NZ Principal Magazine Term 3 2020

September 2020 Volume 35, Number 3

NZPF Moot 2020 Also

featuring

• What’s special about the Arts?

• Life Giving, Caring Leadership: He Totara

• Why Change the Timetable?

• ‘They’re Not Bringing My Brain Out’ book review

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CONTENTS

Editor Liz Hawes Executive Officer PO Box 25380 Wellington 6146 Ph: 04 471 2338 Email: Liz.Hawes@nzpf.ac.nz

September 2020

2 EDITORIAL Liz Hawes

3 PRESIDENT’S PEN

Magazine Proof-reader Helen Kinsey-Wightman Editorial Board Perry Rush, NZPF President Geoff Lovegrove, Retired Principal, Feilding Liz Hawes, Editor Advertising For all advertising enquiries contact: Cervin Media Ltd PO Box 68450, Victoria St West, Auckland 1142 Ph: 09 360 8700 or Fax: 09 360 8701 Note The articles in New Zealand Principal do not necessarily reflect the policy of the New Zealand Principals’ Federation. Readers are welcome to use or reprint material if proper acknowledgement is made.

Subscription Distributed free to all schools in New Zealand.

For individual subscribers, send $40 per year to: New Zealand Principals’ Federation National Office, PO Box 25380, Wellington 6146 New Zealand Principal is published

by Cervin Media Ltd on behalf of the New Zealand Principals’ Federation and is issued four times annually. For all enquiries regarding editorial contributions, please contact the editor.

Perry Rush

7 President’s Road Show Liz Hawes

12 What’s special about the Arts?

River of Emotions – children’s emotional processing in wake of Christchurch earthquakes

Liz Hawes

14 Moot 2020 Liz Hawes

21

Life Giving, Caring Leadership: He Totara

Helena Baker & Jenny Poskitt

25 Why Change the Timetable?

Rosemary Hipkins, NZCER

30 Gifted Children Tess Morrison

33 Kia hiwa rā Martin Thrupp

35

Opinion – ‘Nau mai te hapa; ma te hapa ka ako’ ‘Welcome mistakes; through mistakes we learn’ Helen Kinsey-Wightman

ISSN 0112-403X (Print) ISSN 1179-4372 (Online)

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PHOTOS FOR THE MAGAZINE: If you have any photos showing ‘New Zealand Schools at Work’, particularly any good shots of pupils, teachers or leadership staff, they would be welcome.

What’s special about the Arts?

The appropriate permission is required before we can print any photos.

Technical details: Good-quality original photos can be scanned, and digital photos must be of sufficient resolution for high-quality publishing. (Images should be at least 120 mm (wide) at 300 dpi). Please contact Cervin Media Ltd for further details. Phone: 09 360 8700 or email: education@cervinmedia.co.nz

MAGAZINE

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Editorial Liz Hawes

Editor

The coronavirus pandemic and subsequent lock down There is a disconnect between what principals need to be great gave us opportunities to slow down, reflect, enjoy family time leaders and the Ministry’s distribution of resources. Here are just together and indulge in a new appreciation of our immediate a few initiatives that principals say would make a substantial environment. Most importantly, the pandemic difference. exposed humanity at its best.

Principals are asking for professional Leadership World-wide we witnessed acts of empathy, supervision. It is not a big ask. Most professions generosity, care and kindness. We witnessed is essentially provide supervision or mentoring as of right for neighbours looking out for each other and their leaders. It is a function that many retiring strangers caring for strangers. We saw people a social principals would willingly take on as a final step using innovative ways, including technology, their career journey. relationship inThey to maintain interconnectedness with friends, would like to see the Principal Leadership family and work colleagues. We watched essential between Advisory (PLA) service expanded so that more workers put their own health at risk every day principals can have access to peer advice as they so that the rest of us could maintain access to principal, need it. supermarkets, pharmacies and emergency health They ask that sabbaticals be compulsory so that teacher, services. Stories, jokes, songs and memes poured every five years, principals can take time out to into our inboxes as clever wits and satirists used students and refresh and reflect on their practice. the experience to entertain us and give us all a They would like more resources to be made community. jolly good laugh. available for collaboration and professional Thinking about these selfless acts makes learning and development. me think of school leadership. We witness many examples of They would like to see the business unit and curriculum humanity from school principals not just during health crises advisories, promised in the Tomorrow’s Schools Review, but at any time. Showing humanity is not only a welcome value established. in leadership, according to Baker & Poskitt (see p.21), if we Perhaps more than anything, they would like practical adopt the caring, connected approach to leadership it leads to initiatives funded to address the growing number of violent better teaching and ultimately, better learning outcomes for our young people in schools. The Road Show revealed that the young people. greatest challenge schools are facing is how to respond to Leadership is essentially a social relationship between the daily disruptions teachers and other students face when principal, teacher, students and community. As Baker & Poskitt confronted with outbursts of violence from severely traumatized explain, through principals creating a culture of care, teachers young people in their schools. For most there is little alternative and students learn they are valued and respected and feel safe to to exclusion, which is not an option any caring principal wants be themselves. They feel a strong sense of belonging and support to take. and are therefore more likely to be successful in the teacherSolutions to these requests do not necessarily mean new learner relationship and in turn, learners are more likely to excel. streams of funding. It is about Ministers and the Ministry The question is who is caring for principals? listening to principals and allocating funds to priority areas. It is The NZPF President’s recent Road Show (see p.7) revealed disheartening to see millions of dollars pouring into the pockets that the job of principalship can be a lonely experience. It is of Kahui Ako leaders, when members of these communities of demanding and complex and as Minister Hipkins has said in learning , including the leaders, would prefer that the money was relation to the Tomorrow’s Schools Review, ‘The Tomorrow’s applied to professional learning and front line services.

Schools policy gave principals an impossible job.’

The COVID crisis brought the caring culture of principals Relative to other leadership positions, the Minister is quite to the fore. The Ministry heard them, listened to them and correct. Principals are not just responsible for the policies and responded in kind. The children of Aotearoa New Zealand thus administrative functions, they are also leading the pedagogy and had the very best lock down education experience possible. are responsible for the professional learning of their teachers and Principals say, let’s learn from COVID. Let’s continue the the pastoral care of their students. That would be fine if they had partnership, the sharing and the listening. Let’s build a caring the resources to employ support for these roles, but they don’t. culture right across our education system. That way we are all Nor do they have adequate support for themselves as leaders. winners.

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NZ Principal | S eptember 2 0 2 0

President’s Pen Perry Rush

National President, New Zealand Principals’ Federation

Our National Curriculum is lauded as innovative in There is no part of our National Curriculum that lends itself its embrace of localisation, which can disguise the fact that it is more to making young people ‘fully human’ than the arts. also deeply imbued with international economic imperatives.

The arts provide the vehicle for young people to explore The economic focus was established through the their humanity. They elevate feelings, emotions, development of the key competencies that grew nuance, and ambiguity. The arts are In his view, the memory, from an Organisation of Economic Development demanding, requiring constant qualitative (OECD) report called Defining and Selecting the purpose of judgements as cognition interacts with emotion.

Key Competencies (DeSeCo).

This constant interface between thinking and This report posits that, a well-educated, education as feeling is the essence of how humans work. knowledgeable, highly qualified citizenry is The Arts curriculum is the only true therapeutic ‘to make us more curriculum. seen as playing an eminent role in facing the It provides the means to unlock challenges of the present and the future and that fully human’. young people’s experience of the world, to from an economic viewpoint, competencies of validate it and make it accessible to others. Under individuals are seen as important because they contribute to, the guidance of a skilled teacher, these experiences can be shared boosting productivity and market competitiveness; minimizing and curated to help young people better understand themselves unemployment through developing an adaptive and qualified labour force; and creating an environment for innovation in a world dominated by global competition.

While the DeSeCo report does not solely focus on these economic drivers, their domination has helped to focus schooling on preparing young people for an uncertain economic future.

Young people are increasingly viewed as human capital, a term that is defined as the skills, knowledge, and experience possessed by an individual or population, viewed in terms of their value or cost to an organisation or country.

Therein lies the problem.

We have allowed our curriculum and the work of schooling to be subverted by economic imperialism that has swept away a vision of education that was resolutely based on realising the full potential of the whole child as a human being not simply a cog in the economy.

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and the world they are growing into.

In a post-COVID landscape and with mounting concern about young peoples’ mental health and wellbeing, the provision of the arts, as a therapeutic curriculum, is palpable.

The arts give-the-lie to the tired and simplistic building blocks of many modern systems of education. One of the most influential building blocks of western education is the dominance of assessment practice that assumes that young peoples’ concrete output, such as assessment results and work samples, tell us truthfully what young people know and can do. The judgement of young peoples’ achievement through these means is not credible.

It misses what young people know and understand but cannot express through traditional assessments.

The arts counter the view that everything we know must be expressed in written words and numbers. They support humans to use the full range of their talents and senses to tell their story; communicate it and make meaning from it through sharing it with others.

Not everything we know can be articulated or drawn in concrete terms nor should we expect it to be. Therein lies the true beauty of the arts. It is a curriculum that is truthful. Experiences in the arts are owned by the learner alone; they are experiences that come from within and are drawn out through the expert facilitation of teachers trained in these skills.

Herein lies the rub. Initial Teacher Education (ITE) is designed by universities – traditional entities – wedded to lecture-based learning and concrete assessment to judge what their students

know. Graduating teachers have not learned how to support powerful arts experiences, because they are practice-based experiences and the university model does not accommodate such training.

The last issue of NZ Principal was devoted to stories of the COVID-19 crisis and lock down and how schools responded.

Every story is a story of humanity. None included concrete assessment methods!

There were accounts of addressing community inequities; principals wrote of delivering care packs and food to families in need; they wrote of empathy – recognising that some parents would be working through lock down and unable to regularly support their children’s learning; boxes of learning activities were delivered and above all teachers and principals set up regular communication channels with their students and families.

Humanity rose to the top. Humanity drove every response because in the end it is humanity that matters.

For all its negative characteristics and consequences, COVID-19 gives us a one-off opportunity. It gives us the chance to inject the humanities back into our curriculum. To write a vision for education that has humanity at the centre. To reinvent ITE so that practice-based education drives teacher training. To support redevelopment of the Arts by prioritising an Arts Advisory. It is a travesty for the young people of Aotearoa that their compulsory schooling does not recognise, support and develop their own humanity.

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NZ Principal | S eptember 2 0 2 0

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NZ Principal | S eptember 2 0 2 0

THE POST-COVID ROAD TRIP Liz Hawes

Editor

With the COVID lock down came unexpected reflection time. Education is never short of topics to contemplate and NZPF President, Perry Rush, was quick to immerse himself in some deep thoughts. He wrestled with issues like the purpose of education, ethical leadership and what the new Leadership Centre might accomplish, the curriculum and value of the Arts, Principal PLD and collaboration and how best to resource both. Most importantly, he thought about the elephant that has sat in staff rooms and principals’ offices for far too long – the growing number of students presenting extreme, violent behaviour challenges and the system’s inability to find workable solutions.

