens and if you want to be a global citizen you have to know where you stand in this world.”

Rowandale School is planning a careers expo, getting their learners as young as five to start dreaming of their future.

“It’s about planting the seeds so that our kids firmly believe they can achieve excellence – the top level of what they want, past these gates and past this community.”

Karl says an important part of this is for kids to see Pacific people in leadership roles.

“There are so many Pacific people in ministerial roles.

I could never have imagined that as a kid. There was no such thing.”

Lesieli Togatio says we still need more Pacific teachers and leaders in our schools. She wants to see people valued for who they are, and their language not viewed as a barrier to success.

“I’m Tongan, my first language is Tongan and I speak English as a second language and I can do well,” she says.

In the school context, Karl recalls his experience as a

young principal at Holy Family School.

“I would be sitting at my desk, and have people come to my door and say, ‘I’m here to see the principal’.

People’s bias is real.”

Through what he’s seeing as part of his involvement with the New Zealand Pasifika Principals’ Association, he’s pleased to see this is changing.

At Rowandale, 60 per cent of the staff are Māori or Pacific.

“The rest are really caring, very proud Pākehā, Indians, Muslim – and all different types of people. I firmly believe, too, that love is love. You don’t have to wear a lava lava and put a flower in your hair to love Pacific kids. They’ll know. They don’t care what you wear.

It’s not that surface stuff.”

Partnership with family

Karl says having a diverse staff helps build parent engagement, particularly when staff members can speak parents’ first languages.

“But if you understand certain cultures in the Pacific there is real structure between teachers and everyone else. There is a relationship where the teacher has the knowledge and the power. Sometimes that’s a barrier.”

Karl says they have tried really hard to incorporate talanoa into everything they do at Rowandale as a way of addressing this barrier.

“There are four key aspects of talanoa; any good conversation has to have love, warmth, humour and respect. If you have those four things you can solve the problems of the world. So we’ve incorporated that into our staff meetings, into our team meetings, our appraisal system.

Morning tea time at Rowandale School.

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“We do the same with parent engagement. Usually at a school, the parents turn up and the school already knows what they want the parents to say. And parents know exactly what to say. But with talanoa – talk about nothing, see where it goes.

“And there are the families of the children I taught, who are all grown up now. We’ve been working with the parents as key partners in the project and it’s a different sense from 20 years ago. I think the parents feel more like they’ve got a voice to offer and they’re more likely to be heard.”

Parent voice

Language is part of identity

“Every school in New Zealand should consult with parents, getting their voices on the table. Ask them, ‘What are your dreams and aspirations for your Pasifika children?’ Ask them, ‘How would you like to see your language, identity and culture valued at school?’ Don’t assume.”

Karl says a good relationship with parents cannot flourish if there is any blame or deficit thinking at its heart.

“It’s about giving their parents the resources, and as a school pulling up our sleeves and getting on with the work.

Not worrying about the deficit stuff that we can’t control, but staying focused on the things we can. A child turns up hungry – feed him, who cares? A child turns up without a jacket? Give her a jacket. Who cares? Don’t ask questions, just sort it. Because the moment we start going down that track, it’s someone else’s fault.”

Jodie says she has seen a move towards more genuine partnerships between schools and Pacific communities.

“We’re moving away from a model where we think our role as educators is to invite parents into the schools and tell them what to do with their kids. I think schools are moving towards this idea that parents and communities can be partners in developing schools’ curriculum and localised contexts,” she says.

Jodie is currently working on a research project at Mangere Bridge School, which is where she began her teaching career in the early 2000s.

Valuing parents’ and students’ languages helps build relationships, says Georgina Manuele, Year 2 Team Leader at Rowandale.

“I think the biggest problem is that our parents and whānau aren’t encouraged to use their first language.

When they attend school, they just think English is the default.”

Karl reflects on why this might be.

“It’s hard because our languages have become languages of correction, growlings. Sometimes in some families you don’t hear the poetry, romance, love songs.

The system we were in didn’t value the language, so why use it?”

Roberta says while the renaissance of te reo Māori has helped inspire the revitalisation of Pacific languages, there are different factors at play.

“You get a kind of resistance, still, to learning and speaking Cook Island Māori for instance, or going to a school where you’re immersed in speaking this language because you’ve still got the people who say, ‘But we came to this country to learn English’. I think that’s still pervasive.”

Pride in language and culture

Georgine Manuele is eager to develop within her students and their whānau a confidence and pride in their language and culture.

Classmates Malynda and Heleina identify as Niuean and Māori.

8 February 2021

Tukutuku Kōrero

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“Language is really important. It defines identity and who each child is. As a teacher I need to understand everyone and what they bring, as a whole, rather than Jane from down the road. Jane comes with a lot of things that make her Jane. And my job is how can I improve and encourage her to develop and progress throughout the year,” she says.

Georgina has been involved in the Pacific Early Literacy Programme (PELP) and rolling out the use of dual language books. And she also uses lots of small but effective ways to encourage learning and engagement in people’s first language.

In class, she uses simple commands in a range of languages; for example, ‘come here’ is ‘sau ii’ in Samoan, ‘ha’u o’ in Tongan and ‘haere mai’ in Māori. They’ve also held parent fono, encouraging parents to speak their first language.

Georgina says her students teach her their languages.

“I let the students know that I’m still learning as well, and that it’s okay to take risks.”

And alongside language, it’s important to know each individual child, building on his or her interests.

Everything the children bring in is valued, she says.

“Children come to us with different learning abilities and disabilities. So it’s important that we create a classroom culture where we understand differences.

Difference relates to language, the way we look and how we interpret different things.”

Hopes and fears

Georgina is keen to see more resources made available to help her achieve this vision for her learners.

“It’s great to see that the dual texts are being made available, but there’s still not enough.”

She also thinks it’s good to see children being given the opportunity to speak, read and write in their first language, and then introduce English when they are comfortable, but she wishes this could be better reflected in the curriculum progressions frameworks.

Roberta’s concerns run deeper; she cites “high-level institutional racism” in New Zealand’s education system.

This is reflected in the way many schools collect student data, she says.

“Whatever you put down first on a form is what they’re classified as. So if you’ve got a Māori Niuean Tongan student, if they enter Māori first on a form, they’ve lost the Tongan and Niuean.

“Even the collection and comparing of achievement data is really assimilation, saying you have to achieve the same, when achievement might really mean something different for different people.”

Pacific and Māori values

Roberta Hunter’s ideal for the future is for schools to be run on the principle and values of Pacific and Māori learners, which are all about collectivism and working together as one. She points to Koru School in Mangere as a shining example of a school where every child has a voice but they all work together, with strong parental involvement.

Roberta thinks the Pacific Education Action Plan, released in 2020, amplifies these principles of collectivism and is a good start. But for her, the key word in the plan is ‘action’.

“It’s all very well to have these initiatives but we’ve got to work on ‘the how’ for teachers. We’ve got to give them space to learn and that’s a big journey that takes a long time.”

Karl is also eager to see action.

“It’s not mandated; the risk is that it will sit on the shelf,” he says of the plan. However, he is pleased to see money attached to the implementation of the plan, and he points to the funding earmarked for Pacific wellbeing and the $2.5 million that has been granted for a project run

by New Zealand Pasifika Principals’ Association to build leadership competence among Pacific school leaders.

