Education Gazette 100.3

22 MARCH 2021 | VOL. 100 | NO. 3

Histories curriculum: building a deeper understanding

Healthy lunches making a difference

Rongohia te Hau driving change in communities

Breaking down silos in learning support

Teaching that brings the environment into focus

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Contents

Spotlight on driving transformative change 2

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Healthy lunches making a difference in Tairāwhiti

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Rongohia te Hau: Driving transformative change

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Online programme sees jump in reading levels

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Histories curriculum: Building a deeper understanding

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Breaking down silos in learning support

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Creatives in Schools: Breathing life into learning

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To stream or not to stream

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Blood drive increases curriculum connections

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Celebrating exceptional teaching

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Transition ceremonies build stronger whānau connections

22 MARCH 2021 | VOL. 100 | NO. 3

Editor’s note

Histories curriculum: building a deeper understanding

Healthy lunches making a difference

Rongohia te Hau driving change in communities

Breaking down silos in learning support

On the cover Page 20: Taita College is looking forward to embracing the new histories curriculum content.

Pictured here are students and ex-students Teila, William, Penina, Josiah and Nakita.

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

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One of the best parts about hearing and sharing stories from the sector is witnessing the enthusiasm of teachers and school leaders. I was fortunate to join a meeting of Te Kāhui Ako o Te Puke’s Cultural Relationships for Responsive Pedagogy (CR4RP) team and hear about the transformative work they’re doing in their community.

Te Puke schools and early learning centres are working together to gather the perspectives of their learners, teachers, parents and whānau to get a better understanding of their community’s needs and aspirations. As well as helping to shape culturally responsive practice, the engagement is helping to build relationships and trust across their community and better outcomes for learners.

It’s inspiring stuff, and just one article of many in this issue that gives a sense of the passion for the mahi going on in schools, kura and early learning centres across the country.

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Children at Awapuni School are healthier, more alert and ready to learn, thanks to the healthy lunches programme, says principal Nik House.

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H EALTH & WELLBEI NG

Healthy lunches making a difference in Tairāwhiti Research shows that nutritious food improves wellbeing, supports child development and learning, and that a regular lunch breaks down numerous barriers to participation in education and helps reduce financial hardship for families.

Ka Ora, Ka Ako | the healthy school lunches programme is having a powerful impact in schools and kura taking part across Aotearoa. Education Gazette talks to a school and a supplier involved with the programme.

“W

e were seeing an increasing amount of need to support kids with food, in the morning and at lunch. There was just such a variation in the kai kids were bringing to school,” says Nik House, principal at Awapuni School in Gisborne.

Once the school found out they would be joining Ka Ora, Ka Ako, staff looked to see how other schools in the area were doing things.

“We knew of a few different providers and got feedback from other schools,” says Nik. “We’d heard about Puku Ora from other schools and through their work in town.”

Supporting local

Puku Ora was already an established presence in Gisborne, having first set up as the East Coast Juice Bar – a small café catering to those wanting keto, vegan, paleo or vegetarian food, or those just wanting healthy kai.

A family company founded by sisters Erana Blandford and Amy Wray, Puku Ora, has been part of the school lunches programme since the principal at Amy’s children’s school approached her and encouraged her to apply to be part of the programme.

“Initially we had considered doing just the one school, but then we realised that we would need to do a larger volume to make it viable for our business. Before we knew it, we had three other schools who approached us and we said, ‘Yes!’,” explains Amy. Puku Ora state their vision as a company is for ‘real, raw and ridiculously good food that inspires positive change’ and this is something that resonated with Awapuni School.

22 March 2021

“We were looking for a company that was aligned to our values as a school and we got that with their whole foods, sustainable packaging options and a yummy but healthy and diverse menu,” says Nik. “By the time we got to selecting the supplier we knew well in advance who we wanted.”

Appreciated by learners and whānau

Puku Ora began supplying Awapuni School’s healthy lunches from the beginning of Term 4 last year. Nik makes it clear things have gone smoothly right from the start and notes how the community have responded to it.

“People have been overwhelmingly positive – at a recent meet-the-teacher night, parents gave lots of affirmative nods when I talked about school lunches,” he says.

With the operation of the programme now well established at the school, the benefits for ākonga, whānau and the school are becoming clear.

Only a few ākonga are bringing their lunch from home and some of those families who were reluctant at first have changed their minds.

“Our kids have taken to it so well. They are really vocal about how great they think it is and we have very few kids that have been reluctant to eat,” says Nik. “We share what we’re having every day. Parents are seeing that kids are trying new things and that they’re loving it.”

One benefit that has stood out to the school so far is the impact that providing a nutritious lunch has had on attendance.

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“We’ve seen our attendance increase since the programme has come in,” explains Nik. “The amount of times we heard from parents that they didn’t have any food in the house so kept the kids home – that barrier has been removed.”

Many schools involved in Ka Ora, Ka Ako have reported that the focus on more nutritious food has led to changes in engagement and behaviour.

“We’ve seen our attendance increase since the programme has come in.

The amount of times we heard from parents that they didn’t have any food in the house so kept the kids home – that barrier has been removed.”

Nik House

Teachers at Awapuni School are noticing improvements in their classrooms.

“They’re healthier, more alert, ready to learn and ready to be physical outside too,” says Nik.

Benefits beyond the classroom

Benefits are stretching beyond school boundaries as well.

“This is supporting the bottom line at home; there is less spending each week. Parents also have more time – they’ve got that half-hour back each morning that they would usually spend preparing lunch,” explains Nik. Amy and her team have also heard positive things.

“We have had feedback from parents saying that they now have more money in the budget to buy healthier foods in their shopping, or they have noticed their children are eating their veggies,” she says.

Ka Ora, Ka Ako is having an impact in the wider community too. Puku Ora are now supplying 10 schools, with a total of around 2700 lunches provided each day.

“When we started, Erana was cooking the food on her own, and I was on the production line, packing them in

Erana Blandford (left) and Amy Wray from Puku Ora love making a difference for the families in their community.

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and delivering them. It was a lot of hard work,” explains Amy. “Now we have expanded our team to almost 30 staff members, we have moved to a larger and better building and we have expanded our eatery, which is really busy.

We love seeing the rest of the community coming in to get their fix of healthy kai.

“Most of our staff members are local and have whānau attending the schools we feed, which we love because there is a different level of aroha and effort that goes into making the lunches. We are very fortunate to have an amazing team behind us who make this all possible.

“We try to value our team as they make all the magic happen.”

Strong relationships and systems

Puku Ora ran te reo classes in the evening for staff and they encourage them to use te reo with customers when possible.

“We also ran a 12-week challenge with our team to encourage healthy eating and wellness within the team,” says Amy.

“If we want to inspire positive change in the community, it has to start with ourselves first.”

Crucial to the ongoing success of the programme is Awapuni School’s relationship with Puku Ora. “They’ve been extremely professional and have made the process so easy,” says Nik. “We’re in communication all the time with them.

They have really good systems for feedback and dietary requirements. Teachers provide feedback every day around how the kids responded to the kai.”

Puku Ora love hearing from ākonga about their kai and how it makes them feel.

“One of the key comments we received from the children is that they love eating the same as everyone in their class and it feels good knowing all your friends have lunch too! It was really rewarding to hear this as it feels like the programme is achieving equality,” explains Amy. “We also loved having student leaders visit our premises and provide us with some insight. It was so special hearing them all agree that the best thing about school lunches is that no one misses out!”

Preparing healthy kai at Puku Ora.

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22 March 2021

Tukutuku Kōrero

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Making a meaningful difference

For now, Awapuni School is focused on refining their own processes to make sure things are going as well as they can.

“It’s just about ensuring systems around school are really robust,” explains Nik. “Any issues have been completely minor things.”

“We changed our school day a little bit to include eating time as part of the classroom time – just to allow our staff and ākonga, particularly the younger ones, to get through the eating side of things and still get out for a meaningful break.”

The bottom line for Awapuni School and Puku Ora is that Ka Ora, Ka Ako is making a meaningful difference in the lives of ākonga.

“Every child, regardless of their circumstances, will get a great meal every day,” says Nik. “We want to inspire the younger generation to make positive food choices later in life through the food we feed them,” says Amy. “What a privilege it is to feed them every day!”

Read more about the programme by searching Ka Ora, Ka Ako on the Ministry’s website.

“Most of our staff members are local and have whānau attending the schools we feed, which we love because there is a different level of aroha and effort that goes into making the lunches.”

Amy Wray

Awapuni School has changed its school day to allow children time to sit and enjoy their lunch together before going out to play.

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Ka Ora, Ka Ako | healthy school lunches programme Ka Ora, Ka Ako – the name is about being healthy and well in order to learn – aims to reduce food insecurity, improve wellbeing, and support learning and development by providing a nutritious lunch every day to all ākonga in participating schools.

The programme started in 2019 with a two-year initiative to explore providing free and healthy lunches to Year 1-8 ākonga in schools with high levels of socio-economic disadvantage across Bay of Plenty/Waiariki, Hawke’s Bay/Tairāwhiti and Otago/Southland. The first group of schools and kura began receiving lunches in term 1, 2020, with more joining during the year.

The programme was expanded across New Zealand in response to Covid-19 and aims to reach over 214,000 ākonga by the end of 2021, including secondary students. Ka Ora, Ka Ako is targeted at the 25 percent of schools and kura where ākonga face the greatest barriers to education, achievement, and wellbeing.

Providing a daily nutritious lunch will help ease the pressure on the household budget in communities where many families are already doing it tough. Expansion of the programme is also expected to support job creation and economic recovery from Covid-19 in local communities – over 942 jobs have already been established and it is estimated that around 2,000 jobs will be created by the end of 2021.

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Gathering students' views is an important part of taking a culturally responsive approach at Te Puke schools.

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Rongohia te Hau: Driving transformative change Rongohia te Hau is a tool that, when used as part of a wider strategic change process, can drive transformative change for learners and whānau. Education Gazette sat down with members of Te Kāhui Ako o Te Puke to hear how they are using the tool as part of their culturally responsive inquiry to make a real difference in their schools and wider community.

A

t a recent learning support panel hui in Te Puke, the Police Youth Community Officer reported that for the first time, there had been a reduction in youth crime in the Te Puke community over the summer.

“I can’t help but feel that’s actually a reflection on our Kāhui Ako bringing the community together, involving the health sector, police and other agencies along with education,” says Vicki Hiini, lead principal for Te Kāhui Ako o Te Puke, who has recently taken over the role from Jill Weldon.

“It’s about knowing each other, communicating with each other and putting the pieces of the jigsaw together.

We’re getting all that support and wrapping it around the child, and not just the child, but their family as well.”

It’s just one sign of how a collaborative model of reform and change is having an effect in this Bay of Plenty community.

One of the key tools used within this model, Rongohia te Hau, was developed by Professor Mere Berryman and her Poutama Pounamu team at the University of Waikato.

Poutama Pounamu experts work with educators to gather and use data to advance learners’ achievement, wellbeing and belonging.

Capturing voices

Following Te Puke High School’s early experience with Rongohia te Hau, it was expanded to the other schools in the community when the Kāhui Ako was formed a few years ago. It quickly became an important part of the Kāhui Ako inquiry into cultural relationships for responsive pedagogy (CR4RP).

Poutama Pounamu has adapted Rongohia te Hau so it can be used by early learning centres as well.

“We have whānau across all schools and early learning centres so it made sense to roll out that existing tool and expertise from the high school,” says Vicki.

Through online surveys, supported by classroom walk-throughs, Rongohia te Hau is able to provide perceptions and evidence of the cultural relationships and responsive pedagogy experienced by learners and

22 March 2021

teachers. Importantly, it gives students, teachers, parents and whānau the opportunity to have voice. This evidence is then used to decide what the most strategic next steps for learners will be.

“It is a great tool to capture voices – it provides quite an accessible way to do that. Before that we were hearing ad hoc from whānau hui, which weren’t very well attended,” says Polly Thin-Rabb, deputy principal at Te Puke High School.

“We love it because we get a very high response rate from our parents,” says across-school teacher, Tatai Takuira-Mita.

“One of the reasons I think we have a very high response rate is because we ask our teachers to help track the responses. At Fairhaven School, 91 percent of our entire whānau responded – that is much higher than we usually get,” she says.

Te Puke High School has also become quite creative in how they engage whānau. For example, a kapa haka and dinner at the high school was followed by students handing out surveys and pens.

“I think the whānau are engaged because they have an opportunity to have a free voice and it’s anonymous.

So we don’t record who writes or says what. It’s a nonjudgmental space, so you’re getting raw, honest feedback,” says Vicki.

Loaded questions

The questions asked of teachers, students and whānau are very similar, but each group answers from their own perspective. Questions may appear simplistic, but they are now underpinned by years of research.

“The questions have been framed really carefully and underpinned by research. So the question ‘I have all the opportunities to do all the things I want to do’ is actually about power-sharing,” says Tatai.

Professor Mere Berryman says the responses to the questions are then collected and the data is analysed by Poutama Pounamu.

“It is then fed back as a triangulation of what the three

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groups perceive is happening for them and what they are saying,” explains Mere.