As NZPF President, Perry’s job is to influence the political and Ministry levers to enable teachers and leaders to give young Kiwi kids New Plymouth principals come out to meet with NZPF President Perry Rush the best possible learning opportunities.

To do that, he needs to know exactly what his colleagues are there is no demand. It’s because the threshold for enrolment is experiencing in schools, what is working well, what the barriers ridiculously high. The expertise within residential schools could are and how the system is performing to enable schools to be used in multiple ways. The schools can be short term options succeed. whilst self-management strategies are established; they can be And so, The Road Trip. He began his journey in Whangarei longer term options for the more complex cases; they can be and fourteen regions later, concluded his whirlwind tour in the training centres for teachers wanting to specialize in behaviour deep south. Some 800 principals came out to listen, discuss and management and learning support. Each of the three residential give him feedback. schools has excellent facilities and well-established relationships Across the country, the call was consistent. The most troubling with their local communities. problem facing them all was indeed students presenting with A scheme currently being trialed in Hawkes’ Bay schools called extreme behaviours. Principals did not hold back as they related ‘Te Tupu Managed Moves’ also found favour with principals who their stories. Wellington principals summed it up well: would support expansion of the scheme. Te Tupu Managed Moves is a system whereby a student may be moved from one school to ‘We have a tsunami of seriously troubled kids coming another to de-escalate extreme behaviour and includes support through. Three are in one class [at my school] with twelve for the student’s family. It was introduced as a solution to schools hours a week teacher aide support. It’s ridiculous. These excluding students. kids can’t access the education they deserve because Principals called for the Learning Support Coordinators’ we don’t have the direct learning support. The school is funding to be transferred directly to schools so that each school propping up learning support and it just isn’t enough. can employ their own staff. Some already pay for their own There is money in the system but its in the wrong places, Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCo). The argument like in Kahui Ako.’ for SENCos in schools is all about relationships. Young people Young people presenting with explosive and violent behaviours need support from teachers they know. They need confidence are a growing population. It has been said many times before building and strong, consistent relationships with the teachers that the policy of inclusion is laudable and no principal would they are working with. For the best results, the learning support argue that a single young person should not be entitled to the teachers also need to establish consistent on-going relationships best education on offer. The problem is inclusion was introduced with the students. without the necessary support structures for it to work.

To accommodate the growing number of young people It’s not that there aren’t workable solutions. Perry Rush heard suffering trauma, anxiety and other mental health issues, primary them all on his Road Trip. They include alternative pathways such and intermediate school principals would like access to student as easier access to residential schools. Residential schools are counsellors, as secondary schools have now. Teachers are not rich in expertise and very low on enrolments. That’s not because trained psychologists or professional counsellors. Their students N Z Principal | S e p t e m b e r 2 0 2 0

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do however need professional support for their mental health issues.

Principals felt that as practice-based experts they should have more say over where and how learning support funding was applied. In their view funding was available but was channelled to the wrong places.

As one principal said: ‘What Government does is conceptualise a solution to meet a need, without proper consultation with us and they end up a failure. Learning Support Coordinators are a good example.’

Applying funding unproductively became a theme of the Road Show. The next topic was collaboration and PLD. There was almost unanimous agreement that the Communities of Learning

Collaboration is not a foreign concept amongst teachers and principals. It is all about the model. Most principals felt the CoL or Kahui Ako are not the right model for collaboration and PLD provision, in part, because there is little or no impact on the quality of learning that students receive. They unreservedly supported collaboration however and would enjoy a freeing up of funding for cluster-based PLD. Leadership and the proposed Leadership Centre was the final Road Show topic to engender spirited debate. As one Waitakere principal put it: ‘Nothing prepared me for being a principal. We are not

Manawatu principals join President Perry Rush in a group photograph

Debating the issues with Wellington principals

(CoL) or Kahui Ako, were the wrong model producing little if any positive outcomes for children’s learning. One principal from the Manawatū reported he had completed his Masters Thesis research on Kahui Ako and found that every one of the principals in his sample said:

trained in employment law, finance, human relations and property . . . Having experienced principals to talk to is the most important support we can have.’

‘ . . . there was zero influence on learning for children because all the money went on staffing and [this] money could be better used to make a greater difference.’

Principals favoured a system where they formed their own collaborative clusters, identified their own PLD requirements and were funded to undertake that PLD. They objected to the CoL resource going almost exclusively to leaders and insisted they could lead their own CoL for no additional payment. Many suggested that the CoL had generated more inequities in their region with CoL taking precedence for allocating Learning Support Coordinators and funding for PLD opportunities. They also said CoL took too much of their time to the detriment of participating in other networks such as the local Principals’ Association activities.

On the positive side, CoL had provided some useful connectivity for principals and some beginning principals said the CoL provided immediate links to experienced principals who were very helpful and supportive. One CoL leader from Horowhenua explained the Iwi connections their CoL had made: ‘We now have a partnership with Iwi which we would not have had before. We have all been to the local marae

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and principals, with twenty years’ experience, had never been there before. It’s made a huge difference to whānau engagement for us.’

NZ Principal | S eptember 2 0 2 0

This comment generated a lengthy discussion on the nature of the principal’s job and how well principals are prepared for the role.

It was agreed that some formal training was necessary to prepare principals before they apply for a school leadership position.

Many fondly recalled the First Time Principals’ programme and the mentoring and coaching that followed – now assigned to history. They recalled the ‘Aspiring Principals’ development programme – also discontinued. It was generally agreed that middle leaders have always struggled and not since Tomorrow’s Schools, have experienced principals had any systematic ongoing training and development.

This mixed and diminishing support for leadership occurs as the role of principal becomes more complex.

So what do principals want for their future leadership development?

Most importantly principals want other principals or recently retired principals to support, train and mentor them.

A Centre that would incorporate all levels of leadership development found strong support. Once again, principals felt they needed a strong sense of ownership over the Centre’s vision and functions and how services would be offered.

They consider leaders coming together in one place, in residence, for a course in leadership development has lasting value and also allows for networking opportunities. This does not

Wellington Principals come out in numbers for the road show

Wellington principals line up to be counted

mean that the Leadership Centre has to have a dedicated physical structure. There are many residential options for holding courses.

They offered many ideas about what the Leadership Centre might offer, importantly emphasizing that all functions of the Centre would be for principals, by principals. The practice-based nature of the role, and the uniqueness of it means experienced or recently retired principals are best placed to train others.

Principals were also very aware that the role of the experienced principal is also to grow more leaders:

There was no shortage of ideas about content for the new Leadership Centre. Of greater importance to principals though is the matter of who sets the agenda. Overwhelmingly, principals believe they are best placed to take on this role.

It was a rushed tour of the country but Perry Rush will be pleased he took himself out to meet with his members. If he had any doubts about a consensus view on the critical topics of managing students with extreme behaviours, the future for Communities of Learning or Kahui Ako and the future Leadership Centre, he is now assured the regions are well aligned in their thinking. He intends to survey all principals this term, based on the feedback from his tour.

‘Growing other principals is part of my job. There are so many principals getting jobs with no training or practice and we need to sort this out.’

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THE POWER OF THE ARTS Liz Hawes Editor Kaiapoi North School

photos

Last term’s NZ Principal magazine featured an article

by Professor Peter O’Connor of Auckland University, on the value of the Arts for addressing trauma in young people. He described how drama and the Arts can be used to assist young people to confront and overcome disturbing emotions evoked by experiencing terrifying disasters such as earthquakes and now, COVID-19.

Principals have been calling for a revival of the Arts curriculum in schools for many years. For a decade, the Arts have been submerged under a blanket of accountability systems, as the globe turned its focus on a standardized structure of education, highlighting student achievement scores for reading, writing and maths. As the obsession for data grew, the curriculum narrowed to those subjects which could b e easily measured. The value of music, drama, performing and expressive arts have taken a back seat and largely disappeared.

Now that Aotearoa has ab and one d t he g l ob a l reforms which led to the standardization approach, the yawning gap left by an absence of the Arts has become more obvious.

What defines us as homo sapiens and distinguishes us from other species, is our humanity as expressed through the Arts. It is this humanity that global education leaders want to focus on now.

A wonderful example of using the Arts to address the outfall of a tragic event is the Kaiapoi North School’s ‘River of Emotions’ story, as told in mosaic. In the wake of the Christchurch earthquakes of 2010 and 2011, Kaiapoi North was changed forever. Most of the historic brick buildings were demolished and the town’s centre was rebuilt.

Sila was a student at Kaiapoi North school and said that it was her younger brother’s first day at school on February 22, 2011 and after that he was too scared to come back to school.

Sila explained: ‘It took a lot of encouraging and persuasion to get him to go back to school without being afraid.’

Carol Mutch, a former teacher in the Canterbury region, recognized the trauma being experienced, not just by the children, but also the teachers. She realized the power of story telling and set out to assist those affected to work through their fears and losses by talking through their experiences. Kaiapoi, one of the most severely affected areas, was in her sights. She contacted Jason Miles, principal of Kaiapoi North School.

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NZ Principal | S eptember 2 0 2 0

‘Carol wanted to assist the principals and teachers in finding a way for the students of their schools to express their thoughts and feelings about the experiences they had had in the earthquakes. Simultaneously, Carol went about collecting the stories of those experiences from different sources within the school – teachers, students and other staff alike – to help inform the knowledge base that existed about the role of schools during times of crisis.’

Initially, a seat was placed in the playground where children could sit and reflect on their experiences. ‘- a quiet place to think and remember what had happened, and what they had lived through, without fear.’

Before long, a project was underway, which would be led by the students. It would involve the children recreating their stories in Art. And so, the ‘River of Emotions’ mosaic was conceived.

The first step was to gather ideas for the artwork. This involved expert-led group interviews with the children and staff. It was in this group interview process that the initial ideas for what was to go into the mosaic were found.

‘The children decided that they wanted the mosaic to depict their experiences, a “story without words” as one of the girls stated, and that the story should be told using the “broken bits of our homes”. During the interview, the ideas about the mosaic were scrawled across big pieces of white paper.’

The therapeutic nature of the children being able to reflect on their feelings and experiences and share them with the group, was the start of the healing process for them. Creating a pictorial representation of those feelings was the next stage.

The children decided they wanted their story told in four panels: early Kaiapoi, Kaiapoi before the earthquakes, Kaiapoi during the earthquakes and the children’s hopes for the future of Kaiapoi.

‘Themes such as community and aroha were also explored.

It was the love, support and encouragement that the children had felt and seen within their community that had made so many of them feel less afraid in the aftermath of the disasters. These were things that the children felt were important to portray.’

An artist, Sarah Yates from the University of Auckland was then introduced to the project. Sarah quickly realized this was not

her story to tell and the artwork must involve the ideas of every child in the school.

