Curriculum Voices Group Hui #2

 The Curriculum Voices Group is a diverse group of people from across Aotearoa to draw on a range of voices and perspectives.  The role of the group is to provide guidance and feedback on design, development and implementation of the refreshed curriculum.  Key words delivered at Hui #2 were - Bicultural/Inclusive, Clear and Easy to Use. 

Implementation of the curriculum is taking place over a 5 year period, all eight areas are to be delivered across that time starting with the new Aotearoa Histories Curriculum and Social Sciences.  There will be a refreshed vision, and key competencies, Mātauranga Māori, literacy and numeracy will be woven throughout.  Curriculum levels will be replaced by phases in a progression framework.  Achievement objectives will be replaced by progress statements.  There are number of groups involved in the curriculum refresh process.  There are the writers, the working group, the review & testers, the focus groups.  All of these groups feedback, ideas and suggestions are shared and discussed with the voices group.  Sessions during Hui #2 included the direction of the refresh, the draft bicultural and inclusive framework components, draft social sciences feedback, preparing for the change, feedback from the office of the children's commissioner, literacy and Math strategies and comms and engagement.

Being part of the Curriculum voices group has given me and our school the opportunity to add clarity to what's ahead.  In sharing my learning with staff I likened it to having a seat at the table as opposed to being on the menu.  We have an opportunity to be part of this curriculum refresh, being done 'with' instead of done 'to', which is often how educators feel when new key documents are released to schools.  

Trauma informed practice - Teacher Only Day

 Teachers often reflect on what the job entails.  There has been many conversations across the motu of the different roles teachers have in their day - educator, mum/dad, nurse, psychologist, friend, mediator, seamstress, athlete, artist, judge, jury, writer, policeman...the list is endless.

We know as educators, the ability of a child to learn is determined by a number of things but where it starts for the teacher is in the well being and relationships they develop with each student in front of them.  If students don't have these things sorted first, they probably wont meet their true potential.

Today our TOD focused on working with kids who have suffered trauma.  We worked with the MoE Learning Support team - Sara, Hannah and May.  To be honest I was a little nervous leading into the day as I know the content of trauma can be difficult to navigate. We all have stories to tell of our experiences of working with kids who have suffered trauma and some teachers themselves may have suffered trauma in the past which is not the knowledge of all, I was unsure how this would be managed.  I trusted the skills and expertise of the professionals facilitating the session.

The facilitators navigated through a range of content, beginning with culturally sustainable connection to us.  Staff were made to feel comfortable, working in an environment created by the facilitators that was both open and safe.  By opening themselves up, sharing their culture and heritage through pepeha and experience, we felt safe in being able to share our thoughts and ideas openly with each other.  Working in a predominantly Pacifica/Maori community, it was important that the content was culturally appropriate.  Our 3 facilitators navigated this exceptionally well, giving guidance and advice that connected to our community and more specifically to the teachers - much of this was done through whakatauki and activities with a cultural twist.

The content delivered specific to trauma is content that I believe every teacher should know and learn about.  The neurological impacts, what behaviours manifest through it, the impacts those behaviours have on the child, how we recognise them, what we can do to manage and in some cases negate behaviours.  The content was delivered with four objectives in mind - Awareness (Matauranga), Learn (Ako), Support (Tautoko) and Protect (Paruru).  We learned about; developmental trauma, culturally responsive practice within trauma informed practice, the adverse childhood experience (ACE) study, Protective and Compensatory Experiences study (PACES), how the brain is affected, fight/flight/freeze, Social and emotional learning through Whare Tapawha and Pacifica perspectives.

Our staff finished the day sharing some of their new learning, the things that impacted them most and their
biggest takeaways.  They learned to walk in the sunshine, not in the shadows - focus on the brightness each child brings, not the darkness they encounter.  This workshop was engaging, informative and hugely reflective.  It gave staff tools for their kite to use and reflect on.  What our students go through outside of school is for the most part unknown to us and out of our control.  We focus on what is in front of us and how we can grow our tamariki to be the best they can be.  This is one PLD that we all walked away from feeling reflective, enlightened and humbled.

What Principals need & What Principals need to be!