“The plan acknowledges so many things that we’ve known about for ages – racism is there, engagement with boys, co-construction with your community. It’s about building critical mass of Pacific leadership and teachers.

It’s about supporting those who are there.

“All along the way I’ve had Pacific and non-Pacific people champion the way for me. They’re still fighting the cause. It’s a great step and with funding attached, we’ve got a good shot at seeing it actually work,” he says.

To read more about Professor Roberta Hunter

and Dr Jodie Hunter's work in action, see the Gazette article: Taking maths into the hearts of communities.

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Teaching that shows others the way The Prime Minister’s Education Excellence Awards recognise inspiring work from across New Zealand. Teaching that benefits children and young people, whānau and entire communities.

Teaching that changes us all.

ENTRIES OPEN 22 FEBRUARY 2021

Share your team’s best practice.

Enter the 2021 Awards at pmawards.education.govt.nz

L E AR N I N G S U P P ORT

Evolution of learning support in Aotearoa

The inclusive learning culture at Manurewa Intermediate School is supported by the Learning Support Delivery Model implemented across the Manurewa Kāhui Ako.

In 1921, children and young people with disabilities in New Zealand were denied education and confined to institutions. A century later, we know that inclusion works for everyone, and celebrate the fact that more than 99 per cent of all learners are enrolled in local schools. What happened in between is the evolution of learning support.

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he door to inclusive learning opened when the Education Act 1989 stipulated that children with special educational needs (whether because of disability or otherwise) have the same rights to enrol and receive education as those who do not. However, that law change did not bring schools the services they needed to deliver education to students with disabilities.

“Prior to 1989 there was not much support for schools: some specialists and only limited teacher aide money,” says Sally Jackson, former chief advisor for Learning Support at the Ministry of Education.

“Schools had to compete for a small pot of funding and the division of resources became unequal between high and lower decile schools.”

Special Education 2000 followed with funding lines to make education opportunities more equitable. These included the Special Education Grant to help schools cater to students with mild to moderate needs; the Ongoing Resourcing Scheme (ORS) for children with the very highest learning needs; and the introduction of Resource Teachers: Learning & Behaviour (RTLB).

“We put in ORS for the top one percent of children with the highest needs – we wanted to stress that all children can learn including those with the highest needs,” says Sally.

The Ministry partnered with universities to develop post-graduate training and establish RTLB, with an emphasis on learning and strengthening behaviours that promote learning.

Becoming more inclusive

In 2010 the Education Review Office (ERO) reported that half of schools surveyed could be described as inclusive and that the most successful models operated three key principles: » Having ethical standards and leadership that built the culture of an inclusive school. » Having well-organised systems, effective teamwork and constructive relationships that identified and supported the inclusion of students with high and very high needs. » Using innovative and flexible practices that managed the complex and unique challenges related to including students with high and very high needs.

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"...the key to success is collaboration and working as a team and that includes the young person and their family, putting all the ideas together.” ” Sally Jackson

By 2015, ERO reported that three-quarters of schools surveyed were operating an inclusive model. “The ‘mostly inclusive’ schools were more likely to have a coordinated, systematic approach, working strategically to provide for students with special education needs, and ensure they make progress and experience success.”

Sally Jackson says inclusion is in language and mindset, as well as practice. She is eager to see a continued shift away from anything that perpetuates an ‘us and them’ kind of attitude.

Twenty years ago, she says, there was a tendency to refer to anything relating to a child or a young person with a disability as ‘special education’ and curriculum design would sometimes not include children with learning support needs.

“If a family has a child with a disability, they don’t set them aside because they’re different. And nor should schools.”

who needs to do something different. None of us has got all the answers; the key to success is collaboration and working as a team and that includes the young person and their family, putting all the ideas together.”

Special Educational Needs Co-ordinators (SENCOs) have played a key role for many years, in leading this collaboration between school and whānau to help support the learning and social needs of students with learning support needs and disabilities.

The Learning Support Delivery Model (LSDM) brings together learning support services in a community so all children and young people in that community can benefit from shared expertise. Clusters of schools, kura, early childhood education (ECE) and kōhanga reo work together with their SENCOs or Learning Support Coordinators, RTLB and Ministry facilitators to identify needs across their community and decide how best to use resources.

Collaboration is key

Iain Taylor, Manurewa Kāhui Ako leader and principal of Manurewa Intermediate School, says the LSDM is proving transformational, particularly the support provided by Learning Support Coordinators (LSCs). The LSCs were employed when the Kāhui Ako established its LSDM at the beginning of 2020, among the first tranche of LSCs to be allocated across the country.

Sally says teachers can’t expect to be experts in every single impairment – that’s where collaboration with others comes in.

“If this child isn’t learning the way that I have been teaching, then I need to do something different. I need to change what I have planned. It isn’t necessarily the child

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Learning Support Delivery Model in action

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“These LSCs are in our schools, they’re seeing teachers on a daily basis and I’m seeing our teachers developing a higher knowledge of learning support,” he says.

“And whilst they’re there to help children with learning disabilities and additional learning needs, their expertise is permeating into our school so those kids who are below the line, so to speak, but above the line of the needs of the kids that the LSCs were set up to support, are also being addressed more effectively.

“They’re helping with the identification and planning for the needs of kids in our schools; they’re starting to connect with a range of specialist supports and services so they’re able to make direct connections with the likes of other Ministry expertise and resource teachers, and all that will feed into part of their overall plan.”

Iain says the weekly meetings of LSCs, SENCOs and Ministry staff have allowed communication to “open up”, and the formation of strong working relationships.

“It was also a way of encouraging schools to have consistent protocol across our schools. They’re able to problem-solve and improve the data systems.”

Covid times

Given the disruptions of 2020, Iain says he was expecting the end of year data to be horrific. Instead he was happily

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surprised by good results, an achievement he says was greatly helped by the LSCs who joined the school shortly before lockdown.

“When Covid hit, the LSCs were right there collaborating with the leadership team and classroom teachers to develop hard copy resources that kids would be able to do at home on their own.”

It’s one of a number of successes that he attributes to the LSDM. “In their year with us, the LSCs have had a big impact embedding a cultural collaboration between the LSCs and the SENCOs in our schools as well as our Ministry Service Manager. This is the first time that we’ve been able to cajole everyone together and that collaboration is pretty significant.”

School-whānau connections have been strengthened too.

“Because LSCs are not rushed with a hundred thousand other jobs like SENCOs or DPs, they’ve been able to take time to establish those relationships with the parents and the parents are feeling more listened to.

“We’ve also placed LSCs in a space away from the hierarchy, so to speak, so that parents can feel comfortable.”

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LEARN I NG SU PPORT

A timeline of learning support in New Zealand This timeline does not attempt to show a complete record of events but it identifies some important milestones in the history of learning support in New Zealand.

1914

»

1914 Education Act made it obligatory for parents, teachers and police to report ‘mentally defective’ children.

1971

»

United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Mentally Retarded Persons signalled a new era of international disability rights including in New Zealand.

1980s

»

Introduction of Early Intervention Services (EIS) to provide support for children with additional needs from birth, until they transition in to school.

1989

»

Education Act 1989 affords equal rights to primary and secondary education. Children with special educational needs now have the right to enrol at their local school.

