Education Gazette 100.7

14 JUNE 2021 | VOL. 100 | NO. 7

Sharing good practice Revitalising vagahau Niue

Curriculum Progress Tools lift learning

Embracing learning through play

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Contents

Spotlight on belonging, wellbeing and professional growth

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Teachers share practice at PLD Expo Revitalising vagahau Niue strengthens learning

16 22 26 10

30 32 38 4

22

40 46

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A korowai of awhi and wellbeing ‘Let’s Learn Samoan’… and a whole lot more in the process Hamilton school embraces learning through play Schools better connected with IT upgrades Real-world opportunities with virtual reality Enhancing curriculum a key focus of Budget 2021 Lifting learning with Curriculum Progress Tools Making waves to prevent bullying

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14 JUNE 2021 | VOL. 100 | NO. 7

On the cover Page 10: As part of a Wellington PLD expo conducted by teachers, for teachers, Debbie Moore, Kuda Paradza and Hannah Grant attend a dance workshop aiming to build confidence in teaching dance.

Sharing good practice Revitalising vagahau Niue

Curriculum Progress Tools lift learning

Embracing learning through play

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14 June 2021

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COM I NG SOON ON LI N E

Listen: Podcast at Sylvia Park School Education Gazette talks to staff and students at Sylvia Park School about their approach to the histories curriculum.

Podcast coming soon.

Watch: Learning support at Ōtūmoetai, Tauranga Education Gazette has filmed a series of videos about how the Ōtūmoetai Kāhui Ako is using the standardised Learning Support Register to help meet the needs of learners and their families. Videos coming soon.

Read: Curriculum Leads We talk to some of the new Curriculum Leads about what inspired them to take on their new roles. Profiles coming soon.

Sign up for the Gazette e-newsletter to keep informed about the latest content and vacancies.

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EDITOR’S NOTE

Learning in action

Read more about Bromley School's new Samoan language app prototype on page 22.

D

uring Samoa Language Week, the students at Bromley School in Christchurch were excited to share their new app prototype ‘Let’s Learn Samoan’ with their peers. Education Gazette joined a Zoom call with students Amelia, Azariah, Leonie and Jeremiah to find out how they did it and what they learned along the way. They were excited about creating something that would help them and others learn the Samoan language, an important part of their culture and identity.

And on the subject of language, we also visited New Zealand’s first Niue language bilingual unit at Favona Primary School in Auckland, gaining an insight into how the unit is helping students apply their learning

14 June 2021

from class to their everyday lives and the positive impact this is having on their wellbeing and sense of belonging.

Wellbeing is a thread that runs through this issue.

Our cover story is about a Wellington Kāhui Ako which held a professional learning event organised by teachers for teachers, where the focus was on strengthening relationships and sharing practice. Henry Hill School in Hawke’s Bay shares how they have planted wellbeing at the heart of everything they do and the positive impact this is having on learner outcomes and school culture.

And like many schools around New Zealand, children at Konini Primary School in Wainuiomata demonstrated inclusive learning in action during Bullying-Free New Zealand Week.

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Kuda Paradza and Jody Plummer from Onslow College at a teaching dance workshop.

PLD

Teachers share practice at PLD Expo Around 400 teachers and school staff took part in a dynamic professional learning and development (PLD) event in Wellington in April, which included a kōrero from psychologist Nigel Latta about managing stress and workload.

T

e Kāhui Ako o Tarikākā is a cluster that covers schools from Crofton Downs to Churton Park in Wellington’s northern suburbs.

Rāroa Intermediate teacher Abby de Groot-McKenzie is one of the organisers and an across-school leader for the Kāhui Ako. She says while there have been professional groups within their cluster before, one of the main focuses of the Kāhui Ako is having the opportunity to build relationships and share teacher practice across a pathway with a future focus.

“Most of the primary schools in the cluster feed into Rāroa Intermediate and many students then go across the road to Onslow College, so to be able to share our skills and talents across our cluster is going to benefit all the kids,” explains Abby.

The Expo was held at Rāroa Intermediate and Onslow College on a teacher-only day. Abby describes the atmosphere as ‘phenomenal’.

“There were people, sunshine, and singing – we started with a powhiri. I think people felt valued and that it was done in a way that had that importance placed on it – there was a lot of thought put behind it to really make it a special day for everyone.

“On the day, you saw people making new connections, swapping email addresses and phone numbers. There was lots of smiles and laughter. I’ve heard that people are already contacting other teachers at schools around points of interest,” says Abby.

Sharing passions

Teachers were invited to run workshops on teaching and learning practices they are passionate about.

Workshops included unpacking the new Aotearoa New Zealand’s histories curriculum, laser cutting basics,

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engaging students in maths and teaching through a te ao Māori lens.

“Because we didn’t put parameters on experience and didn’t frame what they had to look like, there were definitely a variety of sessions. There were some experts that had been doing things for many years and that was their passion; there were some beginning teachers at the start of their journey and they wanted to share things that worked for them,” says Abby.

People participated with open eyes and fresh minds, and found plenty to reflect on.

“What was really good was the buzz afterwards – it helped a lot of people rethink what they do and why they do it. It was quite a reflective task in that it either affirmed what they were doing – ‘yup I’m on a similar track, this is really good’, or ‘this person showed me a different avenue, I wonder how I could integrate that into my practice, or my teaching’.

“Teachers are time-poor. We’re pretty loaded with things happening in our own schools so it’s such a good opportunity being in a Kāhui Ako to be able to have that allocated time to connect with other teachers and other schools. It’s almost a privilege to have that time set aside to professionally grow in a different way,” she says.

Inclusive environment

Anybody who worked at a school in Te Kāhui Ako o Tarikākā was invited to attend – this included support staff, office staff and teacher aides.

“It was a really inclusive environment. I think teacher aides got a real buzz out of connecting with other teacher aides, and being part of professional development where they can be in a classroom and feel they know a bit more of the background behind

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something, or they can take something away and give it a go.

“It put the lens on them as professionals as well because they work with some of our most gifted and challenging students, so they deserve that time and energy put into them,” says Abby.

Shared achievement objectives

Abby was most inspired by people’s openness and willingness to build relationships and share and reflect on their practice.

“There was positivity and motivation from everyone I spoke to. It really gave me hope moving forward when we get into community of practice groups around being able to hit some targets of the achievement challenges that we’re working on,” she says.

“It’s such a good opportunity being in a Kāhui Ako to be able to have that allocated time to connect with other teachers and schools. It’s almost a privilege to have that time set aside to professionally grow in a different way.”

Michelle Tietjens from Johnsonville School.

Abby de Groot-McKenzie

Abby is hopeful the Expo will strengthen relationships across the cluster as a community of practice, working towards four achievement challenges: strong and secure cultural identities and sense of belonging; wellbeing; empowered, confident and capable learners; and equitable outcomes for all.

“It’s really building that hub of support and relationships around those four cluster objectives, which will help strengthen us as children transition through the different schools from new entrants to Year 13 students,” she says.

Tips and tricks

Barry Clarke and Jeremy Coenen from West Park School got hands-on during one of the workshops.

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The day ended with a presentation by Nigel Latta.

“It was mostly about stress after Covid-19 and how it affects us as teachers, and our students and a few tips and tricks around that. It was more of a light-hearted reconfirming of wellbeing to send everybody off with.

“It was a great day – it was great that it was on a teacher-only day, so it wasn’t an add-on. It was a great social catch-up too because people knew people from other schools,” concludes Abby.

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Brayden Ward, a teacher aide at Rāroa Intermediate, enjoyed the activities during the Expo.

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14 June 2021

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Teacher kōrero TESSA HOPE, ENGLISH TEACHER AND YEAR 13 DEAN, ONSLOW COLLEGE Why did you decide to do a presentation on LGBTQ+ inclusivity at Onslow?

I chose to focus on our ‘Wellbeing Achievement Challenge’, one of the overall goals for the Kāhui Ako. I thought about what was important to me in my practice regarding wellbeing. To me, nurturing and elevating the Rainbow student community is one of my top priorities. Even though I am by no means an expert, Onslow College is a proudly inclusive school and I thought I could offer some experience and guidance for other teachers on how to support LGBTQ+ youth.

Was running a workshop a valuable experience for you?

Firstly, I always find it valuable to take a step back from my own practice and take a critical look at how and why I do things. As teachers I think it’s so easy to feel ‘siloed’ in our classrooms, and we so rarely have the opportunity to share our day-to-day practice. I find it empowering to share what I do in my classes with other teachers; it’s like it gives me reassurance that what I’m doing is worth sharing.

Secondly, it was so enlightening to hear perspectives from teachers in primary kura about the different kinds of challenges they face with younger ākonga who may be exploring their own identities. It reminded me that rangatahi have a whole world of experience in totally different environments before they come to us at college, which of course I am aware of, but I hadn’t considered this influence on children’s developing identities in this much depth before.

KYRA BASABAS, RĀROA INTERMEDIATE What was your workshop about and why did you decide to run it?

With a blessing from the Deaf community, I ran a workshop on ‘Why you should learn New Zealand Sign Language’. I decided to run this because, especially in teaching placements, I felt useless that I couldn’t connect with the deaf students in my class. During those placements I made an effort to learn NZSL as I wanted to connect with all the students in my class.

I figure that, we as educators, just like honouring Te Tiriti, need to also honour the third official language of Aotearoa.

Was running a workshop a valuable experience for you?

I think it was a very valuable experience running a workshop. These were ideas, feelings and thoughts I always wanted to share with others, I wanted them to know of the humbling personal achievements I have

had through learning New Zealand Sign Language and how those specific deaf kids reacted with joy when I made those efforts. I would love to see more people learning basic sign so that these students feel valued.

What was the feedback to your workshop?

I was so humbled when people approached me after my workshop saying they were so excited to learn about the different resources there were online and how easy they were to access. A lot of the participants were excited they could now sign their own name and ask someone for theirs!

CHARMAINE CARLAW, YEAR 3-4 TEACHER, CHURTON PARK SCHOOL Which workshops did you attend and what were the key takeaways of the PLD for you?

‘The LAUNCH cycle – a design thinking process for children’. I chose to attend this session because we were planning to start a new Inquiry at the beginning of term 2. The new Inquiry is a strengths-based programme where the children choose which area they consider to be their strength/area of interest.

After I attended this session, I decided to introduce the children to the LAUNCH cycle with the view that they will be able to use this framework independently for future inquiries.