“The real strength of the feedback is providing a clear picture of where the connections and possible disconnections lie. This provides evidence for groups to come together and plan more effectively and strategically forward,” she says.

“Visually the tool shows if there’s a difference between what the different groups think about pedagogy. So it shows what areas we are strong in, what areas we are weak in, and how we can tailor our inquiry,” says Vicki.

Trends emerging

Relationships, in every sense – student-teacher, teacherwhānau, school-iwi, and so on – have emerged as a key theme.

The data relating to the question around ‘Teachers in my class care about me’ has helped inform a strong focus on professional learning and development (PLD) in this area, including leadership PLD for the principals, facilitated by Poutama Pounamu.

“So you’re getting right across the board that for children to be effective learners they need to have respectful relationships with their teachers,” says Vicki.

Polly gives another example of how the data is helping steer strategic decision making. She refers to a question that says ‘In this school it feels good to be Māori’ – the question is adapted to reflect the student’s ethnicity.

“In our school we got quite a lot of whānau feedback around how they wanted a Māori-medium pathway.

And that’s not yet happening in our school. So that’s something we’ve been working really hard at to get a rumaki class up and running.”

Tangata whenuatanga is also an area that has emerged as a trend and a focus for development.

Bigger than academic achievement

Rongohia te Hau, along with other tools and strategies, aims to counter racism and subconscious bias.

“What this is doing is changing people’s ideologies and beliefs. It’s a gentle process. We’ve all had lightbulb moments where we’ve thought, ‘Oh my gosh, I can’t believe I actually thought that and it’s coming across in my actions’,” says Vicki.

The model is also more about expectations of learning outcomes, perceptions of achievement, definitions of success, than the learning outcomes themselves.

“It’s about hauora, wairua, their entire thinking – encompassing all these values that you can’t easily rank. It’s much bigger than focusing on narrow curriculum achievement,” says Vicki.

Culturally responsive practice, informed by Rongohia te Hau data, can also help schools meet their achievement challenges, as outlined by an independent analysis comparing Te Kotahitanga schools and non-Te Kotahitanga schools.

This analysis revealed that by Phase 3 of the Te Kotahitanga intervention, there were significant major shifts in educational outcomes for both Māori and Pacific learners. By Phase 5 in 2012, the number of Year 13 Māori students achieving NCEA Level 3 was nearly three times what it had been four years earlier.

“We want to address our achievement challenges head on. One of our main achievement challenges is retention of Māori boys to Year 12 and achieving Level 2 NCEA. We’ve been working so much on culturally responsive pedagogy and learning support and we now need to circle back to this achievement challenge,” explains Polly.

Classroom observations work alongside other tools and approaches in Rongohia te Hau.

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Te Kāhui Ako o Te Puke Cultural Relationships for Responsive Pedagogy (CR4RP) team: Vicki Hiini, Aneta Smith, Tatai Takuira-Mita, Olivia Parata and Polly Thin-Rabb, Absent: Ange McAllister.

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Te Puke whānau are pleased to have the opportunity to share their views via the Rongohia te Hau survey tool.

“What this is doing is changing people’s ideologies and beliefs.

It’s a gentle process. We’ve all had lightbulb moments where we’ve thought, ‘Oh my gosh, I can’t believe I actually thought that and it’s coming across in my actions’.”

Vicki Hiini

Building relationships

Rongohia te Hau data is useful at a school level, even at a learner level, as the survey provides opportunity for specific comments.

But its real power lies in driving change at a community level, working across schools and with the wider community to strengthen relationships and cultural responsiveness.

This includes building relationships with iwi. “I think Rongohia te Hau highlights the importance of having strong relationships with our iwi. We need to ensure that our mana whenua feel valued and have a voice. We are responsive to iwi requests and have had the flexibility to add questions to the survey,” states Tatai.

The Rongohia te Hau evaluations feed into each school’s charter and action plan, and at the Kāhui Ako level too.

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“Rongohia te Hau is not something that sits separately to everything else.

“As we’ve gone through the journey, there’s more shared ownership. In the beginning it kind of sat with the Kāhui Ako team and it didn’t have much buy-in. Now that we’re sharing the data, all staff are sharing ideas so it becomes ‘our action plan’, says Tatai.

Being accountable

Polly says one of the challenges is keeping whānau informed about what is being done in response to their feedback. “We don’t want them to say, ‘Why do we have to keep doing these surveys all the time?’”

“We’ve got a huge responsibility to our community to address these things that they’re telling us; we can’t not action it – and it comes back down to these trusting relationships. We feel a collective responsibility to our community,” says Vicki.

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Driven by evidence and need

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n her professorial address in 2018, Professor Mere Berryman (Ngāi Tūhoe, Ngāti Awa, Ngāti Whare) asks: Do we continue to force Māori learners to leave their culture at the school gate and fit into our classrooms, or can education be a place where Māori students feel they really belong?

“Māori students don’t want to be assimilated – they want their cultural identity to be strong and secure,” she says.

Part of a change process

Rongohia te Hau was developed by Poutama Pounamu, a research and development centre led by Professor Mere Berryman at the Te Wānanga Toi Tangata Division of Education, University of Waikato.

The work of Poutama Pounamu spans almost three decades, working with early learning through to tertiary,

and the centre continues to have a strong focus on collaborative research and development.

Emeritus Professor Russell Bishop with Poutama Pounamu led the development of Te Kotahitanga, an educational reform initiative carried out through iterative professional development and research processes, and subsequent models of reform.

Rongohia te Hau was developed in the final stages of Te Kotahitanga when secondary principals asked for a set of tools to help establish what was happening within the teaching and learning practices in their schools.

Rongohia te Hau is part of a much broader framework to enable success for Māori students. As outlined in Dr Adrienne Alton-Lee’s report on the effectiveness of Te Kotahitanga Phase 5, the core of the Te Kotahitanga model is a culturally responsive pedagogy of relations that is informed by, and is responsive to, Māori students.

Seven critical success factors have been identified in enabling accelerated improvement for Māori through Te Kotahitanga Phase 5: » Indigenous educational expertise driving culturally responsive provision for Māori. » Whakawhanaungatanga driving the ‘how’ of improvement. » Effective teaching: developing culturally responsive pedagogy. » Effective professional development: building schoolbased expertise. » Transformative educational leadership: institutionalising deep change. » Educationally powerful connections based on a cultural pedagogy of relations. » Collaborative R & D cycles driving accelerated improvement to scale.

Rongohia te Hau is a strategy that sits within that change process and should be used with other tools and strategies that help support these critical success factors. Evidence suggests that Rongohia te Hau is unlikely to be effective if used in isolation.

“Māori students don’t want to be assimilated – they want their cultural identity to be strong and secure.”

Professor Mere Berryman.

22 March 2021

Professor Mere Berryman Tukutuku Kōrero

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Māori succeeding as Māori

Evidence from Te Kotahitanga Phase 5 suggests that the intervention is helping Māori students to embrace their identity within their learning.

William Colenso College in Napier was one of the schools that contributed to this phase of the research and development of Te Kotahitanga, and their student feedback clearly indicated a feeling of pride and confidence in their identity.

‘It’s a real good feeling being Māori’; ‘We are relaxed.

We can be ourselves’; ‘It’s like the oppositive of racism in this school’ were some of the many statements collected from Māori students.

Rongohia te Hau in action

Rongohia te Hau is a way of using evidence including survey responses from learners, whānau and teachers, and observations of teaching, to inform and develop culturally responsive teaching and leadership across the curriculum.

The process builds on relationships with mana whenua, iwi, hapū, whānau and Māori communities and is an enabling approach to responsive consultation for transformative and ongoing educational improvement.

The constructive strategy aims to counter racism by gathering and analysing evidence from students, whānau and iwi, which schools can use to implement practices that respond to the evidence. The ongoing cycles of feedback and development build new understanding for accelerated and ongoing improvements.

Best evidence feature

The Ministry of Education has released a best evidence feature: Rongohia te Hau: Effective support for culturally responsive teaching, which explains the ‘how’ of building productive partnerships to drive change and improve outcomes for ākonga in English-medium schools.

The feature includes a series of videos encapsulating the early journeys that Te Kāhui Ako o Te Puke and Bethlehem College have taken with Poutama Pounamu to incorporate Rongohia te Hau into their strategic direction and practice.

Subjects covered in the videos are: » Using learner, whānau and teacher feedback » Different perspectives inform action » Co-constructing a continuum of effective teaching practice » Collecting evidence of pedagogy » The learning is in the conversation » Impacting Māori success » Racism: Taking those blinkers off.

The best evidence feature Rongohia te Hau: Effective

support for culturally responsive teaching is published on Education Counts.

A best evidence feature, comprising a series of videos, is now available. It shows how Rongohia te Hau can be used with other evidence-based tools and strategies to support success for ākonga.

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Margret Sullivan with tamariki.

L ITERACY

Online programme sees jump in reading levels An online reading programme offered through a culturally responsive lens saw tamariki at a Golden Bay primary school improve by an average of five reading levels over a 20-week period last year.

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A

t the end of 2019, teachers at Tākaka Primary School noticed a worrying slump in curriculum reading achievement, says principal Jenny Bennett.

“Aside from new entrants, in each of our classrooms we probably span two full curriculum levels. We found that teachers were really struggling to get through all of their reading groups with their varying needs and the size of the class,” she says.

“We really worry when kids report that they don’t like reading and they’re not a good reader. Literacy is a gateway into experiencing the world around you – as soon as you learn to read, you’re reading to learn and your world opens up.”

Jenny says she initially wondered if the problem was to do with teacher practice.

“But on the whole, the guided reading practice seemed to be good, but it didn’t explain what was happening with our reading.

Eyes off the ball

Jenny says they realised that with a strong focus on writing, they may have taken their eyes off the ‘reading ball’.

“We had been focusing for years on our writing. We had done a lot of inquiries and evaluations; our kids were loving writing and data was showing improvement, acceleration. Student feedback was showing that our kids saw themselves as writers.

“But we were finding that, definitely boys, were struggling with reading and that was a disparity we were really focused on with all reading, writing and maths. We had particularly closed that gap with writing and we were really proud of ourselves,” she says.

Boys and bilingual learners improve

To address the issue, during the Level 4 lockdown the school trialled a number of online reading programmes with different classrooms and teachers.

After lockdown, it was decided to trial the Australian programme PM eCollection readers with two classes – a Year 2-5 all-boys class and a bi-lingual class.

“We found that boys just weren’t engaged in the reading activities in the classroom as much as girls were. We asked the question – is our curriculum meeting the needs of boys?”

The class, with a male teacher in charge, was run for a year and Jenny says behaviour issues dropped away with this group. As a small school, it was difficult to continue to staff the class in this way and in 2021 it was felt it was time to integrate the boys back into mixed classes. But many boys in the class had improved by up to six pilot reading levels.

“Their self-efficacy as learners is certainly something that has been switched on,” says Jenny.

Improvement among tamariki in the bilingual class was even more impressive, with many students improving by 10 or more levels and three students reaching Levels 28 and 30.

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“While tamariki in the bilingual class were still doing guided reading in te reo Maori, they were also doing PM eCollection readers,” says Jenny.

“The books are only in English and that’s why we wanted our teachers to be focusing on the teaching of te reo with the kids in person. We didn’t just drop the guided reading, shared language approach.

“There were still explicit teaching strategies and working with children on the joy of different texts. Those things were all still happening – in English or te reo in the bilingual unit.”

Through a culturally responsive lens

PM eCollection readers offers students an online library of books – fiction and non-fiction – on a wide range of subjects from Levels 1 to 30.

Jenny says the texts have good scaffolding and tamariki have autonomy over what they read, and to a certain extent, the level.

“We really worry when kids report that they don’t like reading and they’re not a good reader. Literacy is a gateway into experiencing the world around you – as soon as you learn to read, you’re reading to learn and your world opens up.”

Jenny Bennett With ex-reading recovery teacher and “literacy guru and matriarch of the school”, Margret Sullivan, at the helm as kaitiaki of the programme, says Jenny, there were many reasons why the trial was successful.

“We had a conversation with the kaiako about the ‘how’.

We have a matrix for relationship-based learning in Te Kotahitanga, the culturally responsive practice, which is the work of Russell Bishop.

“So we looked at that matrix and aspects such as creating a family-like context, having high expectations and teacher roles being used to bring together well-managed learning environments,” she explains.

She says the reading programme ticked a lot of boxes in terms of culturally responsive practice.

“When we were looking at Te Kotahitanga, we agreed that part of creating that family-like context for students and positioning, which is that we believe students can achieve and will achieve, involved letting students decide when, how and where they did their reading,” she says.

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Feedback and accountability

The online reading programme offered many features that ensured feedback and accountability for learners, says Jenny.

“A student can record him or herself reading two pages of the text. The feedback that we thought was really effective was the kids recording and knowing it was going to the teacher and the teacher listening and then talking to the child about it – these amazingly powerful one-to-one conversations were had!”

The reading activity was done at least four times a week for 20-30 minutes each time. Kaiako set the reading level for each child, offering four or five levels below and one level above where they believed each student was reading.

“That was about creating that ‘culture of stretch’ for the kids; those high expectations and also giving them the opportunity if they want to try something easier, or if they wanted to try something harder. They could try it but if it’s tricky, go back to some of their other reading so they can get there.”

