"I liked the opportunity to talk through the project with others. The structures discussed were very useful." Week 9 saw our ASLs and WSLs gather together again for our termly hui, focused on change leadership and project/inquiry design. Facilitated by Karen Spencer and Nicki Read (DP, Newtown), we walked through a range of tools to help us:
The rest of the session invited the team to focus in on purposeful actions for Term 3, and closed with a commitment to these. We look forward to seeing what emerges! 
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 Our Term 2 TeachMeet brought teachers together who were keen to explore thinking so far related to the new History curriculum. It was facilitated by Kathryn Hutchinson, History teacher at Wellington High, and all our schools were represented :)
While we noted it is currently in draft, this was an opportunity to share thinking, ponderings and progress. This built on the Term 1 TeachMeet held at Pukeahu Education Centre. The resources from the Ministry to help kura plan into this space were useful. Our notes were captured in this shared doc, including the slides. There will be further opportunity to keep mapping and exploring, as the new curriculum comes to light.  The focus of this session was to acknowledge the common language we share in the NZC, and the varied ways in which in-school contexts are vehicles for the key competencies (capabilities) and student agency. Building on our community of practice from last term, we began by taking a deep dive into the ‘thinking’ and ‘managing self’ key competencies. It was interesting to think about the many different ways in which we think. We then used the knowledge about the key competencies to notice how they were being taught in the context of inquiry/project based learning. Each school presented an example of the teaching at their school. There is great value in sharing our practice across schools and the morning tea break provided an opportunity to continue conversations and find out more from each other. As we listened to each other’s presentations, we noticed how the thinking and managing self competencies were being taught both explicitly and implicitly through the project based/inquiry teaching. And to finish we began mapping the teaching of these competencies across our learning pathway from year 0 to year 13. Our intention is to continue building on this record as we explore different contexts. Next term’s context will be science.
A small but enthusiastic group of teachers from across the Kāhui Ako interested in Universal Design for Learning met on Thursday 10th June from 4-5 pm to share their practice and knowledge of UDL. We discussed the difference between differentiation and universal design and considered where our own practice fits in the model below. Justine Henderson, DP from Newtown School reminded us there is a progression from the green to the red box, with the goal being student agency.  We decided to make this a regular catch-up and will meet again for an afternoon next term. Anyone interested in UDL would be welcome to join us.
Mā mua ka kite a muri.
Mā muri ka ora a mua. Those who lead give sight to those who follow. Those who follow give life to those who lead. Our whanaungatanga activity for this session involved everyone taking a whakatoukī and putting actions to it and sharing it back. It was great to see the collective creativity of our rōpū. Today’s session was framed with two stories - a huge MIHI to Tony and Ben for sharing your journey with us. Tony’s story was in relation to his response to hearing about the Doctrine of Discovery and Ben shared his journey in restorative practice and how this related to the culturally responsive space. Ben also led us in a session to unpack the new website from the Teaching Council called “UNTEACH RACISM”. This is a powerful and challenging website and well worth taking the time to work through the modules - these could also be valuable PLD. The rest of our session was our deep dive into aspects of our practice. Some of us looked at whānau engagement, some looked at how to respond effectively to resistance, and some looked at next steps for either their classroom practice, or whole school practice. This Community of Practice is research-based and the teachers who are attending are investing their time and energy into making a positive difference for their Māori students - thank you to everyone for your hard work, vulnerability and willingness to share! We are learning great things from one another! Nāku te rourou, Nāu te rourou. Ka ora ai te iwi. With my basket, and your basket the people will be fed.  It was fabulous to connect with a group of our ECE teachers around our transitions and learner pathways. The group contributed an ECE perspective to our Kāhui Ako Transitions document which documents the transition practices in our Kāhui from ECE right through to Year 13. We are beginning to get a rich picture of our learner pathway which is exciting. We then took some time to unpack and rank the Te Whāriki Online resource on transitions. This has given us great insight into what is important for our ECE Centres and where best to allocate resource and professional development. A huge thank you to Newtown Kindergarten for hosting us so well - we enjoyed having the opportunity to meet in your beautiful space!   Poipoia te kakano, Kia puawai!