‘A journey to normalising Te Ao Māori’ – I chose this session because our school is at the beginning of its journey. As the cultural unit holder for our school, I found it really useful. I learnt how and where Rāroa Intermediate staff started their journey, how they are tracking, monitoring their progress, and where they are heading.

What do you think are the benefits of a large PLD event like this for teachers/school staff?

There was a fantastic range of topics covered in the sessions. Teachers were able to choose sessions that were relevant and/or interesting to them and could identify and target their own professional and educational needs.

Professional development offered at schools is often dictated by school-wide goals, limited by budget constraints and doesn’t necessarily meet the needs of the teachers. When we returned to school, we were able to share what we had learnt with our colleagues and have robust conversations on a variety of topics.

Having primary school, intermediate and high school teachers learning together reinforced the fact we are a team working together to grow functioning and successful members of society. We were able to see the whole educational picture.

The PLD Expo was organised by Across School Leads: Abby de Groot-McKenzie, Thomas Johnson, Mitch Neilson, Lisa Bengtsson, Liz Martindale and Tania Horton.

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Gillian Goldring and Bronwyn O’Halloran, both from Ngaio School shared a laugh during the PLD Expo.

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Students of Aotearoa's first Niue bilingual unit are gaining confidence in all aspects of school life through celebrating their Niuean heritage.

Education Gazette

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BI LI NGUAL I M M ERSION

Revitalising vagahau Niue strengthens learning Students in New Zealand’s first Niue language bilingual unit are finding courage, confidence and community through cultural connections.

S

tepping from a cool, blustery morning into the buzz of Room 13 at Favona Primary School is like stepping into sunshine. Students and teachers are dressed in bright Pacific prints of orange, yellow and pink, they wear flowers in their hair and long strands of yellow shells called kahoa hihi. Teacher Joylyn strums the guitar and the children sway gently as they sing the welcome hymn – this is ‘Good morning’ Niue-style.

The Niue bilingual unit opened in February this year and is the first of its kind for students in Years 2, 3 and 4. For teacher Mele Nemaia, a Niuean national who has taught at Favona for 35 years, it is a dream come true.

“We have always been an inclusive school; we have many cultural groups and we have been attending Pacific festivals for a long time. Most of the staff are Pasifika.

“I have been dreaming of this [a bilingual unit] for an exceptionally long time and it is just a joy to see it in action; we’re excited and overwhelmed. There is a wonderful feeling of community, and a great sense of pride,” says Mele.

Transformational progression

Mele says the impact on students’ learning and growth has been transformational.

“We can see their achievement progression already and they are growing in confidence. They are more involved in the school community; they are confident to perform in assembly or put their hand up to be a peer mediator. We are so proud.”

The students’ families are actively involved with the school and very supportive of their children’s learning.

In fact, many of the parents who are New Zealand-born Niuean, are learning their language, Vagahau Niue, alongside their children.

There are about 30,000 Niuean people in New Zealand, and most of them – 77 percent – were born here and have become disconnected from their language and culture.

“Fewer than seven percent can converse in Vagahau Niue, so we are actually doing service to our Niue language by being able to revitalise the language,” says Lynn Pavihi, associate principal.

“Yes, the language is declining rapidly, but by starting a bilingual unit we can help to change that.

Multiple benefits

“There are so many benefits and perks for our students if they are able to immerse themselves in the Niue language,” says Lynn.

“They’re able to build relationships with their Niue peers and their families. They’re able to make connections, and they’re able to apply the learning from class to what they do in everyday life.”

Research tells us that bilingual students learn most effectively in additive bilingual environments, where their bilingual skills are recognised and valued, and where their first or home language is used to access teaching and learning.

“They can stand tall and proud and identify themselves as a true Niue student and uphold the Niue values; all the Niue cultural values that drive a Niue person to be a successful citizen of New Zealand.”

Lynn Pavihi 14 June 2021

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This is because the existing language capabilities, knowledge and skills of students provide the starting point for further language development and learning in both a first and second language.

Bilingual learning environments can also support learners to learn and develop skills in their heritage language. Maintaining and growing learners’ bilingualism sets them up for success in education by supporting strong language capabilities and academic achievement.

Enhanced educational outcomes

“By recognising, valuing, and using the Pasifika languages of our students in teaching and learning, even in English medium contexts, we can significantly enhance the language and educational outcomes of Pacific learners,” says Lynn.

“Favona School holds our cultures, our customs and our values very highly; we’re very blessed at this school to have a wealth of knowledge with a lot of resource teachers who speak their first language. It’s one of the reasons why parents bring their children here, we really promote and uphold different cultural values of all ethnicities.”

The school has a roll of 370 students, most of whom are Māori and Pacific, and has long held a special spot in the community’s heart as a “Niuean hub”, she says.

The 23 students in the unit are of mixed descent.

“They don’t have to be Niuean so long as the family understands that the child will be learning Niue cultural aspects and customs just like any other bilingual unit, and that we’re really promoting the whole idea of being a positive role model as a Niue student.”

Contextualised curriculum

Teacher Joylyn Ikiua leads the children's literacy learning.

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Students follow The New Zealand Curriculum with topics contextualised within a Niuean framework.

“When it’s literacy time, the teacher uses the Vagahau Niue language and when it comes to topic or inquiry, they contextualise it to Niue,” says Lynn.

“For example, they’re currently run on Matariki, so the class is learning what that looks like for our Māori people, and also what it looks like for the Niue people.

“Teachers are extending the children’s knowledge about yam harvesting in Niue and how important this aspect is to Niue culture. Children then become experts and can share their knowledge with their peers and with their families,” adds Lynn.

When it comes to Niue Language Week, Lynn says a lot of the focus will be around what it means to be a Niue person, what identifies someone as a Niue person, and why being a Niue person is an important part of their life.

“When you’re passionate about it, the children will see it, and the ripple effect is that children become engaged, they become eager and this whole reinforcement makes them feel that it’s cool to be Niuean,” she says.

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“Where else do students get to learn a Niue war dance or learn a fakamatalaaga and stand up at assembly and you know, instead of doing the whole ‘Welcome to Room 6 assembly’ they use their own Vagahau Niue language? It’s amazing.”

Positive feedback

Feedback from the community has been very positive and the school is fielding enquiries from families beyond Favona, where two-thirds of the community are Pasifika. One family reported that their daughter feels more affiliated to her Niue side and now sings the family prayer at home.

Niuean students who are not in the bilingual unit – those in Years 1, 5 and 6 – are not left out. Twice a week, all Niue students gather to mix and mingle as a community, learning dances, songs and cooking together, says Lynn.

“They can stand tall and proud and identify themselves as a true Niue student and uphold the Niue values; all the Niue cultural values that drive a Niue person to be a successful citizen of New Zealand.”

14 June 2021

Students relish being able to learn all aspects of the curriculum within a Niuean framework.

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What is additive bilingual education?

Additive bilingual education values and recognises the bilingual language competencies of learners and the advantages to learners and families of being bilingual.

The focus of these programmes is to maintain and grow the bilingual capability of learners.

Further reading: » The Language Enhancing the Achievement of Pasifika (LEAP) is a resource that brings together key aspects of research about how to support bilingual Pasifika students’ learning. LEAP suggests practical ways you can explore language teaching and learning principles effective with bilingual Pasifika students. Visit https://pasifika.tki.org.nz/LEAP

» ‘Research to understand the features of quality Pacific bilingual education: Review of best practice’

by Professor Stephen May is a report that brings together New Zealand and international research to better understand the features of quality Pacific bilingual education.

» The Action Plan for Pacific Education 2020-2030 maps how early learning services, schools and tertiary providers can transform outcomes for Pacific learners and their families and includes actions to respond to the needs of communities, including responding to language aspirations of Pacific communities.

“By recognising, valuing and using the Pasifika languages of our students in teaching and learning, we can significantly enhance the language and educational outcomes of Pacific learners.”

Lynn Pavihi

Families are very supportive of the immersion learning. Pictured from left is teacher aide Luana Bennion, associate principal Lynn Pavihi, Niue matua/helper Malama Fotuaga, teacher Joylyn Ikiua and grandparent Feoaki Heaki. In front is parent Brenda Talima.

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Henry Hill School ākonga reacting to a hands-on learning experience.

WELLBEI NG

A korowai of awhi and wellbeing Education Gazette talks to Jase Williams, principal at Henry Hill School, about the challenges of 2020 and how doing things differently is achieving better outcomes for ākonga.

H

enry Hill School in Napier faced more than its fair share of challenges in 2020. In addition to dealing with Covid-19, the school experienced flooding in November.

Initial fears that the school would have to stay closed for the rest of the year were short-lived, as support from the community and the Ministry of Education got the school ready to reopen in just a week.

Principal Jase Williams believes his school’s key purpose is to be a welcoming and safe space for ākonga and the community around them.

Jase arrived at Henry Hill School late in 2012. There were pockets of success within the school, but the ERO review was poor; transience among students was an issue, and staff were wanting change.

Jase says Henry Hill School is one of the few in Napier that does not have an enrolment zone. They enrol a large number of students from local schools who leave their school before a stand down or suspension is formally recorded, or are asked to informally try another school.

“Many students who transitioned here were also more impulsive than others and lacked age-appropriate social skills,” he adds.

“I had scope to shake things up and make some changes,” says Jase. “I was a first-time principal with nothing to lose.”

He began by taking time to talk with staff and hear their thoughts on how they could improve things, and then it was

about putting that together and creating an action plan.

“ERO had one page of changes to make, but I had eight pages,” says Jase.

“It was a great process. People often view ERO as this scary experience, but we got to do things in conjunction with them – they walked alongside us for a year or so.”

Achieving positive change

Over time Jase and his team used data to inquire into what they could do to make things better for their learners.

The Wellbeing@School survey revealed that almost half of the children felt unsafe in a range of contexts.

That clarified and reinforced the importance of making Henry Hill School a place where ākonga wanted to be.

“We need to make sure this place is awesome,” says Jase.

The school recognised there was a clear link between wellbeing, hauora, learning, behaviour and attendance, so they worked to target those areas directly.

“Although as a staff we felt our school environment was generally safe and calm, we set out to provide a more inclusive and more regulating learning environment – both physically and holistically.”