Healthy competition

Jenny says she has always been interested in how children compete against each other. What may be healthy competition for some children might be detrimental for other children. But she noticed that while the reading programme hadn’t been set up as a competition, the children showed a healthy interest in each other’s progress.

“What was interesting is the kids all knew what everybody else’s level in the class was. I noticed they weren’t competing so much as celebrating and cheering each other on.

“I think it’s because there was no whakamā, no shame, for them – they were able to try a book a level higher and realise it was too hard and then go and try something easier.

I think it made the learning safer for the kids and that they weren’t being forced to read in big groups. For a child that

struggles with reading, I imagine that reading in a group could create huge anxiety,” she explains.

Limitations of programme

A review of the trial was done at the end of 2020 when an additional soft trial, with no data collection was done with a Year 1 and 2 class.

“After we had finished the first evaluation, we thought we needed to drill in more about making sure that the delivery of the programme is maintaining the culturally responsive lens. That was really interesting because we got a really important finding: that these Year 1 and 2 learners really need explicit teaching of phonics and word attack strategies. They’ve got to integrate them and have that knowledge before they can proceed.”

Jenny says the evaluation also showed that the programme doesn’t extend children enough.

“This particular tool is really good for kids who have got the early literacy skills embedded and are on their way with reading. But once they hit that fluency stage, it doesn’t provide the breadth and depth that is needed to extend the children.

“The students who made the most progress were the ones who were six months to a year outside where they needed to be and they were the ones who accelerated.

And the students who were at where they needed to be absolutely flew,” she says.

Bridge to Harry Potter

Year 2 learner Archie accelerated from Level 15 to Level 28 and spent his summer reading every book in the Harry Potter series.

He says he liked everything about PM readers. It helped him read because there were lots of books to choose from – some simple, some hard. He liked that he could choose his own books and then record himself. He also liked that if he didn’t know a word, he could listen to it, learn it – and it helped him read.

Jenny Bennett.

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Student kōrero » I love choosing my own books. » Margret helps me if I get stuck. » There’s heaps of made-up stories, but we like the non-fiction ones too. » I like getting better and better on them. » You can choose when you want to do your reading and you can do it fast or slow. » You can get help from it if you can’t read a word, but then you can know that word.

Report on computers and reading In October 2020, the Ministry of Education released a report called Spotlight on PIRLS: Using computers for reading activities and students’ attitudes to reading.

Report authors Jessica Forkert and Megan Chamberlain found that access to devices does not increase the amount people read. They also wrote that there was no direct relationship between how often teachers engage students in digital reading instruction and activities and their engagement and self-confidence in reading.

However, they found that students who engaged in online reading activities weekly or more liked reading less.

The authors cited a 2018 report from McNaughton and Gluckman, who argued that the benefits of a digital environment happen when tasks are sufficiently complex and developmentally appropriate, when selfregulation and engagement are high, and when there is substantial teacher guidance.

Jenny Bennett thinks the report may not focus on how online reading activities are delivered in a classroom context.

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“It was a very interesting finding that children liked reading less: it doesn’t dissuade me from our own findings, but it does create more curiosity for me about pedagogy.

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“The thing I would like to know more about in relation to this report was, how were these strategies taught?

If these kids are Year 5, we can assume that most of them are reading with a relative level of fluency and comprehension, so were they being taught digital reading strategies? What were they and how were they being delivered? Maybe the reading wasn’t challenging them? Were they given a choice about what they were reading? What was the context around that digital reading activity?

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“What we found was that once a child is up and reading and they are flying, their world has opened to them, they are able to choose what they read,” she says.

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Taita College is looking forward to embracing the new Aotearoa New Zealand histories curriculum content.

Pictured here is Year 13 student, Teila.

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H ISTORI ES

Histories curriculum: Building a deeper understanding The Aotearoa New Zealand’s histories curriculum content will provide schools and kura with the opportunity to use local stories that resonate with students and explore key ideas and themes such as the impact of colonisation and mana motuhake.

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ducation Gazette spoke to three of the writers of the draft curriculum content about how it will look in schools and kura throughout Aotearoa.

There were two writing groups charged with updating histories content in the national curriculum and they included Māori and Pākehā historians and secondary and primary school educators for schools and kura.

“Everybody brought something to the process with their knowledge and experience. We just worked together really well in terms of listening and debating the issues that were raised,” says Michele Whiting, a retired principal with decades of experience as an educator in primary schools using The New Zealand Curriculum.

Bronwyn Houliston is head of social sciences at St Mary’s College in Ponsonby and was thrilled to be asked to be part of the reference group. She graduated with a PhD in 2020 that looked at Pacific students and how they engage with history.

“The fact you can explore those big ideas and national contexts through your local and rohe contexts means that the school has the opportunity to create a really rich curriculum that respects the needs and interests of these students, as well as taking those local issues and extrapolating them out into wider issues at a national level,” she says.

“I think it’s going to provide the opportunity to do some really cool history in the classroom.”

Anahera McGregor worked on the Māori medium curriculum content with Hēmi Dale, who features in Issue 2 of Education Gazette.

“We’re at a point in history now where it’s important that other perspectives are truly heard and I think that is one of the really powerful things about this – especially for Māori and those of us who think from a mātauranga Māori space: it’s sharing the multiple histories and narratives of the land that for a very long time weren’t widely acknowledged,” she says.

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Coherent curriculum

The draft histories curriculum content for The New Zealand Curriculum provides a coherent continuum from Year 1-10, explains Michele.

“There has to be an ongoing relationship between primary and secondary schools around what that continuum is going to look like,” she says.

Teachers from Years 1-13 will work together around local contexts so students will eventually be able to make connections to the wider New Zealand context.

Schools will need to consult with their communities about the stories that matter to them, says Michele.

“For example, in Porirua – what are your memories of Porirua in the 1980s when Todd Motors closed its doors?

Or for newcomers to New Zealand, what are some of the experiences you’ve had where you have felt welcomed or not welcomed and why do you think that is?

“Schools will have to get their head around putting the big ideas and the knowledge about their local area together.

I think that schools will need to do a lot of work around engaging with local iwi to get those histories accurate,” she says.

The Leading Local Curriculum Guide – Aotearoa New Zealand’s histories gives good guidance on how to build relationships with local communities and iwi when trying to develop the local curriculum, says Bronwyn.

“There are also some fantastic resources on Social Science online and Māori history on TKI. So, it’s remembering we’re not starting from scratch, because we’ve already got great resources there that we can start accessing and building on,” she says.

New whenu/strand in Te Marautanga o Aotearoa

Te Takanga o Te Wā is the new whenu that can be aligned to all areas of learning within Te Marautanga o Aotearoa but is best explored within the Tikanga ā-Iwi social sciences learning area.

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Originally, Te Takanga o Te Wā was developed as a resource for Years 1-8 in 2015 incorporating huatau matua (big ideas): tūrangawaewae, whanaungatanga, kaiatikaitanga, mana motuhake, and whakapapa. The five huatau are deeply embedded in mātauranga Māori.

The content has been designed so that kaiako can use the richness of the themes as lens for teaching the diverse histories, says Anahera, Kaihautū (leader) Māori for CORE Education.

“Privileging the huatau matua as kaupapa ako and bringing them to the fore of teaching and learning programmes provides an opportunity for local narrative sharing and learning history in a new way, framed by hautau Māori,” she says.

Using local histories draws on ākonga and kaiako knowledge, and the knowledge of the iwi, the whānau associated with the kura to determine the types of things that they would like to teach.

“For example, if we were to use the whakapapa lens to look at history, it might go right back to Māori migration, the journeys through the Pacific, when we get to Aotearoa, the way the whakapapa connects to the land and the people, the iwi and into whānau.

“It’s ensuring that mātauranga Māori [knowledge] is fundamental to the history teaching that we do. It’s really important for Māori medium schools to take that vantage point because it underpins everything that happens in kura Māori,” she explains.

Anahera says that to be successful, the teaching and learning needs to draw on a localised approach.

“Especially when there are iwi associated with a particular kura, then they will have a natural disposition to tell the stories of the rohe where they are culturally located. We were very mindful of that when we were thinking about what to incorporate: to not be a heavily prescriptive curriculum, but taking that localised approach,” she says.

Inquiry and critical thinking skills

The draft content in The New Zealand Curriculum features three key inquiry processes, or practices, which include identifying and using sequences, critiquing sources and perspectives and interpreting past decisions and actions.

“They are to help students think critically about the past, and the processes get more complex as the students move through,” explains Bronwyn.

“So, the way you get a student to sequence a historical narrative in Year 1, would be quite different from Year 10, when they are looking at missing narratives or different perspectives and evaluating or weighing them up. I think it’s the content, but also the approach to the content and the inquiry processes that become more complex and really develop that critical thinking,” she says.

“The way we have started thinking about the curriculum content at St Mary’s is through using the Ministry’s Leading Local Curriculum Guide – Aotearoa New Zealand’s histories. It’s got some awesome frameworks you can use for self-reviews of how your school is currently incorporating history in the social sciences curriculum and some strategies you can use to engage your staff,” she says.

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Michele believes that a pedagogical approach to using local stories to shape contexts for inquiry practices will be integral to teaching the new curriculum content.

“First of all, teachers have to understand the three big ideas and then they need to understand those inquiry practices to know how to teach the knowledge or the context: the knowledge part of it is going to be shaped by their inquiry practices,” she explains.

“Primary teachers are generalists, but we can teach inquiry practices very well. Enriched resources and a structure around how to teach are going to make it much easier for people to do that curriculum – and to keep it open so they are exploring their own thinking and developing their understanding.”

Michele says there are opportunities, particularly for secondary schools, to integrate cross-curricular learning.

“For example, Pacific migration and the impact of New Zealand’s economic slump, which led to the Dawn Raids: there is an excellent book about it – studied in English – which would be able to connect them to the history curriculum content, particularly issues of power and racism, which is one of the three big ideas.”

Anahera says the inquiry process is one way to engage with the content in Te Marautanga o Aotearoa, digging into the stories and critically thinking about what happened and why.

“One of the great things about learning our histories, is considering the multiple perspectives. For Te Takanga o Te Wā, this inquiry and analysis is done via a mātauranga Māori lens,” she says.

Building understanding

Bronwyn says it’s important that the new approach to the design of The New Zealand Curriculum pulls out national contexts and ideas which are too important to leave to chance so that all ākonga have access to the understandings and learning no matter what school they go to.

“I like the fact that the three big ideas that we’ve got underpin the curriculum and that the learning is taking place across the different year levels and that it’s building and deepening student knowledge through stories and interpretations of history.

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Anahera McGregor says its important to share multiple perspectives.

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A pedagogical approach to using local stories will be required, says Michele Whiting.

“It’s a much clearer for teachers about how they should be progressing student understanding and I think that is quite different from what we’ve had- especially in the social sciences.”

She says the progression can be seen in the different contexts that the Treaty is being taught through.

“Learning about how Te Tiriti impacts our lives and how it has impacted history can be done through so many different contexts where you’re layering different understandings. So, for example, you could look at Te Tiriti through the Kingitanga context. At different year levels, the understanding is being layered and deepened,” explains Bronwyn.

“I really hope the new curriculum content is going to encourage our tamariki to study Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and also be able to grow in empathy and understanding of different perspectives because we’re such a diverse community,” she says.

Critical thinking

All three curriculum writers agree that offering different perspectives is a key factor in developing critical thinking.

“Understanding your history informs your understanding of the present. It’s central to making sure that students have a really good understanding of the diverse perspectives and stories that our history holds,” says Bronwyn.

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“We have included explicitly acknowledging multiple histories and the bias that we bring to them,” says Anahera.

“There have been many that have been crying for a long time for these stories to be heard, but here we are, it’s finally coming across the line.”

Future-changing for Aotearoa

Anahera reckons the new content will change the future of Aotearoa New Zealand.

“It’s going to give light and voice to stories that have previously had a limited platform to be heard. Now they are actually going to be part of teaching and learning, and the stories are going to be told and from different perspectives,” she says.

“Knowledge brings enlightenment to the facts and the notion of facts is what really inspires me - you are just laying down the story. There are so many different things in my experience of teaching Māori history that people, even teachers, don’t know a lot about. I am SO excited about it. I am thankful that my children will know a lot more than we certainly learnt in school anyway.”

“It’s an opportunity to dispel a lot of myths as to what has happened in the past,” adds Michele.

“For me as an historian, I believe that history teaches us amazing critical thinking skills that you can transfer to any other profession or field of study,” says Bronwyn.

“For my learners, I want them to grow up with really gazette.education.govt.nz

informed, considered understanding of our history, being able to take on people’s different perspectives, and to respect them and evaluate them and work out how they inform their own knowledge and understanding of the world around them,” she adds.

Curriculum Resources

While new resources will be developed to support schools, the curriculum writers say there are a lot of resources already out there.

“It’s really important that schools start to do the background work to gain understanding of those three big ideas before they even start to shape up what their local curriculum is going to look like,” says Michele.

Staffroom discussions, Radio New Zealand podcasts, resources at the National Library, Ministry of Culture and Heritage, Te Papa, local museums are all good starting points, she says.