‘Those ideas were then also divided into which of the four panels the children thought they would best suit. Soon, the classroom was littered with drawings of flowers and car crashes, rainbows and broken houses, people both smiling and crying. Each drawing represented something that one of the children had experienced, or things that they hoped they’d have the chance to see in Kaiapoi in the future.’

The children then had their own lessons in the mosaic art form from expert, Sarah. This was not only educational for the children but helped them translate their ideas into art. They also learned about colour as a depiction of emotion and how best to incorporate colour into their finished work.

On completion of the design, in paper form, it was time to translate the work into the real mosaic panels. ‘ . . . students at Kaiapoi North began work on smashing and cutting the various tiles and pieces of crockery that had been bought for or donated to the project. Students smashed different coloured tiles, ceramic, and damaged crockery into small, usable pieces . . . ’ This is where the next stage of therapy began.

‘Preparing the tiles for the mosaic offered an opportunity for the students to release the anger that they, often unknowingly, still had pent up inside, in a constructive, healthy and eventually beautiful way.’

As one student observed:

The children expressed that there were so many positives that came out of the River of Emotions project, including seeing the earthquakes as a way to make things better; changes made because of the earthquake giving hope for the future.

Children reported that they felt stronger, and more equipped to deal with what life throws their way. They even suggested that they were lucky: ‘Lucky that they and their families were alive, but also lucky to have seen, received and given the love and support that radiated throughout their community in the aftermath.

Lucky to have had that experience of crisis, as they would know what to do in the future . . . Lucky that their experiences would help further the knowledge of people across the world and be able to help others who might be in similar situations . . . ’ In the fourth panel of the mosaic, the saying ‘Kia kaha, kia maia Kaiapoi’ appears.

‘This message still resonates with those who worked on the mosaic as they continue down the River of Emotions that is their experience of the 2010-2011 earthquakes.’

Every child attending Kaiapoi North School at the time of the earthquakes had experienced serious trauma, shock and at the very least, psychological harm. Through the careful application of story telling in Art, they have been able to work through all their negative emotions and feelings and turn them into positives.

And that is the power of the Arts.

All the pieces of the artwork were already broken, meaning that if another earthquake were to happen, it wouldn’t matter if the pieces of the mosaic cracked or changed.’

On completion of the project, which included the ‘reflection seat’ children were again asked about their experience of the artwork. Perhaps surprisingly, it was not the process of making the mosaic that was most memorable but rather: ‘ . . . things that had happened with their friends and classmates as they worked. Whether it was finally being able to talk about something that had happened to them during the earthquake as they drew a picture, or someone making a joke that everyone found funny as they glued down a piece of tile. It was the connection that they felt with others, and the support that they both provided and received that remained in their minds.’

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MOOT 2020 Liz Hawes

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Editor

An elevated mood suffused regional presidents as they poured into the Moot this March. Election years create an atmosphere of excited expectation. It is the one day in each three-year cycle, that regional heads reflect on education policies through the lens of their own experiences. Unearthing common ground excites them even more and passionate speeches spring from all corners of the room at the rate of sprouting spinach. As the reality that they can collectively act takes hold, the presidents enthusiastically fuse their ideas into coherent statements – to be embedded in the NZPF manifesto. Moot 2020 did not disappoint.

The themes to emerge from the energetic debates were wellbeing, equity, poverty and social issues, bullying, mental health and violent behaviour, curriculum and progress, leadership, Māori education and racism.

Rush’s second leadership prerequisite was to ‘lead by your own moral compass’ – choosing your thoughts and actions based on values. As he gently paced the front of the room, he wound up the momentum.

‘It is leading with integrity, based on the values, aspirations and philosophies of school communities. It is leading for a localized curriculum – taking a holistic view of teaching and learning and having an appreciation of the collective memory of the community,’ he effused.

‘We must commit ourselves to the success of every student in our schools,’ he said, ‘and welcome diversity into our schools.’

This is what Kiwi principalship is about!

His third point was political. ‘We must collectively set the agenda, not just react to policy creep,’ he said. ‘The voices of

Recording ideas

Listening, Talking, Recording

NZPF President, Perry Rush, opened the day’s debate with a stirring speech, which energized his audience further. ‘Now is the time to hold the people in power to account,’ he said. ‘We want to hear what you’ve got to say to inform how we will communicate your realities to politicians.’

As he stepped down from the podium moving closer to his audience, he proceeded to outline his own ideas about what count as the key ingredients for successful school leadership.

Practice-based leadership was high on his list. He indicated that Initial Teacher Education (ITE) needed a reset. Teaching degrees, he said had developed a heavier academic emphasis. In Rush’s view, the balance is out of kilter and we need to re-focus on practice-based leadership.

‘You can’t teach dance and drama from a university lecture theatre,’ he said, ‘and it’s critical that we embark on a revival of the Arts, which have been decimated in our schools.’

principals must be heard in the corridors of power and in policy making.’ He called on his audience to identify the goals that principals can collectively put their shoulder to, indicating that would be their work for the rest of the day.

Wellbeing was next on the list. Staff and students were mentioned equally. ‘Despite the huge focus on wellbeing we continue to have both staff and students under stress,’ he said. He told us that reducing compliance issues assists and eliminating national standards from the mix was a big help, but despite this, the workloads and inability to easily access support, needed to change.

More students are suffering anxiety and emotional trauma than ever, he said. Bullying was a key factor and at worst was associated with our unacceptably high youth suicide rate. Bullying through social media, he described as a huge challenge since it spills over into the out-of-school lives of students too. ‘It is a challenge that we must confront,’ he said, ‘and we need to have those hard conversations.’

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Dealing with violent, abusive and disr upt ive students brought further threats to wellbeing, he said, and the tension between keeping staff and students safe and keeping mentally and emotionally challenged young people in school was becoming intolerable.

NZPF President, Perry Rush, warms up his audience before launching into his address No principal wants to be excluding students, he said, but with few alternatives, we would see more of these vulnerable located, was next on Rush’s agenda. ‘We don’t want this Centre young people out of the school system. Trained experts and politicised,’ he said. ‘We don’t want it located in the Ministry.’ ‘We school counsellors at the primary and intermediate levels were want to be involved in its development and inform the debates urgently needed, he said, but so was research. about leadership support, advisory and PLD.’ He highlighted the pilot study underway in Napier as a possible Rush saved his most fervent passion for his final topic. solution for some cases. This is an initiative operating in a Kahui ‘Improving teaching and learning is your expertise,’ he hollered, Ako in Napier, called ‘Managed Moves’. Minister Martin has banging his invisible drum, ‘so activate localization!’ ‘Curriculum allocated $1.4 million to it. is not a job for the Ministry!’ he warned, raising his voice another So far it is working very effectively, and Rush indicated he octave. ‘Push back on any assessment that puts kids in boxes; would be encouraging Minister Martin to extend ‘Managed Curriculum is for you to decide with your community!’

Moves’ to all Ministry districts. He also said easing up the access To show he is unafraid to confront and challenge authority, to residential school options and the Intensive Wrap-around Rush concluded with a recommendation for his audience to Service (IWS) would help. ‘We can’t get to an IWS meeting until familiarize themselves with the book ‘Disobedient Teaching’ a student is in crisis,’ he said.

by Welby Ings.

Māori education was his next target and he explained that ‘Take confidence from this book and return to practice-based he is deeply passionate about getting success for Māori. ‘The leadership.’ challenge lies in English-medium schools,’ he said. ‘That’s where ‘Be vocal, connect to colleagues and build collective power. we need to direct our efforts – Pākehā principals with sizeable And if that means disobedience that’s fine! Challenge the status Māori rolls, in English medium settings.’ quo! Challenge it for our kids!’

‘I’m challenged by this,’ he confessed. ‘It is important we look Rush’s speech was met with a spontaneous haka from his at ourselves as school leaders, as Pākehā, who don’t walk in two Hawke’s Bay colleagues. worlds as Māori do – but we need to.’ It is disturbing, he said, that after 180 years, we are still arguing about whether Te Reo Te Akatea Māori Principals’ Association President, Myles Māori should be compulsory in our schools.

Ferris, was next to take the podium. His kōrero included some He acknowledged the presence of the Te Akatea Māori very powerful messages which received much positive response.

Principals’ Association president, Myles Ferris, saying that we ‘I’m impressed with the Government’s support of Māori (NZPF) want to support Te Akatea and share with them. We programmes to get people out of poverty,’ he said, ‘and ways to want to support the Māori Achievement Collaborations (MACs) improve sustainability of Māori educators.’ and keep that kaupapa growing. With a nod to the Pacific Island Te Hurihanginui and the MACs resounded positively Principals in the room, he said that our young Pacific Island with Ferris. Te Hurihanganui is an initiative evolving from students similarly walk in two or more worlds and he said he is the Government’s summit conversations, which indicated pleased to be participating in the Tautai o le Moana Advisory unacceptable racism and bias in our education system. It Group, an initiative inspired by the MAC, to support Pacific supports positive learning experiences for Māori by finding out Island learners. what works best to address the cultural bias and racism.

The new Leadership Centre, yet to be developed and yet to be ‘These initiatives help change the inequity of our system,’ he

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said, ‘but they are no silver bullet. We still have too many Māori not achieving success. There is much more work to do.’

He acknowledged the efforts of Pākehā principals who are building momentum in immersing themselves in learning Te Reo Māori. ‘It is great to see Pākehā principals and teachers surfing off the new platforms to get involved in the Reo and in Tikanga Māori,’ he said, ‘because there are huge benefits from having a culture steeped in Māori.’ He called on them to, ‘Be brave and carry on!’

He also underlined the challenges in front of schools catering for the needs of Māori. ‘We have concerns when we hear that some are not connecting to hapu and iwi when designing their curriculum, but recognise that, in some cases, hapu and iwi are

These, he said, are also supported by all the Tomorrow’s Schools summits and reference group members.

Getting down to hard debate

Catching up with colleagues before the work begins

also not ready to make those connections.’ On the other hand, he noted that some are highly engaged and that is getting results.

Ferris then launched into the core issue which he described as systemic racism. ‘We have to change the hegemonic power base that is Pākehā centric – and that includes the Ministry, school management and the Board structure,’ he said.

‘We have to understand that our Māori people are suffering trauma through historic and systemic racism. Look back at our history of land confiscation and racist treatment and you will see the root of it. Poverty, physical and emotional abuse all stem from there,’ he said.

‘Only if we understand this trauma can we address the challenges for whānau. Stop judging Māori as deficient. That just makes the trauma worse. Stop the blame game! Stop blaming Māori for bad parenting,’ he challenged his audience. ‘If we address the inequities, we will reduce that trauma,’ he said, ‘because untreated trauma is our biggest killer – it kills hope and families. We all have to challenge the status quo to attain equity.’

His final message was for Minister Hipkins, ‘We commend you for the millions of dollars spent on so many reviews and working groups, and Māori have had an active voice in all of these. What we need now are the policies that reflect the findings of these reviews,’ he said.