Using the Inquiry and Knowledge-Building Cycle and one of the four Best Evidence Synthesis Four Levers – productive inquiry and knowledge-building for professional and policy learning – it was identified that they needed to provide their staff with knowledge and confidence, and the

“Learning here happens through a trauma-informed lens where social and emotional learning is at the heart of everything we do.”

Jase Williams

14 June 2021

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Taking a moment to self-regulate and working on being present in the moment.

contexts in which to connect with students and whānau on a more personal level.

“Our staff needed to understand the reasons for both our personal and student behaviours and dysregulation from a neuroscience perspective. This would help change our practice to applying a social, emotional and trauma-informed lens to each situation or scenario, to better support our students and community,” says Jase.

By 2017, data showed a marked progress in students’ achievement in areas such as reading.

It wasn’t long before they could see other tangible differences in the school and community too. The roll increased, transience went down, and data showed that fewer children were leaving.

“Wellbeing was improving too,” says Jase. “Kids were happy being at school, and there was more of a sense of belonging.”

Trauma-informed approach

Jase and his team take a trauma-informed approach to how they teach and interact with ākonga. They recognise and understand that trauma affects tamariki and whānau, so focus on promoting wellbeing in everything they do.

They have embedded trauma-informed approaches within the school culture in a way that relates culturally to their community.

“Learning here happens through a trauma-informed lens where social and emotional learning is at the heart of everything we do,” says Jase.

Sensory garden: Repurposed materials create the entrance to the school’s sensory space.

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“Relationally, we can regulate and calm kids just by being ourselves,” he says.

Small adjustments to the school day have helped to make their approach practical.

“There are regulatory breaks inserted into the day’s learning, and we also did away with a traditional school bell years ago to reduce anxiety and stress,” explains Jase.

“We still read the roll to start every day. Our kids know they are seen,” he says.

Starting each day with mindfulness exercises led by ākonga in te reo Māori, helps the team to reset and focus on the day ahead, says Jase. “And for our kids, it provides them with an opportunity to be present in the moment and enjoy a calm start to the day, alongside their peers and their teachers.”

Social and emotional skills can be taught and supported. Students need the vocabulary and language to engage in social and emotional learning, so they can identify how they are feeling, in order to develop the strategies to stay calm.

“The ultimate outcome is that these skills and strategies help calm and regulate them across situations and scenarios outside of school too,” says Jase.

Sensory garden

Cultivating community

Jase tells the story of a boy who got into a conflict on the rugby field and needed time to cool off.

“Although nothing outside the school gates is calm and consistent for him, he had a place where he could go to calm himself at school,” says Jase.

“He told me later how he appreciated having somewhere quiet in the school he could hang out in.”

The garden was damaged during the flood in November 2020, but the community pulled together quickly to rebuild.

“We knew that we had to have it up and running for when school reopened the following week,” says Jase.

“The next day, we had close to 200 people helping to put it together again. In a week, we rebuilt something that took 18 months to create in the first place.

“So much of that came from the relationships we’d cultivated with the community.”

Jase says cultivating these relationships starts with presence and familiarity, including being both physically and emotionally available each day during school drop offs and pickups.

“We’re very informal here and this, coupled with lots of casual chats at the school gate, helps to break down any barriers or intergenerational stigma attached with school.”

In recent years they have added to their support for students with a sensory garden. Te Āhuru Mōwai – a calm place or safe haven – is one of Henry Hill School’s most significant assets. The garden supports the school’s approach to helping students feel calm and connected with their peers.

According to Jase, it’s a physical environment that aligns with the school’s curriculum.

“We have a hands-on curriculum where kids learn through doing and being immersed in rich experiences, so we wanted to replicate and weave that philosophy into our physical spaces,” he says.

“We wanted to ensure our physical environment provided the same korowai of awhi and wellbeing.

“We already had a quiet, calm garden space where kids would sit and read books, play cards, play guitar or ukelele, or just sit and chat and hang out with their friends.”

However, he says a trip to visit schools in Melbourne inspired him to take this further, and the creation of a dedicated sensory space became part of their strategic planning and annual plan.

“Two of our learning facilitators, Lisa Morton and Sam Johnstone, stepped up to lead this project, in large part due to their love of te ao Māori, environmental sustainability, and the trauma-informed approach to social and emotional learning,” says Jase.

“They both spent countless hours talking together with tamariki, planning, designing, creating and implementing every element within the space.

“All of the sensory elements within Te Āhuru Mōwai are recycled, reused or repurposed, and everyone had a hand in creating the pieces – from hanging bird feeders and wind chimes, through to a bug hotel!

Te Āhuru Mōwai has become a central part of life at the school, and ākonga use the space to self-regulate.

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Jase recalls that the biggest change came four years ago when, after community consultation, they decided to change how they connected with the community with regard to whānau conferences.

“We’d done parent conferences, three-way conferences, and student led conferences, but these still seemed too sterile and there was no real shift in the quality of our relationships with our whānau.

“So, we created a termly ‘Community Day’ where we invited whānau in to learn alongside their kids. These learning experiences were hands-on and involved elements of digital technology and localised curriculum. Through these learning experiences, our whānau got to see how their kids learn, were active participants themselves and we got to share everything else that is important to us like our trauma-informed approach.

“During the Covid-19 lockdown, our community eased into online remote distance learning seamlessly as the style of learning was familiar to them and they were used to working with us.”

He waka eke noa

For Jase, it’s all about being authentic in everything they do. That meant being honest about the challenges of Covid-19 and acknowledging they were in the same boat as everyone else.

“It helps if we are calm and presenting that we’re all in this together,” he says.

Jase and his team are continuing their commitment to meeting the diverse needs of all their learners and the wider community – and this is a focus of their professional learning and development.

“As teachers, we now have the words to talk with our children. We’re developing the intellectual architecture rather than relying on our instincts.”

One thing Jase will continue utilising is the knowledge and support of whānau.

“We’ve got a community that like sharing their background with us,” he says. “Our relationships were already good, but they’re even richer now.”

Trauma-informed practices Trauma-affected students can often experience emotional dysregulation at school, which can affect their learning and the learning of others.

In a trauma sensitive school, teachers understand the impact and prevalence of trauma, are aware that students and their whānau need to feel safe, welcomed, and included. This understanding leads to reflection, an attitude shift and willingness/knowledge that changes they make, can make a difference.

Trauma-informed practices in schools support environments that reduce stress levels of students and teachers and enable learning and positive social interaction, through consistent environments and relational approaches. They encompass the whole organisational structure of a school, from its vision and values, to its policies and practices sited in multi-tiered systems of support.

Wellbeing@School The Wellbeing@School Toolkit (W@S) is a free self-review resource for schools that supports a whole school approach to examining the factors that promote a safe, positive learning climate.

To find out more, visit wellbeingatschool.org.nz

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Mindfulness: A relational and regulating start to the school day for tamariki.

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Creativity flourishing: Bromley School student Amelia is all smiles while working on the prototype Samoan language app.

L ANGUAGE

‘Let’s Learn Samoan’… and a whole lot more in the process Children from Christchurch’s Bromley School created a prototype Samoan language app to plug a need in their school and wider community – but the learning that took place from the project has exceeded all expectations.

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melia, Azariah, Leonie and Jeremiah are all smiles during our chat on Zoom, as they describe what it was like to create a prototype Samoan language app from scratch.

“I feel really proud that we made our own app,” says Amelia, “We worked together as a team.”

“It feels so good to feel like we’re helping people learn Samoan,” adds Leonie.

The Year 5 and 6 students are amped about having their work featured during Samoa Language Week. And they aren’t at all fazed about being interviewed. After all, their app has caught the media’s attention, with a story on Newshub appearing earlier this year.

Solution

The idea for creating an app was sparked by the departure of the school’s Samoan language teacher.

Teacher Mele Togiaso agreed and, with her class, she began the search for solutions.

After looking at the existing Samoan language resources on offer, they decided there was a need for a fun and easy-to-use app that could help students and the wider community learn Samoan.

So they embarked on a journey to create a prototype app called ‘Let’s Learn Samoan’.

At a workshop day they pooled together their ideas about what they liked about the existing resources and what they thought they could improve on, as well as their own creative ideas.

“They wanted to include a gaming aspect to the app because they thought it was a really fun way to learn,” says Mele.

“They also drew inspiration from some of the beautiful print resources they looked at. We had a lot of different artefacts that helped them draw in aspects of their culture.

“As much as we could, we wanted to ensure the language was accurate, so we had to draw on the strengths and expertise of our community, involving them in the process,” she says.

Letting creativity flourish

“Our original goal was to make a difference in our community and solve an authentic problem that we noticed,” says Mele.

But principal Scot Kinley says the project has morphed into something much bigger than its original goal.

“The project has drawn on the front end and the back end of the curriculum. They’ve learned skills, they’ve learned creativity, they’ve learned to be independent learners. They’ve learned about their culture and

“They’ve learned skills, they’ve learned creativity, they’ve learned to be independent learners. They’ve learned about their culture and language. They’ve learned about the power of their voice and belonging and identity. I’m really rapt about the whole process.”

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Bromley School students Amelia (left) and Jeremiah working with teacher Mele Togiaso.

language. They’ve learned about the power of their voice and belonging and identity. I’m really rapt about the whole process.”

Scot, a self-professed lover of quotes, paraphrases Albert Einstein to help explain his school’s philosophy.

“Einstein said, ‘Imagination is more important than knowledge, because imagination tells knowledge what to do.’

From our school’s point of view, we’re looking at that balance of knowledge, skills, imagination and creativity,” says Scot.

Mele says the learning that took place through the process extended well beyond the digital aspects.

“There was a lot of learning going on in terms of dispositions and other types of skills. They had to learn communication and cooperative skills.”

Mele says developing the prototype also involved a lot of planning in the initial stages as they worked to create a simple wire frame of the app prototype.

“We articulated a clear vision for the user experience so that when we got to creating the app, they knew how they wanted it to look and function.”

Problem-solving was big part as well.

“We came across bugs as we were creating the prototype – I wasn’t too sure how to fix them, but as a team we came up with solutions,” says Mele.

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Developing teaching practice

Scot says it’s important for children to see their teachers embrace the same curiosity in their learning that they as students are encouraged to do.

Mele agrees that learning alongside the children was an important aspect of this project.

“I supported the children to learn basic app prototyping development skills and helped them to find solutions to challenges they came across throughout the process.

“I am inspired and supported by colleagues and leadership to grow my own interests and talents,” says Mele.