1995-2002

»

Special Education 2000, designed to fund resources and support programmes for children with learning, communication and behavioural needs.

Special Education Grant, introduced to help schools to support students with moderate special education needs.

Ongoing Resourcing Scheme (ORS) introduced for students with the highest ongoing levels of need; providing funding for specialist support, additional teacher time and teacher aide support at school. Once a student is in ORS, their funding and support stays with them throughout their time at school. ORS provides services and support, including specialists such as speech-language therapists, psychologists, occupational therapists, and equipment to assist learning.

Introduction of Resource Teachers: Learning & Behaviour (RTLB) to support teachers and learners in Years 1 to 10. Students may be referred individually, or as part of a group.

School High Health Needs Fund introduced to help schools provide support for children with high health needs such as epilepsy or asthma.

Regional Health Schools established in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch for students with significant health needs who cannot attend their local school because they are unwell, physically or mentally.

» »

» » »

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2002

»

Specialist Education Services (SES) that provided specialist support such as psychologists, speech language therapists and early intervention services integrated into the Ministry.

2005

»

Resource Teachers: Vision and staff employed in Visual and Sensory Resource Centres are combined with Homai National School for the Blind and Vision Impaired to form the Blind and Low Vision Education Network (BLENNZ).

2006

» »

NZSL becomes third official language of New Zealand.

The United Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities signed 2007. The Convention follows decades of work by the United Nations to change attitudes and approaches to persons with disabilities.

2008-2012

»

Ka Hikitia – Managing for Success sets the direction for improving education outcomes for Māori learners – including those with special education needs/disabilities. Focuses on high quality, culturally responsive education that incorporates the identity, language and culture of Māori learners and engages their whānau, hapū and iwi.

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2010

» » »

Education Review Office reports that half of schools surveyed can now be described as inclusive.

Success for All – Every School, Every Child supports the goal of all schools demonstrating inclusive practices.

ORS service expanded.

2011

»

Youth Mental Health Package announced to help schools take responsibility for student well-being.

Includes Positive Behaviour for Learning (PB4L) and related initiatives like PB4L School-Wide for many secondary schools and Incredible Years programmes for families and teachers.

More nurses in low decile schools, alternative education and teen parent units; trained youth workers in low decile schools.

Enabling Good Lives principles developed, leading to new models of disability support funding and the later prototype, Mana Whaikaha.

» »

2015

» » »

2016

» »

2019

»

» » 2020

» » »

In progress

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»

Education Review Office reports improvements from 2010. More than three quarters of the schools in the sample were found to be mostly inclusive compared with half in the 2010 evaluation.

Update of Special Education – change from “special education” to learning support.

Establishment of Intensive Wrap-Around Service (IWS).

Select Committee Inquiry into identification and support for children and young people with dyslexia, dyspraxia and autism spectrum disorders in primary and secondary schools.

Roll out of Learning Support Delivery Model across New Zealand.

Learning Support Action Plan (LSAP) 2019-2025 to support all children and young people with disabilities or learning support needs, introduction of Learning Support Coordinators (LSCs), strengthening of early intervention, provision of flexible supports for neurodiverse children and young people, increased access to supports for gifted children and young people, and improved education for those at risk of disengaging.

Review of Tomorrow’s Schools.

Education and Training Act 2020 requires all schools to be inclusive.

Refresh of Ka Hikitia.

Kelston and Van Asch Deaf Education Centres combined to become Ko Taku Reo - one national organisation providing specialist services to learners who are deaf or hard of hearing.

National Education and Learning Priorities (NELP) to replace school charters. Guided by five principles: » Learners at the centre – Learners with their whānau are at the centre of education. » Barrier-free access – Greater education opportunities and outcomes are within reach for every learner. » Quality teaching and leadership – Quality teaching and leadership make the difference for learners and their whānau. » Future of learning and work – Learning that is relevant to the lives of New Zealanders today and throughout their lives. » World-class inclusive public education – New Zealand education is trusted and sustainable.

Redesign of the Ministry of Education to provide better support to schools and early learning services.

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TEACH ER WORKF ORCE

Reflections of a teacher aide Education Gazette talks to 101-year-old Mae Palmer about her career. Mae worked as a teacher aide from 1965 at Papatoetoe North School, then at Murray’s Bay Primary School from 1971 until her retirement.

Mae Palmer with son Robert (left) and grandson Matthew Palmer.

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What led you to become a teacher aide?

Mae: My husband passed away on a Sunday from a heart attack, and I found myself with four dependent children. I had been a housewife looking after the family.

In discussion with the principal at Papatoetoe North, they offered me a position at the school as a teacher’s aide, looking after any sick students and providing support to the full staff by way of providing work sheets and teaching supplies. This enabled me to earn an income and still look after my youngest child, who was only five and had just started at Papatoetoe North.

What did the job entail back in 1965?

Mae: The work really was to be total support for staff by providing resources that they required in the classrooms, ensuring morning tea and afternoon was provided for them at break time and looking after any students who need first aid.

Did the nature of your job change much over the years, from when you started, until when you retired?

Mae: The role never changed much over the years working at the school, other than the advancement of the material that teachers required. I also assisted with the finance when necessary and this happened more when we moved to the North Shore and I started at Murray’s Bay School. Also, the First Aid requirements advanced as we became aware that students sometimes needed to have special medications while at school. The role was always to provide support to staff students and also parents.

Did you enjoy working as a teacher aide? What were the best bits?

Mae: I loved the work and it really provided me great satisfaction serving the needs of those who cared for students. There were so many best parts it is hard to single any one out.

And the worst bits?

Mae: I would have to be honest to say the times I really did not enjoy my work was when I felt the interests of the students were not always the very first consideration, or when a few people did not really give 100 percent to the job.

Do you have any particularly vivid, funny or poignant memories of your time as a teacher aide?

Mae: There are so many really as we would always have something to laugh about. I do remember one time telling the teachers that my old clock radio was not working so I put it in a cooling oven at home, which must have removed the moisture that caused the radio to not work.

Great success with a simple solution. After a Christmas break one of the very dear male Scottish teachers came in and said “Where is that Mrs Palmer? I am still scraping my radio off the bottom of my oven!” We all did laugh about it as you should never give a man a woman’s job.

What did you do when you retired from your work as a teacher aide?

Mae: When I retired, I continued working but as a volunteer running an opportunity shop for Murray’s Bay Baptist Church, that provided financial support to the Baptist City Mission, which provided food and shelter to those who were homeless in the inner city.

“I loved the work and it really provided me great satisfaction serving the needs of those who cared for students. ” Mae Palmer

She is our hero!

Robert Palmer, Mae’s youngest son, reflects on his mum’s contribution.

Mum will turn 102 on 25 February 2021 and is still singing and smiling most of the time. I am sure her giving, encouraging, servant heart is the reason she is still with us. I look at my mother and realise her greatest gift to me as her youngest son has been the example of serving others first. When my father passed away when I was five, my mother became both a father and a mother.

My mum lived through World War II and volunteered

as an ambulance driver in Glasgow. The world has changed so much since she was born in 1919, yet her values have not changed. She is our hero!

Mum’s account highlights that while our awesome teachers care for the children of our country, behind them is another tier of support, assisting them to be able to do that.