‘We would also like Māori to be given a governance role in Māori medium schooling because we have the knowledge and the experience’. His final challenge to the Minister was, ‘If you want Māori to trust the Ministry and the sector, start trusting us!’

Trumping all of these he said is wellbeing. For too much of the past we have been focused on measures that don’t reflect what is important, that sees learning as linear and has built mistrust.

We are rebuilding from there.

Returning to wellbeing he said it is about health – physical and mental wellbeing. It’s also about emotional self-regulation and these are all the business of education.

In Government things move slowly and we want people to feel empowered by change. We want to include your voice in the changes, he said to the principals in the room. He then listed out all the things that this Government has so far achieved describing it as ‘significant’ progress.

They included eliminating national standards and charter schools; introducing progress as the measure for the whole curriculum; the NCEA review; introducing NZ History to the NZ Curriculum; catching up years of under-funding of school property with a hefty injection of funds although there are, he said, constraints with availability of tradies; and a significant budget has been allocated to learning support, despite acknowledgement that there is much yet to do; the teachers’ pay settlement has been concluded; and we have agreed on an accord which potentially could be transformational.

There are recommendations from the Tomorrow’s Schools review yet to be implemented and a start has been made on supplying lunches in schools, which results in improved behaviour in the afternoons; and a generous budget has been allocated to Te Hurihanganui to address racism and bias in the system which is a barrier to learning.

He acknowledged there is more to do to increase the number of teacher trainees and to explore different pathways into training and progress for leadership with the establishing of

Minister of Education, Hon Chris Hipkins was next up and much anticipated by the regional presidents in the room. He congratulated and thanked them all for their resolute leadership,

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as our nation begins the fight against COVID-19. ‘Thank you for the clear health messages you have been disseminating to the sector and your communities,’ he said.

He outlined the five pillars of education for the Labour Party’s manifesto.

■■ ■■ ■■ ■■ ■■

Keep learners at the centre Break down all barriers Focus on quality teaching Relevant education for the future Quality public education

the leadership centre to help support and grow more leaders. These will be the focus of subsequent budgets, he said, but the up-coming budget for 2020 will prioritise early childhood education.

‘If we can intervene early and teach more emotional self-regulation at the earliest level, hopefully there will be fewer issues at the school level,’ he said.

In conclusion he said, ‘we want to re cl aim humanity for education and write in humanness, kindness, mercy and love.

These are the values that should lead all we do in education.’

He thanked all principals for their good will and engagement and looked forward to that continuing and accelerating the progress we can make.

Question When will we be able to address the issues for 1700 kids with severe behaviour challenges, as a result of mental health trauma, in the Northland area?

Answer There is a workforce challenge in this area. We don’t have enough specialists and we want faster progress because we know we are not doing well enough.

Question There are now schools refusing to take Ministry direction to take very challenged kids. These kids excluded really struggle to get back into school. What options are there?

Answer By the time kids are refused enrolment, it’s too late. Every New Zealander has the right to the education that best meets their needs and this group is not being well served. Some schools are shouldering a disproportionate number of these youngsters and that has to change. They need help before they get to this point.

Question Could I suggest student counsellors, ‘Managed Moves’ and residential schools as 3 immediate practical ideas?

Answer ‘Managed Moves’ is a good example and it would be good to scale that up, but we must get it right.

Question The MAC has been supported for the past four years and has been successful, but we are concerned about its future funding Answer The intention of having a 30-year strategy, the NELP, is so that

Putting the argument

we can continue to invest in what is working. But that is now dependent on the Budget. We see the value of the MACs but we have to convince New Zealanders to fund it. It’s a balancing act.

You can see why we think tax cuts are bad for education. We need a good level of tax to pay for it.

Question The Ministry is looking at iwi accredited facilitators for Mātauranga Māori PLD for teaching Māori histories. How will that proceed?

Answer I can’t give an accurate answer to that question right now. It would be better to address that directly with Minister Kelvin Davis.

Government Budget Constraints The Minister acknowledged that all the suggestions so far required money, which would be difficult to deliver given we were now entering a period of global economic downturn as the coronavirus spread across the globe.

‘Our big earners like tourism will be 80 per cent down, and we expect a massive downturn in international students,’ he said.

‘The Government’s budget will have to be completely rewritten and we may find we are not in a position to do all the things we wanted to do.’

He said that in an economic downturn, Governments increase spending, but differently to the way we spend when the economy is high. It will be tough on the country so we must be aware of that.

Every principal in the room was aware that we are now living in extraordinary times, and that the COVID-19 virus, for which there is no treatment or vaccine, will take its toll, not just on Aotearoa New Zealand, but across the continents of the world.

A global financial crisis is inevitable.

As principals debated the education issues they saw as priorities for Government attention in this election year, they were equally mindful that priorities for the Government may not stretch to a big increase in Budget allocation for education. Whilst the framework for the NZPF manifesto was outlined, there were no high expectations that any political party would be promising to fund the areas agreed as priority by the regional presidents.

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Life-giving, caring leadership: He Totara Helena Baker and Jenny Poskitt

Introduction Leadership literature often focuses on the role of the principal as an individual, and the effects of their work on student learning, but there is growing recognition of the relational work of leaders (Hilstad & Moller, 2013). An appreciation for the interconnectedness of people, things physical, spiritual, social and intellectual, not only transform principals, their teachers and student community, but also the essence of hautūtanga, culturally appropriate and healthy leadership. The authors symbolise this inter-connection through their shared bicultural schooling as children, and subsequent intertwined professional educational experience. This article shares the transformational experiences of a principal towards a more life-giving, culturally responsive leadership style.

A life-giving experience – He Totara The principal reflects: As a child I lived in Ashhurst with my family and Totara Reserve became a motu rākau (stand of trees) where my whānau spent time.

It was here that my mother shared her deep respect for te wao nui a tane and passed on tikanga intrinsic to the ngahere (forest). Mum also told magical stories (many of which were her own1), that demonstrated how our whānau, hapu and iwi revered the ngahere for its beauty, spiritual essence and bountifulness.

I have a clear memory of being on a whānau outing at Totara Reserve and telling mum about a totara tree that I had just seen on one of the tracks in the reserve. The tree looked as if it had a wedge cut out of it many years ago and I was saddened by the scar this had left. Mum asked me to take her to this tree. As we came closer to the totara, I pointed it out, just ahead of us. Mum gently quietened me and silently bowed her head. She then walked up to the tree and said a little karakia and gave it a big hug. She turned to me and invited me to do the same. I hugged the tree, feeling a bit silly, but was pleased that it was just Mum and me. She then guided my hand back to the scar and got me to touch around the whole area. I remember noticing that the bark was growing in to cover the area. The tree was healing itself . . .

I still feel amazed by this natural phenomenon and have visited this tree many times over the years. It is also no wonder that the totara tree is the metaphor to underpin my story of leadership

and the shift in perspective that occurred when we strengthened our relational approaches to leadership at Te Kura o Tākaro.

Caring leadership The story of the ‘Rākau Rangatira’ encapsulates notions of a caring web of interrelationships and connectedness between things physical, spiritual and social. The interaction between the Totara, mother and child taught attentiveness to the suffering of an ‘other’ – through the awareness of, and concern for the tree – a lesson was learned about the power of the ethic of care to heal. At its core, school leadership is a social relationship, in which the enhancement of kaiako (teacher), ākonga (student) and whānau (family) well-being and academic success are uppermost in the responsibilities of the tumuaki (principal). Relational leadership means attending to them as persons with spiritual, intellectual, physical, and emotional capacities to be nurtured (Glazer, 2019), or more pertinent to New Zealand is Durie’s (2001) Te Whare Tapa Whā model of taha tinana, taha wairua, taha whānau taha hinengaro – an integrated model that recognises the foundation of wairua (spiritual) health and inter-connected effects of spiritual, family and mental health for personal and collective wellbeing.

Through the caring actions and interactive manner of the tumuaki, kaiako and ākonga learn the extent to which they are valued, respected, and safe to be themselves and take risks, so that deep learning and higher achievement might occur. In caring school cultures, kaiako and ākonga have a deeper sense of belonging, with higher levels of emotional, social and academic support – key elements for improving well-being and academic outcomes (Louis, Murphy & Smylie, 2016). Indeed, Louis et al. (2016, p.344) argue that, ‘Principals who care for teachers support the development of a culture that focuses, at least implicitly, on equity’ since teachers who are supported, are more likely to develop positive caring teacher-student relationships which are critical for learning (Hattie, 2009), and life-long success (Birch & Ladd, 1997).

But what does caring mean? According to Louis et al. (2016), caring for others is expressed through empathetic awareness and meeting of other’s needs; being genuine and authentic; prioritising the requirements of the cared for person (often ahead of one’s own); responsive to the situation (based on principles rather than being rule bound); and a sense of mutuality (realizing the inter-dependence of success – each of us is responsible for

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other’s success). Care is best developed in situations of trust where others can be depended on to honour their commitments, over time rather than at one-off special events, and in environments of belonging-acceptance, or community (Louis et al., 2016).

‘Leader caring provides a special kind of support for teachers who work in settings [with students experiencing higher levels of poverty] that are commonly associated with demoralization and burnout’ (Louis et al., 2016, p.337). Teachers (kaiako) low in self-efficacy and energy struggle to care for their students (ākonga) because kaiako capacity to build and sustain nurturing relationships with ākonga and whānau is dependent on their levels of resilience; while kaiako with tumuaki who care about their well-being (Noddings, 2005) are more likely to thrive.

Al-Ghabban (2018) argues that creating space together for kaiako to reflect and discuss (e.g. difficult situations they have experienced w it h ā konga), helps kai a ko understand their own feelings, and to share strategies or resources.

From these experiences, kaiako develop greater awareness and language for compassion. In short, compassion is sensitivity to the suffering of self and others, being touched by it, and being motivated to alleviate suffering (Al-Ghabban, 2018). Taking action by creating time to be alongside the other, to listen, express empathy and to support them through validation and sharing of strategies, are means of alleviating the suffering of others, and in so doing, build their capacity for compassion.

As Fu l l an ( 2 0 0 1 ) arg u e d, principals catalyse cultural change – they are pivotal in creating and enhancing caring, compassionate school communities. A collective approach to leadership (Nicholson & Kurucz, 2017), enables tumuaki to engage with staff to develop an ‘ethic of care’ that can permeate all relationships, in order that all members of the community can flourish. A flourishing community, requires recognition and confirmation of the respective strengths and talents that members possess – ‘bringing out the best in others’ (Nicholson & Kurucz, 2017, p.38).

Recognising ‘the best in others’ comes from a relationship of knowing them, attributing best possible motives to mistakes they may make, and drawing attention to ‘their best selves’ so they may reflect on actions and benefit from respectful discussions.

So how does this educational theory about caring, compassionate leadership, and the metaphor of the Totara, relate to real leadership in New Zealand?