Next steps

As for ‘what’s next?’, Scot says they’re reflecting on what they can learn from the project in terms of developing teaching practice and creating independent learners.

“This has created more opportunities than we can cope with! We’ve had to grow our own capacity.”

And as for the app itself, after Apple showcased it on their Apple Newsroom, the students are hopeful that their prototype might one day feature on the app store so that it might be used by anyone.

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Bromley School principal Scot Kinley gets a walk-through of the app with student Amelia.

Students Amelia, Azariah, Leonie and Jeremiah in a Zoom call with Education Gazette.

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This page: Play-based learning in action at Te Ao Mārama School. Photo credit: Anna Pratt.

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LEARN I NG TH ROUGH PL AY

Hamilton school embraces learning through play With its bright, modern buildings, Te Ao Mārama School in Flagstaff, Hamilton, still has a new-school vibe. But beneath the gloss is a carefully thought out, play-based curriculum, with the ‘why’ and the ‘who’ planted firmly at the centre.

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e Ao Mārama School opened its doors in 2019 with around 100 students and has experienced rapid growth ever since, with its roll now sitting at 400, and 30 different nationalities represented.

The school was gifted its name Te Ao Mārama – which means the world of light and understanding – by the school’s local iwi Ngāti Wairere. Principal Tony Grey says it is ‘a pretty huge name’ and is considered a real taonga in their school community.

Right from the establishment phase, the school has enjoyed a strong relationship with mana whenua. As well as informing a rich cultural narrative throughout the school, their relationship has helped shape the design of their curriculum, with te reo Māori and tikanga Māori interwoven throughout.

Learning through play

Also threaded through the school are their values for learning – the five Cs: creative, confident, curious, community-minded and collaborative.

The school has adopted a strong ‘learning through play’ philosophy which integrates the values for learning with the curriculum.

Deputy principal Sally Grylls-Thomas describes how they explored the research around play-based learning, looked at what other schools were doing, and did a lot of work together as a staff before they opened.

“And what it boiled down to for us, with all of the visiting, the talking, the research, the readings, everything that we did, it came down to what learning needed to be like for our learners,” says Sally.

“We wanted learning to be collaborative, particularly with our collaborative learning spaces. We wanted learning to be authentic and meaningful and personalised for each of those learners.”

The learning through play approach is applied right across the school. The different learning areas of the national curriculum – reading, writing, maths, science, technology, and so on – are all woven into play, says Sally.

“It looks quite different with our five-year-olds than it does with our children in Year 6.”

Each learning space has a big makerspace area with lots of room and tools for messy play for younger students or scope for problem-based or project-based learning for older students.

“We have sewing machines, 3D printers; we’ve got robotics, the Lego Mindstorms – all of that kind of creating, tinkering stuff that’s there for children to learn with,” says Sally.

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Tony emphasises that the technology and equipment in the makerspaces serves little purpose unless carefully applied to the curriculum design. He is a big believer in Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle model with the ‘why’ at the centre, the ‘how’ wrapped around that and the ‘what’ as the outermost circle.

“To me, some of those gizmos – virtual reality, the 3D printers – those are just ‘whats’ in the outer circle that would make little to no difference if they’re not based on some very clear vision and your values and key beliefs around teaching and learning that drive that.”

Learner agency in action

Sally gives the example of a group of students who wanted to help boost the number of gifts under the school Christmas tree as part of a charitable initiative the school was running to support Women’s Refuge late last year.

The students decided to draw on the skills they’d learned with the sewing machines and made scrunchies to sell for the cause.

“They researched, and through trial and error, they came up with a really good design. They took orders from

the kids and then they got into a little production line in the classroom and made these scrunchies and sold them.

And then with the money they bought more gifts to put under the tree.

“That’s authentic learning. You’ve got your technology, you’ve got your social science, you’ve got your literacy, your mathematics – all of that tied up in there. And when you can see children driving their own learning in those really meaningful ways, that’s gold for us,” says Sally.

Another example emerged during Covid-19 when a group of students grew curious about why some countries were mandating face masks. They researched the science behind it, and then decided they would make face masks, looking up the materials and the design they’d need.

One of the challenges is trying to measure learner agency, says Sally.

“We’re on a bit of a journey this year with assessment for learning. We really want to make sure that our learners can articulate where they are in their learning. How will they know what it looks like if they’ve achieved that goal?

And can they articulate their next step?”

Keeping the ‘who’ at the centre

One anticipated challenge was the reaction from parents and whānau to the learning through play approach to the curriculum, but the parent community has embraced the school’s approach, says Tony.

“We thought we would be getting lots of questions and concerns, but really it was a beautiful non-issue. Our families love it. They get it, they understand it.”

Parents are invited to be part of the class programme each morning and afternoon, so they feel included in their child’s learning, he says.

“During lockdown in Covid we really missed our parents. We could not wait to go back to Alert Level 1 to have our parents come back in.”

Building an inclusive culture is important at Te Ao Mārama School. The school’s whakataukī is ‘Whiria te tāngata’, which means ‘Weaving people together’.

They operate a heavily distributive model; they don’t appoint team leaders or curriculum leaders.

“All of our teachers are leaders in some way. And they all have strengths and interests and passions. And we have really tried to foster leadership and lots of different areas across the school,” says Sally.

“I’m not a great believer in titles and we don’t want to look nor feel like a hierarchy,” says Tony.

“If you’ve got your staff loving coming to work and loving what they’re doing and genuinely collaborating, if they have every possible condition to thrive and enjoy it, they will then in turn look after the needs of our students’ wellbeing and achievement,” he says.

Holding firm to the vision

Principal Tony Grey and deputy principal Sally Grylls-Thomas stand proudly in front of their school's pepeha.

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The biggest challenge for Te Ao Mārama School, as it continues to grow at a rapid rate, is to sustain what they’re doing and take it to the next level. They are keen to remain a ‘new’ school, even as time ticks on.

“One of the goals is planning for that growth,” says Sally.

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“We have to continually be responsive to the needs of our kids, the needs of our community, the interests of our staff, and the passions and the strengths that they bring here.

“The development of our curriculum will continue to be ongoing and how that looks in the classroom space. And I guess what supports we can give to teachers to really bring that alive, in an authentic way,” says Sally.

Tony says they often refer to the GIF with Mel Gibson from Braveheart saying “Hold!”

“In the face of any challenges, it’s about really holding firm to our vision, and our values and key beliefs around teaching and learning,” he says.

“When you can see children driving their own learning in those really meaningful ways, that’s gold for us.”

Sally Grylls-Thomas Cooking is a popular learning activity at Te Ao Mārama School.

School of Teacher Education Te Kura Whakangungu Kaiako

Take your career to the next level Stay current with today’s educational issues. Talk to us about your professional development plans.

Postgraduate course options for Semester Two (July start) EDEM606 Curriculum Implementation in Science Education (C and D) EDEM614 Assessment for Learning (D) EDEM618 Dyslexia: Identification and Intervention (C and D) EDEM622 Teaching and Learning in Inclusive Settings (C and D) EDEM630 Change with Digital Technologies in Education and Training (D) EDEM633 Foundations of Technology-Enhanced Language Learning (C and D)

EDEM638 Teachers as Leaders (D) EDEM641 Educational Leadership and the Law in New Zealand (D) EDEM649 Te Tiriti o Waitangi i te Ao Matauranga (C) EDEM650 Educational Philosophy and Policy (C and D) EDEM657 Whakaora Reo-Language Revitalisation (C) EDEM670 Leadership as Partnering: Moving Beyond Boundaries (D) EDEM694 Quantitative Research In Education (C and D) (15 points)

Phone: 03 369 3333 or Freephone 0800 827 748, Email: educationadvice@canterbury.ac.nz www.canterbury.ac.nz/education

14 June 2021

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I N FRASTRUCTU RE

Schools better connected with IT upgrades More than 300 schools have had their Wi-Fi equipment upgraded through the Ministry of Education’s Te Mana Tūhono programme, which supports 21st century learning by providing ICT network and cybersecurity support for schools.

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sing the internet inside Sheffield School has become easier, and more reliable since Network for Learning (N4L) replaced the school’s aging wireless equipment, says principal Nigel Easson.

Schools benefit from a more reliable, resilient, safe and secure internet experience, and the upgraded networks are giving schools more flexibility in how they teach – they don’t need to worry about how many students are accessing the network, how many devices are being used, and internet speeds within the school are significantly faster.

Prior to their upgrade, the internet at Sheffield School would frequently ‘drop out’ and teachers had all but given up relying on it for classroom learning.

“Our internet is now seamless. We can trust it to work properly where and when we need it,” says Nigel.

As well as being pleased with the end results, Nigel says he was delighted with his upgrade journey.

“It was one of the smoothest upgrade programmes I’ve been a part of since I started teaching 20 years ago.”

A more reliable environment

Long Bay College deputy principal Mike Lewis says his teachers wanted more flexibility for teaching and learning.

“As staff would move to one area from another, the connectivity wasn’t seamless. We need an environment that is reliable and conducive to allow for that to happen.”

Sheffield School principal Nigel Easson with Year 6 students, Maggie and Margot.

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“The connectivity allows teachers the freedom to not just teach in the classroom but to move to different environments, inside and out, to be creative in the way the students work in a flexible digital context.”

Mike Lewis

Each school has a customised network design developed to make sure upgrades meet their needs.

Schools can choose to purchase an extension to the coverage they receive through their Te Mana Tūhono upgrade, enabling connectivity outside the building anywhere within their school grounds.

As one of the first schools to have their equipment replaced, Mike says they have been able to move forward with their digital learning plans knowing they’ve got reliable, next-generation wireless network infrastructure.

“We need equipment that can cope with internet speeds, and quality that enables us to deliver the new curriculum. Now, with the new network in place, we’ve been able to accelerate our plan to roll out BYOD, where every student can bring their own device to use at school,” he adds.

“The connectivity allows teachers the freedom to not just teach in the classroom but to move to different environments, inside and out, to be creative in the way the students work in a flexible digital context.”

Sunnybrae School principal Lorene Hurd was experiencing similar issues, which she says have all been resolved since the upgrade.

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“It was having a negative impact on teaching and learning. Our Wi-Fi couldn’t support all the devices we had, and our device numbers were increasing.

“Now, our internet works where and when we need it. Our teachers no longer have to get up and move to a different area halfway through a lesson to try to find somewhere where they could connect.”

