Up until now Nga Iwi School has reported to parents through writing twice a year. This includes one meet the teacher meeting and one three way conference with teacher, whanau and tamariki. Throughout the year, the school has open mornings, a variety of school events and teachers have informal conversations with parents when the opportunity arises or is required. Current national guidelines state that quality assessment is communicated with parents in writing, a minimum of twice a year, in plain language (T.K.I., n.d). In 2020, Nga Iwi School will be moving from twice written reporting to real-time reporting using the Seesaw app. This entry investigates how Nga Iwi is using government and ministry guidelines, frameworks, key documents and policy to guide us to real-time reporting.
The advent of real-time reporting at Nga Iwi School has involved a focused look by leadership at a variety of policies and administrative guidelines. We have sought parent opinion and feedback relating to the concept of online reporting and monitored interest in moving towards real-time reporting. Research states that parental involvement in children’s education has a positive influence on achievement (Fan, X., et.al. 2001). Our purpose for moving to this model of reporting is wholly focused on bringing the classroom to the parents, getting them connected to the learning, making it ubiquitous and accessible at home. The Ministry of Education recognises parents as key stakeholders in raising student achievement and success (T.K.I., n.d).
Moving to an online platform the Nga Iwi School leadership team is using a variety of Ministry of Education sources to ensure we will meet administrative guidelines and expectations for implementation. This takes time as there are a multitude of resources out there. The main resources referred to, but not limited to are; T.K.I’s Assessment online, Digital Technology: Safe and Responsible Use in Schools and NetsafeSchools.org. We continue to visit many other documents including the National Education and Learning Priorities (NELPs), Ka Hikitia and the Plan for Pacific Education. All of these documents hold relevance and importance to our context and it is important that we involve them in the development of our reporting system.
We are making links between the MoE and Netsafe frameworks and connecting them to the NELPs, Ka Hikitia and the Pasifika Education Plan. Aligning these systems will give us clarity to our purpose and the direction we are headed. Being in a low socio-economic community, equity and barrier free access is an issue we have to address. Our COVID experience gave us a window into accessibility for our tamariki and whanau. We discovered over time that online access increased in our community from approximately 45% pre-COVID to 90% post. This data positively informed us of the ability for our whanau to access the reporting app. Our next step is introducing whanau to the app. We surveyed interest in real-time reporting with parents after the first lock down and during whanau conferences. 70% of those surveyed expressed interest in the new system and 80% of those were interested in parent training for the app. 30% preferred the current form of reporting twice a year in writing. Providing opportunities for our community to learn about the app is important in engaging those less confident and unsure of the benefits and purpose of the new system.
Ensuring the platform is equitable, consideration needs to be given to the cultural lens our context has on how we report to parents. The app enhances this aspect of the new system. Language, identity and culture are at the heart of our tamariki. Real-time reporting allows our tamariki to visually connect their learning to their whanau by sharing their learning on time, in real time with their loved ones. We encourage our students to use their heritage language in their learning, which means their whanau at home who may be stronger in their first language, will be able to understand and communicate about the learning with their tamariki. This is an exciting aspect of this system. Whanau will be better informed and more frequently updated on the learning and progress of their tamariki as it happens. Among the actions stipulated in the Pacfic Education Plan, to design education opportunities and work reciprocally with whanau (MOE. 2020), the reporting platform is a space where parents who wouldn’t normally be directly involved in their child’s learning, could now be engaged. Barriers such as language can be removed as parents can communicate with their tamariki in their home language through the comments option.
With so much information available to schools, it has become evident while going through this process that it is important for schools to ensure they are accessing Ministry guidelines and documentation. Doing this gives the process strength in direction and functionality, always ensuring the students are central to the purpose.
As processes and school designed guidelines are developed, back mapping is crucial to ensure you are staying on track. Nga Iwi School are confident they have met government and community expectations in developing this system and will continue to review and reflect on the system.
Fan, X., & Chen, M. (2001). Parental involvement and students' academic achievement: A meta-analysis. Educational psychology review, 13(1), 1-22.
Ministry of Education. (2020). Action Plan for Pacific Education. Retrieved from: https://conversation-space.s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/Pacific+Education+Plan_WEB.PDF
Te Kete Ipurangi. (n.d). Why Report to Parents and Whanau. Website.
Retrieved from: https://assessment.tki.org.nz/Reporting-to-parents-whanau/Why-report-to-parents-and-whanau
Te Kete Ipurangi. (n.d). Report time. Website. Retrieved from: https://assessment.tki.org.nz/Reporting-to-parents-whanau/Report-time
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