Stuck in crisis, a tree battered and exposed . . .

Leading a Decile One school involves dealing with a range of crises including: the traumatic effects of working with students who are tired and hungry, have diagnosed and undiagnosed

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mental and physical health issues, care and protection issues, gang and/or family violence, bomb threats, lockdowns, student abduction, student behavioural issues that require police and/ or Oranga Tamariki intervention, irate and violent parents and natural disasters. Addictive patterns of leadership can be initially rewarding – solving urgent issues – and working from a moral imperative that impacts vulnerable and marginalised tamariki.

However, those rewards come at the expense of establishing systems for normal activities.

The leadership team at Te Kura o Tākaro, were adept in a crisis. They looked out for each other, worked together and found ways to navigate through each crisis. In the long term, this addictive pattern of leadership was not sustainable and had a devastating impact on the well-being of the tumuaki. At the end of 2016, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and spent ten months of 2017 in treatment and absolute exhaustion. The tumuaki had become the scarred totara tree.

How could the tumuaki, the totara, that stood out above the canopy; the tree that leaned into the elements that buffered it; the tree that was headstrong and protected others, fixed things, was of service to all, find it difficult to take care of itself? A tree that even when cut down could still be fashioned into a rākau (weapon) to continue to fight at any cost. As with the Totara, a change was needed, to allow healing and growth. The change came with support from an external facilitator and the realization that it was the school relationships, not the tumuaki, that was the Totara, a ‘Rākau Rangatira’.

The Rākau Rangatira, caring relational leadership Model for Te Kura o Tākaro A Rākau Rangatira metaphor was developed and adapted from Scott’s (2002) Tree Model for leadership.

The entire tree: the roots, the trunk, branches and leaves formed the basis of the relational model of leadership that transformed the school.

Ngā Aka (The Roots) The roots are the foundation that hold the people in place. They are deep and feed growing relational needs to: be appreciative, remaining connected to place and people, working constantly on commitments to each other, being authentic and respectful in communications. These roots became well established and formed the basis of the localised Marautanga (school curriculum).

Te Tinana (The Trunk) The trunk represents the leadership team – the main supportive structure that holds the school together –and provides the pathway for the wai rākau (sap) to travel to all parts of the tree for survival of the Rākau Rangatira. In strengthening the

tinana, the leadership team established and maintained clear communication systems, connected to kura values. This model provides guidance on how to approach ‘crisis’ and ‘business as usual’ school management. Such support takes strength and commitment, which is possible due to the heartwood of the Rākau Rangatira that is renowned for its strength and durability.

References Al-Ghabban, A. (2018). A compassion framework: the role of compassion in schools in promoting well-being and supporting the social and emotional development of children and young people. Pastoral Care in Education, 36(3), 176-188. DOI: 10.1080/02643944.2018.1479221.

Ngā Kaupeka (The Branches) The branches extend out from the tinana (trunk). Each branch is separate, and reaches upwards to enable the branch and the leaves to find spaces in which to grow. The branches are also holons, that is, they are parts of the tree system that are complete in themselves. They represent the school teams and allocated areas of responsibility; each with their own identity, yet connected to the larger system.

Durie, M. (2001) Mauri ora: The Dynamics of Māori health. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Ngā Rau (The Leaves) The leaves on the branches represent the team members. It is the tinana (leadership team) who ensure that leaves grow strong and cope with the ever-changing environment and surroundings.

Each member’s separate strengths come from the solid home base of the tinana. In times of support, the tinana coordinates and maintains relational values, which provide clear pathways for the life-giving wai rākau to flow.

Hilstad, K., & Moller, J. (2013). Leadership as relational work: Risks and opportunities. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 16(3), 245-262. DOI: 10.1080/13603124.2012.761353.

Te Taiao (Adaptations to the environment) As the Rākau Rangatira grows it is continually shaped by Tawhirimatea (weather) and its surroundings. Kura live in, and are shaped by, a climate of prevailing winds, rain and sunshine.

Rather than resist the elements, which could uproot or break the rākau, continual adaptation as leaders is vital.

The Rākau Rangatira metaphor has provided a breath of life (te manawa ora) for Te Kura o Tākaro to develop a strong identity, and clear values for all relationships and decision-making in the school – a truly bicultural way of being, and doing, and sustainable leadership.

Conclusion The purpose of sharing this metaphor of the Totara, is threefold.

One purpose is to share the importance of caring leadership – for the benefit of all people in the school community, including the tumuaki! The second purpose is to share a Tikanga Māori approach to authentic leadership and demonstrate the power of metaphors and narratives – the appropriateness of remembering (a childhood memory that powerfully informed leadership), the value of connected relationships – socially, spiritually, physically and intellectually (with kaiako, ākonga and whānau; with the Totara that represents the physical and spiritual worlds).

Interestingly, the authors also share multiple connectedness through their bicultural childhood educational experiences and professional lives. Finally, caring, relational leadership is essential for sustainability of leaders in schools (kura), but even more importantly, for the next generation of leaders (kaiārahi), kaiako, ākonga and whānau, and the well-being of Aotearoa New Zealand.

E mama Ka puawai mai te mahara, ko te ngaakau aroha tona hua.

(In the remembering, love returns)

Fullan, M. (2001). Leading in a culture of change. San Francisco: JosseyBass.

Glazer, R. (2019). Elevate: Push beyond your limits and unlock success in yourself and others. Simple5mins: Illinois.

Hattie, J. (2009). Visible learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. New York, NY: Routledge.

Louis, K., Murphy, J., & Smylie, M. (2016). Caring leadership in schools: Findings from exploratory analyses. Educational Administration Quarterly, 52(2), 310-348.

Nicholson, J., & Kurucz, E. (2017). Relational leadership for sustainability: Building an ethical framework from the moral theory of ‘ethics of care’. Journal of Business Ethics, 156, 25-43.

DOI: 10.1007/sl0551-017-3593-4.

Noddings, N. (2005). The challenge to care in schools: An alternative approach to education (2nd Ed). New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Scott, S. (2002). Fierce Conversations. Achieving success at work & in life, one conversation at a time. New York, NY: New American Library.

Te reo Māori story published about a Rimu tree.

1

Acknowledgements and thanks To the Senior Leaders Team, Marilyn, Stacey and Josie, Dr Phil Ramsey Massey University And Rene Aish Te Aroha Noa. Helena Baker (Tumuaki, Te Kura o Tākaro) and Jenny Poskitt (Associate Professor, Te Kura o Te Mātauranga, Te Kunenga ki Purehuroa)

MAGAZINE

You can now access the current and past issues of NZ Principal magazine online You can search by magazine issue, article name or author visit www.nzprincipal.co.nz N Z Principal | S e p t e m b e r 2 0 2 0

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Beneath the surface of timetable changes Rosemary Hipkins

NZCER

You do the best you can. The difficulty is to individualise within an artificial (timetable) constraint. To meet the needs of students’ wishes, and the community, and collective agreements, is hard (Principal comment in 2018 National Survey, Bonne & MacDonald, 2019, p.53.)

Space . . . structures the very way we think about learning, through physical, curricular and didactic structures such as classrooms, timetables and deadlines, which organise students in space and time and shape their learning experience, and through spatial metaphors such as distance learning and student-centredness. (Blasco, 2016, p.118)

we carried out some research for the Productivity Commission.

They wanted to know more about the relationship between the subject choices that students make in their last years at school and their future work opportunities, in a world where these work opportunities are changing rapidly. That’s not a straightforward question to unpack!

We began by gleaning insights from previous research reports.

What we found probably won’t surprise you. There is a general bias towards university study as a post-school destination. This is the ‘well-lit’ pathway. Notably, the role of the timetable is integral to this bias:

There is a gap in the research literature where timetabling is concerned. It seems to be one of those aspects of a secondary school education that is largely taken for granted, part of the DNA of modern schooling. Yet several strands of our recent research have detected an appetite for change in timetabling structures and practices. In this article, my aim is to provide you with possible lines of professional inquiry if you are thinking about changing the timetable in your school.

On the practical level, this article outlines different types of changes that could be made, and what they might be expected to achieve. I discuss insights and implications from such local research as exists. On a deeper level, I draw on the idea of ‘curriculum space’ (Blasco, 2016) to explore ways in which the timetable constructs students’ experiences of learning. I use the term ‘transformative’ to differentiate substantive changes to learning experiences from tweaks that solve practical problems while leaving traditional sorting and teaching practices, and assumptions about learners and learning, largely unchallenged.

Structures such as the school timetable underpin this bias by constraining the ways in which students can choose combinations of subjects as a programme of study. Advice given as choices are being made keeps the academic pathway well lit, at least for students considered capable of university study by their teachers and schools.

Pathways to work or vocational learning are less esteemed and are typically promoted to students considered to be less academically able. This creates problems when assumptions are mismatched with actual demands. Examples include the agribusiness and engineering sectors. Both need highly qualified workers and those who can undertake work that does not need a university degree. (Hipkins & Vaughan, 2019, p.35)

The appetite for change Responses to NZCER’s 2018 survey of secondary school principals conveyed a sense of the appetite for change, but also implied that successfully making changes is likely to be problematic: ■■

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77 per cent of the 167 principals who responded said they had made some change to the timetable in the last 5 years. But some had not retained the changes they had tried.

Many of those who had not yet made changes were considering doing so.

47 per cent of the principals (and 36 per cent of trustees) said that timetabling to support a growing range of student learning opportunities was a major issue facing their school.

(Bonne and MacDonald, 2019)

Late in 2019 the timetabling issue again came sharply into view as

It is not just the structure of timetable that matters. The processes and practices that surround it can have a real influence on the way the timetable plays out. Changing one without the other is not likely to achieve the desired goal. This will be a recurring theme in what follows.

Following from this first stage of the work, we conducted two focus groups with senior school leaders who have responsibility for timetabling and/or pastoral care and advice systems in the school (Eyre & Hipkins, 2019). It struck us that participants were eager to hear ideas about timetabling innovations that had been tried by others in the focus group. Some called the conversation valuable professional learning, even though our purposes were research purposes.

Given the complexities we documented in the work for the Productivity Commission, this interest and attention to timetabling is hardly surprising. Leaders have much to juggle.

Meeting the needs of diverse groups is challenging. Making timetabling changes is hard work and creates a lot of uncertainty.

On top of all that, there are no guarantees of success. Is it worth it? This is the question I explore in what follows.

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How timetabling helps shape students’ learning experiences Blasco, cited above, notes that the timetable shapes students’ learning experiences by the way it organises them in space and time. Let’s unpack this idea before going any further.

Timetables with shorter learning periods build in regular changes of learning focus throughout the day. Learning is likely to be experienced as episodic, with the risk that the pieces appear disconnected unless something happens to create greater coherence. One possibility is that teachers make explicit links across subjects. Yet teachers’ responses to the National Survey suggest that this is not easy to do: in 2018 91 per cent of teachers said it was important or very important to ‘make explicit connections to learning from other subjects / learning areas’ yet just 47 per cent said they did so often or most of the time (Bonne & MacDonald, 2019, p.38). As we will see shortly, there are several possible approaches to achieving greater coherence via timetable changes. For now, I mark this as a potentially transformative goal for making changes.