Lorene says all of their old problems have stopped since the new equipment was installed. “Everything’s working fully and everyone’s happy.”

Once schools’ new equipment is up and running, they receive more support to make sure their networks are safe and secure.

Te Mana Tūhono funds specialised ICT help and support for school networks, which can be accessed via N4L’s HelpDesk on 0800 LEARNING.

Scan this QR Code to watch schools kōrero about their experiences in the online version of this article.

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DIGITAL TECH NOLOGY

Real-world opportunities with virtual reality A repurposed classroom at John McGlashan College in Dunedin with black walls and some state-of-the-art virtual reality technology is being used to enhance curriculum learning.

Ethan and Alex have been working on a virtual reality experience of Dunedin's Town Belt for the past few years.

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ducation Gazette walked on Mars, went inside a human heart and experienced the World War I trenches at John McGlashan College in Dunedin earlier this year.

The experiences were compelling and immersive and are not only enhancing curriculum learning but also providing two students with an opportunity to create a unique 3D experience of the city’s Town Belt.

It began when Year 7 and 8 teacher David Beazley joined the school in 2019. A gamer and technology buff, he followed his mother and his wife into teaching after working in the private sector.

“My role here was to help with the transition to the new digital technologies curriculum at our school. Working alongside my colleagues, we developed a pretty cool curriculum and then we looked at what we could do next,” explains David.

“We thought, let’s go as far forward as we can. We looked at new technology being used in the private sector – virtual reality [VR] and augmented reality [AR] are the new things at the moment and, moving forward, artificial intelligence is the next big horizon.

“The dream was to equip our boys so that when they left our school, they could be accepted into universities and programmes that are specialising in this advanced technology,” he says.

With the support of the school’s management team and funding from the Otago Community Trust and the John McGlashan College Parents and Friends Association, David was set to offer his colleagues a powerful new teaching tool to inspire and engage students in technology.

David went shopping for VR gaming gear; he bought six high-powered PCs, six VR headsets, then linked them up together and downloaded six copies of each of the applications he wanted to use.

Inspiring and engaging

Teacher Ella Murdoch’s Year 13 (Year 2) International Baccalaureate English class was studying Wilfred Owen’s WWI poetry when she heard that David was building an archive of programmes in the VR suite and was happy to mentor her through using the suite.

He showed Ella through a WWI simulation of trench warfare. She says it gave her students a sense of being there.

“We were starting to dive into all of the autobiographical details and the back story to this amazing poetry. There was a huge amount of impact on their understanding of the world Wilfred Owen was writing about. They felt like they were there; they got a sense of Owen himself being a soldier and where this writing has come from.

“They used words like ‘palpable’, ‘visceral’. They were also quite intrigued by the technology behind it all and how it was all put together,” she says.

Ella can see huge potential for using VR for Year 9-13 English classes.

“The nature of English is that we are encouraging our students to step out of their shoes and transport themselves into other historical, social or cultural contexts and this is just one extremely powerful way of enabling that to happen.

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Top: Ella Murdoch’s English students ‘experienced’ life in the trenches before beginning their study of WW1 poetry.

Bottom: David Beazley says new frontiers in technology can help to enhance curriculum learning.

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“I’m already thinking of how I could use it at different levels of a unit of work for different reasons. We’ve got about a dozen VR programmes now and that will grow as other staff members see what’s out there and how that would fit in beautifully with their planning and their learning. It’s just a fantastic, very modern 21st century learning tool and I can see a place for some fantastic learning to come from this assimilation experience,” she says.

larger learning experience and that it’s easier for them to reconnect with those memories, Hamish says.

“When I teach, I try to have as many little triggers as possible that activate bits of their memory. It’s not going to be the same for every student, but on the whole, I think the experience of it, the memory of going there, being inside – the sound and the visual – I think that whole package helps to build their understanding.”

Memory triggers

While the suite is very popular, David says VR programmes should be relevant and tie in with what the class is learning.

“The boys just love it. It’s quite funny because you can’t see exactly what they are experiencing, but they are ducking down and looking under and inside things, spinning around.

“A lot of them want to come back and game on it and we make it very clear that we’re not gaming here, we’re here for learning. Overall, it’s a very positive experience for them but boys are pretty excited by anything that’s new and technology-based,” he says.

Ensuring that the programme is sustainable is important.

“The challenge for schools is that if the person who is into that technology leaves the school, they leave all that knowledge, drive and passion and the passion dies.

The idea is that by bringing in other areas of the school, it will continue on and as teachers and students get more competent at it, we’re going to have more buy-in,” says David.

Teacher Hamish Cartwright’s Year 9 science classes journeyed through the digestive system after they studied the topic.

“We see the role and function of the whole system in their prior learning and they have some familiarity with it,” says Hamish.

“They take that and go through a whole new experience with the VR suite. So instead of seeing an image, or listening, discussing, or reading something about it, they can go inside the system and they can watch the intestine do peristalsis and follow the track of the food as it’s digested.”

Hamish says the experience is like being on a a movie set and students are able to track the food and experience muscle contractions as the food passes through the system.

“It’s a good way to pose a big question like: why is this happening and how can things go wrong? It really engages them – there’s a lot of excitement in the room,” he says.

Feedback from students is that VR gives them a

Relevant and sustainable

Work on the VR experience of the Town Belt continues in the repurposed suite at John McGlashan College.

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Future thinking

Year 11 students Alex and Ethan have been working on a VR experience of Dunedin’s Town Belt for about two years and expect to have it completed by the time they finish Year 13.

“I think we’ve had to restart our project three times now because the VR toolkit keeps getting updated. We’ve found out what has worked and what hasn’t,” explains Ethan.

David says the years-long project has been one of exploration and discovery for the students, as VR development is so new that there are no external experts to mentor them.

Once the visual experience has been developed, bird song and sounds will be added to make it more realistic. David has also suggested adding labels to plants, as well as Māori and local history stories to the experience.

“The technology is super new in education and quite new in the commercial sector, so there actually isn’t a lot out there.

We had to research a lot of stuff ourselves, we downloaded programmes and Alex would come up with ideas, Ethan with other ideas. They had the vision – they’ve driven it all.

VR COMMONPLACE

“It’s totally an organic process that they’re going through in their own free time, which has to be the essence of a lifelong learner. Probably by the second year, they knew more than me, so now I’m just trying to offer perspective from an end user,” he says.

In Year 8, the two boys were involved in the Town Belt Kaitiaki (TBK) programme with schools from throughout Dunedin, with a focus on protecting the swathe of native and exotic trees and plants that runs from north Dunedin to just south of the city. While the school isn’t currently involved with TBK to the same extent, the plan is to make the VR experience available for elderly and disabled people who can no longer enjoy getting out into nature.

TRIAL AND ERROR When David arrived and the VR suite became a reality, Alex and Ethan’s idea for some kind of Town Belt experience simulation began to take shape. There’s been a lot of trial and error and learning along the way.

David believes that VR headsets will become increasingly commonplace in homes and businesses and used for everything from virtual shopping to virtual world tours.

There’s already been interest from a local real estate company in using the programme that Alex and Ethan develop, so home buyers anywhere in the world can walk around a house.

He also believes that, because of the expertise they have developed, the two boys could walk into jobs in the tech sector straight out of school.

“I haven’t decided what I want to do after school; maybe VFX – like 3D modelling for Weta Workshop,” says Alex.

“I’m interested in computer programming. I think I’ll probably enroll in some computer science courses at the university and see where that takes me. I might work for Google – if it’s still around!” says Ethan.

EYE ON NEW TRENDS Technology generally needs to be replaced or upgraded and David reckons most technology has a life of about five years.

“Originally we tried the 360-degree photo, which was good but still not interactive enough,” adds Ethan.

“So you have to go to the very edge and the next step after this is artificial intelligence. That’s where I see the next evolution of this programme – once VR has done its dash. Once Alex and Ethan have completed this project – probably in Year 13 – we will want to ask: ‘Was this programme successful? Do we have boys who are more prepared for the next cycle of life? Is it worth our time and money or could we put the money into something else?’

The boys then found photogrammetry software and took photos in the Town Belt, which were imported into software called MeshRoom, which creates a 3D model.

They believe they will have a useable product by the time they finish high school.

“And you have to do that every single time with technology, otherwise you can become complacent.

Tech is a bit of a double-edged sword like that – it’s great when it’s new, but you always have to keep an eye on the new trends,” says David.

“We’re trying different things with it – we tried having 360-degree images where you could look around, but you couldn’t actually walk in it. In VR, you could see the area but it wasn’t in 3D. We then tried modelling it from scratch – that was in around Year 9,” says Alex.

“Tech is a bit of a double-edged sword like that – it’s great when it’s new, but you always have to keep an eye on the new trends.”

David Beazley

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Photo credit: Tim McPhee.

Virtual experience of Hillary’s hut

Primary and secondary schools will have an opportunity to virtually explore Sir Edmund Hillary’s hut in Antarctica thanks to the Antarctic Heritage Trust. Hillary’s hut was Scott Base’s first building and was built in 1956/57 by a team led by Sir Ed to support the Commonwealth TransAntarctic Expedition and the International Geophysical Year.

Developed in partnership with Auckland University of Technology, the VR experience features a tour of the hut’s five rooms, along with an opportunity to view hundreds of artefacts from the early years of New Zealand’s Antarctic

programme. It provides insights into how Sir Ed’s 23man team lived and worked in the world’s most extreme environment more than 60 years ago.

“Sir Ed’s hut is part of the rich history of Antarctic exploration and we are excited to bring this experience to as many students around New Zealand as we can,” says the Trust’s Francesca Eathorne, who oversaw project development.

“Most people will never get the chance to visit Antarctica so virtual reality is a fantastic way to provide a glimpse of what it would be like to visit this special place. Hopefully the fascinating stories of what Sir Ed and his team achieved furthering science and exploration will inspire the next generation of explorers,” she says.

“It’s just a fantastic, very modern 21st century learning tool and I can see a place for some fantastic learning to come from this assimilation experience.”

Ella Murdoch

To learn more about the VR experience of Hillary’s hut, see nzaht.org/share/virtual-reality Teachers can download the VR experience using mobile devices or HTC Vive Headsets online, or get in touch with the Trust to request the VR roadshow visit their school by emailing g.roldan@nzaht.org.