Bronwyn adds that the New Zealand History Teachers’ Association (NZHTA) is going to be focused on helping to provide PLD for all Year 1-10 teachers, with the Ministry of Education working to pull the wide range of resources available to teachers together in one place.

Bronwyn Houliston.

Read this article online for more information and resources.

Have your say

An online survey is open now to gather feedback on the draft curriculum content for The New Zealand Curriculum and Te Marautanga o Aotearoa.

The survey runs until 31 May 2021. Once approved, the curriculum changes will come into effect in 2022.

Please have your say. Find out more at education.govt.nz/ aotearoanzhistories.

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“The fact you can explore those big ideas and national contexts through your local and rohe contexts means that the school has the opportunity to create a really rich curriculum.”

Bronwyn Houliston

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LEARN I NG SU PPORT

Breaking down silos in learning support Influenced by the Learning Support Delivery Model, a new approach brings teachers and providers of support for children with diverse needs around the one table and is already making a difference.

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trip to Scotland on a Winston Churchill Fellowship early in 2020 confirmed Ministry of Education psychologist Vanesse Geel’s view that a siloed approach to helping children with diverse needs was ineffective.

Vanesse’s research led her to the Scottish model called Getting it right for every child (GIRFEC)– a multi-sectoral strategy using a holistic approach, which is integrated into existing policy, practice, strategy and legislation.

There’s an emphasis on joint responsibility and working across all government agencies, she explains.

“They started it in 2006 in Scotland, but the bigger implementation was in 2009 and they are still constantly refining it. It’s a strength-based approach. They also believe that this is everybody’s job.

“They got rid of all the silos and took a holistic wellbeing approach for children and young people across all Government agencies. They developed a document that stated what every agency would need to add to an integrated approach,” says Vanesse.

The Scottish model resonated with the work Vanesse was doing in New Zealand, where often there would be

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many agencies involved with the child and their family.

“It was becoming very clear that unless we work together, we just weren’t going to get the outcomes that we really wanted for a child and whānau.”

Making the best choices for tamariki and rangatahi involves new ways of working in portfolio areas including health, social welfare and education, which each hold pieces of the jigsaw, she explains.

Collaboration, not silos

A few years ago, the Ministry of Education’s learning support team engaged with a wide range of stakeholders, including clients and parents. Their main response was that a siloed system wasn’t not working for them, that they couldn’t cope with having to retell their stories all the time.

The Learning Support Delivery Model (LSDM) aims to break down these silos by taking a more integrated, collaborative approach to learning support.

“The LSDM strengthens the way learning support is provided so all children and young people get the right support, in the right place, at the right time,” says Vanesse.

The LSDM has collaboration and flexibility at its heart.

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The approach ensures that supports and services work in complementary, joined-up ways. The LSDM needs the learning support workforce to come together, share information and resources, and work together to decide how to respond to need and who is best placed to respond.

Vanesse’s research has aided the development of an integrated service delivery/One Plan approach, which has been piloted with several families in Auckland schools.

One Plan in action

The One Plan approach can see representatives from eight or more different services or agencies sitting around the table to discuss priorities and strategies to help a child with complex needs.

A One Plan meeting considers the wellbeing of the child holistically and begins with talking about the strengths the child and family bring to the kete. Vanesse gives the example of a young child transitioning into school with complex neuro-diverse needs, including significant autism.

“During the transition, we could already see a number of issues that could potentially create barriers for inclusion at the school. We sat around the table, asked the parents what they see the difficulties for the child as being, the child’s strengths and ‘what is your dream for your child?’ That often gives us an indication of where we need to start working.

“The team just all came together and literally put their thinking caps on: what do we need to do to make this a successful placement, what do we need to put in place, who will do what?

“We come together on a regular basis to discuss what is working and what is not,” she says.

Two years down the track, the student is fully integrated into school and, while it can still be a difficult process, everybody is on the same page and clear about the priorities and their roles.

“It spreads the load and everybody who sits around the table is very clear that we carry accountability and responsibility both individually and as a team,” says Vanesse.

Ormiston Primary School’s experience

Anupama Diddee is the Inclusive Learning Leader at Ormiston Primary School in Flat Bush, which has been piloting the One Plan for two years. The school has a large number of ORS-funded students and two have been involved in the One Plan pilot. One is a young non-verbal autistic boy, who Anupama says had very high learning, behavioral and sensory needs.

“When he started with us, the goals mostly revolved around safety and wellbeing. With many behavioural issues, integration into the classroom could only take place by building a strong relationship with him,” she says.

Progress for this child has been phenomenal, says Anupama.

“While the learning goals for the child have been different, the progress has been remarkable. He now has an understanding of people around him and knows ‘this is my school’. He also recognises his teachers and you can see him smile when he walks in. He is aware of his day and is able to follow through his daily routine.

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“That’s a big leap from where he started – we are now motivated to plan and engage him in more learning activities,” she says.

The One Plan team experimented with strategies on an almost daily basis and the journey was, at times, overwhelming and difficult, but the use of visuals and establishing and maintaining a routine worked the best.

“The One Plan is both one process and one document which lists the goals for the child. This ensures the child’s ongoing learning journey which means that when the child goes onto the next step, there’s always an option to look back to see what worked, what didn’t work, what strategies were used and which ones were effective. It acts as a guideline to plan the next learning steps,” explains Anupama.

Priorities and goals

She says the beauty of the One Plan is that it ensures that everyone is working towards the same priorities and goals.

“With everybody focusing on similar goals, it was easy to keep the child at the centre and differentiate the teaching instruction, strategies and environment to support the child’s learning.

“It was becoming very clear that unless we work together, we just weren’t going to get the outcomes that we really wanted for a child and whānau.”

Vanesse Geel “For example, while prioritising toileting and sleep patterns, we could have discussions with the paediatrician around the medication in case that needed to be tweaked.

You always need to take care of the physiological needs before you can work on goals for socialisation, communication and learning.”

Anupama says that a SENCO (special education needs co-ordinator) is the link between the various parties: school, other professionals and outer agencies.

“There’s a lot of co-ordination and collaboration, and making sure that information and effective feedback is provided back to the teams. Bringing people together helps to address issues through focused solutions and celebrate small successes along the way.

“The best thing is that everybody becomes an equal partner in the plan, which lists every member’s role explicitly.

So there is no ambiguity about who does what, and there is a lot of support for each other. It takes the pressure away from the parents in terms of planning the teaching strategies or the learning environment. Somebody is taking care of that whole planning part for their child,” explains Anupama.

Teachers appreciate collaboration between different teams and the opportunity to learn from each other.

“Teachers feel very supported when they know there’s a network of professionals and expertise they can bank on,” she says.

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Whānau experience

Anupama Diddee.

“The best thing is that everybody becomes an equal partner in the plan, which lists every member’s role explicitly. So there is no ambiguity about who does what, and there is a lot of support for each other.”

Anupama Diddee

Hemi* (7) joined Ana* and Maria’s* multi-generational household through whāngai placement when he was two.

He has neuro-developmental difficulties that mean he is impulsive and reactive, but he couldn’t have found a better home. As well as providing heaps of love, his mothers are both experienced early childhood educators.

“At early childhood, he wouldn’t pay attention, scratched and hit the teachers. We had IPs (individual plans) and psychologists involved at that time,” remembers Ana. “In Year 1, Learning Support ran Understanding Behaviour and Responding Safely (UBRS) around finding and deescalating behaviours. Then there was another Ministry programme called Managing Anger and Potential Aggression (MAPA), which is more focused around the child, their behaviours and some of the triggers,” she says.

In Year 2, Hemi changed teachers and had an individualised programme run by a teacher aide, but Ana says he could tell he was being individualised and began to act up to try to get back in the group.

“He was quite reactional to anything and everything, so we had to put in an adaptable programme for him alongside the school,” says Maria.

As an outcome of the One Plan approach, a hauora/ wellbeing space was created at school.

Fits like a glove

Culture is important to Hemi. His parents say that his new school ‘fits him like a glove’ and they were part of the One Plan approach from the beginning.

“If you have an ordinary IEP [individual education plan], it’s for a time period and it might not involve the paediatrician, social worker etc. But with a One Plan approach, everybody participates and contributes to the meeting – even if by phone or Skype. Also, there are pieces of work that we all get to do,” says Ana. “For instance, last term, our job was to get Hemi to and from emotional regulation therapy. The school’s job was to start on the transition. We each report back to one another and it’s kept pretty tight. It’s like a work plan with actions.”

“The One Plan approach allows us to monitor where the progress is. And if something crops up that doesn’t work, it’s a safe forum to say it doesn’t work. We would brainstorm some of those ideas and strategies that are now working,” adds Maria.

A wellbeing approach

Vanesse Geel.

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Maria explains that if teachers can see the child escalating, they redirect him to his hauora space and give him time to de-escalate and self-regulate.

“He likes reading and drawing pictures, so he would do a picture, calm himself down and then feel okay about it and take himself back into class. Or they would give him tasks like a typical child with ADHD: they will give him a note to take to the office and then run back. They would time him: he loves challenges like that. It enabled him to sit down in class a lot more settled and focused.

“We had to consider his wellbeing holistically to activate learning in the classroom and at home,” she says.

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Ana says Hemi’s teacher has found the learner – and the leader – within him.

“When it comes to learning, he’s trying really hard to learn and, because he’s in a year 0-3 class with the same teacher, he’s had the opportunity to coach others.

“He’s still tracking behind. At our next meeting we will probably discuss: okay, we’ve got a kid who’s starting to want to learn – he desires to read because he wants knowledge. That’s probably what we will target next.”

Voices heard

Hemi has a strong sense of justice, but with his tendencies to be impulsive and reactive, he became an easy scapegoat at school. Ana explains that the One Plan approach includes ‘testing out the story’ about him. This involves listening to his point of view, as well as giving other children a chance to speak – a kind of restorative justice.

“If you’re not a teacher or a talker or an advocate for your kid, the power imbalance is different. In our meetings, the power balance is not hierarchical at all.

We all contribute to this team and we all have a right to question.

“Everything that we’ve said and acknowledged is inputted into the plan until we come back to it. It’s pretty

consistent and there are some things that we target and say we are going to do and we pretty much execute it all,” she says.

Enabling change

Vanesse says an integrative One Plan framework will create a shared vision for services and develop a common language and agenda for collaboration among partners.

“The New Zealand Child and Youth Wellbeing Strategy and LSDM provides a unifying framework and way of aligning our efforts. Together, we can ensure that all children and young people receive the support they need to achieve wellbeing in every area of their lives. We hope this approach becomes more widely implemented,” says Vanesse.

The names of the whānau in this story have been changed to protect their identities.

The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust helps New Zealanders to pursue their passions and connect with like-minded communities overseas. www.wcmt.co.nz/ Read Vanesse’s Fellowship report in this story at Education Gazette online.

Pacific Education Support Fund SECOND ROUND OF FUNDING OPENS Following a successful first round of funding, the Ministry of Education is seeking further proposals from community groups, organisations, church groups or social sector providers to support the educational needs of Pacific learners and families impacted by COVID-19.

Round 2 of the Fund has a further $6 million available for Auckland, Waikato, Hawke’s Bay – Tairāwhiti, Wellington and Canterbury and Chatham Islands. The five regions have a large proportion of the Pacific learner population as well as regional inequities.

Applications to the Pacific Education Support Fund close on 19 April 2021.

To find out more about the Pacific Education Support Fund and how to apply go to:

www.education.govt.nz/pacific-education-funds or email: pacific.supportfund@education.govt.nz

22 March 2021

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“... it looked cool, all those movements, the swishing of the cloth, the Te Reo Māori, and everything else.”

Luke

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NGĀ TOI M ĀORI

Creatives in Schools: Breathing life into learning A Creatives in Schools project saw every student at Kelburn Normal School engaged in retelling the stories of Maui using ngā toi Māori to strengthen key competencies and student voice and agency.

“I

had the lucky privilege of acting Tangaroa, god of the sea,” says Eva, a Year 8 student at the Wellington school.

“I held makeshift baby Maui in my arms and chanted the prayer, letting the words flow as easily as they could.

For me, te reo Māori is a challenge. But I unveiled the meaning behind the words and I really truly understood the significance of them. How Tangaroa prayed pleadingly, with a broken heart, for her lifeless son. How the Atua aided her with open arms.

“And for me able to express such meaning through words made me feel strong and one with the story,” she explains.

Eva’s experience was part of Kelburn Normal School’s Creatives in Schools project last year, in which the school engaged drama experts Rawiri Hindle and Bert Van Dijk to co-construct with teachers a cycle of plays inspired by the stories of Maui. The plays were created and performed by each home learning team for each other, and then for parents and whānau.

“We wanted to do two things,” says Charles Bisley, associate principal and head of performing arts.

“Make some art, and in doing that, give teachers permission and capacity to explore and engage with ngā toi Māori and te reo Māori.”

“Our staff were ready,” says deputy principal Danielle Sanders.

“Our teachers have many levels of expertise and they’re encouraged to question and challenge things. And that’s what we expect from our kids as well.”