Students navigate subject/course choices via pathways that are open to them. Traditional timetable structures tend to be built around the needs of students on the ‘well lit’ pathway to tertiary study (Hipkins & Vaughan, 2019). Other students are slotted into the more limited number of choices open to them. This emphasis on academic pathways gives strong signals to learners (and everyone else in the school system) about being either an ‘academic’ or a ‘vocational’ student. Even if implicit rather than overt, such labelling risks typecasting students and limiting their own and others’ expectations of them. Thus another potentially transformative purpose for making timetable changes is to give greater parity of esteem and space to all types of pathways, while making choice combinations as flexible as possible.

The types of outcomes envisaged for learning provide a curriculum-centred reason for wanting to make transformative timetable changes. Traditionally students have demonstrated their learning by showing what they know (declarative knowledge). Yet so-called ‘21st century curriculum’ commentary is clear that this is not enough. Students must also be able to show what they can do with what they know. To foster competencyrelated outcomes, how students come to know also matters (see Barnett, 2009). Pedagogy needs to change in ways that may not be easily accommodated in short, sharp blocks of learning time.

The need for students to learn more about how we know what we know—so-called epistemic knowledge—is increasingly seen as necessary for all students. This type of transformative goal can be found in the OECD’s ‘2030 learning compass’ for example, on which future PISA assessments are likely to be based.1 Traditionally, timetables parcel learning into discrete subjects.

Most do not make provision for interdisciplinary learning. Yet both disciplinary and interdisciplinary learning are essential for developing epistemic awareness and thinking skills. Students need to learn how knowledge is built by disciplinary experts, which should now be an explicit part of subject-based learning.

But they also need to gain a sense of comparative similarities and differences across disciplines, which can only come from opportunities to explore them via deliberate juxta-positioning.

This challenge goes deeper than creating coherent connections between subjects and implies a need for flexible and varied timetable structures, within each student’s overall programme of learning.

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Creating a different learning aesthetic is yet another potential target for making transformative timetable changes. Blasco (2016) defines an aesthetic experience as one that invokes particular sensations, along with the meaning we make from those sensations. As one example of a traditional aesthetic, she identifies short, intense bursts of learning that students often experience as harried and leaving them little room to think (she would say they lack ‘cognitive space’). She talks about how such aesthetics can ‘seep’ across the day, influenced by: . . . how students experience a given time slot (e.g. a lesson) and how this is influenced by the density of the content delivered, its complexity and sequencing and the experiences that precede it and anticipation of those to come.’ (Blasco, 2016, p.126).

Blasco is interested in ways to open up cognitive space, as well as what she calls autonomy-space and reflective-space. She sees all of these as necessary for innovative and creative thinking, and for developing learning-to-learn capabilities. She argues that it is necessary to think differently about those times in the school day that are traditionally seen as wasteful and inefficient.

Some types of timetable changes could serve more than one of the above types of goal, depending on how they are implemented.

In this complex context it is important to be clear which type of goal(s) you have in your sights, and to ensure this vision is shared and understood by all who must make the timetable work.

With that thought in mind, I turn now to several possible types of change where there is at least some research-based evidence to consider.

Creating fewer, longer, periods This type of change could potentially serve several purposes, and teachers in the same school might have different understandings of what is intended. For example, Alfriston College was established with a timetable that had a combination of 100-minute periods and more traditional 50-minute periods.

Several years down the track, the school undertook a research project funded by the Teaching and Learning Research Initiative (TLRI). Interviews with some of the foundation teachers surfaced different perceptions of purposes served by longer learning periods: ■■

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■■

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maximising learning time while minimising the stress of constant changes during the day creating a classroom climate more conducive to in-depth learning providing the opportunity to include a greater variety of learning experiences within a lesson, including making greater use of ICT enabling better relationship-building between teachers and learners (Hipkins with Shanks & Denny, 2008).

These purposes have the potential to work together to create pedagogical space for developing a wider range of competencies than might be possible in shorter time slots. However, a teacher who only understood the change in terms of efficiency (i.e. less time wasted in transitions) might not see this transformative possibility. A key finding of the TLRI research was that some teachers did not adjust their pedagogy when they were timetabled for 100-minute lessons. Not surprisingly, both they and the students in their classes struggled to use the extended time meaningfully.

To the list of purposes above, several more might now be added in the light of more recent research that has explored curriculum innovation: ■■

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allowing two or more subject teachers to work together effectively in integrated programmes and/or a larger teaching space making experiences outside the classroom less rushed and more feasible

An integrated curriculum has the potential to create space for both disciplinary and interdisciplinary learning experiences that build epistemic awareness and thinking skills. However, a recent inquiry into curriculum integration (McDowall & Hipkins, 2019) identified what we called a ‘knowledge/agency dilemma’. In brief, teachers struggled to balance democratic goals for integration (which allow students to pursue questions of strong personal interest and relevance) with the sorts of structured teaching needed to build the discourses and practices of the different disciplines being integrated. We concluded that ‘meeting the dual goal of student agency and knowledge building is a challenging undertaking for teachers even in the context of single-subject teaching’ (p.56, emphasis in the original). We concluded that teachers working with an integrated curriculum need greater support to teach in ways that make disciplinary knowledgebuilding practices more explicit.

While investigating curriculum integration we heard about ‘toe in the water’ initiatives that did not require changes to the timetable and that were typically carried out by small groups of committed teachers. However, more ambitious changes

did require the support of the senior leadership team and the timetablers. In traditional schools (i.e., not new builds) changes needed to be made to allocation of rooms (side-by-side if larger spaces were not available). Sometimes changes also needed to be made in the allocation of teachers to timetable lines so that they could work together, or at least sequentially, with one class. This is important because the greatest professional learning benefits appeared to accrue when teachers were able to work together in the same space, observing each other’s expertise at work, and adding to their own expertise accordingly. But teachers also said that it was difficult to get timetable structures right first time—the need to tweak and try again was a recurring theme in their accounts. One specific aspect that needed careful consideration was the size of the learning group. If the class was too small the change could not be sustained because it could not be resourced.

But if the group was too big teacher/student relationships began to suffer (McDowall & Hipkins, 2019).

A recent TLIF 2 inquiry at Mana College explored the implementation of a ‘place responsive’ curriculum (Picken & Anderton, 2020). This transformative goal could focus on pedagogical, aesthetic, and/or epistemic reasons to change current practice. The TLIF inquiry soon revealed that placeresponsive learning contexts typically implicated several learning areas. Creating longer learning periods and implementing an integrated curriculum were some of the changes made in response to this realisation. Again it took several iterations to get supporting structures, including staff teams, working well.

After trialling larger teams, each with four core subject teachers, the school settled on ‘natural pairs’—maths/science and English/

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social sciences teachers taught integrated units, but they still planned together as teams of four across the core subjects.

Treating some days differently This type of change can take various forms. One whole day a week might be dedicated to an integrated learning activity such as a student-led inquiry, while the other four days are timetabled as usual. This timetabling strategy has the potential to change students’ aesthetic experiences of learning by fostering deeper exploration (cognitive space), personal choice of inquiry approach and pace (autonomy-space), and more personally engaged experiences (reflective space). It also lends itself to the transfer of competencies developed in class to relevant community contexts. However, research shows that transfer is elusive—students tend to keep learning compartmentalised in the subject boxes of the timetable unless processes are in place to support them to make deliberate new connections (Manalo et al., 2017). I have not found any research about the relationship between what is taught on traditionally timetabled days, and what students do on their extended inquiry day. It seems to me that this is a question worthy of exploration.

Allocating one day a week to individual inquiry has been adopted by a number of new-build schools, as part of their establishment planning. Even when starting with a ‘blank slate’, it is not easy to get the processes that support this structure right first time. A few years ago, I had the privilege of documenting a series of rolling changes made by the foundation teaching team at Albany Senior High School as they worked to implement this type of timetable structure (Hipkins, 2011). This work clearly illustrated why making the change work as envisaged must extend well beyond just putting the actual structure in place.

The processes that support students to stay on track and make pertinent learning connections are also critical.

During the focus groups conducted for the Productivity Commission, we heard about an interesting arrangement in which Wednesday acted as a sort of ‘pivot’. Everyone was at school that day but on Monday and Tuesday some students on vocational pathways were learning in a tertiary setting. Their school days were Wednesday to Friday and all their school-based learning was timetabled for those days. In a mirror-image arrangement, other students were at school Monday to Wednesday and out in a tertiary setting on Thursday to Friday (see Eyre & Hipkins, 2019, p.21-22, school 2). This is a creative response to the pathways goal, allowing students to build programmes that include vocational learning without sacrificing the time they need to learn traditional school subjects. It would be interesting to find out, further down the track, if this arrangement has positively impacted parity of esteem for different pathways.

Yet another variant is that one or more whole days might be carved off episodically (say once a term), typically to offer learning experiences that cannot be readily accommodated in a conventional timetable structure, or within conventional subjects. Some years ago, I provided support for Alfriston College’s TLRI research. One component was the investigation of students’ learning experiences during ‘3-day learning episodes’ at the end of each term. Again we found that support structures were critical—in this context we created a set of learning design principles for teachers to use as they planned their episodes. The team leading the work wanted to ensure that every student was offered a worthwhile aesthetic learning experience—one that demonstrably contributed to the school’s wider curriculum and

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values. Without design support, there was variation in how well this intention was met (Hipkins et al., 2010).

Interestingly Alfriston College discontinued the 3-day episodes when they integrated learning across multiple subjects. This change took the form of a series of rolling changes, beginning initially with just Year 9. The integration initiative was the subject of their more recent TLIF inquiry. One key finding from this inquiry was that: School structures (including whole school timetabling, leadership, meeting structures, prizes and awards) had to change several times to enable and support the new Year 9/10 programme. Without structural changes, an innovative curriculum will not be sustained beyond a small group of keen teachers and their students. (Watt & White, 2018, p.5) I have already suggested that processes such as advice and guidance need to be adjusted to ensure that timetable changes successfully meet their intentions. Alfriston’s TLIF inquiry expands this insight to show how other structures might also need to be adjusted to ensure success. One specific example is that across the 2 years of the inquiry the middle-management leadership structure morphed several times to arrive at a combination of teachers who could work effectively together to support the design and delivery of an integrated curriculum across a wider team of teachers.3 In conclusion Three key messages stand out to me from the diverse change efforts and inquiries I have reviewed: 1. Be very clear about your purposes for making changes to the timetable. What do you hope to achieve and why do you think the change matters?

2. Lay the groundwork carefully. Ensure your intentions are understood and valued by the wider teaching team. It is highly likely that teachers will need to make some changes to their practice if the initiative is to succeed and be sustained.