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Advertorial

Supporting young people with money management skills Financial security is a critical component of wellbeing, which is why Life Education Trust have set out to provide rangatahi with financial skills and knowledge to prepare them for their journey into adulthood.

In 2020, Life Education’s theatre-in-education programme SMART$ was introduced into secondary schools, bringing an interactive performance with workshop elements to year ten students.

Using a whole of school approach, SMART$ introduces students to everyday financial concepts focused on key learning points of; saving vs deferred payment schemes, credit cards and KiwiSaver.

Back for a second year, SMART$ is currently touring nationwide.

During the performance students follow the lives of three young characters as they navigate relatable everyday financial decisions.

Interactive components encourage student discussion and involvement, with students invited to challenge the characters decisions and behaviours, delving deeper into the impacts these have on their lives.

“SMART$ is a valuable opportunity for all students, not just those taking part in financial subjects at school, to learn important life skills that can help set them up for a future with financial security. We know that money troubles cause considerable stress and it can be really difficult to get out of dept or a cycle of

intergenerational poverty. It’s really key that young people are equipped with this knowledge before behaviours are ingrained.”

Says John O’Connell, Chief Executive of Life Education Trust NZ. The key concepts covered in SMART$ give teachers a springboard for further discussion and learning in the classroom.

Teachers are provided with supporting resources to integrate into lessons after the visit.

Through growing financial capability in our rangatahi, we can support them to live happier and healthier lives into the future.

Life Education is able to bring SMART$ to schools free of charge thanks to the support of the Reserve Bank of NZ and Booster.

To find out more visit: WWW.SMARTS.ORG.NZ To enquire about having SMART$ visit your school email: enquiries@lifeeducation.org.nz

Empowering young people to make positive financial choices SMART$ is a Theatre-in-Education programme designed to provoke thinking and conversation about the everyday financial decisions impacting rangatahi.

The interactive performance follows the decisions and behaviour of relatable characters focusing on concepts of; saving vs deferred payment schemes, credit cards and KiwiSaver.

WWW.SMARTS.ORG.NZ Supported by:

BU DGET 2021

Enhancing curriculum a key focus of Budget 2021 A significant chunk of the Education Budget 2021 has been allocated to enhancing curriculum support for teachers and learners. Other Budget highlights include more funding for learning support, school property, and early learning.

S

trengthening curriculum support is a key focus of this year’s Education Budget.

This curriculum support will be delivered through a new curriculum centre, enabling teachers to have the best supports available to them in a modern and accessible way, says Pauline Cleaver, Associate Deputy Secretary, Curriculum, Pathways & Progress. “The changes required to strengthen our education system are significant and will need ongoing investment of both time and resources to design, implement and embed,” she says.

The work programme for the curriculum centre will have an initial focus on: » refresh of The New Zealand Curriculum and Te Marautanga o Aotearoa » continuing to implement the Early Learning Action Plan » developing new resources and supports for Aotearoa New Zealand’s histories » new Online Curriculum Hub to replace Te Kete Ipurangi and host Kauwhata Reo » digital records of learning in schools and kura » improving learning resources through the NCEA Change Programme.

The curriculum centre will be front facing and will work with schools, kura and early learning services via Curriculum Leads and a blend of face to face and online professional support.

The reforms also include a focus on strengthening the Māori medium pathway and meeting the needs, aspirations and learning pathways of whānau, iwi and Māori communities.

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Learning Support

Learning support was another key area of the Education Budget with $67.4 million invested over the next four years to fund a range of supports and services for students with additional learning needs, including intensive wraparound support for vulnerable young learners at risk of disengaging with their learning, and young learners with wellbeing and behavioural needs that may be challenging to others. It also includes 7,500 more student places for the Attendance Service, and support for alternative education services and schools where these students are enrolled.

Associate Minister of Education Jan Tinetti says she understands the challenges many teachers are facing in the area of learning support.

“As a teacher and principal for nearly 30 years, I know how tough this job is for teachers and for children. This Government is committed to reducing longstanding inequalities so that all children and young people – including those with learning support needs – get the world class education they deserve. I am proud of the good progress we are making, but I acknowledge there is more work to do.

“This is all built on the foundations of our Learning Support Action Plan, and will be refined over time as we review how our Curriculum, our Learning Support and Attendance Services are structured, to more clearly put the learner and their needs in the centre,” says Minister Tinetti.

gazette.education.govt.nz

School property

School property was a key focus in this year’s education Budget with $634.1 million of new capital funding, which includes investment into building new schools and growing existing schools to meet demand. It will also help a number of school property redevelopment projects enter construction sooner and keep the Christchurch Schools Rebuild Programme on track.

The Ministry’s Head of Education Infrastructure Service Kim Shannon says the $634.1 million investment will help achieve the Ministry’s goals for school property.

“We want to create quality learning environments that serve generations of ākonga and teachers. It’s our job to make sure we have the right number of student spaces where and when we need them, and that they’re safe, dry and comfortable. This requires some carefully thought-

through investment to ensure that we deliver the right amount of money in the right place at the right time.”

Early learning

The Budget has allocated $100.7 million for all early learning services to receive a cost adjustment to their funding rates, and more than $170 million for Moving Towards Pay Parity for Teachers in Education and Care services. Funding has also been set aside to improve pay in kōhanga reo.

Over $9 million has been allocated to develop an early learning network function for the sector. This new function is about making sure the network is sustainable in a given area, and that young people are in quality care and education. The first step will be getting better information about the current network, including population trends and current services.

Education Budget 2021: At a glance Budget 2021 provides additional operating investment of $1.4 billion and capital investment of $746.8 million over four years for Vote Education, which includes: » $634.1 million of new capital funding for school property.

This includes: • a capital injection of $150 million for 25 planned school property redevelopment projects so that they can enter construction sooner • $428.1 million to build new schools and grow existing schools to meet demand • $56 million to keep the Christchurch Schools Rebuild Programme on track. » $169.9 million of new operating funding over the next four years to help certificated teachers in education and care centres continue to move towards pay parity with their equivalents in kindergartens. Money set aside to improve pay in kōhanga reo and departmental spending to support the transition. » $185.3 million of operating funding and $53.8 million of capital funding over the next four years to begin the work to reform our system of support for schools and early learning. » $100.7 million increase for Early Childhood Education subsidies over the next four years to fund a 1.2 per cent increase to the universal subsidies and targeted subsidies, to maintain quality and affordability. » $92.5 million of operating funding and $8.1 million of capital funding to complete the NCEA Change Programme. » $90.0 million boost for Schools’ Operational Grant over the next four years to fund a 1.6 per cent universal increase. This will help state and state-integrated schools meet increased operational costs. » $67.4 million over the next four years to meet growth and fund investment in a range of supports and services for students with additional learning needs.

14 June 2021

These include: • $24.3 million to provide intensive support for our most vulnerable young learners at risk of disengaging with their learning.

• $20.9 million to provide an additional 7,500 student places that can be reached by the Attendance Service.

• $17.7 million of reprioritised funding to support young learners with wellbeing and behavioural needs that may be challenging to others.

• $4.4 million to support alternative education services. » $52.8 million operating funding package for property upgrades and maintenance at state-integrated schools. » $20.2 million supporting Pacific bilingual and immersion education in the schooling system, this includes $12.4 million of new operating funding from Budget 2021 and $7.8 million of reprioritised funding from Vote Education. » $18.1 million of new operating funding and $4.9 million capital funding for system changes and other implementation costs to support replacing the decile system with the Equity Index. » $11.6 million to expand Reading Together Te Pānui Ngātahi Partnerships and Duffy Books in Homes. » $10.0 million to deliver targeted initiatives to support ākonga success in NCEA Pāngarau Te Reo Matatini, Numeracy and Literacy. » $5 million to deliver sustained professional learning and development to embed Tapasā as a tool to address social inclusion in the education sector. » $4.2 million to provide ongoing funding for the Prime Minister’s Vocational Excellence Award established in 2019.

For more information about the initiatives, visit education.govt.nz.

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PLD

Lifting learning with Curriculum Progress Tools For the past few years, a Southland secondary school has been on a journey to improve the transition to high school and teaching and learning outcomes across the curriculum using Curriculum Progress Tools (CPT).

Discussing student work and tasks from the Maths Learning Progression framework are Monika Du Plessis, HOD Maths Gore High School, and Charlotte Forbes and Alicia Prescott from Longford Intermediate.

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ore High School first became interested in understanding the concept of progress and developing a common language for reading, writing and maths across all Year 9 and 10 subjects in 2019, says deputy principal Melanie Hamilton.

“We were interested in having a common language to talk about what progress looked like, because progress looks different in each curriculum area; but we had no common language to discuss how a child could progress, how to feedback to a child and feed forward about what the next steps in their learning would be,” explains Melanie.

Gore High School’s strategic planning is now focused on school-wide literacy using CPT (Curriculum Progress Tools),

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which also helps to develop some school-wide targets.

“Secondary school teachers are probably not trained in teaching reading as such, they train in subjects, so they needed to get some understanding of what the steps of reading and writing looked like,” she says.

PaCT (Progress and Consistency Tool) is a way of collecting and analysing measurements from a range of places.

“It gives us amazing data on where the gaps are in a cohort, in terms of a class or a year level. For example, we might be able to see that they’re not particularly good at reading critically, so then we’ll focus some of our work on that.

gazette.education.govt.nz

“One of the joys of PaCT is that the data gives a fantastic profile of a child and their reading, writing and maths for teachers to create individualised learning pathways,” explains Melanie.

Schoolwide PLD

The school is committed to schoolwide professional learning development (PLD) around the progress tools, with two within-school teachers – one from social studies and one from science – who spread the knowledge and implement activities that support literacy, says Melanie.

Janelle Stevenson from Evaluation Associates in Invercargill has been working with Gore High School since 2018. She has a passion for helping secondary schools benefit from the tools’ Learning Progression Framework (LPF) and PaCT. “It’s quite hard for secondary schools to engage with all of the CPTs. They identify with the framework, especially for reading and writing across the curriculum, but they find the PaCT part quite hard to use logistically. For example, maths can use the maths framework, but if you want to go across the whole school, how do you facilitate those discussions with all teachers?” she says.

“Gore High School is a good example of a school that has led the teacher learning cohesively by integrating the tools with all they do and re-evaluating and refining the processes and outcomes.”

Some of the mahi at the World Inquiry into Moderation Café held recently.