Tautai o le Moana - Staff Briefing

Following the Tautai o le Moana fono I attended and reported in my earlier post, I wanted to share my learning with our staff.  I was thinking, if anyone asked staff what changes had happened at our school since my participation in the initiative, they would say 'nothing' or 'I don't know'!  I felt that the Tauati journey started with me.  I spent the year coming to grips with where I sat with my knowledge and understanding of what Pacifica success looked like at our kura and what way finding looked like and felt like for me.  So while I spent the year on my own journey, it is now time to bring way finding to our staff.  This is the slide deck I created to share in our first Tautai staff PLG and hopefully will give some clarity to staff as to what way finding may look like for us and our community.  This is the first of many way finding/Tautai meetings we will have, wish us well on our journey together:-)

TAUTAI O LE MOANA - WELLINGTON HUI 2021

From the 7-9 April 2021, the Tautai o le Moana 2020 cohort attended their last residential hui to meet the new 2021 cohort and to listen to Dr Rae Si'ilata deliver the findings in the Tautai o le Moana Report.  Tautai o le Moana is a project driven in partnership between the NZ Pasifika Principals' Association (NZPPA), the New Zealand Principals' Federation (NZPF) and the Ministry of Education (MoE). It is MoE funded and designed and delivered by the NZPPA.  Dr Rae Si'ilata was contracted to follow and document the journeys of those participating in the pilot cohort of 2020.  The hui itself was hosted by the Tautai o le Moana design team who included Filivaifale Jason Swann, Helen Varney, Sose Annandale, Sepora Mauigoa and Ala'imalo Falefatu Enari who were supported by Fa'atili Iosua Esera, Geoff Siave and of course researcher Dr Rae.

The new 2021 cohort started their induction the day before the 2020s arrived, so a meet and greet took place on the evening of the 7th giving time for both cohorts to meet and get to know each other.  After an early breakfast the following day, the group settled in to the days work, starting with a round with all participants sharing one take-away from Tautai so far.  This session was reflective of the whakawhanaungatanga and manaakitanga that has be consistent through out all hui and talanoa sessions which have taken place across the initiative so far.  There was a lot of emotion, revelation, determination and realisation...all things that participants in the first cohort experienced during their time in the project.

Following this was a presentation from the Principal of Sutton Park Primary School,  Fa'atili Iosua Esera.  Fa'atili shared his experience and knowledge of culturally sustainable practice through his journey in teaching.  His forty years in education gave all those in attendance an inside view in teaching tamariki in a variety of different settings across Aotearoa, tapping into the cultural and environmental attributes and influences brought by them to their learning.  He unpacked and emphasised the strength relationships bring to learning not just teacher to student but teacher to whanau and teacher to community.  His career success is highlighted through his ability to make connections with those he serves across all divides, always espousing empathy, interest and commitment to student/whanau success.

We were privileged to watch the Rangikura School culture group who entertained us with a performance
reflecting a multitude of Pasifika and Maori culture.  There were close to 30 students in the group who without a doubt mesmerised all those present.  This group exemplified passion and commitment to their performance.  Eddie Uluilelata, Principal of Rangikura school had a great team tutoring and supporting the group, a mix of teachers, student leaders and whanau.   Eddie explained that the students presenting were only a group of the larger team which is 120 strong.   It was without a doubt a privilege to watch them and to present them with loli lei at the conclusion of their set.  This performance was an example of a strong local curriculum at work.  It was exciting to see and hear such high value being placed on the cultural literacies, movement, language, and identity.  Students were able to clearly show and articulate their purpose, the learning and the reward for presenting to us.  Such a wonderful thing to witness.

Following lunch, the group farewelled the 2021 cohort.  This concluded with a the 2020 cohort sharing a small taonga, tuakana teina style, where each new member was buddied up with a member of the previous year's cohort. It was rewarding to be able to share what the Tautai experience meant to me and to listen to what it meant to other tautai in my cohort.  While we didn't have time to share our whole journey with our teina, we were able to pass on a representation of it through our chosen taonga.  My taonga to my teina - Clara Tuifao and Lou Reddy - was a reflection through a whakatauki I found connected to my experience.  I challenged them to pay it forward to their teina when the next cohort 2022 begins next year.

The following day was spent with Dr Rae Si'ilata who shared the findings of her report on the Tautai o le Moana initiative 2021 cohort.  It was humbling to see the work that her and her team had forged into the document.  It was also humbling to realise what a wonderful privilege it was to be part of it.  From the directors, creators, participants and research team involved, it is safe to say that we were all part of what we know is something that will benefit many principals, teachers and indeed Pacifica learners in the long term.  It was very much an awakening of mind and spirit, a reflective moment to change and move forward as a way finder in the education of the akonga and kaiako in my kura.  It showed me not only the importance of identity, language and culture in the education of our children, but it gave me licence to challenge how we do things and why we do things at Nga Iwi School.  It gave me opportunity to look deeply at my village and see a way forward, giving clarity to our community's vision of success.  I was a little saddened when the workshop finished as I don't want to stop learning and reflecting in this space but I also realised that I have gained a huge network of Principals across New Zealand who are way finders too...and who are there, just a phone call away, when I have questions, need support or just want to talanoa.  

