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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
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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.  It was great to see so many of our leaders at the first online hui this term. Each Leadership hui is an opportunity for ASLs and WSLs to share practice, hear about each other's work and strengthen their ability to lead inquiry and walk alongside colleagues.
This year, our sessions are facilitated by Dr Mark Osborne, Leading Learning, and is was great to be able to get started with him, albeit remotely. The session allowed for a snapshot of what everyone is working on, and a dive into effective inquiry practices and relational trust. The resources shared during the session have been added to the WSL page on our website and our next session is on Thursday 19 May.  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 whakatauki (proverb) closely associated with language revitalization, a struggle which is very important in maintaining culture It has been a challenging term for Kāhui Ako-wide events, with a number of sessions being postponed as we grapple with Covid-related absences. That said, we were excited to start our year-long commitment to learning te reo Māori with Dr Alice Patrick, Arahia Associates. The first session might have been shorter, and online, but we had nearly 30 teachers come along to begin their journey together. With whakawhanaungatanga at the heart, Alice took us into the first session, building connections, and getting to know who is in the room. It is vital that we embed our te reo learning in Māori tikanga and this will strengthen the feelings of safety and togetherness that we will need in order to develop our learning. We look forward to continuing over the coming weeks. Ko te reo te mauri o te mana Māori – The language is the heart and soul of the mana of Māoridom  It has been great to see all our staff and young people return after summer but, of course, we are still working to respond to the challenges we are all facing. Our Kāhui Ako is now in its third year of programming — and the third year of Covid! Flexibility is our middle name — but collaboration certainly isn't easy when each school/centre also needs to work hard to adapt and support their own families. We have shared ideas and expertise wherever we can.
Staffing update
2022 Programme We start the year with refreshed Achievement Challenges, vision statement and a full programme for 2022. We continue to work with Poutama Poutamu (University of Waikato) both in and across school, while Alice Patrick (Arahia Associates) will be leading Te Reo Māori classes for kaiako, and Dr Mark Osborne will be supporting our Within and Across School Leads. >>>View our 2022 plan here. Two year Wellbeing@School (NZCER) data At the end of 2021, we explored the two-year data from the NZCER Wellbeing@School survey. There have been some positive shifts in how far students share school values and we intend to continue to focus on teacher/student relations around socio-emotional health and how we support students' capabilities to learn, and learn together. These are at the heart of our two Communities of Practice this year. What do whānau value as tamariki move between our schools? >> We completed a whānau survey in Term 4, 2021 which has it highlighted key themes about what our parents value, what they feel is working and what we might strengthen. This will inform conversations this year between school lead teams. In this session we viewed He Pikourua's Tiered Support Model that outlines three, dynamic and blended, tiers of support for learners. We discussed how the effective internal interventions shared at our previous hui might fit within this model. Alison (RTLB) and Victoria Parsons (MOE) then lead discussion about they could fit in with this framework with external support.
Key outcomes of this discussion were: 1. To continue to explore how our internal and external supports align with the Tiered Support Model to guide a more consistent approach across and within our schools. 2. To provide Professional Learning Support for teachers on:
A big thank you to all of the Learning Services and Support Community of Practice members for their mahi over the year! Hui Slides here.  Ahakoa he iti, he pounamu This was our theme for this final hui bringing together our ASLs and WSLs to focus on aspects of change leadership. We continued to identify and build on our strengths, based on the Mana Model and a 'Reflected Best Self' activity. We pooled inspiring texts that inform and guide as us, as well as creating a one slide summary of our journey and impact this year.
The sessions have been a valuable 'pause' each term for WSLs in their busy weeks and we look forward to continuing our mahi next year. Thursday 4 November 2021 Ka mua, ka muri Walking backwards into the future Understanding our local histories and stories is an integral part of the new Histories curriculum, and an exciting journey that we can embark on together. As we look to the past, it can inform our future, giving us context, understandings and agency to make a positive difference in our world. Ihaia Puketapu from Te Atiawa was our guest speaker at this Teach Meet - and unlocked a treasure trove of historical knowledge - taking us right back to early arrivals to New Zealand - long before Europeans arrived on the scene. We enjoyed hearing a rich narrative about the different stages of Te Ao Māori history, changes in thinking and behaviours and ways in which early Māori responded to this land. Ihaia was able to link together historical architectural knowledge alongside narratives handed down from kaumatua through the generations. Ihaia generously shared a document with us: Kōrero o ngā Tūpuna - Whanganui-a-Tara. This is well worth a read, and will be a useful resource for anyone wanting to know more about the history of Te Ao Māori. It is well researched, and contains many links to historical records. A strong theme of the Teach Meet was the concept of being “Kaitiaki” and looking at the impacts of our actions on our local environment - for example the extinction of the Moa and the Huia and what was learned. We look forward to continuing our learning with Ihaia Puketapu in 2022.  Ma te kahukura, ka rere te manu.
Adorn the bird with feathers and it will fly. This whakatauki reminds us of the importance of knowledge and understanding - recognising that as we consider and reflect on our teaching practice with the end goal of strengthening the ways in which we build relationships and impact learners, we are creating conditions for our tamariki to fly - to experience success. The journey in our Community of Practice has deepened this term, as we have taken time to move from a Matairangi perspective (big picture) to a Matainuku perspective (personal). We are challenging ourselves in the ways in which we are enacting a culturally relational pedagogy in our own teaching spaces. In this session we did a deep dive into an excellent reading: A commentary on Ngā Pou Here, ERO’s framework for reviewing early childhood services. Whilst this is in an ECE context, it is full of rich descriptions that help to inform our bicultural understandings. It is exciting to consider our Māori learners and the ways in which we can partner with them in order for them to experience success. Claire O’Fee from Poutama Pounamu led this workshop in response to the needs identified from earlier transitions workshops, our transitions survey, and the Transitions Tracking document. Discussions were rich and highlighted the shared needs, and foci, across all our centres from ECE to senior secondary students. Groups focused on how the cultural relationship metaphors (whanau, whakapapa, kaupapa) are aligned with deliberate acts of teaching to foster friendships. How do centres and schools facilitate friendships? How do these actions reflect a Te Ao Maori view? A strong theme that emerged was that of walking alongside others to support and nurture relationships – and the significance of modelling relational strategies with students. Knowing students, using their names when around others, promoting shared interests / activities, inviting-in fringe participants to group work, and sustaining shared engagement were identified as key factors of building relationships. Claire shared a reading 'A Commentary on Ngā Pou Here, ERO's Framework for Reviewing Early Childhood Services' exploring themes of whakapapa and whanaungatanga - both themes from the Poutama Pounamu work, and relevant to all centres and schools. Some big questions emerged from our mahi about strengthening the networks between centres and between schools, and ways of working to best meet student needs in this important space – particularly, how do we know what is working for students? We hope to explore these questions in future sessions.
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