Starting small

Gore High School started small in 2019, with the English department using the writing framework for Years 9 and 10.

“Mel could see that if we started with them and first got them conversant with the writing framework, and then using PaCT; they would then generate some writing data which would be of interest to everyone.

“In the first year, I would meet with the English teachers either individually or as a group, and we would look at the framework and how it linked to their writing programme,” explains Janelle.

By the end of the year, Janelle King, HOD English, was ready to share PaCT data about students’ writing achievement with all other departments and teachers at the school.

“As well as seeing if students were low compared with the national expectation of what progress in writing looks like, we could also see where they were low. So suddenly we had some things about writing rather than just saying they’re not good writers – that was the hook to go schoolwide the following year,” says Janelle Stevenson.

Aspects of reading

In 2020, the school’s English department continued working with the CPT’s writing framework. The mathematics department picked up the maths framework and the remaining staff learned about aspects of the reading framework that were relevant to their subjects.

“That’s how we chose to start at the beginning of the year, so that departments would have one or two aspects to learn about, focus on, and look at where it was in their teaching programme,” explains Janelle.

14 June 2021

Discussing student work and tasks from the Writing Learning Progression framework are Renata Jackson, Longford Intermediate Deputy Principal, and Debbie Drummond, Assistant HOD English Gore High School.

“One of the joys of PaCT is that the data gives a fantastic profile of a child and their reading, writing and maths for teachers to create individualised learning pathways.”

Melanie Hamilton

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“We might look at some student work, or a unit or a task and pull out the reading in there and link it to the aspect. Then we could start to look at some strategies to put into their lessons or their planning or learning outcomes.

“Being able to read and write is required in all subjects. That’s one of the things in the secondary context that is more difficult to manage because everybody teaches literacy, but up until the last few years, there were very few contextualised subject exemplars connecting them to each other,” she says.

Transferring skills and knowledge

Students don’t generally transfer skills from subject to subject unless all their teachers start to consistently talk the same way.

Melanie says the progress tools provide a common language to help students transfer their knowledge and skills.

“They might have those strengths in art, but if we’re not using some of the same techniques and activities with them, they might not recognise that they can actually do that in English,” she says.

“We’re trying to get that common language, so that if we’re talking about text structure and features in art, then we’re also talking about it in English, science and so on.”

New NCEA standards

New NCEA standards will require students to pass standards in literacy and numeracy as a co-requisite to receiving a formal NCEA qualification. Melanie says there’s a direct link between understanding the PaCT data and understanding NCEA readiness under the change package.

“One of the new literacy co-requisites for NCEA is indicated by a PaCT scale score. Last year about 60-70 per cent of our Year 10s would have been ready for the literacy test, so it’s up to us to get them ready for that a bit sooner,” she says.

The qualification for literacy is top of Level 4, bottom of Level 5 for reading and writing. This year one of the school’s strategic targets is to have 80 per cent of Year 10 students with a PaCT Scale score in the range of 750-850 for reading and 870-900 in writing.

The data provided in the PaCT tool allows a school to show value added, says Melanie.

“For example, last year’s Year 10s, who are now in Year 11, had a group who needed more support with their writing and were considered below the curriculum level expected of them when they were at the end of Year 9.

“By the end of Year 10, we could clearly show that this group of students had moved significantly closer to the expected curriculum level through our actions. That was affirming for us, that our work with LPF and PaCT was on the right track for our students, literacy-wise,” she says.

Supporting transition

Top: On the menu at the World Inquiry into Moderation Café.

Left: Janelle Stevenson.

Right: Melanie Hamilton.

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Gore High School is working on a collaborative piece of PLD with its main feeder school, Longford Intermediate.

“My staff and I were interested in the notion of understanding of consistency across schools in the Kāhui Ako and in particular, our feeder. We’ve done some collaborative PLD with Longford Intermediate in maths and literacy,” says Melanie.

“The teachers at Gore Intermediate School were really interested to go into the classrooms at the intermediate and vice versa. But that’s quite a risky thing to do because people might feel judged.

gazette.education.govt.nz

“So, if we have this framework as a common understanding, and we’re looking at what the framework looks like in the school, it’s different than looking at the teaching and learning in an isolated way without common frames of reference,” explains Janelle.

From the beginning of 2021, Gore High School’s transition data has been enhanced with the PaCT data attached to individual students, cohorts and classes from Longford Intermediate. The data is used by Gore High School teachers before Year 9 students start school to identify numbers, needs and names.

“In terms of transition, the data coming in about students’ learning is awesome – it’s clear, we know what they can do, and we know where the gaps are. In the past we’ve used other data – like PATs – where you cannot see as clearly the next steps for kids.

“The data has allowed senior leaders and heads of departments to look at the group of students as a whole and what needs they have in terms of reading, writing and mathematics. Our Learning Support Co-ordinator can set targets and goals using the data for the students he is working with,” Melanie explains.

Strengths and gaps

The PaCT data enables teachers to identify areas which need more focus, as well as PLD support, says Melanie.

“What’s different about this data from standardised tool data is that it shows strengths and gaps. They can address the gaps, identify key aspects to focus on, think about what the next steps in progress look like by using the signposts, and look at being more explicit in their teaching and learning around the literacy demands.

“The data may also identify that the teachers need PLD support with planning and enacting strategies for teaching and learning.

“A good example is our science department’s focus on reading critically and writing to influence. Our within-school teacher planned an approach, which was shared with the other teachers, and they then linked it in to their planning and teaching, trialled, shared and evaluated it – then the social science department picked it up and adapted it,” she says.

Moderation Café

In May, Gore High School, Longford Intermediate and St Mary’s School in Gore attended a ‘World Inquiry into Moderation Café’, which looked at one aspect of maths and one aspect of writing.

“There were tables set up as signposts and teachers put student work on each and had conversations looking at how they make the judgements (for PaCT). That’s a way of facilitating conversation using the framework as the nonthreatening tool in the background,” says Janelle.

Looking to make traction with your school-wide PLD? Our MOE accredited facilitators can work with you to achieve your improvement goals so your ākonga can thrive. With a large nationwide team, we have facilitators who can support you across all of the PLD priorities.

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14 June 2021

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Resources The CPT Website links to the Learning Progression Frameworks (LPFs) and The Progress and Consistency Tool (PaCT).

The Learning and Progression Frameworks support teachers to understand the progress the learner is making, and PaCT is a tool to track the progress. These tools inform teachers about the next steps for the learners.

There are guides, support videos (primary and secondary focus), screencasts and more information on the Learn About options for each tool. There is also advice on setting these up in your school, making judgements and using reports.

The website has been designed to support you to understand and use the two curriculum tools. Each webpage outlines key messages and includes a range of resources that you can use in school based PLD. Range of supports offered » Online PLD (delivered via Zoom). A programme over two terms to support understanding and implementation of the Curriculum Progress Tools.

Contact progress.tools@education.govt.nz to indicate your interest and receive more information. » Support Schools Network. Peer-to-peer support for teachers and schools. Contact progress.tools@ education.govt.nz to access this connection. » Regional Progress Officer (RPO). There are designated RPOs in the regional offices available to support schools who are exploring implementation or developing their use of the Curriculum Progress Tools. Contact your regional office to connect with your local RPO. » Regionally Allocated PLD. A Regionally Allocated PLD application through your local Ministry office could allow you access to facilitators who will support you to implement or develop use of the Curriculum Progress Tools.

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“Being able to read and write is required in all subjects.

That’s one of the things in the secondary context that is more difficult to manage because everybody teaches literacy, but up until the last few years, there were very few contextualised subject exemplars connecting them to each other.”

Janelle Stevenson

gazette.education.govt.nz

The Curriculum Progress Tools Online PLD Programme » Free to schools » Supports schools to understand and implement the Curriculum Progress Tools » Places available from Term 3 2021 go to: curriculumprogresstools.education.govt.nz

“Outstanding support, guidance and clarity around the LPFs and PaCT... I would recommend that every teacher be involved in this training.”

For more information or to sign-up email progress.tools@education.govt.nz

“This is a week which we always devote some focus and time to, because it’s an important part of our bigger picture and plan around student safety and wellbeing at school.”

Andrea Scanlan

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gazette.education.govt.nz

WELLBEI NG

Making waves to prevent bullying Tamariki at Konini Primary School did yoga, learned about kindness and focused on the definition of bullying during Bullying-Free NZ Week in May.

K

onini Primary School in Wainuiomata school hosted Jan Tinetti, Associate Minister of Education, Ginny Anderson, MP for Hutt South, and Roy Sye, director of Education Central South, during Bullying-Free NZ Week (BFNZ Week) recently.

“This is a week which we always devote some focus and time to, because it’s an important part of our bigger picture and plan around student safety and wellbeing at school,” says principal Andrea Scanlan.

“The Minister talked with our peer mediators about the role they play in the school. They talked about how they support students when there’s conflict or problems and how they help students work through a process to resolve the conflict,” she says.

Data helps bullying prevention

Konini Primary School has had a particular focus on preventing and responding to bullying for several years.

“A few years ago, data from the Wellbeing@School self-review toolkit strongly showed that a cohort of older boys was displaying increased aggressive behaviour.

This prompted us to work with that year group around managing themselves and conflict and responding to conflict in less aggressive ways.

“The next year we did the Wellbeing@School survey again. The change we saw with that group of students was remarkable. Aggressive responses had dropped incredibly, so it demonstrated to us the power of noticing what’s in the data; and that doing something quite specific to address it can have positive outcomes,” says Andrea.

Focus on data

Sofia (new entrant) and Paavli (Year 4) talk to Ginny Anderson, MP for Hutt South (left) and Jan Tinetti, Associate Minister of Education, about their Helping Hands activity.

14 June 2021

As a Positive Behaviour for Learning School-Wide (PB4L-SW) school that uses restorative practices, data gathered as part of PB4L-SW implementation and the Wellbeing@School survey helps staff to plan and focus on activities that will make a difference at the school.

“The PB4L work is based around the data that is collected in the school.

With PB4L, you have a positive process and strategy and a way in which you are responding to students’ behaviour: recording, noticing and looking at the data.

“Alongside that there are the social skills that teachers are teaching – being deliberate about what children need to learn, in how to get along with one another.

“Knowing that those things helped to make a difference, we kept incorporating them into our professional learning, constant review and evaluation, team meetings and discussions. They are approaches that we have incorporated into what we do all the time now,” explains Andrea.