3. Carefully review the structures and practices that support the timetable and be prepared to make rolling changes as consequences unfold.

References Barnett, R. (2009) Knowing and becoming in the higher education curriculum. Studies in Higher Education, 34(4)), pp.429-440. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075070902771978 Blasco, M. (2016). Conceptualising curricular space in busyness education: An aesthetic approximation. Management Learning, 47(2), 117-136. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350507615587448 Bonne, L. and MacDonald, J. (2019) Secondary schools in 2018: Findings from the NZCER national survey. New Zealand Council for Educational Research. https://www.nzcer.org.nz/research/ publications/secondary-schools-2018-findings-nzcer-nationalsurvey Eyre, J. and Hipkins, R. (2019). Subject choice for the future of work: Insights from the focus groups. New Zealand Council for Educational Research. https://www.productivity.govt.nz/assets/ Documents/72e89a35dc/Insights-from-focus-groups-NZCER. pdf

Hipkins, R. and Vaughan, K. (2019). Subject choice for the future of work: Insights from the research literature. New Zealand Council for Educational Research. https://www.productivity.govt. nz/assets/Documents/3d0d213c1e/Insights-from-researchliterature-NZCER.pdf Hipkins, R. (2011). Learning to be a new school. New Zealand Council for Educational Research. https://www.nzcer.org.nz/research/ publications/learning-be-new-school-building-curriculum-newtimes

School Bells and Buzzers Made in the USA

Hipkins, R. with Denny, M.; Shanks, L. and White, K. Designing effective extended learning episodes: The Alfriston College Experience: A summary. Teaching and learning Research Initiative. http://www.tlri.org.nz/sites/default/files/projects/9255summaryreport.pdf Hipkins, R. with Shanks, L. and Denny, M. (2008). Early experiences of longer learning periods at Alfriston College, set: Research Information for Teachers, 1, 44-48. https://www.nzcer.org.nz/ nzcerpress/set/articles/early-experiences-longer-learningperiods-alfriston-college McDowall, S. and Hipkins, R. (2019). Curriculum Integration: What is happening in New Zealand Schools? New Zealand Council for Educational Research. https://www.nzcer.org.nz/system/files/ Curriculum%20Integration%202018-2019.pdf Manalo, E., Uesaka, Y. & Chinn, C. (eds.) (2017). Promoting Spontaneous Use of Learning and Reasoning Strategies: Theory, Research, and Practice for Effective Transfer. Routledge.

Picken, A. and Anderton, M. (2020). Can a place-based curriculum raise achievement? Ministry of Education. https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/schooling/ tlif-teacher-led-innovation-fund/teacher-led-innovation-fundtlif-project-summaries-2018/can-a-place-based-curriculumraise-achievement Watt, M. and White, K. (2018) Re-imagining teaching and learning in year 9 and year 10 at Alfriston College. Ministry of Education. https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/schooling/ tlif-teacher-led-innovation-fund/teacher-led-innovation-fundtlif-project-summaries-2018/re-imagining-teaching-andlearning-in-year-9-and-year-10-at-alfriston-college http://www.oecd.org/education/2030-project/teaching-andlearning/learning/knowledge/Knowledge_for_2030_concept_ note.pdf

1

TLIF is the Teacher-Led Inquiry Fund. TLRI is the Teaching and Learning Research Initiative. A key difference is that TLRI projects must be partnerships, usually between tertiary researchers and practitioners. By contrast, TLIF projects are controlled by the school leading the work, with support from an external adviser. Alfriston College’s early TLRI was unusual in being awarded to a school, and they have more recently also completed a TLIF project.

2

Karyn White, personal conversation

3

Postscript NZCER is working on a project that explores timetabling in secondary schools. They would love to hear from schools that have innovated with timetable structures and processes to better meet the needs of their students. Find out more and register your interest in participating on the project website at: https://www.nzcer.org.nz/ research/it-s-time-transformational-timetabling-practices

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THEY’RE NOT BRINGING MY BRAIN

UNDERSTANDING AND WORKING WITH GIFTED LEARNERS (Fourth Ed A Review by Tess Morrison

In the classroom sits a gifted learner, frustrated and unchallenged. In D block, a teacher tries different strategies to manage a student who regularly acts out, yet also asks some really probing questions and makes unusual connections with concepts and material. Meanwhile at home, a parent worries about their gifted child’s progress and social well-being at school.

Gifted learners can often be overlooked and misunderstood.

But one defining characteristic most would agree on is that they are ‘a little bit different.’ In the concluding chapter of Rosemary Cathcart’s ‘They’re Not Bringing my Brain Out. Understanding and Working with Gifted Learners’, these students are described as ‘children who yearn to discover, explore, create, to understand, to go “beyond the known”, youngsters who need to seek their own path, whose vision may be to change the world, and for whom, in great ways or small, that may well one day be a realistic vision.’

TAKE THE LEAD ON SAFER SCHOOL JOURNEYS Road safety resources for teachers and school leaders.

• Curriculum units Years 1-13 • School Traffic Safety Teams manual • Advice for families and school policies

www.education.nzta.govt.nz

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This latest edition provides insights and practical solutions as to how this diverse group of learners can be better understood and provided for. Working from a holistic perspective, Cathcart debunks the myths around gifted learners and offers educators a tried and tested pathway to meet their needs.

Cathcart has been active in provision for gifted learners since the 1980s. Not only does she have a grass roots connection, having raised two gifted children herself, she has also worked closely over a number of years with gifted students and their whānau. Holding a PhD in this field, she combines research with practical experience. Over the years Cathcart has shared her wealth of knowledge and expertise to develop a range of successful programmes in support of teachers, learners and parents. Founder of the George Parkyn National Centre for Gifted Education, she has been awarded a Queen’s Service Medal for services to education, and is the first non-US citizen to be invited to join the prestigious Columbus Group. Having penned scores of articles and created countless resources, there are also two text books aimed specifically at teachers ‘Differentiation Made Practical’ and ‘Gifted Programming Made Practical’ both released in 2010.

The 2020 version of ‘They’re Not Bringing My Brain Out’ reflects her proficiency and experience in providing opportunities for and engaging gifted learners to do and be their best. For those wanting to extend their understanding of what it means to be gifted and better appreciate the issues around effective provision for these learners, this text is for you. If you are open to ideas for extending and challenging gifted students, or if you want strategies for improving the thinking skills of all learners – then ‘They’re Not Bringing my Brain Out’ should definitely also be on your bookshelf.

The first section explores some of the issues and questions many teachers have about gifted education. This includes such topics as; What are some specific challenges gifted learners face? What does giftedness really mean? How do we go about identifying these individuals and effectively support them in their development and learning? A later section helps readers better understand the needs of gifted children from minority cultures and provides insights and practical ways for more inclusive practice. There is also helpful advice on applying these ideas in multi-cultural settings.

The text delves into the topic of twice exceptional learners, qualifying what this term means and how to recognise and support these children. In another chapter, the needs of parents who have gifted children are covered. More specifically, what we can learn from them to bring out the best in their child and what we can do for them so that they can positively impact the learning

N OUT

dition) by Rosemary Cathcart

outcomes for their children. The Nuts and Bolts segment gives succinct advice on resources, record keeping and maintaining a gifted register. The rationale of developing a robust school policy on provision for gifted learners is also clearly outlined, coupled with what such a policy should include and how this might best be implemented.

Meanwhile, a healthy number of chapters are devoted to outlining a planning and teaching model which builds in differentiation, supports independent study and the development of key thinking skills in our learners. The REACH model strategies centre around preferred learning approaches of gifted students. The five key concepts within this model are explained and unpacked. These concepts combine to create a holistic approach which takes into account the particular learning needs of this group of individuals. Specific teaching strategies are provided, along with an explanation of how and why these She writes in a friendly, open style, drawing from her vast strategies have proven to be effective. Examples of practical experience in this field and her own reading and research. teaching material showcase these strategies in their application Cathcart’s text brings together key information and knowledge and provide a wealth of ideas to inspire teachers in their own from other renowned researchers and academics, including practice. Attention is given to concepts like developing social Dr Linda Silverman, Françoys Gagné and Joseph Renzulli. Using maturity. The importance of fostering emotional, social and a tried and tested approach, the resulting material provides a ethical growth is also discussed and measures which address platform from which the needs of the gifted can be met. ways to develop these qualities have Chapters vary in length and some Over the years Cathcart been shared. have helpful summaries. The text is Wo r k i n g f r o m a h o l i s t i c interspersed with illustrations, diagrams, perspective, this text also touches has shared her wealth lesson ideas and samples. The examples on nurturing a sense of identity, of knowledge and expertise of student work are a delight! These all appealing to the sensibilities of bring to life key concepts and showcase gifted learners and encouraging self- to develop a range of the awesome results that this approach evaluation of learning as an effective achieve. successful programmes canWhilst and intrinsic tool. the majority of the examples ‘They’re not Bringing My Brain Out’ in support of teachers, and tasks derive from the Primary places gifted students in the context education sector, the capacity to adapt of current educational practice and learners and parents. these to challenge and meet the needs provides insights into aspects which of learners at higher levels is all there. impact on their learning and general wellbeing. Aligning the I know this from my own personal experience. For those who development of creative potential alongside intellectual potential wish to delve further into concepts and ideas, there is a handy and acknowledging the interrelationship between these two bibliography at the end of relevant chapters. The appendix concepts provides much scope for thought. This text bridges contains some screening checklists for teachers, parents, and that gap. the students themselves. These questionnaires are invaluable in Overall, on offer are practical and accessible insights and steps helping to identify these at times elusive learners. A useful index as to how to better provide for this often misunderstood and concludes the text. diverse group of learners.

For educators this text provides insights into understanding Cathcart approaches these topics in an immensely accessible the needs of gifted learners. It provides accessible tools for way. The layout and organisation of this text makes it equally achieving a high level of challenge in lesson content and creating user friendly for ‘cover to cover’ readers and those who prefer an adaptable and rich learning environment for students. In her to dip in to find concepts and strategies to trial. own words, through this text, Cathcart’s goal is to promote the

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idea that ‘giftedness is an integral factor, influencing almost all aspects of a child’s life, and that therefore providing for them should be needs-based and child-centred’. A second aim is to highlight the fact that ‘regular classroom teachers can readily recognise and provide for these children in even the busiest classroom’. ‘They’re Not Bringing my Brain Out’ definitely meets both of these objectives, and achieves more than a few others at the same time.

Cathcart provides an overview of the complexities of gifted learners and the challenges they face, covering perspectives from the point of view of parents, educators and gifted learners themselves. Possible solutions, strategies and ways forward are offered in thought-provoking contexts. A framework is provided for teachers to work with and adapt to better provide for this diverse range of learners. An upshot of the teaching model outlined in the text is the fact that strategies and principles to engage gifted learners apply to all learners. The saying that ‘a rising tide lifts all boats’ comes to mind. Finally, she provides a voice for gifted learners. A voice which is not always easily accessible.