New Zealand is a country that can be proud that we are one, seeking the very best for each other. The world will see that when we care for each other we can achieve almost anything together.

Editor's note: Sadly, Mae passed away on 13 January 2021. The Gazette would like to thank her son Robert for the opportunity to share her story.

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RU RAL

Celebrating a century at the heart of the community Celebrating its centenary this year, Feilding High School has a rich history in providing agricultural education. Today it works with its community in striving to enable excellence in wherever students’ passions lie.

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eilding High School was established in 1921 to provide agricultural education in New Zealand. From an old brick building in the middle of a cow paddock, it’s become a comprehensive state school with two farms: a 16-hectare dairy farm and an 81-hectare sheep and beef farm.

“Our goal is to try and enable excellence in our kids in what their passion is,” says Principal Nathan Stewart.

“For some kids it’s agriculture and their interests lie in the vocational pathways; for others it’s the academic side of learning. We are trying very hard and deliberately to look after both sets of students the best we can.

“Our top priority, however, is to help enable excellence in good kids – we make great people first. They are people that are going to respect others, respect themselves and add value to our community.

“Secondary to that are our academic and vocational pathways – creating avenues for kids to have fruitful lives and choices when they leave school to do something they want to do,” says Nathan.

Feilding is a small rural community, so agriculture plays a significant role and is an important part of the local curriculum.

The dairy farm is there to support agriculture and the benefit for the kids is huge. They see and learn good farming practices, but they are also exposed to the financial side of running a farm.

Theory and practice

The Voluntary Milking System allows cows to milk when they want to, which might be once a day or three times a day – it’s up to them. Teachers then link this data into classroom learning. The school is on a path to get the farms more productive and they’re taking the students with them on that journey; they learn both the theory and the practice.

The school has a partnership with companies Carrfields and H&T, in which several parents are involved, and those companies set up real trials, from drenching, different grass types, agricultural plantings, the best way of fattening lambs, through to how to get the best out of the pasture.

“These parents and companies that support us are an immense help – our kids learn agriculture in the classroom and on the farms,” says Nathan.

Te Rau Hui performing.

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There’s also a full hostel of approximately 180 students from all over the central North Island. Hostel students can walk across and engage in farm activities after school, so access to learning is boundless.

Shearing competition and opportunities

Last year, for the first time since 1991, the school held a shearing competition. Prior to Covid-19, the shearing preliminaries were held at the farm, with the finals held in the school hall.

“Our school hall was full – there wasn’t enough space!” says Nathan. “Students were keen to watch their mates shear and it was a fantastic opportunity for the shearers to show what they do and how good they are.”

It also brought members of the community into the school, such as shearing judges and other volunteers.

Students can make significant money shearing through summer. Other students spend hours contracting driving tractors or in other skilled jobs.

“We want to continue to build up the farms so the opportunities for our kids are diverse, no matter what they go on to do,” says Nathan.

“The Ministry of Education should be hugely proud that they have an asset like Feilding High School and they’ve allowed it to grow and flourish. It’s a unique part of their own toolbox because it’s ‘ours’.

“We talk about the school being ours because it’s not just for our staff and students, it’s ours collectively to engage with. For the first time this year, we’ve invited people through the farm gate so they can see what’s theirs.”

Belong, Engage, Succeed

Feilding High School has high expectations for every student, says Nathan.

“We’ve got a saying here: Belong, Engage, Succeed.

If kids don’t feel like they belong, that they’re part of something, then the engagement suffers.

“We place a huge value on sport and art because through these you learn character. You learn to interact in competitive and social environments – training hard, getting up early – being accountable to others and mixing with different groups of people. Whether they play summer or winter sport, do drama or are in the choir - the more varied experiences our kids can have, the better it is for them.

“We help each individual student find somewhere they belong, and where they can win. It’s key that each kid gets a chance to win somewhere at school. Not everybody will be in the 1st XV in rugby – robotics might be their thing or being in the choir – as long as they have a place where they can win,” he says.

Learning te reo is strong and the school is introducing

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Feilding High School's shearing competition underway.

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a more extensive te ao Māori course next year. They are working with local iwi, Ngāti Kauwhata, who are very keen to be involved and share their story to ensure integrity is maintained. Students will go to their marae to do aspects of the course.

Nathan would prefer to see less rhetoric about the lack of achievement for Māori and Pacific students and more focus on those who are achieving.

“Academically he is outstanding, has a huge work ethic and is utterly reliable,” says Nathan.

“Our students are resilient, resourceful, can solve problems and come together and just work. We’re blessed with a great mix of town and country and when both come together it’s a very special blend of ‘what can’t we do?’.”

Māori success

A great example of the community’s resilience and wairua was their support for each other during and after the Level 4 lockdown.

Nathan is hugely proud of the students’ achievements and the way they and staff worked during lockdown. Some students worked on family farms and some full-time at the local supermarket to keep people fed and watered, but they did all this and still balanced their class work.

Nathan is grateful for the wider Feilding community.

“When we have difficult times, this community comes together with amazing belief, resilience and care. Everyone is willing to help.”

Post-lockdown, there were concerns for those students whose parents had lost work, so one of the board members, John Turkington, started paying for lunches.

“Every few days he would turn up with bags of groceries; the food was not just for our vulnerable kids but anyone who wanted lunch. John was very deliberate in getting what the kids needed and he and his wife Angela kept turning up with more groceries every few days. It’s just what they do – and that’s the type of community we have here.”

When the board started bringing in food, the Student Council decided to get involved – they prepared the food and served it.

“It’s not just a job for people here – we’re all about community inside and outside the school gate – what happens outside the classroom matters as well – that’s where you develop the whole person, it’s not just sitting in a row in a classroom.

“That’s why attendance post-Covid has been stable; students have stayed connected to school.”

Last year, the head boy, head girl and dux, Hannah Grace were all Māori.

“She (Hannah) was in tears when her dad popped in because she also won the Burge Family Cup for outstanding contribution to upholding the values of Feilding High School. Hannah has a real heart for caring for others and is a wonderful role model.”

Head boy Jonty Stewart, Whakatōhea, was captain of the 1st XV and gained a rugby scholarship to Hawke’s Bay. He’s also an excellence-level student.

“We’re all about community inside and outside the school gate – what happens outside the classroom matters as well – that’s where you develop the whole person; it’s not just sitting in a row in a classroom.”

Nathan Stewart

Community response to Covid-19

Sustainable model

The challenges for Nathan and his team are maintaining the change of pace and the opportunities that are available.

“It all works on the quality of the people you have. It’s about creating a model that’s sustainable and continuing to find great people to be part of your team.

“We have been deliberate in targeting teaching heroes that will make sure our kids get a good deal. We’re in the business of people, so hiring the right people is the most important thing we can do.

“Our people are willing to be on the turf at 6am or to spend Friday nights in Palmerston North so students can get to and from sports activities. Our sevens coach will drive to Auckland so the girls can attend a tournament. He has four daughters but still gives up his own time for our kids.”

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People such as the sevens coach help make activities accessible for students and Nathan praises the coach, who on one occasion saved parents money by staying in the bach of a past pupil.

“They all got up at 5am and drove to Auckland, played and drove back to Taupo and stayed in the bach overnight before driving back to Feilding on Sunday. The trip was free for everyone involved.

