Thursday 7 May, 3.30—4.30, via Zoom 

How can we design pedagogy that stretches to meet a wide range of student needs? Let’s share what we have been doing as we teach remotely. How have student experiences/feedback altered our approach to how we plan and teach our lessons, and what can we take back into a face to face classroom? ​Use our email on our contacts page if you would like to join this session.

to Following on from our first remote learning session, we would like to offer the following opportunities to connect our seven kura and share stories of practice:

Session #1 — Remote learning planning Wed 8 April

Preparing for Level 4 at the start of Term 2  |  Session notes

Session #2 — Level 3 planning Friday 24 April, 9am

A chance to share stories of how we are using technology successfully (we think!) with our students and our teachers in our new environment (and to do so while it is still relevant in this fast-changing world). Time for Q&A to solve puzzles too! Facilitated by Karen.  |  Session notes

Session #3 - Whānau-centred planning:  Thursday 30 April 3.30—4.30, via Zoom 

Let’s talk about what we are doing / planning now to include whānau in our discussions about teaching, as well as how we are supporting learner and whānau wellbeing. These are key questions our Kāhui Ako are asking, not just with remote learning but also into a face-to-face, uncertain future.  |  Session notes

Session #4 -  Curriculum design for our diverse learners:  Thursday 7 May, 3.30—4.30, via Zoom 

How can we design pedagogy that stretches to meet a wide range of student needs? Let’s share what we have been doing as we teach remotely. How have student experiences/feedback altered our approach to how we plan and teach our lessons, and what can we take back into a face to face classroom? 

​Use our email on the contacts page if you would like join this session.

The programme was looking amazing with so many offers of support from across all our schools — thank you!
It is, of course, disappointing that we had to make this decision, but your health and well-being are paramount!

The Kāhui Ako is here to support you all to share and connect, as needed, over the coming weeks.

​Keep an eye on our Facebook page and we will also send around a Google Doc for people to use to pool ideas and advice to support all our learners and staff. ​

It is so exciting to see the amazing work the Within School teachers are doing. Here is a bit of a taster of what some of them are up to.
Maeve Ried, Natalie Bell and Roger Mantel from Wellington High School have recognized the importance of teams of teachers taking the time to understand each other and build a team kaupapa. To this end, they have been meeting with the teams of teachers who work with the year 9s and 10s. Typically four teachers (English, maths, science and social studies) work with two classes in these Herengatahi groups. Maeve and Nat have facilitated conversations, asking:

• Who are you? (Where do you come from? Who are your whānau? What’s important in your culture?)
• What motivates you? (could be non-teacher-specific; we’re humans!)
• What are your strengths and challenges for this year?
• How can we create a team culture to promote hauora and the values of herengetahi?

The aim is that the teachers will then be able to take this process through to their classes to share a kaupapa and be working towards common goals.

Kyle Webb from Wellington High School has also been planning for the year 9 and 10 Herengatahi classes - to increase the opportunities for meaningful integrated learning. The plan is to suspend normal subject timetables for three weeks. In preparation, Kyle is creating exemplar integrated units and processes to encourage teachers to co-construct topics of interest with their students that will lead to real-life engagement and actions with the community. He is documenting an example process with his team that can be shared with others.
Julie Hanify from Ridgway school has been working on transitions for students into new classes at the beginning of the year. Last year she organized vulnerable students to have STEM classes with their teachers for the next year and set up a tuakana-teina system. This year she has been interviewing the students. Her question has been: How can we share good practice?

Debbie Purves from Newtown School completed an inquiry process last year, investigating how to build capabilities through co-curricular activities called ‘time to thrive.’ Her new investigation will include more co-construction with teachers and students to build activities from the ground up. She is enjoying slowing down and taking more time to hear the stories of both the teachers and the students. Her question to teachers signing up students to activities is, “Why those kids?” and her gentle challenge is to ask teachers to be aware of their assumptions and reflect on their decision making processes.

Paul Cooper from SWIS is putting together an inquiry based on his school’s wellbeing data and how to support wellbeing and hauora in the school. At this stage, he is still in the scanning phase of an inquiry.