Creative learning is already at the heart of Kelburn Normal School. It’s embedded in its vision statement, local curriculum and approach to foundational learning. The Creatives in Schools project allowed the school to build on its work in this area.

The school sees drama as a vector to channel creative learning. By its very nature drama encourages student

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voice, inclusiveness, and collective agency. And the Maui project stimulated all these things, strengthening students’ whakamana, voice, and giving life to the key competencies of the curriculum.

Focus on process, not outcomes

With support from Rawiri and Bert, the teachers worked with their students to retell the stories of Maui through a culturally responsive lens, incorporating ngā toi Māori.

The aim was to explore the stories, and produce a series of plays that would be performed in front of the school, parents and whānau.

“We didn’t give teachers a specific outcome or require a product. The focus was on the process. It didn’t have to be this glittery, shiny thing,” says Charles.

Even so, the results were, by all accounts, spectacular.

The Year 1-2 students told the story of how Te Ika-aMāui (the North Island) was fished up. With chants and movement central to their performance, the students rowed a giant waka before splitting off into their different home learning teams to explore different episodes from the stories.

The Year 3-4 students introduced more choral elements into their production, with around 30 children representing mana whenua, 30 making a soundscape and 30 playing te rā (the sun).

The Year 5-8 students worked closely in their home learning teams, with students having a key role in devising the content for their performances. Some teams incorporated more dialogue, while others focussed more on music, chants and movement. One team’s creation revolved around weaving and cloth.

A team effort

Manaakitanga is central to the school’s vision, says principal Andrew Bird.

“We’re all about recognising the importance of

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Danielle Sanders.

relationships and working together. And this project really embodied this notion of teamwork,” he says.

Teachers worked incredibly hard to make it happen, taking on Rawiri’s and Bert’s expert advice throughout. The two creatives acted as mentors throughout the process, particularly in the final weeks, giving feedback and guidance when it was sought, especially to embody the stories.

“They brought such energy and expertise – it really lifted the atmosphere of the school,” says Andrew.

Covid no match

Like so many things in 2020, the ambitious project was affected

by Covid-19, forcing the school to adapt. The decision was made to postpone the performances from Term 2 to Term 4, a particularly busy time on the school calendar.

The staff rose to the challenge, despite increased workloads.

“The whole school revolves around student agency, so if teachers see that happening, they’re prepared to go the extra mile,” says Danielle.

A role in changing attitudes

Charles Bisley.

It was worth the wait. The performances were well-received by parents and whānau.

“The tamariki performances of the legends of Maui were so confident and moving, and they clearly loved the whole experience,” says parent, Nickie van der Beek.

“Rawiri Hindle and our teachers brought the stories alive for our children and everyone involved should feel rightly proud. I can see in my own tamariki that they are now far more engaged and interested in learning te reo Māori and about Māoritanga.”

“At the end of the day, it was the kids sharing their performances with the community that made it so special,” says Andrew.

“If you’d asked me at the beginning of last year whether our Year 7 and 8 students were capable of performing exclusively in te reo Māori, I would have said ‘not a chance!’ But they did!”

The senior leadership team is heartened to see signs that their wider school community is becoming more culturally responsive.

Initiatives like their Creatives in Schools project play a part in building cultural awareness.

But what impressed teachers the most was how the project helped build manaakitanga within the school.

“The older children were blown away by the younger children’s performances and offered them thoughtful feedback and praise,” says Danielle.

Breathing life into the key competencies

The project also gave access to school-wide professional learning and development that was enacted in everyday teaching and learning.

The arts are a really good way of articulating the key competencies of the curriculum, says Charles.

“The teachers really had to model the key competencies,” adds Danielle. “We’re very proud of our teachers and students and what they created.”

Applications for Round 3 of Creatives in Schools will open

in June 2021, for implementation in 2022. Check out the Creatives in School website for more information, tips and guidance to help with your application.

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Student kōrero Year 7 and 8 students at Kelburn Normal School reflect on their Maui performances:

the performance to help people understand the story without it being obvious of what we were doing. Elora

» One of the cool things about this play was how abstract we made it. We had almost no literal scenes in our play which kind of made it feel like we were just coming up with individual scenes not an entire play. I feel I was able to come up with a lot of ideas because we mainly worked in little groups to come up with the ideas. Lucas

» Our play ‘Maui Tikitiki a Taranga’ had different shades of blue ribbons, and a large black cloth as props. They made an illusion of water, wind, and also tears. I honestly don’t think our play would’ve had the same effect without them. Jess

» Some things of our play were from experiences at school. Before we started on the plays, we spent some time on Tuesdays with Rawiri, learning some dances/ movements. We got our ‘hura hura’ movement from our learning experiences with him. Nhi » All of our ideas helped us get there. We ended up running with the thought that Maui would leave his physical being behind, and that it would be only his essence, or soul, crossing over. I liked this idea because I felt like we were looking past our first impressions of the beat, and really diving into the meaning of it. Tali » The movement was really important. The purpose was not to tell a story but to experience the feeling of how the movement works. Eva » We used sound to help enhance the performances that we did. In my particular class we did not use any music but we used Māori words and chants. We had sayings like moi, maranga and many others appeared throughout

» I found that watching the other classes helped see what our class could improve on. They were all quite different and had little elements that I found interesting. One of the classes had lots of repetition which was quite effective, another class did a lot of singing and some classes used props which looked quite cool too. Minnie » It actually went pretty well. It didn’t make a huge amount of sense, I was told, but we weren’t really trying to make it make sense. But it looked cool, all those movements, the swishing of the cloth, the Te Reo Māori, and everything else. Luke » Looking back, I’m really glad that we did our performance that way. The point was to creatively interpret the ideas the story presented, and to think about what they meant. I found this to be so much more rewarding than just giving a literal rendition. It made us really think about the story, and engage with it, and I really enjoyed our Maui Performance because of that. Tali

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These programmes are free for schools and students.

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Teacher Awards – Four Teacher Awards, each worth $2000 for teachers and educators who have developed a literacy programme or initiative for their students.

Register now www.spellingbee.co.nz 22 March 2021

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I NCLUSIVE PRACTICES

To stream or not to stream Students at Horowhenua College in Levin are achieving consistent success in NCEA maths and English either above or on par with the national average. It’s a result the school is proud of, and one they attribute to getting rid of streamed classes in Year 11 maths and English.

Education Gazette talks to students, teachers, school leaders and iwi partners about why they believe inclusive teaching and learning practices serve students better.

Y

ear 12 student, Wiremu*, recalls his experience of being in the lowest streamed class, or the ‘cabbage class’ as he refers to it.

“I was above it, but because I was acting naughty I was put down in that class. There was nothing better to do than play up, I was only acting up because everyone else was, and I just followed the crowd.

“One time I was really, really naughty and got taken out and put in a high-achieving class. The teacher realised I was

capable of doing the work and left me in there… now I’m going to go to university and be an accountant.”

College-wide conversation

That teacher was Misbah Sadat, who was then head of maths at Horowhenua College.

“That was back in Year 9,” recalls Misbah. “I was livid; he is so clever and that year there was not ONE Māori male student in the top class, so I arranged for him to be moved

Rangatahi Ora tuakana students on their haerenga through Rotorua and Waikato exploring tertiary options at wānanga, polytechnics and universities.

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into the top class for ALL subjects and mentored him. He did brilliantly and was placed in the top Year 10 class on his own merit in all subjects.”

Misbah opposes streaming. In 2017, along with Claire McCormick, head of faculty for English and Languages, Misbah asked principal Grant Congdon and the Senior Leadership Team for support to stop streaming Year 11 English and maths. Everyone backed them.

Principal Grant Congdon says the move to non-streaming required a complete buy-in from everyone, and the fact that Claire and Misbah achieved that is a significant achievement in itself.

Grant says the data coming from the non-streamed classes is fuelling a conversation that is needed college wide.

He says there’s a need to provide focused professional learning and development to support non-streaming to succeed.

Both Claire and Misbah agree that support from the principal, school leadership and board of trustees was essential to making the change.

Both teachers wanted to address the lack of Māori, Pacific and female students in English 1 and Maths 1. Maths 1 leads to algebra and graphing, enabling students to pursue careers requiring the STEM subjects science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Behaviour and streaming

Claire grew up in the UK and says she wasn’t well behaved at school and was put in the bottom class for being naughty.

She says she’s seen the same thing happen here, especially for Māori and Pacific students.

“When I first arrived at the school, there were five different streams for senior English. The top stream was mainly Pākehā and Asian students who did internals and externals, the lower streams did ‘Foundation English’ and just a few internals.

“We had Māori and Pacific students over-represented in there and a lack of engagement, because they realised they weren’t doing what the rest of the students were doing.

“My understanding was, students were streamed into classes as juniors, based on information passed on from their primary schools,” she says.

Claire noticed that streaming was based on behaviour.

“So then you have to consider, well why was that? It’s because they’re not doing what the rest of the students are doing.

“When we got rid of streaming, we found our Māori and Pacific students achieved as well as everybody else, and behaviour issues disappeared out the window, because when students were streamed there were no role models in those classrooms. When streaming disappeared, there were role models all around, so we rarely have any behaviour problems and it’s a remarkable difference.

“We taught everyone all the same programme, every single student – everyone was doing externals – and we’ve

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had lots of success! Consecutively we’ve had year-onyear improvement with our NCEA results, internally and externally. We’re now finding we’re getting lots of Maōri and Pacific students taking Level 3 English, and they’re not just taking it, they’re getting Merits and Excellence,” says Claire.

Maths success too

Misbah tells a similar story for mathematics subjects.

“After we stopped streaming in NCEA level 1 for algebra and calculus in 2017, student numbers continued at Level 2, jumping from 10 the previous year when we streamed, up to 24. Fifteen of those students carried on to Level 3 calculus, compared with six the previous year when we streamed, and of those students, five are Māori and three are Pacific.

“Overall, the numbers of students at Level 2 Maths have more than doubled since we stopped streaming. This has not just raised the bar for Māori and Pacific achievement and participation, it has raised the bar across the board for Pākehā and girls as well,” she says.

“When there’s no streaming, we mix with all different kids from all different backgrounds, not just our own group, and learn off each other in class. It’s awesome.”

Oliana*, Year 12

Students work through some mathematical problems with teacher Misbah Sadat.

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Rangatahi Ora tuakana and teina students strengthen relationships through shared kai and whānau time.

Grant echoes this. “From Misbah and Claire’s work we are learning that non-streaming allows all learners the opportunity to aspire to high grades. Given the option, many choose to do more difficult work because they are allowed to aspire.”

But he sounds a note of caution. “I think removing streaming from courses needs to be considered on a case-bycase basis, and with good consultation, PLD and support. If it is removed without the necessary structures and supports in place, then the challenging job of teaching teenagers becomes even more difficult.”

Whanaungatanga is our superpower

Chris Wilton (Ngāti Raukawa and Muaūpoko) co-leads the Rangatahi Ora programme at Horowhenua College alongside Dylan Kiriona (Ngāti Raukawa). Both teachers are Māori Deans, and high-performance sports coaches – Dylan with hockey and Chris with rugby.

Muaūpoko are tangata whenua in the Levin rohe (region) and have a strong relationship with the college, where many Muaūpoko whānau send their tamariki.

“For Māori excellence and achievement to be the norm, streaming has to be abolished, because straightaway, it makes student’s self-esteem drop, and they think, ‘Oh, I’m not as smart as everyone else’,” says Chris.

“All Māori learners have unlimited learning potential, and streaming is a direct contradiction to that potential approach.”

He says the assessment models which support streaming also need to change.

“Take writing for example, mainstream assessment relies heavily on written work, but we are an oral culture. Most of our traditions were passed down through generations orally.”

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It’s important for Māori students to come under the Māori curriculum, because indigenous knowledge isn’t embedded into mainstream core subjects. Chris says as a young Māori student he struggled to feel connected and engaged at school, and his options were to either fit into a Pākehā box or drown.

Connection and whanaungatanga

Fast forward to 2020 and Te Puna o Te Mātauranga – the school’s wharenui, is living up to its name, providing not only a spring of knowledge for ākonga, but also a strong sense of hononga (connection) and whanaungatanga through activities like Tikanga Tuesdays, Wānanga Wednesdays, shared kai on Thursdays, and regular Te Reo Māori and tikanga classes.

“Whanaungatanga is our superpower. When we’re Māori and we work together, nothing’s impossible.

“We’re planning a Rangatahi Ora core class for 2021, and are taking the year plans for each subject, transforming them to represent a Māori world view,” says Chris.

Dylan agrees that streaming is at odds with what works best for Māori.

“Māori learning relies on the tuakana-teina, buddy system approach, and on peer support with senior students nurturing the juniors. It’s an essential dynamic of Māori education and achievement, but streaming keeps us in isolation and silos,” he says.

Both teachers say the Rangatahi Ora programme, supporting Māori to achieve as Māori, is key, and breathes life into Ka Hikitia (the Māori education strategy) at the same time.

Rangatahi Ora was a finalist in the 2017 Prime Minister’s awards for successfully engaging Māori learners with school, and many students say it was the only reason they stayed.

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Grant Congdon says as well as the successful Rangatahi Ora programme and tuakana/teina approach for Māori and Pacific students, another positive alternative to streaming is removing internal pre-requisites.