“It’s that continual generosity to try and break down barriers so all kids have an opportunity to do well and succeed. We do have families and whānau that sometimes need support, but we encourage all kids to be what they would love to be.

“It’s giving everyone a chance to achieve - that’s our challenge as a community – to give people opportunities.

It’s hard and it’s our job to manage that – some kids deal with things that are outside their control and it’s our responsibility to make sure they have the same opportunities to succeed as everyone.”

100 years of community

Nathan is most proud of the journey the school has been on, and increasingly providing better and better opportunities for their kids.

This year the school will celebrate its centenary, which is being organised by an active Old Pupils Association.

People are already registering, he says.

“We have to keep serving the kids as best we can because for them in a small town, they bump into each other all the time. Everyone in our community is effectively our neighbour so we all have a stake in making sure the school functions really well for our kids.”

Nathan explains that this adds to the level of care and commitment because, as the town’s largest, the school is fundamental to the future of the town. It has 1500–1600 learners, 150 staff, three separate entities with the two farms, a hostel, and the wider school – and it’s the only high school in Feilding.

There’s a lot of sharing to make sure the barriers for all kids are set as low as possible: their hockey turf and netball courts are community assets as they’re the only ones in town.

“We also have huge parent support for things like transport and coaching. It’s a special place and we have a huge duty of care to our kids because we’re ‘it’. A good school means that builders have a job, plumbers have a job, the town is growing because it makes it attractive for someone to live and raise their children here, so even at that level it’s important that our school continues to do well for its community. Otherwise the town would get bypassed.

“It’s a lot of pressure but our board just gives and gives and gives. For a voluntary role, it’s phenomenal how many hours they spend here to make sure the school flourishes.

And that’s supporting staff and the kids,” says Nathan.

8 February 2021

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“The buildings are exciting, but what is more exciting is what is going on inside the buildings.�

Robin Sutton

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CH RISTCHU RCH REBU I LD

Reimagining Christchurch schools The earthquakes destroyed lives and damaged schools on an unprecedented scale in Canterbury a decade ago. Now, the revitalisation of Christchurch schools is playing an important role in promoting the urban renewal because the schools are the heart of their communities.

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ebuilding schools in post-earthquake Canterbury has provided extraordinary opportunities to reimagine learning environments.

The rebuild has led to a rethink and refocus on how architecture assists learning and how to include extensive community consultation.

It’s radically different from the era when the schools were first built, many in 1950s and 1960s New Zealand, when standardisation was the common denominator and staff, students and the community had no role in determining what their school looked like.

Addressing inequity

Linwood College Principal Dick Edmundson points to Sir Ken Robinson’s TED Talk Changing Education Paradigms as a key influence for many Canterbury schools. He talks of a consensus understanding of the inequities in education and a commitment among principals and boards to socially rebuild, alongside the physical rebuild.

“The earthquakes centred us on the moral imperative to say, ‘we want every secondary school kid in greater Christchurch to have fair opportunities’, to be able to live in their communities and succeed as themselves in their communities,” says Dick.

“Previously, everyone had to fit the mould in a standardised environment. This of course clashes with living in a bicultural nation and multi-ethic community,” he says.

As schools first prepared their Education Brief (the document that sets the scene for what they want and highlights their unique culture), then worked through the design process, they encapsulated state-of-the-art theories, which considered the latest pedagogies and what that meant for building design. The brief included the views of staff, students and the broader local community.

Every possible architectural embodiment of a learning environment has been investigated, reviewed and tested against each school’s unique needs. Yet no two schools are the same and that’s the essence of building for what your specific needs are in the 2020s.

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Excitement and anticipation

Challenges with the Ministry of Education’s rebuild programme have been highlighted in the media as the regional rebuild has taken an extended length of time to accomplish for some schools. Yet, there’s lots of celebration for the communities where the rebuilt schools are operating and excited anticipation for those with building underway or planned.

Linwood College is presently temporarily sited on the former premises of Avonside Girls High School – a location where education has taken place since 1919. In 2022 Linwood’s rebuild at Aldwins Road will be complete and a new school will be unveiled – Te Aratai College.

“We want our community to be able to walk into our school and feel, ‘I belong here. I can see myself reflected here. I can see for my children and my grandchildren that they can be successful in their personalised pathways’, rather than having to leave their true identity at the school gate and to conform to a quite alien model,” says Dick.

Linwood College’s principal Dick Edmundson is excited about the rebuild of his school, which will be renamed Te Aratai College.

“We want our community to be able to walk into our school and feel, ‘I belong here. I can see myself reflected her’.”

Dick Edmundson

Enablers for education

Originally New Zealand secondary schools were designed for the privileged and powerful and worked as a filtering system through which the privileged few made it to Year 13 and were then prepared to go on to tertiary education, says Dick.

Hornby High School Principal Robin Sutton paints a harsh picture of that educational model failing Māori and Pacific students.

When he started at Hornby, the Year 7-13 high school was the epitome of 19th-century educational architecture – all single classrooms and the original 1975 ‘prefab’ relocatable buildings were still in place.

Now Hornby High School is on a vibrant new campus with a growing roll.

Robin says the new buildings are an enabler for education, whereas the previous ones created barriers.

Fit for purpose

Linwood College’s Dick Edmundson wants every child to have fair opportunities at his school.

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He’s no fan of architectural jargon – in fact he refuses to mention the words ‘modern learning environment’.

Today, Hornby High School has flexible, fit-for-purpose learning environments and teachers adapt the spaces to what is needed for the tasks the students are working on.

Concepts from library design theories for active learning spaces – private alone, private together, public alone, public together – assisted his team’s planning. In reality this means lots of options – both fixed-use areas and areas that allow teachers to choose from a range of different-sized spaces.

“The buildings are exciting, but what is more exciting is what is going on inside the buildings,” says Robin.

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Continuous evolution

Like many schools today, his team are employing collaborative pedagogy and a connected curriculum. Everyone is changing and developing their teaching skills as the school evolves.

It’s challenging, but Robin is in no hurry as the evolution is continuous. In fact, the buildings were designed to last for 100 years.

They are shells with no structural internal walls, so the building itself won’t stand in the way of future change.

The first new buildings were occupied at the end of term 2 in 2018 and the remainder in term 3 in 2019.

The former premises quickly faded into memory as everyone focuses on the ongoing opportunities of the new kura and the vision of confident and connected students with the adoption of the intentional and visible ‘learn, create, share’ pedagogy of the Manaiakalani programme.

Signs of success

Robin says that troubling behaviour formerly disproportionately displayed by incoming Year 9s has disappeared.

Writing achievement is accelerating by twice the national average.

NCEA results are improving.

The Year 7s and 8s who used to be defined physically and metaphorically as the junior school are assimilated into the whole ākonga.

And teachers are no longer pigeon-holed as junior or specialist teachers. Staff are buoyed by the fantastic impact the new school has on the students and have embraced the new spaces, setting aside any initial scepticism.

One part of Hornby’s evolution is what Robin describes as a focus on the first half of the national curriculum, the ‘soft’ skills, backed by timetabling changes for Years 7–10. There are few stand-alone subjects – English and Social Studies, Maths and Science, Health and PE are paired for collaborative learning.