Nurture the seed and it will blossom. There is nothing more inspiring than bringing a group of innovative teachers together to talk about ways in which they have connected and built relationships with their Māori learners and their whānau. This was the take-away from our session in Term 1, and some great insights were gained as teachers took time to really engage with their Māōri learners and share what worked, what they found out and how they knew they had been successful. We worked on what critical questions remain for us in this space, and will be looking at how we can continue to deepen our practice. DEEP DIVE - know better, do better! We spent some time digging deeply into case studies and research in order to inform our next steps in relation to our teaching practice = praxis. We then created a visual image to show the journey and our thinking - an example from Houghton Valley School is included. Here are links to some of the materials we were looking at - you may like to take some time to check these out yourself, and think about how these could impact your own practice:
Link to the page with questions and key content. Link to the video about Jane’s Story. Ruth’s story - ako Link to the page with questions and key content. Link to the video about Ruth’s Story. Tu’u’s story - students leading in the classroom Link to the page with questions and key content. Link to the video about Tu’u’s Story. Community of Practice 20 May 2021
“It is through the mutual exchange of expressed affect that we build community, creating the emotional bonds that tie us all together.” - Nathanson, 1998 The conscientization around Relational Practices within the Capital City Kahui Āko continues to deepen individual and collective practices. In this session we continued to transition from teachers and leaders ‘Circle of Control’ to influencing the lived experiences of others through mana-enhancing actions. Teachers spoke about the reciprocity required in schools and classrooms to ensure that relationships are equitable. Central to this is the tone of voice being used in schools and classrooms. One participant spoke of a ‘tone of curiosity’ – about not assuming that we know the answer, or hold all of the knowledge when speaking with others. One model of particular interest was Thomas R. Gordon’s Roadblocks to Relationships – sometimes called the ‘dirty dozen’. Increasing collective awareness of these habitual responses may be a first step to more positive responses to relational situations. Restorative Practice philosophies of working with others in a supportive and non-judgmental way reinforced a positive way of how to do this. How people ‘feel’ in response to interactions is a good indicator of these ‘with’ values becoming lived values within our schools. This has been earmarked by participants as an area identified for future work. “The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.” - Joseph Campbell We will continue to build this framework to ensure that all people within our Kahui Ako are celebrated and feel valued. Please follow the link to the Hauora_ 2 Manaakitanga_ Session slides if interested. This day felt like a significant moment for our Kāhui Ako. Finally, we had everyone in the WHS hall again able to connect, share and build on our collective understanding. The set up of the hall and the day exemplified what we want to achieve as a Kāhui Ako: the beautiful table arrangements were created by Ruth Thomas and her students from Newtown School; the voices of students rang out in the wonderful performance from the Kapa Haka Rōpū from Te Kura o Ngā Puna Waiora, Newtown School and the video created by Andrew Gordon from his interviews with students across our seven schools; and workshops facilitated by teachers from every school. Above all, we all had the opportunity to be physically in the same place to connect and share our ideas. Many thanks to Dr Melinda Webber for her provocative keynote address about building manaakitanga for our rangatira and to Nathan Crocker from Island Bay School for sharing his teaching journey. And a huge mihi to our workshop presenters for sharing their knowledge and experience so generously with our Kāhui Ako. Please contact us if you would like to get in touch with any of the presenters. Future-Focussed Learning Amy Burt (Island Bay) The best of both worlds: Collaborative hub practices in single-cell environments. Bernie Wills (WHS) Agency: Just a buzz word or a real thing Caitlin van Ballekom and Lizzie Waipara (Island Bay) Beginners’ to drama teaching Kyle Webb (WHS) Creating an inquiry process for integrated projects at WHS Prue MacFarlane (WHS) Teaching and learning in science Hauora Nicki Read (Newtown) Effective collaboration: Create excellent teams Maeve Reid and Nat Bell (WHS) Connection, belonging and shared values: Co-constructing team culture and class culture Julie Hanify (Ridgway) and Mary McCallum Understanding learners on the Autistic Spectrum and those with ADHD Hannah Paton-Smith, Sophia Barclay (Y12) and Iris Broadley (Y13) (WHS) Supporting gender diversity and LGBT+ learners in our schools and classrooms Susie Harcourt (MOE) The effects of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and managing these in schools Cultural Identity Dr Melinda Webber Kia tū rangatira ai: Learning, succeeding and thriving at school Melissa Young (Poutama Pounamu) Working with whānau: As a leader and/or a teacher Claire O’Fee (Poutama Pounamu) Deliberate acts of teaching Kathryn Hutchinson (WHS) Bringing our local stories of the past to life: How are we teaching NZ history across our schools? It has been exciting to hear of schools building in opportunities for their staff to share their learning from the day, and we look forward to continued opportunities for sharing and connecting over the rest of the year.
Over the course of this term, SENCOs have been meeting with Across School Lead, Libby Hainsworth, to collate the anonymized learner needs and support for our ākonga, across our cluster of schools. In our recent hui held on 25 March, we came together view the pooled data of our primary schools and intermediate. This hui has begun the process of identifying patterns of strengths and needs across our schools and identifying what other information do we wish to glean in our analysis of the data. In our next hui which will be held early in term 2 we will look deeper into the pooled data, which will include that of our college.
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