Lauren Sims from Houghton Valley School has been at the school and in the WSL role for a whole three weeks. She has established that wellbeing is the priority for her school and meeting the needs for the diversity of the school – especially the rainbow and gender diverse families. She is going to be doing the online Potama Pounamu course and will be sharing with staff how they can improve wellbeing through better cultural responsiveness. At this stage, she is still in in the scanning phase of an inquiry.

Jo Sciascia from Owhiro Bay has gone ‘meta’ inquiring about inquiry learning. She is focusing on building an Owhiro Bay inquiry method and progression through the school based on curriculum levels. They have a skeleton framework now and will be building on it over the year with the new team of teachers at the school. Jo's next step will be to talk to the students and get their feedback, as the tools they are building are for the students to be able to talk about their learning and need to be age-appropriate. She also wants to create a sustainable process that will survive changes in teachers.

​

It was fantastic to see so many of teachers from across our schools representing the Year 0-10 learning pathway at our first TeachMeet session yesterday afternoon.  We kicked off with a refresh of the focus and touched on a new paper that schools can use to self-review progress with the curriculum rollout, the ERO Report  - with the 'get ..set..go! rubrics for self-review.

The TeachMeet unconference-style suited a sharing of ideas — and there was rapid exchange of ideas and questions for each other. Importantly, it was a chance for teachers in the same area to connect, which will sow the seeds for future conversations and supports.

Here are the links to the docs that were shared - and we have created a shared space to capture our first ideas:

• Slides from the session
• Shared doc/notes from the session

​
We look forward to further support in the coming months and thank all the teachers for their generosity in sharing their practice.

It is exciting to be heading into a new phase with our Community of Learning. We hope 2020 will be characterised by increased sharing of practice and the strengthening of collective knowledge to support the pathways of our tamariki and rangatahi. We welcome Toby Stokes to our Kāhui Ako as the new Principal of South Wellington Intermediate School.

It is encouraging to hear how our schools have aligned their strategic planning to our shared mahi. The start of the year has been characterised by the following:

• First hui with the Management Team - Claire O’Fee and Lynette Bradnam (Ngāti Kahungunu, Kai Tahu, Rangitāne) from Poutama Pounamu came to facilitate our discussions about culturally capable leadership. WE have also started scoping meetings with the schools that will be working directly with Poutama Pounamu
  
• We have advertised our first TeachMeet for early March to bring teachers together from across our schools to pool understanding about how we are implementing the new Digital Technologies curriculum.
  
• Our Kaitiaki Group meets again on 11 March
  
• Planning is underway for:
  
  • Talking with students to understand key themes in our shared Wellbeing@School data
    
  • Our Teacher Only Day on 9 April
    
  • Applying for further funding from the Ministry for professional learning
    
  • Convening our working group to focus on powerful practices that create student-centred learning
    
  • Bringing together those in our schools who work in learning Support (RTLB liaison, Guidance, SENCO, Learning Services etc)
    
  • Bringing together our Within School leads to support their work in our schools
    
  • Connecting with other Kāhui Ako across the region
    

Atawhai ngā rito, kia puāwai ngā tamariki.
Ako i ngā tamariki, kia tu tāngata ai, tātou katoa.
​
Cherish and nurture the shoots, so the children will bloom.
Learn from and with these children, so that we all can stand tall.

It has been a busy start to the year for our Kāhui Ako Lead Team — and we are delighted that a vital initiative has started with a hiss and a roar. We are now working with facilitators, Claire O'Fee and Lynette Bradnam (Ngāti Kahungunu, Kai Tahu, Rangitāne), from the Poutama Pounamu team at the University of Waikato. They will walk alongside our Kāhui Ako to help us strengthen the way we support our tamariki and rangatahi. The first couple of weeks of term have seen them work with the Senior Leaders in our schools, and also meet for scoping conversations with Owhiro Bay, Houghton Valley, Ridgway, Newtown School and Wellington High. We look forward to unpacking and exploring our practices with them over the coming weeks. 

For the slower version of the slides, you can view them here: Retrospective 2019.  We look forward to continuing our work with you in the new year!

With a view to enhance a shared understanding of what the Within School Leads' (WSLs) inquiries are across the Kāhui Ako, the WSLs shared the key focus of their inquiries in this session.  The Story Hui approach was used, and despite the lateness in the year, it was exciting to feel the passion and energy in the room around these inquiries.