“There’s a rapidly growing pride in the school. We are seeing that in enrolments increasing each year,” says Robin.

“The kids are finally in a quality learning environment and get the message that they are valued and important. They have the learning environment they deserve.”

Hornby High School was designed by architects Stephenson & Turner Ltd.

Responsive learning environments

On the other side of Christchurch, the physical architecture at Te Aratai College will be a direct consequence of conversations with the community about what they wanted for their neighbourhood secondary school.

Dick’s team use the term ‘responsive learning environment’ – developed in preference to the terms flexible, innovative or modern learning environments.

“We use responsive learning environment because the whole point of teaching is that we know our students and therefore we teach and engage in ways that are going to suit them best.

Therefore, we want the architecture to support that as much as physical things can support it,” says Dick.

Te Aratai College’s local community is both economically and ethnically diverse, with a student roll comprising 30 percent Māori, 10 percent Pacific, 10 percent Filipino, 45 percent Pākehā-Palagi with the remaining five percent made up of other ethnicities.

Dick explains the school design is a combination of the best of both traditional and modern teaching spaces, with variety being the key. The base design has a standard-size classroom similar to

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Hornby High School features a variety of interior and exterior spaces.

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Hornby High School’s design includes the best of traditional and modern teaching spaces.

what was in the original 1954 campus. The difference is in the detail.

The atmosphere is one of whanaungatanga. There are a number of interior and exterior spaces where students can sit and talk, with courtyards made inviting and protected from the chilling easterly breeze to create a sense of community.

Each classroom is paired with another and joined by sliding doors that provide the ability to enlarge the space.

Outside the classrooms there are larger teaching spaces and smaller areas for individual learning.

The design recognises there are times when single-focused teaching, when the teacher is being the guide and using the benefit of their knowledge and experience to directly inform and assist students, potentially from the front of the classroom, is the right thing to do. But that doesn’t have to be the dominant model for the majority of the school day as has traditionally been the case for secondary education.

Responding to teacher and student needs

The design also recognises that there are times when individual students need a quiet space to focus on their studies or work in small groups.

“Our design is a combination of big and small and allows the staff to work out when to be bigger and more expansive and when to go smaller,” says Dick.

The new buildings physically help with responding to student/teacher needs and external factors. Learning at 10am can be very different from learning mid-afternoon on a hot Nor’Wester day in Christchurch.

The terms collaborative and connected are very important words to his team, says Dick. However, they are words used by other schools, too, and other schools have chosen to adopt a far more collaborative curriculum.

Celebrating community

Again, it’s not one size fits all and each school community determines what will work for them.

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When the community consultation is authentic, it validates the design regardless of what any other school chooses for its architecture, explains Dick.

“What we decide to do may be different. But we need to be careful we get all the people around the table – we need to ensure everyone’s voice is heard in an equitable way, not just an equal way. Otherwise, the system will just replicate itself and we lose this opportunity for a moral and education transformation,” he says.

Community consultation

For Linwood College, the local community centres, led by the Mt Pleasant community centre coordinator Linda Rutland, used earthquake recovery funds to join together to finance extensive community engagement and consultation about what the communities wanted for the proposed rebuild of their secondary school.

A series of community outreach conversations was organised by specialist Sandra James in 2016 (Dick’s first year as principal) and 1,200 people contributed to the research.

The principles that flowed from that process were then tested by the students, staff and school whānau and fed into the Education Brief.

“Everybody was saying, ‘We want our local secondary school to be preparing our children for their future, not the future that we have experienced’,” says Dick.

When Te Aratai College opens, it will be a genuine and authentic symbol of the local community’s healing and salute to the future.

The new name was gifted to the school by Ngāi Tūāhuriri and means ‘pathway to the sea’ – a fitting identity for a school nestled under the Port Hills and encompassing the communities between inner-city Phillipstown, the beach of Sumner and the port of Lyttelton.

“It is certainly going to be a celebration of our local area,” Dick says.

gazette.education.govt.nz

TE ACH E R WOR K F OR CE

Whānau has deep roots at Blenheim school Springlands School principal Gaylene Beattie continues a long family association with the school since it was established in 1886.

G

aylene decided she wanted to be a new entrant teacher when, as five-year-old Gaylene Saul at Blenheim’s Springlands School, she was smacked for sitting in a corner and reading books at the ‘wrong’ level.

Now the principal, Gaylene attended the school in the late 1960s along with her sister Claire, when their mother Marie Saul was a teacher there – which is how a young Gaylene earned herself a smack.

“Because I had been at school with Mum quite a lot before I started school, I was reading at a higher level than I should have been. After being smacked, I actually tried to walk home – I always wanted to be a new entrant teacher so it wouldn’t be like that for children.

“As a principal I want every child to come in and have their first day to be really special, and for them to be acknowledged as individuals. That’s why I like the five-year-olds coming in on their birthdays rather than all together, says Gaylene.

Claire Hutchison (Saul) has taught at Springlands School since 1993 and is now a literacy specialist, as well as assistant principal.

“We have worked really hard to make sure the kids like being at school.

We are now more similar to kindy when children first start, so the transition is smoother because we noticed there were some unhappy kids to start with,” explains Claire.

Long association and memories

Gaylene and Claire’s late mother Marie began teaching in 1954, with some years out to raise a family. By the time she retired, she had taught a total of 27 years at Springlands School.

“Mum went back teaching when I was four and Dad looked after us at home. That was really unusual and his friends would say, ‘What are you doing?’ He had five acres of garlic and looked after that and us. He was a plasterer at the time and then he went into his own business,” remembers Gaylene.

Claire remembers the school being a lot smaller than it is today.

“When I was at school, and when I started teaching there in 1993, there were eight classrooms, now there are 21.

“In the 1960s, the principal lived on site – the house was in the school grounds where the tennis courts are now. He used to go home for lunch: his wife wasn’t a teacher, but she had a lot to do with the school,” she says.

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“As a principal I want every child to come in and have their first day to be really special, and for them to be acknowledged as individuals.”

Gaylene Beattie

A whānau affair. Gaylene (right) and Claire with her daughter Rochelle and her children: Kye (4), Keira (7), Neive (5) at the school’s front gate.

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The mural, developed by a cohort of school leavers, represents many facets of the school and its kaupapa. You can read more about the mural in this story online.

In the 1980s Gaylene returned to her old school as a second-year teacher before teaching in Wellington and London. When she returned to Springlands in 1994, her mum retired.

“That was quite confronting at the time because I came back to be the equivalent of assistant principal and the teachers were Mum’s cohort of friends. I was their boss and I was only young. Mum retired that year – that was the deal: that she would retire if I got the job!” says Gaylene.

Expanding suburb and school

In the earliest days of settlement, most of the area to the west of Blenheim comprised swampy ground covered in flax, with water-powered flax mills producing fibre, which was much in demand for ships’ ropes.

As people began to build on higher and drier land in the suburb, which became known as Springlands, it was

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decided to build a school for up to 100 pupils. The school’s centenary publication shows that by 1932 the school had a roll of 168 pupils.

In 1969, the school had outgrown itself. Marie’s class, which included daughter Claire, was located in the Methodist church down the road until a new block of land was built and the school could expand.

