|
SUPERHUI WITH TE ĀTIAWA Harbourside at Te Wharewaka o Pōneke, Neavin Broughton offered us whakaaro on telling stories, and a framework based on Māui and his whānau for examining identities. After yum kai, we ventured out on haerenga around Te Whanganui-a-Tara, to explore important sites, to learn new skills or to practice our reo. We ended the day thinking through our own practice and our next steps in our local curriculum space. It was a chance for us to connect, inquire, and reflect on our whakawhanungatanga as a Kāhui Ako, and with Te Ātiawa as one of our mana whenua in this rohe.
0 Comments
Ché Hancock joined our management team at the end of last year to represent our 11 ECEs. Che is Kaiwhakahaere / Senior Head Teacher at Owhiro Bay Kindergarten and brings passion and fresh energy to the role. Our first ECE Connect for the year was hosted by Newtown Kindergarten. This meeting gave kaiako from different centres a chance to get to know each other or catch up with old friends as well as to hear about what’s going on in our Kāhui Ako. We look forward to more Connect events coming up through the year.  We recognise the importance of our commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and have done a lot of mahi to upskill our staff across the kāhui ako in this space, however this has been through the lens of decolonisation, and has up until now been a “one size fits all” approach. We recognise that this journey can be challenging for our māori staff, and that this work is deeply personal to you and your whānau, and would like to provide a space where you can navigate your response to what has happened in Aotearoa, and how it affects you.
We are providing a personalised programme for any kaimahi Māori throughout our kāhui ako designed to support, encourage and strengthen you - run by Māori for Māori. Attendance in these sessions will remain voluntary. This programme will be facilitated by Nathan Riki and Janelle Riki-Waaka, and is for anyone who identifies as Māori throughout our Kāhui Ako - whether they be teachers, teacher aides or support staff.The mahi will begin with a full day Wānanga, and then be followed by way of a fortnightly wānanga (either online or kanohi ki te kanohi) of approximately 1.5 hours - fully responsive to your needs. We will be meeting at Newtown School - and kai will be provided for the day. Ongoing wānanga times will be discussed and agreed upon when you are all together. If you are yet to register, please register your attendance for our first Wānanga: Term 2: Thursday 4 May 9am to 3pm - REGISTRATION LINK HERE Whakamana i te Tiriti o Waitangi
Embodying Te Tiriti o Waitangi in your teaching practice Janelle Riki-Waaka, our keynote presenter, was outstanding and her kōrero around success is one that is both challenging and inspiring, and certainly contained some “wedgie” moments! Success as Māori (vs Success of Māori) encourages schools and kaiako to look at how to grow in their Māoritanga. Engaging with our school whānau to identify what success of their tamariki means to them is important. Janelle suggested a greater focus on Māori forms of giftedness can enable schools to reframe perceptions of Māori achievement and intrinsic value. Janelle has shared her slides with us - we encourage you to go back and revisit the slides, either in your teams or as a whole school, and take some time to reflect on the statements that resonated or challenged you in some way. Remember - one small action can make a big difference! What you do matters. Iti noa ana, he pito mata. With care, a small kūmara will produce a harvest. We are excited to be meeting with you on Monday (1st August) at our Kāhui Ako Super Hui and are looking forward to connecting together. At the end of our last Super Hui we were left with a wero from the words of Maya Angelou: "Do the best you can until you know better; then when you know better, do better." We took some time to reflect and come up with an action in order to be able to "do better". Please come ready to share about the action you have taken, and any impact you may have seen on your ākonga. Here is the programme for the day. Information you need to know: There is no need to sign in - you have been registered as part of your school or Centre. Venue: Wellington High School Timata: Afternoon tea served from 2.30pm, doors to hall open 2.45pm. Please say your own karakia mo te kai on arrival - one will be on display. Please also refrain from taking food into the hall so we can remain masked when we are all together. Mutunga: 5pm Bring - yourself, listening ears, open hearts, a smile and a face mask! here to edit.  Our Hauora workshop – Supporting Socially at-risk Students took place in Week 7. It was great to see people from across the school profile attending as well as the support from RTLB teachers and Susie Harcourt (Educational Psychologist) from MoE creating rich discussion.
There is always plenty to share in these sessions! Examples of personal concerns, students to consider as ‘at-risk’, and identifying actions taking place within schools. We discussed the complexity of factors affecting student connectedness and how to identify the needs of students using a Social Connectedness flowchart. There is a good sense of school-wide systems in place to support socially at-risk students, and kaiako led initiatives, but not so much awareness of ‘how’ students support others who are socially ‘isolated’. What does whakawhanaungatanga look / sound / feel like for your students? How do students perceive the social inclusiveness of school environments? How do we support students to be social inclusive? These are the slides from the Supporting Socially At-Risk Students slideshow. The link to Susie's Tips for Hacking Happy Hormones article is great reading. The Hauora workshop group notes summarise some of the thoughts, and ideas arising. Interesting to note:
We will build upon this work in the Term 3 workshop. Community of Practice Week 7 It was amazing to get together to begin collective mahi in week 7 after term ones Community of Practice was cancelled. We had an amazing session with some very robust discussions about how much Power we kaiako yield in our learning spaces and in our school. We delved into power being visible, hidden and invisible and were asked to reflect on what our ākonga would say? Integral to this collective mahi is how we are are being culturally responsive. Here are some pātai to reflect upon from the session. AKO: To learn and to teach
The workshop was again facilitated by Dr Mark Osborne from Leading Learning. It was great to connect kanohi ki te kanohi and get some insights into different styles of leadership and how innovation is diffused within an organisation. There was opportunity to test the models shared against WSL's own practice. We considered how to support change in a way that both challenges people, but also provides a level of safety and security to 'take the risk out' of adopting innovations. This enables each person to manage 'change' in a way that supports them to integrate new learning into their practice. The resources shared during the session have been added to the WSL page on our website. Further reading on the source material for this session can be found in this book.  Kia ora Koutou
We are looking forward to our upcoming Super Hui - bringing all our Schools and Centres together. We are excited about our keynote speaker Janelle Riki-Waaka and the expertise and challenge that she will provide us. Here is the link to our Super Hui Flyer and Registration Form - please distribute this to all your staff. We would appreciate it if registrations could be completed by the end of this week. We will have afternoon tea from 2.30pm as people arrive, please register by 2:50pm, and the Superhui will start at 3pm on Monday 16 May at Wellington High School (details on flyer). If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to let us know. We look forward to hosting you. Ngā mihi Across School Lead Team Ko taku reo taku ohooho, ko taku reo taku mapihi mauria.
My language is my awakening, my language is the window to my soul. This is a whakataukī (proverb) closely associated with language revitalization, a struggle which is very important in maintaining culture It has been exciting to start our year-long commitment to learning te reo Māori with Dr Alice Patrick from Arahia Associates. We have nearly 30 teachers coming along to begin their journey together. We are currently meeting online and looking forward to being “kanohi ki te kanohi” (face to face) in the near future! With whakawhanaungatanga at the heart, Alice led our first two sessions, building connections, and getting to know one another - a very important part of Te Ao Māori. As we grow together, and build our confidence, we look forward to hearing more Te Reo Māori being spoken in our classrooms and learning spaces across our Kāhui Ako. A huge shout out to all those who are investing the time and effort to learning Te Reo Māori - it is exciting to see the enthusiasm you all bring to our sessions together! Ko te reo te mauri o te mana Māori The language is the heart and soul of the mana of Māoridom. |
Our Termly NewsletterS2019 Retrospective
Archives
April 2023
|
RSS Feed