He says pre-requisites are, in essence, a form of streaming, because they stop students from continuing with course options, and removing pre-requisites opens the career pathway door for all students.

Grant believes that stories which highlight streaming are important, because they have the capacity to challenge thinking and provide better outcomes for all students.

Experiences stay with us

Muaūpoko iwi chief executive Di Rump says as well as supporting the community and college initiatives, there are plans underway for a Muaūpoko Kura ā Iwi in the future. Chris’s sister and a former pupil herself, Di remembers her own experience of streaming as a Year 10 student.

“I always did well at school but was streamed into a low class in Year 9, then moved up in Year 10 and again in Year 11. In Year 10, my maths teacher stood me up in front of the whole class and accused me of cheating because I got a good mark in the test. He didn’t believe I could have

achieved it by myself. I still remember his words: ‘I’ll give you 28 per cent, but I’m not even sure how much of that is yours’.

“That was 42 years ago and I remember it like it was yesterday… where I was standing, the way the light came through the window, and looking around at the class wishing I was dead. I couldn’t breathe,” she recalls.

“On my mid-term report I had 81 per cent in English, 78 per cent in history and 28 per cent for maths.

“To this day I’ve always thought I’m bad at maths, but actually I can’t be, because I’ve had a career dealing with corporate finance and banking,” says Di.

Pacific perspectives

Science teacher Jessica Foster runs the Pacific students’ after-school homework centre at Horowhenua College.

Born in Fiji, her family emigrated to Huntly where both of her parents took up teaching positions.

A first-year teacher, Jess is recognised by the students as someone they can trust, and the school has appointed her as the new Pacific Dean for 2021. She says streaming combined with Covid has been tough on Pacific students, as lockdown meant working longer hours for parents who were essential workers.

Student kōrero » Streaming puts your confidence down, it doesn’t make you want to go for things that you should go for. Everyone looks down on you when you’re in the low classes. They think you’re dumb but you’re not, you’re just in the wrong environment.

Joe*, Year 11. » I hate streaming because it’s in levels, dumb to smart. For me, I was in the low classes, and I was surrounded by Māoris and Islanders and naughty white kids, so it influenced me to act naughty and not try my hardest. I asked why I was in there and was told to stop asking questions. My parents didn’t question it because it [streaming] has been going on for ages.

Manaia*, Year 12. » And then there’s stereotyping. I’m proud of performing [at kapa haka] and getting noticed, but it’s the only way I’m seen or perceived. When you get an academic excellent, they act surprised. Some teachers only notice you for your performing side, not your academic side. It makes me feel like giving up.

My grades are good, but I’m not getting put up – there’s no point. Moana*, Year 12. » Even if you are a high academic achiever, kids of colour lower their expectations to fit in so they don’t lose their friends – even if it means you go through an identity crisis. I’ve seen so many brown students not care anymore; they don’t wanna try because it means being in an all Pākehā class.

Anahera*, Year 12. *Names have been changed to protect students’ privacy.

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Misbah Sadat is now an assistant principal at Onslow College.

AUCKLAND CHRISTCHURCH TAURANGA

22 March 2021

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“Some kids weren’t sitting down to study until 10pm when their parents walked in the door. Plus they had extra responsibilities like looking after their younger siblings and helping them with schoolwork.

“In quite a few families, there was no wifi or devices to support online learning. Students couldn’t connect with other learners let alone teachers, and many of them were set back academically,” says Jess.

Some subjects are still streamed and students in lower streamed classes who had fewer assessments didn’t have anything to fall back on if they didn’t pass, she says.

“Many Pacific parents won’t question streaming or their child’s grades because they think it’s disrespectful, or because they’re not confident with their English.”

Unconscious bias

Jess says she’s seen well-behaved Pacific students ‘play up’ to fit in, in low-streamed junior classes where there are no other positive role models around them.

“School is a bit of a release for some juniors, like ‘I can come to school, there’s no expectations on me [in a lowstreamed class)], I can be naughty and even stuff like notices and reports won’t reach my parents.”

Streaming is for the benefit of teachers, says Jess, who argues that doesn’t work because teachers have to differentiate anyway. She agrees with the Māori deans that assessment tests for streaming are fraught with unconscious bias and are a problem.

“I think it’s also the way we test students to put them into streams. For example, some Pacific students are so quiet,

the teachers assume they can’t speak English at all, and if they actually can’t, all of the testing is only done in English anyway.”

But Jess says her biggest concern around streaming is racism. Seeing students constantly getting worn down from having to explain and defend ‘who they are’ as Pacific people, plus figure out their studies at the same time, is something she can relate to.

“When I was 11, I was asked ‘what are you?’ In Fiji I never had to explain what I was, I never had to say I was Fiji/ Rotuman – no one asked. But here, I was always having to say what I am, where I’m from. New Zealanders are bad for that, they have to put you in a box.

“I realised in primary school, that being a ‘Pacific Islander’ was really bad. They are always on Police 10/7, always on the news, and every time I went into shops, I always got asked to show my bags. The last thing I wanted to be as an 11-year-old was a Pacific Islander,” says Jess.

Damaging for Māori

Jess’s concerns about streaming and racism are real, says Piripi Prendergast from Tokona te Raki, the Ngāi Tahu Māori Futures Collective.

Piripi is a secondary school teacher and researcher with over three decades of teaching experience, working alongside schools and teachers like Misbah and Claire, who are wanting to bring streaming to end.

He says He Awa Ara Rau, a research report released midyear, highlighted the devastating impact of streaming on Māori career options.

Rangatahi Ora students promoting Te Reo Māori and Hākinakina Māori with students from other kura at their annual whakawhanaungatanga day during Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori.

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“The report evidences streaming as being fraught with racism, bias and deficit thinking and this is seen in top classes and groups being largely European, and bottom classes and groups being over-represented by Māori and Pasifika,” says Piripi.

Piripi says kura kaupapa students are particularly affected when moving into kura auraki (mainstream schools). They might be brilliant at maths, but because they’re unfamiliar with the English terms, they score low on the testing, and are placed incorrectly in the bottom band or group, causing damaged self-esteem, loss of confidence and restricted career options.

“Streaming is a relic of colonialism, why are we still doing it?” asks Piripi. “This is an issue, like corporal punishment, where it’s blatantly wrong.”

“We also have some science and maths teachers who are invested in the status quo of streaming, because it’s how they learnt, how they were taught at Teacher’s College, and how they’ve been teaching ever since.

“Streaming is incredibly damaging for Māori and Pacific students and puts a glass ceiling on their careers,” he says.

Campaign to end streaming

Piripi points to NZQA statistics from 2018, showing almost a third of all Year 11 Māori maths students were not entered in a full NCEA maths course.

“Not even entered! They can’t even get Level 1 maths.

And science is similar,” says Piripi.

He says this is just one of the consequences of streaming and there are other causes, such as poor culturally responsive practices.

Piripi says Tokona Te Raki is working on a campaign to end streaming because it’s an issue that impacts all New Zealanders.

“We will release a research report soon and invite stakeholders to join us in making the change away from streaming. As a nation we are blessed with a growing, youthful Māori and Pacific population, but if we squander this rich resource, everyone loses,” says Piripi.

Senior students support this sentiment. Oliana*, for one, has loved the move away from streamed classes.

“When there’s no streaming, we mix with all different kids from all different backgrounds, not just our own group, and learn off each other in class. It’s awesome, we never would have done that before,” she says.

Pacific Education Innovation Fund SECOND ROUND OF FUNDING OPENS Following a successful first round of funding, the Ministry of Education is seeking further proposals from educators, places of learning, community groups, providers, researchers, and academics throughout Aotearoa.

Round 2 of the Innovation Fund has a further $6 million available to applicants. $3.5m of this will support projects developing innovative practices to meet Pacific learner wellbeing and curriculum needs. $2.5m is for projects specifically targeted at innovative practices in Pacific bilingual and immersion education in early learning services and schools.

Applications to the Pacific Education Innovation fund close on 26 April 2021.

To find out more about the Pacific Education Innovation Fund and how to apply go to:

www.education.govt.nz/pacific-education-funds or email: pacific.innovationfund@education.govt.nz

22 March 2021

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Teacher, Cameron Payne’s Year 12 Sociology class was responsible for the running and organisation of the Blood Drive in 2020.

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CU RRICU LU M

Blood drive increases curriculum connections A group of students at Hillcrest High School has been helping the New Zealand Blood Service in Hamilton – and they have gained NCEA credits for it.

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or the past five years, the Hillcrest High School’s Level 2 social science (sociology) students have run a blood drive, which has resulted in an increase in blood donations and the school winning a trophy from New Zealand Blood Service (NZBS) for several years running.

Head of Social Sciences Ryan Cox says Hillcrest High first became involved when NZBS promoted some educational resources. Since then, student engagement has increased and, in 2020, the project was expanded to offer credits for Health and Environment for Sustainability standards.

Student engagement

“We thought some of the resources would work really well with the Level 2 standard AS91282 (Personal Involvement,) which focuses on an action in relation to rights and responsibilities. Also, it’s good for our students to do stuff within the school community; they didn’t necessarily understand the importance of blood donations, so it opens our students up to that and how they can have a role.

“The students work with a liaison from NZBS to understand what needs to be done and they learn about the importance of blood donations. Students run sign-ups; they speak at assembly and advertise it on social media to get students and teachers to sign up and donate blood.

“The kids do everything –- as well as organising it, they have to write a plan and a report. They help with refreshments and try to create fun activities on the day,” says Ryan.

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Ryan Cox.

see the connection but also reward them, especially last year, with the credits they deserve for the work they are doing.”

Staff and students could see the connections between different subjects and the initiative helped people in other subject areas to think about options.

“I certainly think it’s going to encourage people to look at assessment and how we can make better connections across subject areas,” says Ryan.

“For example, this year, within the social science faculty, we’re trying to integrate things: whether it’s religious studies and history, or religious studies and sociology.

It just makes sense because there’s so much crossover between the standards and the content we’re teaching.”

Actions achieve results

Whether or not students donate blood themselves, Ryan says they can all play a role in helping to organise the annual blood drive, or encouraging businesses to donate blood.

“We had one class focusing on the nuts and bolts of our blood drive, and another class had a separate task, which was contacting or promoting it outside of our school to local businesses.

“Student engagement has increased because it’s hands on and they’re engaging with a relevant issue,” explains Ryan.

Crossover credits

As a result of the Level 4 Covid-19 lockdown and school closures, Ryan says the school looked at different ways that senior students could be rewarded for their work.

The project was expanded to include some standards from outside the social studies subject area, which focus on wellbeing and sustainability around personal actions to address an issue.

“The social sciences naturally lead to things like this because we are looking at quite relevant or topical issues,” explains Ryan.

“Students in sociology organise the blood drive each year, but last year the blood drive project focused on taking action linked to rights and responsibilities, wellbeing and social sustainability, which added more depth and breadth to the current assessment.

“There was heaps of crossover between those subject areas. Our teachers went a lot deeper into the issues around blood donation and how it links to wellbeing and social sustainability.”

Thinking outside the square

The initiative has sparked discussion among staff at Hillcrest High School. Ryan hopes that the cross-curricula trial last year will ultimately result in Level 2 health (which is not yet offered at the school) being involved in the project for NCEA assessment as well.

“We tend to stick to our subject areas, but the lockdown forced us to think outside that and how we can integrate standards from across other learning areas for students to

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There was some concern that last year’s blood drive might be impacted by Covid-19, but the school was prepared.

“The blood drive was post-lockdown, but we were mindful that we could be going back into lockdown.

We even looked at alternatives – if the blood drive was cancelled due to Covid alert levels, we would still raise awareness about NZBS and blood donations. The students would still be taking action and would have met the standard if the blood drive was cancelled.

“We could have carried on with online teaching. We do everything digitally anyway through Google apps and our online learning management system called Schoology, which is like Google Classroom,” explains Ryan.

“We thought fewer people might donate with Covid, but last year we received the most donations we ever had – between 90 and 100 donations,” he adds.

Student kōrero

Q: What were some of the main things you learned from your involvement with the blood drive?

A main thing that I learned from the blood drive was mostly around blood products in New Zealand; how many individuals have been affected from lack of people giving blood. I also learnt about how much went into the process of collecting blood.

Q: What did you enjoy the most about the blood drive?

I enjoyed knowing that we as a school and community were helping individuals to get the help that they needed though the drive. It was especially overwhelming how many people we got to donate so that was definitely a good moment.

Q: What were the challenges?

A challenge that I had faced in my role in the blood drive was the organisation of getting people in to give blood. We had issues with students not showing up so having to get backups and move around the list was a little tricky, but once we had figured it out, the process ran a lot smoother.

Holly, Year 13

gazette.education.govt.nz

Advertorial

SMASHED educating rangatahi about the dangers of alcohol Launched by Life Education Trust NZ in 2019, the SMASHED alcohol education programme was delivered to over 20,000 year nine students in its first year.

SMASHED is now gearing up to commence the 2021 tour of New Zealand secondary schools.

“We know 48% of those under 15 years classify themselves as ‘currently drink’ and nearly 45% of 14 year olds say their friends supplied them with alcohol, so peer pressure is a key aspect of the SMASHED learning outcomes,” says John O’Connell, Chief Executive of Life Education Trust (NZ).