As the suburb expanded, and with Bohally Intermediate and Marlborough Girls’ College down the road, the popular school consulted with the community and reduced the school zone in the mid-2010s. The roll is currently around 430 students.

“This is a really nice sized school now,” says Gaylene.

Strong ties

The Saul family lived in the area from before the school was established and can be seen in photos throughout

gazette.education.govt.nz

its history, including one Audrey Saul, an unpaid pupil teacher in 1901.

To date, five unbroken generations of the Saul family have attended the school: Gaylene and Claire, their grandfather Mervyn, their dad Ray, their children; and now Claire’s daughter Rochelle Hegglun’s children.

Former pupils and teachers have strong ties, with many teachers staying for decades. Three of the current teaching staff were pupils, including Rochelle. Two of her three children, Neive (5) and Keira (7) continue the long line of Sauls who have been educated – or are educators – at the school.

For more about Springlands School in the 21st

century, see this story at Education Gazette online.

8 February 2021

Claire and Gaylene with the original school bell, which is still used.

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NOTICE BOARD

Social-Emotional support for children in need through early intervention, direct therapy services in schools, and staff training

“Built to Last” Stage Set Items for Schools

Upcoming course 30-31 March Auckland Let’s Get Together Enquire now info@apte.org.nz Ph (021) 0708765 apte.org.nz

Enquire now: info@dramamagic.com www.dramamagic.com

Have a product or service that you would like to advertise to the education sector?

Place an advertisement in our notice board by contacting Jill Parker jill.parker@nzme.co.nz 027 212 9277

To view the PLD and general notice listings at gazette.education.govt.nz scan the QR codes below with the camera on your device.

Professional learning and development

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Notices

gazette.education.govt.nz

DISPL AY VACANCI ES Senior leadership Y1-8

PRINCIPAL U5

Years 0 – 6. Roll 415. Decile 6

www.target.school.nz

Our principal is departing on promotion and we are now searching for another inspiring leader. The new principal must be fully registered and have successful experience in senior leadership. We are seeking a principal who is respectful of the school’s journey and is prepared to lead change in a measured and collaborative manner.

We have a great culture in our school and community that promotes our values of Respect (Manaakitanga), Resilience (Takohanga) and Responsibility (Manawaroa).

Our school is very well resourced and has a fine reputation for student achievement – ERO (2019) reports that, “Most children achieve at expected curriculum levels in reading, writing and mathematics…and “the school has very strong, educationally powerful connections and relationships with parents, whanau and community.”

Application packs can be found on the KEA website www.keaeducation.nz. The essential application form must be obtained from Ngaire Jermaine of KEA Education at ngaire@keaeducation.nz.

The ideal person for this school will be: • A strategic thinker who can also be pragmatic and “walk the talk”.

• An educational leader who knows how to lift children’s achievement levels in key subject areas including technology and e-learning.

• A person with a desire to enhance our language programmes that include Te Reo and Mandarin.

• A leader familiar with recent research into effective educational change management.

• Inclusive, visible and approachable with a great sense of humour and who enjoys excellent relationships.

Applications should be as described in the application pack letter and received via e-mail by 5.00 pm, 22 February 2020.

Applicants will hear by 3 March if they go to interview on Saturday, 13 March 2021. Position commences the start of term 2, 2021.

A BLUE SKY OPPORTUNITY! • A new Year 1-8 school • Opening in February 2022 • Predicted Opening Roll 165

Our new school will be situated in the Auranga community in Drury West and will offer students and their families a high-quality and progressive learning and development environment. https://www.auranga.co.nz

KEA

Education

Successful Recruitment for the Education Sector

NEW DRURY WEST SCHOOL (interim name)

Deputy Principals 1 or 2 positions 3 PMU We are looking to build a senior leadership team that has a balance of the following.

Our educators will have: • excellent knowledge of the NZ Curriculum and recent developments relating to it.

• play, exploration, inquiry and creativity embedded in their pedagogy.

• a passion for effective pedagogies that are successful in innovative and modern learning environments.

• high expectations for all akonga.

• experience in building and maintaining a strong culture of care across the school community.

• culturally responsive and inclusive practices that recognise our multicultural demographic and acknowledge the special place of Māori as mana whenua.

• skills to create and maintain genuine reciprocal partnerships with our families, iwi and wider community.

We invite applications from educators who are excited by the unique opportunity to work with our foundation principal to design a creative and innovative learning culture that prioritises the individual learning needs of our akonga, strong learning partnerships and a voice for all.

Application packs can be found on the KEA website www.keaeducation.nz. The essential application form must be obtained from Ngaire Jermaine of KEA Education at ngaire@keaeducation.nz.

8 February 2021

Contact Alan Jermaine for any information on 021 119 3309 or alan@keaeducation.nz. Applications close at 5.00 pm on 22 February 2021.

Applicants will hear shortly after 4 March if they go to interview on Wednesday, 10 March 2021. Position commences the start of term 2, 2021.

KEA

Education

Successful Recruitment for the Education Sector

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DISPL AY VACANCI ES Senior leadership Y1-8

School Principal Whatawhata is a small rural school just to the west of Hamilton City. We are a U4, Decile 8 full primary catering for students in Years 0-8.

We are seeking a passionate educator with the ability to develop high trust relationships with students, staff and parents whilst honouring the Treaty and the mana of our community. It is expected the successful applicant will have leadership experience where the ability to achieve high educational outcomes for students has been demonstrated.

This is an exciting opportunity for a successful senior leader to join our team, which is committed to valuing and maintaining the unique learning opportunities and values provided by our small rural school.

Associate Principal, 6MU (Permanent) Here is your opportunity to join our vibrant school and help lead us into the future. This is an exciting and rewarding position suited to a proven and experienced leader with exceptional interpersonal skills.

The successful applicant must be a collaborative, creative, innovative and an inspiring leader.

Specific Qualities we are looking for include: An Experienced Leader, ideally in a current senior leadership position.

A professional, hardworking leader who will complement our SLT. Sense of humor is a must.

A high level of communication and interpersonal skills.

Proven ability to maintain positive and respectful relationships with all members of the school community. » A versatile leadership style, adjusting leadership to suit students, staff, parents and stakeholders. » The ability to lead professional learning, preferably with coaching and mentoring experience. » A commitment to culturally responsive practices. » » » » »

To request an application pack with further information please contact Ian Fox, FoxEd Education Consultants Ltd ian@fox.co.nz Applications are to be received by Monday 1st March

ONGAONGA SCHOOL PRINCIPAL

This position has a small teaching component (intervention teaching and casual release) and it commences in Term 2, 2021.

We are a proud rural primary school catering for Year 1 to 8’s in the township of Ongaonga, Central Hawke’s Bay. We are seeking from end of term 2 2021, negiotable, an inspirational principal who understands rural communities and will continue to lead and advance the school with an emphasis on personalising the learning.

To apply and to learn more about us and this position, visit our website: www.clearview.school.nz Applications close at 5pm on Friday 12th February 2021

We want someone who: •

Is a great communicator who will form collaborative relationships with the school community

•

Can motivate, manage and empower staff and students

•

Will ensure that Ongaonga’s learners keep achieving at the high level we are so proud of.