In writing the foreword for this latest edition, Dr Linda Silverman refers to ‘They’re not Bringing My Brain Out’ as ‘the longed-for blueprint on how to implement child-centred gifted education’ and goes on to cite Cathcart’s model as a ‘powerful new way to conceptualize and develop giftedness.’

All in all ‘They’re Not Bringing My Brain Out’ is a great ‘go-to’ and reference for any and every person with an interest in this field.

The Guide.

Recharged.

IMPROVED GRAPHICS, BETTER USER EXPERIENCE

“I’ve got strategies to help young people with anxiety and depression.”

Gifted learners need our support. They have an important role to play as we move forward in this increasingly fluid and changing world. We must aim for a scenario where a young gifted student sits in class, eyes bright and 100 per cent engaged. The teacher in D block has provided opportunities for their student to explore thinking, consider concepts and express their ideas in ways meaningful to them. Any off-task behaviour is a now thing of the past. Meanwhile, at home a parent feels more reassured that their child’s specific needs are being met.

In her preface, Cathcart shares an anecdote about Thomas, a young, curious and deep-thinking student. She writes, ‘This book is about helping the Thomases of this world to survive school, preserve their creativity and grow even further in wisdom – and about how to enjoy being their teacher.’

I couldn’t agree more.

About the Author Tess Morrison teaches English and is the Gifted Education Programme Leader/Co-ordinator at Lynfield College in Central Auckland.

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Kia Hiwa Rā Leadership reflections on a walk around Ngauruhoe Martin Thrupp

thrupp@waikato.ac.nz

Every year or so I try to break out of my normally sedate European backpackers with trekking poles, pushing up the valley life and do something physically demanding, harking back to and climbing to the highest point above the Emerald Lakes. This my earlier days as a keen tramper and mountaineer. And so it was pre-COVID of course. was that back in January, I decided to do a day walk around the As I walked along and joined them I struck up a discussion cinder cone that is the mighty Mt Ngauruhoe: massive, uncaring, with a young man from Sussex in England. I told him about how humbling.

I had first visited 40 years ago and how I had camped in solitude In this column I’m going to draw some parallels between this where thousands of people now passed each day. My new friend wonderful experience and aspects of school leadership. Some of was interested in this, and he held back with me, chatting now them I thought of while I was actually doing and then as flatter terrain allowed. To be the walk, and some afterwards. honest, he might have been slowing down The only answer To begin with, the idea for the walk was born to look after me, or perhaps he was enjoying when my wife Marika and I were finishing a to the problem meeting someone local. But it was only once tramp in the area the previous year. As we we reached the highest point that we said our hobbled towards the end on blistered feet, a was to put one foot goodbyes, both richer for the conversation. young woman ran by, carrying only one of in front of the I think about this in relation to passing those hydration packs. She cheerfully slowed on leadership skills and knowledge. There down to tell us how that day she had run the other and keep are times when sharing the benefits of one’s entire Northern Circuit (the tramp around experience is utterly pointless. But there are Ngauruhoe) and was now completely done in. walking, and the only other times worth savouring, as with my I was intrigued by this as I had also done comfort was that I young friend from Sussex, when someone the 45km circuit as a tramp several times but is genuinely receptive and will hang on your never considered that it could be done in a had often been in every word. day. And certainly I knew I couldn’t run that When it came time to descend to the far: I would keel over in the first hour. But this situation before.

Emerald Lakes, there were little groups of after some thought, I was quietly confident hikers picking their way gingerly down the that I could walk it over a long summer day. volcanic scree, unnerved by its looseness and the prospect of New innovations or directions in our schools are also like this. falling. Most of them were the same people who had passed me Most of the time we don’t invent a new idea but we build on by as I’d puffed my way up. But having descended lots of scree someone else’s, often cleverly adapting it to suit our own context. slopes over the years, I was more confident. Giving them a wide Preparation was the next step, and as the trip approached I berth, I was off and running, soon leaving them far behind. started to do a few walks around our neighbourhood in suburban The relevant point for school leadership here is that energy is Hamilton. I also thought about food and drink, and I put a little important but experience counts for a lot as well. Experienced ‘bivvy bag’ shelter in my daypack in case I got caught out in the principals/tumuaki can often cut to the nub of a situation, open with an injury. But that was about it: I was busy with other frequently resolving it far more quickly than newcomers can. things and so there was no extensive training, nor any personal After the Emerald Lakes I left the Tongariro Crossing and locator beacon given it was such a well-trodden path that I headed east and then south on the Circuit, passing through the would be walking. remarkable lunar-like landscapes that the Desert Road is named It seems to me that school leadership is a lot like this as well. after. By mid-afternoon I had arrived at Waihohonu Hut. This We prepare, but only rarely do we have the time or resources to should have meant the hard part was over because the rest of prepare optimally. School leadership is much more the art of the walk back to Whakapapa was like a highway by comparison doing the best job in the circumstances. with the track already done. Unfortunately it was still a long I stayed the night in Whakapapa and set off in darkness at about way, more than 15 kilometres, and by this time I’d already been 5.30am, with stars above and the lights of the Chateau receding walking for eight hours or so. behind me. By the time the sun had come up over the mountains, The only answer to the problem was to put one foot in front I was already well on the way to the Mangatepopo Valley, where I of the other and keep walking, and the only comfort was that I expected to join the tourist hordes doing the Tongariro Crossing had often been in this situation before. Over the years I have had which shares some of the path of the Northern Circuit. Sure many long walking days, sometimes by choice, sometimes not. enough, there were already dozens of people, mainly fit young And so I trudged along for more than four hours with those lyrics

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from the band ‘America’ playing in my head as an earworm: ‘I’ve been through the desert on a horse with no name, it felt good to be out of the rain . . . ’ Eventually I got back to Whakapapa almost 13 hours after leaving it: tired and sore but happy.

It seems to me that there is a big helping of this sheer endurance in school leadership too. Tumuaki develop resilience because having been in similar situations before, they recognise their power to hold on and win through. And that understanding of their proven strength begets confidence from others around them as well.

Of course there are many other parallels that could be drawn between school leadership and a walk such as this. These days, it may seem that school leaders are being asked to hop, skip, or even fly a jetpack rather than walk! Also there is little doubt that being able to be autonomous and move at our own speed is often motivating. It would be a very different daytrip – or leadership experience – if someone else was forcing the pace. And don’t you think that, like my circuit, school leadership often involves returning again to places we have already been, perhaps seeing them through new eyes after time and other events have passed?

There are also limits to such analogies. In particular, mine was a solo walk. School leadership is much more of shared challenge, even if principals are those with the most responsibility.

Perhaps the most important point here is that there are numerous school leadership lessons to be learnt from our other life experiences and the key thing is to take the time to reflect. I hope this column makes you think about some challenging but good times in your own life and how they have left you more prepared for being a school leader.

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Nau mai te hapa; ma te hapa ka ako

Welcome mistakes; through mistakes we learn Helen Kinsey-Wightman

One of the enduring images of post-lockdown New Zealand will be Ashley Bloomfield’s stricken face, as Health Minister David Clark threw him under a bus.

Stopped by media outside a Parliamentary select committee and asked whether he took any responsibility for the border failures, as Bloomfield stood silently behind him, Clark replied, ‘The director-general has accepted that protocols weren’t being followed, he has accepted responsibility for that and has set about putting it right.’

In an opinion piece for Stuff, entitled The Art of Throwing Someone Under a Bus, Sue Allen comments, ‘No matter that it’s probably technically correct that responsibility for quarantine testing sits with Dr. Bloomfield and the Ministry of Health. Noone cares about that. Dr. Clark could have come out a winner if he’d done the right thing immediately and backed his officials.’

In contrast, Dr Bloomfield’s response to press questions was to take responsibility, to apologise and to admit the personal impact of his department’s failures, ‘I’ve certainly been upset by it,’ he said.

The rest, of course, is history and Ashley Bloomfield and David Clark command quite different positions in the esteem of our national psyche and notably, only one of them has been forced to clear their desk . . .

I think that the notion of authentic leadership, as shown in this

diagram from Halo Psychology, is a useful way of summing up the strength of Dr. Bloomfield’s leadership and conversely the failings of Dr. Clark’s.

As a school leader, taking responsibility for our own failings – and very frequently those of others – is challenging and humbling. However, a quick shuffle through our mental data base of influential leaders will probably reveal that authentic leadership is a trait we value highly in others.

As you may recall I am currently on study leave working towards a Diploma in Te Reo Māori me ōna Tikanga. The whakatauki we have embraced as a group is ‘Nau mai te hapa; ma te hapa ka ako’. Welcome mistakes; through mistakes we learn.

However, the daily reality of immersion in another language, having the mental capacity of an adult with the language capability of a toddler, is demanding. Following a particularly challenging Zoom hui which left me devoid of growth mindset and in full ‘Dobby the House-Elf mental selfflagellation mode’ (After writing this I discovered it’s a real thing – Psychologists actually talk about the Dobby Effect! Nelissen and

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Zeelenberg 2009) I came across Eduardo Briceno’s TED talk: we are always on show, not only in our workplace but in the How to get better at the things you care about. supermarket, on the sideline at Saturday sport, at the pub and Briceno talks about his personal experience of failing to get in our virtual online worlds. better at the things he cares most about, despite hard work.

He suggests creating ‘a low stakes island in a high stakes He talks about how successful learners go sea’ firstly for ourselves through finding safe through life alternating between 2 zones, He says that as places to reflect and practice, through working the performance zone and the learning with a mentor and talking to our leadership zone. In the learning zone we focus on leaders we tend teams about the skills we want to deliberately improvement, concentrating on activities practise. we haven’t mastered yet and expecting to to spend almost all We can also change our workplace cultures make mistakes. In our performance zone, of our time in the through lowering the stakes for others through our goal is to do our best, our focus is on modelling being in the learning zone. By exercising skills we have mastered and performance leading in a vulnerable way, by sharing what we minimising mistakes. He says that as leaders want to get better at, by asking questions about we tend to spend almost all of our time in zone which hinders what we don’t know and seeking feedback as the performance zone which hinders our our growth we practise new skills. growth and also our performance. Briceno Finally, going back to the Dr. Bloomfield then breaks down examples of carrying out and also our vs. Dr. Clark approach to dealing with our deliberate practice in the learning zone. inevitable mistakes, I would suggest that this He suggests that we create unnecessarily performance. example from our own backyard should give us high stakes environments where being encouragement in working towards authentic in the learning zone is difficult. Interestingly, he gives the leadership, owning our mistakes and resisting the urge to throw example of schools where the focus for students is on getting others under the bus . . . correct answers, as well as ‘flawless execution cultures’ in our Nau mai te hapa; ma te hapa ka ako! workplaces where employees feel pressure to succeed and therefore stay with what they know and resist innovation. As I listened to him, it struck me that school leadership – much like political leadership – is a constant high stakes performance,

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