SMASHED is dedicated to reducing drinking among young people and promoting responsible attitudes towards alcohol. The ‘Theatre-in-Education’ programme involves a live performance, followed by an interactive workshop.

“There are positive trends amongst today’s youth toward less alcohol consumption than previous generations, but alcohol is still a significant factor causing harm in society.

Quoting health risks alone won’t have an impact on young people’s behaviour, but equipping them with tools to resist peer pressure, awareness of sexual harassment and how alcohol can affect people’s actions will help them make better decisions,” says O’Connell.

Originating in the UK by Theatre-in-Education group Collingwood Learning, SMASHED has been successful around the world, and has now been adapted for a New Zealand audience.

Theatre-in-Education delivers key messages utilising wellknown education and psychological theory – Social Cognitive Theory (SCT). SCT contends that in addition to direct experiential learning, people learn vicariously by observing models of behaviour. Theatre-in-Education supports all student learning styles.

SMASHED isn’t about changed behaviour in isolation, but is consistent with the Ministry of Education AoD guidelines and the NZ Curriculum, which focuses on the acquisition of skills and knowledge. SMASHED is a resource to support teachers’ delivery of health teaching, and teacher resources are provided to ensure SMASHED is an integral part of learning in the classroom.

The programme is free of charge to schools, removing any barriers to access. SMASHED is funded by Life Education Trust, NZ Lottery Grants Board and The Tomorrow Project, together with several smaller regional partners. The Tomorrow Project is a registered charity established by the alcohol industry to support initiatives that educate the public about responsible attitudes to alcohol and reducing harm.

In the previous two years, despite disruption from COVID-19 in 2020, over 31,000 students took part in SMASHED. The 2021 nationwide tour begins in Term Two.

During SMASHED students are taken on a journey, following the young characters behaviours and choices. After the thirty-minute performance students engage in a workshop to explore the behaviours and decisions that took place in depth, encouraging discussion and further thinking to reinforce the key learning outcomes.

For more info visit: WWW.SMASHED.ORG.NZ To enquire about booking SMASHED contact: enquiries@lifeeducation.org.nz

AWARDS

Celebrating exceptional teaching Entries for this year’s Prime Minister’s Education Excellence Awards are open now until 16 April.

T

he Prime Minister’s Education Excellence Awards celebrate the work of early learning services, kōhanga reo, schools and kura that are making a big difference not just to learners, but to their whānau and the wider community.

The Ministry of Education’s Deputy Secretary for Early Learning and Student Achievement, Ellen MacGregorReid says the awards are a great way to acknowledge those in the education community going above and beyond to ensure the success and achievement of their learners.

“Teachers and kaiako play such an important role in the lives of all New Zealanders. These awards are about showcasing and celebrating schools, kura, kōhanga reo and early learning services whose work is delivering excellent outcomes for young New Zealanders,” says Ellen.

“We want to hear from education providers who are proud of the difference they are making in the lives of their learners, whānau and local community.”

The Prime Minister’s Supreme Award is given to the best overall entry from these four categories.

An Education Focus Prize is also up for grabs for an education service that can demonstrate excellence in environmental and sustainability education.

The prize celebrates teaching and learning that empowers children and young people to develop critical thinking skills as they explore the impact that people have on the environment, and encourages them to take action for a sustainable future.

Finalists will be notified in June and the winners will be announced at an award ceremony dinner in September.

Winners will receive a package that includes a trophy, certificate, $20,000 financial award and professional development opportunities.

The winner of the Prime Minister’s Supreme Award will receive a package that includes a trophy, certificate, and an additional $30,000 financial award.

Four categories

There are four main award categories: Excellence in Engaging, Excellence in Leading, Excellence in Teaching and Learning, and Excellence in Wellbeing Education.

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To enter or find out more about the awards, visit

the Prime Minister’s Excellence Awards website.

Entries are open until 16 April.

gazette.education.govt.nz

Meet a previous winner Tiaki Early Learning Centre, Rotorua, Bay of Plenty, was awarded Excellence in Wellbeing Education at the 2019 Prime Minister’s Education Excellence Awards.

Tiaki Early Learning Centre set out to authentically connect with their local community and its history and culture, so that their children are able to access the physical, mental, spiritual and emotional benefits these connections offer.

The centre reviewed its vision in consultation with their whānau and local marae, and made connections with their local schools. They wanted their children to benefit by having a strong relationship with the land to enhance their health and wellbeing and that of Papatūānuku.

The programme includes moving beyond recycling towards zero waste and the provision of plant-based meals, which is supported through the development of vegetable gardens.

The centre, which values placebased education, initiated a Tangata Whenuatanga day in the community involving all the children, and a visit to their marae every week.

Tiaki Early Learning Centre placed emphasis on connections with their wider community.

The result has been significant growth in the health and wellbeing of the children and the development of a real respect and appreciation of Papatūānuku. The children have gone on to display these characteristics when they start school.

JUDGES’ FEEDBACK “This early learning service was commended for its close connections with its local marae and the environment. Tiaki ELC demonstrated that the programme is embedded in the centre. The revegetation of

Early Childhood Centres FOR LEASE

the wetland is making a significant difference in the community and enabling children to become active community members.”

“Connections with local primary schools are evident and the development of learning stories make visible the learning from this programme.”

Visit this article online to see a video about the Tiaki Early Learning Centre.

Register your interest today for early access to leasing opportunities of our high quality purpose-built childcare centres.

SIGNATURE

DEVELOPMENTS

A member of the award winning Signature Homes Group.

Contact Dale Prosser today on 0274 747 999 or email daleprosser@signature.co.nz

22 March 2021

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TRANSITIONS

Transition ceremonies build stronger whānau connections A relatively simple initiative focused on improving transitions has had a big impact on building connections with whānau at a special character school in Lower Hutt.

Tamariki and their whānau share kai with their new class community.

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gazette.education.govt.nz

J

ust start small – it’s the intention to do things differently that’s important.

That’s the key takeaway for teacher Krista Kerr, following Wā Ora Montessori School’s efforts to engage parents and whānau in new ways to celebrate their learners’ transitions through early learning and school levels.

Like other Montessori schools, Wā Ora splits learning into three-year levels, starting with a playgroup for children under three, a pre-school for three- to six-yearolds, and an area school for children from six to 18, made up of four sectors.

Krista, who teaches in the pre-school, based her inquiry on looking at how they were welcoming new children into the pre-school and then transitioning tamariki up to the primary school, and then on to the high school. She was inspired by an idea shared by another Montessori centre through Ngā haerenga, a Montessori Aotearoa New Zealand (MANZ) platform for sharing ideas and good practice.

“The actual transition ceremonies only took about 15 minutes, but it meant so much. It’s a good reminder that it’s okay to start small; that it’s the intention to do something that makes a difference.”

Krista Kerr MANZ Executive Officer Cathy Wilson says Ngā haerenga encourages their services and schools to embed biculturalism through their collective practice.

“Strengthening biculturalism throughout Montessori services and schools has been a focus of our community for many years.”

With biculturalism a key focus of Krista’s inquiry, she and her colleagues set out to explore ways they could improve their current processes.

“We had good systems in place for tamariki being settled into the classroom, but not necessarily for their whānau,” says Krista.

“With the primary school facing the pre-school building, the transitions are typically easy for children, but we didn’t acknowledge that it is also a special moment for their whānau, not just for tamariki. Moving up to the high school (on a separate site up the road) is also a milestone that we acknowledged could be more of a celebration.”

With support and encouragement from the senior

22 March 2021

leadership team, and after many staff discussions, the teachers tentatively gauged their ideas with the school’s whānau group – a group of parents and whānau with children who identify as Māori. They wanted to see if there was support for involving whānau in a special transition from preschool to primary to high school, and to seek advice on tikanga Māori and following correct protocol.

There was great support for the idea; the whānau group members were keen to celebrate every stage of transition across the school. They wanted to mark the important milestones and be part of their children’s journeys through the school.

Marking milestones

Each transition was marked in a slightly different way, according to the age group, but all ceremonies shared a focus on connecting with whānau.

Welcoming new tamariki into the preschool previously involved the child and their family visiting at the end of the school day. This year, new children are welcomed into the class 15 minutes before the class ends and greeted by children and teachers in te reo Māori.

“The new whānau get to hear the children introduce themselves and immediately they feel part of the class.

That sense of belonging is there from the first moment they arrive, rather than having to be built up,” says Krista.

The transition to primary school is marked by a ceremony involving a whaikōrero, welcoming tamariki to the next level of the school. This format is followed for transitions into the subsequent levels within the school.

“We had assumed the teachers would lead the whaikōrero, but the response from the whānau hui was, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if the tamariki led the whaikōrero?’.”

Tamariki take lead

Consequently, eight-year-old Elise took responsibility for welcoming the pre-schoolers into the first level of primary school, and her 10-year-old sister Phaedra welcomed the students moving into the next level of primary.

The siblings worked with their whānau in Hastings to come up with a whaikōrero that was half a page long, says Krista.

“It was a really powerful moment for them to stand up and kōrero in front of a whole group of people and their whānau.”

Elise was pleased to have an important role. “I was really nervous, but I enjoyed doing it, and it made me feel really good,” she says.

The girls’ mother, Anna Tapine, says she is delighted to see a genuine commitment to making te ao Māori a regular part of the school and the Montessori character. She applauds the transition initiative.

“It has provided great opportunities for tamariki to whaikōrero in te reo Māori that did not exist previously.

Our whānau are proud to be a part of it and look forward to the continuation of this.”

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High school student Jachin-Arepa was also involved with the transition ceremony. “I was very nervous before I started but felt relaxed afterwards and was glad I was able to do this for the school.”

Rod, parent to a student from the high school, was moved by the experience.

“As a parent I was proud to see my son taking the next step on his educational and leadership journey.

To see a shy boy who wouldn’t have dreamed to do anything like this twelve months prior, to get up and speak in front of his peers, teachers and the community to deliver a welcome speech to the new cohort of students and their whānau showed real leadership in this space and using te reo Māori was key. I am aware that for many adults public speaking is not easy, let alone for a 13-year-old young man to do what he did, and conducting this in front of his peers and strangers is not an easy task for anyone. This whole experience I believe was the biggest learning for my son.”

Every child transitioning was supported by at least one person there from their whānau, says Krista. After the whaikōrero, whānau were invited into the classes to share kai.

“Feedback from the teachers is that it was great to share that very first moment with whānau in that space of community.”

Building relationships

The school is now in the process of gathering feedback from whānau, learners and teachers, but they have heard only good things to date.

“Feedback so far from whānau has been that it was such a special moment for them. There were a few tears in the eyes,” says Krista.

The aim now is to build on the enhanced connection with whānau brought about by the transition initiative, with the hope of increasing engagement on a day-to-day basis. Learning stories will be a good way to see if there is increased engagement in the pre-school context, suggests Krista.

Acting with intent

One of the key takeaways for Krista is to not let a fear of getting it wrong get in the way of putting a wellintentioned idea into action.

“Our whānau hui were very supportive. Initially we were thinking, ‘Is this the right thing to do?’ and ‘What order should we do things in?’, she says.

“But the fact that we were trying and wanting to incorporate this as part of our school was huge for whānau. The fact that we were giving real opportunities for tamariki to experience Māori culture and use te reo in purposeful ways – that meant more to them than getting everything absolutely correct.

“The actual transition ceremonies only took about 15 minutes, but it meant so much. It’s a good reminder that it’s ok to start small; that it’s the intention to do something that makes a difference.”

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Transitions through the school – ngā whakawhitinga ki roto i te kura Wā Ora Montessori School gives an insight into the detail of their new transition celebrations at two levels of the school.

STARTING PRE-SCHOOL

» Arranged at the end of the day, as tamariki are transitioning to go home. Tamariki gather on te whāriki in a circle and include chairs for the new whānau, being ready by 2.45pm. » As the whānau and tamaiti arrive, one of the existing tamaiti welcomes manuhiri in te reo. The whānau enter and join the circle. » Welcome to Pohutukawa (Years 3-6 class): Tēnā korua/ koutou katoa. Nga mihi ki a korua/koutou. Nau mai, haere mai ki Pohutukawa. » The class sings the waiata Tēnā Koe, Hello to One, and then goes around the circle with each in turn introducing themselves in English or te reo (‘ko Krista toku ingoa’) and then manuhiri are invited to introduce themselves. » They then sing a haere rā waiata, farewell all tamariki and then kaiako head to the initial interview with new whānau, including a cup of tea/coffee and kai.