Applications Close 4pm Friday 12th of March 2021 For an application pack or more information contact Paul Robottom, Board Chairperson. Email: paulrobottom@icloud.com

PRINCIPAL (U2) St. Joseph’s School, Opunake

St. Joseph’s Opunake is a Catholic, state integrated, Decile 6 primary school for years 0 – 8 offering a faithfilled, warm and welcoming environment for around 80 culturally diverse learners. Every facet of school life is underpinned by its Catholic special character. Established as a Mission school in 1901, we are the heartbeat for the Catholic parish of this beautiful coastal town, set in thriving South West Taranaki. We now seek to appoint an exceptional Catholic faith leader who will grow our school and introduce the very best teaching practices, while celebrating our rich cultural heritage.

Our new Principal will be: • A charismatic and inspiring faith leader with high levels of energy and enthusiasm, especially in special character, sports, arts, culture and technology • A community builder who will put faith first, take an active role in the parish and attract new family/ whānau to our school to increase the roll

• • •

An outstanding curriculum leader focused on improving teaching and learning with a clear future vision for our wonderful Catholic school Relationship driven, a person of integrity with a strong sense of justice, treats others fairly, is genuine, approachable, welcoming and willing to listen Committed to ensuring all learners achieve their true potential and become the best version of who God created them to be.

A willingness and ability to participate in religious instruction appropriate to the special character of the school is a condition of appointment.

A school house and relocation assistance are available. Applications are invited from all genders.

APPLY NOW. Closing Date for Applications 5.00pm Monday 22nd February 2021 Contact Jane Parkinson at Blackcat Education for an Application Pack on jane@blkcat.co.nz For a confidential chat please contact Andrew Harris on 021 0296 9891 or andrew@blkcat.co.nz Please also visit www.stjo.school.nz and www.blackcateducation.co.nz Thank you, we look forward to hearing from you.

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DISPL AY VACANCI ES Senior leadership Y1-8

Tumuaki Rua, Te Rōhutu Whio Have you ever had a passion to collaboratively develop an inclusive school that has tamariki and aroha at the heart? To create an inclusive kura where our cultural heritage of Aotearoa is at the centre? Do you see technology as an exciting curriculum area that is future-focussed and has the dreams of its tamariki in its sights? In February 2022 our foundation tumuaki, along with the board of trustees, staff, tamariki and whānau, will open the doors for the first time. This year 0-8 kura will be a first for Rolleston with a bi-lingual nest and technology block. We are looking for a passionate tumuaki rua who will lead through the lens of aroha. You will have strong beliefs in our values of kotahitanga, manaakitanga, whanaungatanga, kaitiakitanga and rangatiratanga.

You will need to be:

» an engaging leader who is comfortable working collaboratively with whānau, hapū and iwi. » an inclusive practitioner who values diverse ākonga and agencies involved. » an experienced and dynamic educator with a deep understanding of best practice. » a future focussed and innovative motivator who nurtures and uplifts others. » a leader with an eye for detail who enjoys delving deeply into data so that every ākonga can reach for their dreams.

If you fit this description and want to help our tamariki develop their passions, please put your application in for Te Rōhutu Whio (formerly Rolleston East Primary School)!

The position commences on Monday, 3 May 2021.

Applications close at 4:00 p.m. on Monday, 15 February 2021.

Please contact Kate Morgan, tumuaki, for further information and an electronic application pack. We are happy to meet with you if you would like to chat things through.

Please email katem@ terohutuwhio.school.nz.

Phone 021 299 1820.

Alternatively, please contact Suzy Petersen, Board Chairperson, at suzy.petersen84@gmail.com.

Senior leadership Y1-15

Onewhero Area School Empowering “Being the Learning best we Whakamana can. No Limits!”

Akoranga

PRINCIPAL (U6)

Tēnā koutou - this is the leadership challenge you’ve been waiting for. Onewhero Area School was established in 1891 to provide an extensive area of rural Waikato with quality education for Years 1 – 13. This Decile 6 area school offers a range of learning environments with excellent academic, cultural and sporting facilities designed for its diverse population of over 530 students. These core values are embedded into the School Charter:

Purpose - Ako Character - Mahi ngā Tahi Community – Whanaungatanga The Board is looking to appoint an accomplished school leader who shares their passion for releasing the potential within each student and ensuring the school provides a centre of excellence for this loyal, supportive and deserving community.

Our New Principal • Inspirational leader who builds strong relationships with students, staff and the wider community, delivers improved school performance and is determined to succeed

• Must have first-hand experience in running a busy school and establishing a learning environment that engages and excites all students

• Respected teaching professional, committed to staff and personal development, with a deep understanding of the NZ Curriculum and who embraces the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi

• Colleagues would describe you as bold, uncompromising, confident, culturally competent, gains respect quickly, great sense of humour and prepared to make the tough decisions when necessary.

A school house and relocation assistance are available.

APPLY NOW. Closing Date for Applications 5.00pm Monday 22nd February 2021 Contact Jane Parkinson for an Application Pack on jane@blkcat.co.nz For a confidential chat please phone Andrew Harris on 021 0296 9891 or andrew@blkcat.co.nz Also please visit www.onewhero.school.nz and www.blackcateducation.co.nz Thank you, we look forward to hearing from you.

8 February 2021

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DISPL AY VACANCI ES Senior leadership Y7-15

To view the current vacancies at gazette. education.govt.nz

“Growing good people for a rapidly changing world” “He waihangatanga o te tangata pai i roto i teneiao hurihuri”

scan the QR code below with the camera on your device.

Principal An exciting opportunity exists for the position of Principal at Ōpunakē High School in Taranaki.

The Board of Trustees seek a motivated, experienced and inspirational professional leader to continue to grow the school’s successes and progress as a future focussed centre of learning.

A culture of innovative change supported by an active Board and an experienced and passionate staff has resulted in broad and significant learning outcomes for our students. Ōpunakē High School programmes have been developed to raise student achievement through a focus on authentic learning, effective and innovative teaching. We are seeking a caring professional to further develop our personalised approach to learning where students take agency for their learning and achievement.

Situated on the sunny coast within the whakaruruhau of Maunga Taranaki, the Ōpunakē area offers significant recreational opportunities within a caring and supportive community. Our school is strongly connected with our local cultural values and is extremely well resourced.

Closing date for applications is Tuesday 23rd February, 2021 at 4 pm.

Referees reports must be returned by 1st April, 2021.

Application pack is available, enquiries and school visits can be requested/arranged by emailing the Board Secretary, email: sl@opunake.school.nz or phone 027 252 4109.

Education Gazette deadlines | March - July 2021

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Publication dates

Booking deadlines

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1 March | Issue 2

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18 February

22 March | Issue 3

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11 March

12 April | Issue 4

29 March

31 March

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10 May

13 May

14 June | Issue 7

31 May

3 June

5 July | Issue 8

21 June

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Education Gazette

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Education Gazette | Blue Star $10,000 technology fund

Schools and kura have the chance to win one of four $2500 awards: » two to support hangarau matihiko in Māori medium education » two to support the digital technology teaching in English medium.

Simply send in a portfolio of a module of your digital technologies and hangarau matihiko teaching to gazette@education.govt.nz by 3 May 2021 to be in with a chance to win one of the four awards to further enhance your programme.

For entry information, go to: www.education.govt.nz/education-gazette-blue-star-technology-grants

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