Nga mihi nui, fa'afetai tele lava to all the Tautai team for this wonderful journey you have put me and all other participants on. 

Reflective entry 8: Evaluate the outcomes of a digital and collaborative innovation in your practice from an educational research perspective. (Fepuleai. M, Macfarlane. K. 2020)

 Our research journey started out with the hunch that real-time reporting could improve the reading outcomes for culturally diverse students in our school.  We aimed to implement our research in term one of this year however we were unable to do this as planned due to COVID 19 lockdowns. This entry will reflect on what we have managed to achieve so far and the impact of COVID 19.

Our first step towards live reporting was to establish guidelines with staff on a teacher only day held just prior to school starting.  This went ahead as planned.  Staff were introduced to the concept of Real-time reporting and the benefits we hoped would come from it.  We asked teachers to think about our stakeholders (students, whānau, teachers, community) and identify:

1. What each group needs to ensure they can participate in real time reporting effectively.

2. How we support each group to be ready to participate in live reporting.

Staff worked in small groups to write their ideas on an ideaz board which can be seen here.  It is our experiences that where staff are asked to share ideas verbally very few people will speak.  Ideaz Board gave people a chance to speak to each other in smaller groups and share without being singled out, resulting in more ideas being shared then previously experienced in meetings.  This was a great learning opportunity for us and something which would be good to include in future meetings.  Many of the comments in the teacher section highlighted that teachers are still unsure about what real-time reporting looks like in practice.  As a staff we need a shared understanding of what real-time reporting looks like before we implement it. This is something we can establish collectively in future meetings. 

‘When written in Chinese, the word crisis is composed of two characters – one represents danger, and the other represents opportunity’ (Hood, 2020)

Although the Covid 19 lockdowns meant many of our plans to implement real-time reporting were disrupted it presented opportunities for learning and brought about some positive outcomes.   Seesaw was our main platform for learning while in lockdown, leading to teachers having to quickly upskill.  This resulted in collaboration between teachers as those that were more confident using the tool supported those who were not.  Learning from Lockdown (Hood,2020) stated that many schools reported increased collaboration over lockdown and this was certainly the case for us.  The collaboration has continued after lock down, with teachers sharing what they are doing on seesaw and celebrating their successes. 

Our whānau also had a steep learning curve with Seesaw. For many parents it was their first time engaging with the platform and in Room 12 there was a high uptake, with 17 out of 24 students engaging in online learning using the platform.  McWilliams and Patton (2015) stated that Real-Time reporting promotes connections among and between people, ideas and settings and we have seen this beginning to develop between whānau, students and teachers.  For example just before the first three day lockdown Kirsty had taught a lesson on the Treaty of Waitangi. A parent gave the following comment on a post related to this:

‘It was great to hear A talk about his oar art and his current understanding about “the Maori people went to war coz other people try take the land”...when I grow up I want to be Maori and go to war”. We can’t wait to see his knowledge of tangata whenua and The Tiriti o Waitangi develop as he gets older’

The post had generated discussion between the student and whānau, connecting school and home.  The comment allowed Kirsty to gain an insight into what the student had taken away from the lesson.  It also started conversations with the parent when Kirsty saw them at school, further strengthening relationships between home and school.  

Of course there were some areas that need to be addressed, such as lack of access to devices.  We were able to hand out devices to whānau for the lockdown, but now students are back at school we need to develop a system whereby whānau can come in and use school devices.   Another insight gained from lockdown was the value of face to face meetings.  During lock down Kirsty attempted to hold a zoom meeting with parents from Room 12 to go through the basics of Seesaw.  Out of 24 parents, two attended, with one of these two leaving mid call due to difficulties with connections and having to soothe their youngest child.  This made us realise that for our community Zoom is not the right forum for meetings.  We need to make time to develop authentic relationships with whānau in order for real-time reporting to be a success.  This is something we will continue to work on.  

Mindlab has allowed us to widen our focus and look directly at those ‘wicked problems’ that have been sitting at the back of our minds for a long time.  Through this we are seeing changes in our practice which are starting to have an impact on kaiako, whānau and akonga.  We look forward to continuing to challenge the status quo, working with and for our families as we move towards real-time reporting.  This is not the end of our journey, it is the beginning. 

 

Hood, N (2020) Learning from lockdown. Retrived from https://theeducationhub.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/7440-TEH-learning-from-lockdown-document3.pdf

McWilliams, L., & Patton, C. (2015). How to share data with families. Educational Leadership, 73(3), 46-49.

Reflective entry 7: Explain how your application of a digital and collaborative innovation relates to national educational policies/guidelines and contemporary educational theory and compare it to existing delivery models and needs. (Fepuleai. M, Macfarlane. K. 2020)

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