TRANSITION CELEBRATION FROM PRE-SCHOOL TO PRIMARY SCHOOL

» Whānau arrive with their tamaiti to their previous pre-school akomanga (a place to congregate). This gives time for other tamariki to settle in after drop-off and for kaiārahi to explain the proceedings. Prior to the end of this term, whānau involved will be given a personalised invitation. » Transitioning tamariki and their whānau will stand on the concrete area in front of the steps by Pōhutukawa, with teachers and tamariki behind them on the preschool deck. » As a group, walk across the concrete, stopping when whānau are just under the cover by primary deck and pre-school tamariki are on the concrete area. The welcoming primary classes will be out on their deck ready to welcome the group, with a whaikōrero by a class representative to welcome new tamariki, followed by a waiata (Tūtira Mai). » In response there will be a whaikōrero by the pre-school representative, followed by the pre-school singing Wā Ora Aroha as a rōpū. » In turn, one or two ākonga with the teacher from each class will come forward and say ‘Welcome, students’ to their class. Akonga and whānau go in to be welcomed to the new akomanga, where they will share kai. Tamariki and kaiārahi walk back to their pre-school akomanga.

gazette.education.govt.nz

A nine-year-old is welcomed to his new akomanga at the end of the mihi whakatau.

A new student stands proud during his transition to primary.

Aotearoa New Zealand’s histories

The New Zealand Curriculum – English Medium

Would your school or kura like to test out the draft curriculum content?

To book your preferred zoom date and session, either log into: https://training.education.govt.nz/user/Timetable/ Courses/courseview.asp?showCourse=1809

or contact AotearoaNewZealandHistories@education.govt.nz

www.education.govt.nz/aotearoanzhistories FOR MORE INFORMATION

22 March 2021

Thurs 11 Mar

3.30pm – 4.30pm

Tues 16 Mar

3.30pm – 4.30pm

Thurs 25 Mar

3.00pm – 4.00pm

Tues 13 Apr

3.30pm – 4.30pm

Thurs 15 Apr

3.30pm – 4.30pm

Thurs 22 Apr

3.30pm – 4.30pm

Te Marautanga o Aotearoa – Māori Medium

Tues 23 Mar

3.30pm – 4.30pm

Thurs 25 Mar

3.00pm – 4.00pm

Wed 7 Apr

3.30pm – 4.30pm

Tues 13 Apr

3.30pm – 4.30pm

Wed 21 Apr

11.00am – 12.00pm

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NOTICE BOARD

Maths Teachers Reduce Workload and Stress (Years 11-13) Use our Editable Assessment Masters: Internal, End of Year, and Parallel. www.sincos.co.nz SINCOS Mission Statement: Reducing Teacher Workload

GEN ERAL VACANCI ES

NMSSA

Wā n a n g a t i a t e Pu t a n g a Ta u i r a

National Monitoring Study of Student Achievement

APPLICATIONS OPEN FOR TEACHER ASSESSORS The Arts • Learning Languages • Technology 12 positions nationwide for Term 3 2021

MANAGER, EXTERNAL ASSESSMENT Whakatairangatia ngā kete o te mātauranga ki te ao mārama!

E te tai whakarunga, e te tai whakararo – nau piki mai, nau kake mai ki te Mana Tohu Mātauranga o Aotearoa.

May the baskets of knowledge (education) be brought into the world of light. We welcome one and all to join us at the NZQA. Reporting to the Deputy Chief Executive, Assessment, you will lead the External Assessment group in the development and delivery of high quality external assessment including national examinations for the NCEA and NZ Scholarship. Your focus will be on ensuring fair, valid, inclusive and reliable assessment for all students undertaking the NCEA and NZ Scholarship.

Applications are now open for highly effective and committed teachers to be trained as NMSSA assessors to implement the 2021 programme with Year 4 and Year 8 students.

NMSSA is seeking teachers: • with curriculum interests, responsibilities or skills in the arts or technology; • who are able to clearly demonstrate cultural responsiveness to, and affinity with, children from diverse backgrounds, particularly Māori and Pacific; • who can communicate and establish relationships effectively with children, teachers and parents; • who can follow procedures and work accurately with attention to detail; and • who can work confidently with digital technology and new software.

APPLICATIONS: OPEN Mon 22 Feb CLOSE Mon 29 March Online application form and detailed information available at: https://nmssa.otago.ac.nz.

Specific enquiries to freephone 0800 808561 or email nmssa.earu@otago.ac.nz.

NMSSA is conducted by the Educational Assessment Research Unit (EARU), University of Otago, in partnership with the New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER), under contract to the Ministry of Education.

E tautoko ana Te Whare Wānanga o Otāgo i te kaupapa whakaorite whiwhinga mahi.

Equal opportunity in employment is University of Otago policy.

Educational Assessment Research Unit, University of Otago, Dunedin

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Education Gazette

You will be responsible for leading a high profile group through significant change, and contributing to the development and integration of new operating models for digital assessment. You will lead innovation in assessment to ensure that the aims of the NCEA Review are achieved.

This is an exceptional opportunity to apply your strategic skills, the expertise you have gained through your background in teaching and assessment, and your well recognised skills in managing teams, innovation, change and business delivery.

Your deep commitment to equitable outcomes for all students and your rigorous focus on quality and evidence-based improvement will be essential in this role.

NZQA is a te reo Māori learning organisation with commitments to equity and lifelong learning. We prioritise the importance of understanding tikanga in building a culturally responsive workplace. NZQA is dedicated to providing a welcoming environment for Māori staff and has an active Māori staff network, Te Kāhui Māori.

APPLICATIONS CLOSE: Monday, 5 April 2021 APPLY OR VIEW THE POSITION DESCRIPTION: www.jacksonstone.co.nz REFERENCE: 7743 FURTHER ENQUIRIES: Helen Cox or David Hollander on 04 550 8000

gazette.education.govt.nz

G E N E R AL VACANCI E S

EARLY CH I LDHOOD VACANCI ES

• • • •

• • • • •

LEADERSH I P VACANCI ES

Carlton School Principal Position “HĀPAITIA TE ARA TIKA HEI PŪMAU AI TE RANGATIRATANGA MŌ NGĀ URI WHAKATIPU” (Foster the pathway of knowledge to strength, independence and growth for future generations)

Our new principal will: - form and maintain sound relationships with our school community.

- be a skilled communicator and collaborator with the staff, the students and the community.

- lead by example and be an approachable professional.

- exhibit a passion for initiatives to improve outcomes for students.

- demonstrate a commitment to our established and developing initiatives (e.g.boys education).

- have a sound knowledge of a Māori Worldview and cultural integration.

- have an understanding of learner agency and it’s schoolwide integration across the community.

- be up to date regarding schoolwide implementation of digital learning.

- be inclusive and visible, with a great sense of humour.

If this sounds like you, then we look forward to your application.

22 March 2021

Carlton School U4, Decile 3, Yr 0-6, Commencing Term 3 2021 Our principal is departing for retirement and we are now searching for another inspiring leader. Carlton is a well established and highly regarded primary school in Whanganui. Our community has a strong desire to find a capable professional leader experienced at leading a large learning community who will foster our values and localised curriculum.

This position commences Monday 26th July.

Applications close on Thursday15th April 2021.

Information and an online Application form are available @ www.carltonschool.co.nz

Contact:

The Recruitment Panel ℅ Lisa Hulme em: carlton.vacancy@welearn.school.nz ph: 06 3450336 Carlton School, 99a Carlton Ave, Whanganui 4501

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LEADERSH I P VACANCI ES

Weber School Principal U2 Y1-8 An exciting opportunity exists to join our wonderful team of teachers, students and supportive community.

We are situated in Southern Hawke’s Bay, 30 minutes from Dannevirke. We are a close-knit, well-resourced rural school that has benefited from a progressive principal who has set the school up well for someone to continue our learning journey.

We are looking for: » A collaborative leader who will embrace our vision and empower our students and staff. » A Principal committed to improving learning outcomes for our students. » A leader who will embed our S.T.A.R. values. (Strive For Success, Team Player, Active Learner, Respect.)

Applications Close 4pm Monday 10th of May 2021 For an application pack or more information see our online ad or contact the school office at office@weber.school.nz

Deputy Principal 5 MUs A wonderful opportunity to be part of a dynamic U6 school in a diverse and engaged East Auckland community.

Qualities of the successful applicant: » Have ability to drive the school’s strategic goals » Have proven leadership and teaching experience » Be organised, a team player and value professionalism » Value collaboration and inclusiveness » Have strong curriculum content and pedagogical knowledge » Ability to analyse and interpret student achievement data » Be culturally capable

Do you have a vacancy that you would like to advertise to the education sector?

Place an advertisement in the vacancies section and reach both the passive and active jobseekers by contacting Jill Parker: jill.parker@nzme.co.nz 027 212 9277

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

Professional learning and development

Notices

Application packs can be found on The Education Group website www.educationgroup.co.nz Contact Tanya Prentice or Nicky Knight at 09 920 2173 or email admin@educationgroup.co.nz if you need further information.

Vacancies

Applications close 12.00 pm Friday 7 May 2021.

Position commences Term 3 or as negotiated.

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Education Gazette

gazette.education.govt.nz

PRINCIPAL APPOINTMENT KARAMEA AREA SCHOOL Primary team leader Y1–6 2MU + HPTSA + IA Our school is looking for a motivated, inspired educator who has an interest in play based learning to provide a nurturing environment for our Y0–2 children.

An exciting opportunity exists for an inspirational, futurefocused educator to provide professional leadership to our Kura. The Board of Trustees invites applications from exceptional educational leaders who will bring our vision to reality and uphold our values of Painga, Manaakitanga and Mahitahi.

Applicants should be able to provide evidence to show they have demonstrated high performance in all key areas of educational leadership and will -

» Have in-depth pedagogical and NZ Curriculum knowledge. » Have a commitment to Te Ao Māori, Tikanga Māori and Te Kotahitanga Taipa Area School is a » Have the capability to lead composite co-educational and build capacity in our school located on the shores staff. of beautiful Taipa beach in Doubtless Bay. The roll of » Have effective business and over 330 is predominately financial skills, including Maori and many whakapapa to familiarity with MOE Ngati Kahu as well as other compliance and guidelines. local Muriwhenua iwi. They » Build on the strong have access to an inclusive relationships with our curriculum that includes stakeholders including bilingual and immersion whanau and iwi. opportunities.

Application packs are available from: petergall@edsolnz.co.nz

Applications close: 4.00pm, Friday 9 April 2021

Our ideal candidate would have some knowledge of ‘Reggio Emilia’ philosophy, setting up areas of play, provocations, and an understanding of the play schemas. The right candidate needs to be able to allow children to explore, imagine, create and thrive in our soon to be, purpose built, new modern learning space.

We need an educator who will work in harmony with whanau to reinforce family values and maintain/build a warm and trusting environment for everyone involved. We need someone who can deliver a diverse programme by using open-ended play and art experiences to enable the children to make their own choices around learning centres, in and outside of their classroom.

Experience is desirable but ultimately the successful candidate will have opportunities for professional development to upskill.

The successful candidate has the option of a school house if needed, to teach with small class numbers, and the opportunity of teaching in a brand new school in 2022 with autonomy to build a space. We seek a primary teacher who sees this type of professional lifestyle as exciting and rewarding and who will be committed to us. In return we will also be committed to you and offer you an amazing opportunity to be the very best teacher and leader you can be.

You may qualify for removal expenses.

Applications close 29 March.

Request an application form from kgrey@karamea.school.nz

PRINCIPAL APPOINTMENT(U9) Applications are invited for the position of Principal of Whangaparaoa College. Situated in Stanmore Bay on the beautiful Hibiscus Coast, Whangaparaoa College is a large, year 7-13 school that enjoys a strong reputation in its local community. The College roll which has been increasing steadily in recent years is currently 1602 and predicted to grow to 2500 by 2026.

record of outstanding achievement in key areas of educational leadership whilst guiding the College through significant change.

To be successful you will » Have in-depth pedagogical Curriculum knowledge.

and

NZ

» Be an innovator and highly skilled in leading change and lifting the change capability Placed on a 4–5-year review cycle, within a school. the latest ERO report for the College states “Whangaparaoa College promotes high» Have a good understanding of the context quality learning outcomes. Students benefit of very large schools. from a broad curriculum that supports their » Foster strong relationships with and holistic development and wellbeing. The instill confidence in learners, staff and school is well placed to sustain its community. performance. High levels of collaboration between students, teachers, leaders and» Create a positive school culture with a trustees, and a positive school culture are key highly engaged workforce who are focused factors in the school’s continued success.” on enabling learners to thrive.

The Whangaparaoa College Board seeks » Have a proven track record of lifting to appoint a Principal who can provide a achievement standards for all learners. clear vision and the leadership to harness » Demonstrate a commitment to Te Tiriti o the exciting opportunities for learners within Waitangi, value diversity and demonstrate curriculum, culture and sports afforded by growth. The new principal must be able to a high degree of cultural competence and demonstrate effective performance and a responsiveness.

Applications close: Application packs are available from: 4.00pm, Friday 9 April 2021 petergall@edsolnz.co.nz

ACCORD

TEACHER ONLY DAYS

FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS

NCEA Change Package FOCUS:

» Mana ōrite mō te mātauranga Māori » Literacy and Numeracy

WHEN & WHERE: 11 May 13 May 18 May 19 May

Wellington, Otago/Southland Auckland, Canterbury Nelson/Marlborough/West Coast, Bay of Plenty/Rotorua/Taupō Waikato, Hawke’s Bay/Gisborne

20 May

Tai Tokerau, Taranaki/Whanganui/Manawatū

M AY

Further information will be provided through the School Bulletin and the NCEA Education website www.ncea.education.govt.nz