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Strategies taught

Combining the data from PB4L and the Wellbeing@School survey, which is free for schools to use, helps Konini Primary School respond to the children’s needs. Tamariki are taught to notice and recognise bullying, have strategies for responding and for getting help if they can’t address something themselves.

“With the restorative approach, when things do go wrong, we first ask ‘what happened?’ making no judgements on what’s taken place and allowing children the opportunity to explain what has happened. When there are difficulties between students, we encourage them to listen to each other, talk about how they felt, who’s been impacted or hurt, what we can do to fix the situation and how adults can help.

“Working through that restorative approach makes a difference for our students because they are now noticeably more able to talk about what is going on – and resolve conflict,” says Andrea.

Professional learning

Andrea says staff from the New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER) supported her team to unpack and make sense of the data and information from the wellbeing self-review toolkit.

“The tool provides rich and useful information from the students around how they’re experiencing their school life. The data also helps inform where we have to focus our attention on making change in the school, or working with the students around what needs to happen differently to have less aggression in the playground or learn how to support others when we notice something going wrong.

“It all fits together. We’ve undertaken professional learning with staff around a wellbeing framework called Seven dimensions of social and emotional wellbeing (Positively Psychology). Psychologist Dr Jean Annan’s work has really helped us to think about how to support the wellbeing of students at school,” says Andrea.

Words matter

The language used to talk to children needs to be specific and nuanced and there are plenty of resources to help schools. Andrea says there’s a rich resource of material and activities available from sources, including the BullyingFree New Zealand Week website, Sparklers, Sticks ’n Stones, Pink Shirt Day and Cool Schools (a Peace Foundation programme).

When the school’s PB4L data showed that older students’ understanding of the definition of bullying needed to be revisited, they were able to use a resource that explored the words used.

“There’s a YouTube clip that talks about ‘rude, mean and bullying’, which the older children watched and then they discussed what each word means. They learned about being upstanders when they noticed that someone was being rude or mean – so they could identify that.

“We know that the word bullying is used a lot in our society, and it’s important that we all understand that while someone being mean is not a nice thing to happen, it is different to when someone is being bullied. So, we try

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to talk about using the correct language for situations and understanding different situations so the response is the right response,” says Andrea.

Age-appropriate activities

As well as joining in with a regular yoga session run by Seedling Yoga, the visitors during BFNZ Week visited classrooms where older children were working on a range of activities with younger children that focused on kindness and talking about the people who help them.

“Every BFNZ Week activity the children do is always ageappropriate. The ways in which the different ages experience the week is different. For example, the new entrants were focusing on what kindness looks like, so our new entrants probably haven’t even said the word bullying.

“The children enjoy the BFNZ Week activities – there’s always something to be learnt. It’s engaging – they watch YouTube clips, talk with one another, respond in ways that help them understand better the focus of this week,” says Andrea.

Small ripples, big waves Bullying-Free NZ Week (BFNZ Week) took place on 17 –21 May this year with the theme ‘He kōtuinga mahi iti, he hua pai-ā rau: Small ripples create big waves’.

This year’s BFNZ Week was supported by Sticks ’n Stones, a youth-led bullying prevention organisation that has worked with students to create action packs for the week, among other initiatives.

BFNZ Week culminates in the Mental Health Foundation’s Pink Shirt Day, which was held on Friday 21 May. Teachers can download a Teacher’s Pack. Student activity pack and resources are also available.

More information is available on the Bullying-Free NZ website bullyingfree.nz

MORE RESOURCES

» Bullying-Free NZ Schools Framework bullyingfree.nz/preventing-bullying » Wellbeing@School wellbeingatschool.org.nz » Rude, mean or bullying youtube.com/watch?v=tPbO6UmYCu4 » Oat the Goat oatthegoat.co.nz

ENTER THE BULLYING-FREE NZ WEEK COMPETITION Show us how you’re working to create an environment that’s caring and respectful; or nominate a bullyingprevention superstar. Entries close 25 June 2021.

gazette.education.govt.nz

Students and principal Andrea Scanlan enjoyed the opportunity to talk about their Bullying-Free NZ Week activities and their peer mediation programme with MP Ginny Anderson and Minister Tinetti.

Tamariki kōrero Tamariki from Konini Primary School talk about preventing bullying at their school.

WHAT DID YOU LIKE MOST ABOUT BULLYING-FREE NEW ZEALAND WEEK? I liked when we sorted out the differences between the types of bullying – social, verbal and so on. We put them in categories. There were different situations to categorise and it took a bit of thinking to solve which category they went in. Some situations can have more than one type of bullying in it, like it could have been online and then escalated to physical. Ava, peer mediator (Year 6) I enjoyed doing yoga during Bullying-Free NZ Week. When we stretch our bones, we’re actually stretching our muscles too and it can help us get more flexible. Jacqui, peer mediator (Year 5)

WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED FROM THE ACTIVITIES YOU DID DURING BULLYINGFREE NEW ZEALAND WEEK? I can be kind and let people play. Sofia (new entrant) When people fall over and hurt their knees you can take them to the medical room. On the way you can give them a hug. In the ‘Kindness Boomerang’ clip, when the boy fell over off his skateboard, the building man helped him. I can help people too. Like when they feel sad, we can go play with them. Athena (new entrant) I learnt the three Ps of bullying – purpose, power, and

14 June 2021

pattern. When someone does something to you on purpose, when it is repeated, when they have power in the situation –that’s big versus small! Ishek, peer mediator (Year 5) I learned how to not be a bystander but to help people. I learned how to upstand more and help people who are getting bullied. I would maybe ask them what happened or how can we help resolve it. Or get a teacher. Rukua (Year 6) We think that boys and girls have certain colours of clothes, but it is never right to bully someone that is wearing a boy or girl’s colour. Jacqui

WHAT DO YOU LIKE ABOUT BEING A PEER MEDIATOR? I like peer mediation because I get to help people in the playground and make our school safer and other people like to join our school. Ishek Being a peer mediator is important and it helps people solve problems, so they are not fighting. Jacqui As a peer mediator it is good to know if it is bullying or being mean in general. I liked meeting the Minister – she asked us questions about being a peer mediator and we explained what we do and what it’s like to be a peer mediator and help people solve problems. Ava

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With a continued focus on the development of our tamariki for their future, your commitment to inclusive and dynamic education will inspire others.

As our tumuaki, you will possess the skills to consolidate and build on the current strengths of our school while developing and embedding initiatives to ensure an enduring culture of success. Your ability to enhance and promote our school vision and values as well as engage and work positively alongside staff, students and the community is essential.

vacancies section and reach both

This position is available from the beginning of term 4, 2021.

the passive and active jobseekers by

Applications close at 4pm, Monday 26th July 2021 are to be received electronically.

contacting Jill Parker: jill.parker@nzme.co.nz 027 212 9277

To view the PLD, general notice listings and vacancies at gazette.education.govt.nz

Please contact Tom Scollard for further information and/or an application pack. Email: tom@tomscollard.co.nz Ph. 0211836462

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14 June 2021

Tukutuku Kōrero

51

S E N IOR L EADERSH I P DISPL AY VACANCI ES

Mountain View School 81 Mountain Road, Mangere Bridge, Auckland

Deputy Principal: Curriculum & Assessment, Professional Learning and Senior School (5+MU) Deputy Principal: SENCO, Operations and Junior School (5+MU) U4 and growing!

Do you love to innovate and be part of change?

With a new principal and a restructured leadership team we are wanting applicants who are committed to the revitalisation of our school.

We are a beautifully resourced school with fantastic facilities sitting at the base of Te Pane o Maataoho (Mangere Mountain).

We are on a journey to discovering our own local curriculum, engaging whaanau, being culturally aware and active, and becoming digitally savvy. We are passionate about providing fantastic opportunities and great academic outcomes for our tamariki and we work hard to do it.

Are you ambitious, have the skills we need and the personality and sense of humour to add value to our kura?

Our website and facebook pages have more information about us: www.mountainviewmangere.school.nz https://www.facebook.com/MountainViewMangere

52

Education Gazette

What are we looking for in our leaders?

Someone who: - is passionate and shows it - is energised, driven and ambitious - will meet a need when a need is seen - has initiative - loves curriculum design - develops great relationships with staff, students and whaanau - knows the value of collaboration - is pragmatic when making decisions - has conviction, will back decisions but also go with their gut - is a proven classroom practitioner - is a proven leader with experience If this sounds like you, request an application pack ASAP. Te Kura Tirohanga Maunga are so excited to meet their new Deputy Principals.

Closing date for applications Friday 2nd July.

For application packs contact Ben, the principal via:

ben@mvs.school.nz

gazette.education.govt.nz

S E N IOR L EADERSH I P DISPL AY VACANCI ES

Te Mata School, Havelock North Empowering Learning Whakamana Akoranga

PRINCIPAL (U6)

For the first time in 18 years, Te Mata School in Havelock North is seeking to appoint their next inspirational leader to continue to “seek the heights” with us. Situated at the foot of Te Mata o Rongokako, Te Mata is a future-focused school of around 600 students across Years 1 to 6, where the learner is at the heart of everything we do. With excellent facilities to support our collaborative teaching approach, dedicated, passionate staff and fantastic community support, we provide our children with exciting and innovative learning opportunities and experiences that prepare them for the future. We are proud of our high level of academic, cultural, sporting and artistic achievement, and we are excited at the prospect of a new Principal joining us to continue our success and lead our wonderful school.

Our New Principal • You are passionate about enabling learners to challenge themselves to strive for personal excellence and develop learning dispositions that promote life-long learning.

• You are a collaborative, visible and inclusive leader with strong interpersonal and communication skills with a proven ability to build lasting relationships with a wide range of stakeholders. Colleagues will describe you as energetic, approachable, and focused on the wellbeing of staff, students and our wider community.

• You are committed to honouring the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and take responsibility for growing the knowledge and capability of Te Mata School to deliver an equitable and excellent education.

• As a highly experienced educator and school leader, you will bring a deep knowledge of modern pedagogy. You promote a culture of learning and growth, with a strong focus on creating a nurturing environment that allows our children to be the best they can be, now and in their future.

APPLY NOW. Closing Date for Applications 5.00pm Monday 28th June 2021 Contact Jane at Blackcat Education for an Application Pack on jane@blkcat.co.nz For a confidential chat, call Andrew (06) 877 2082 or 021 0296 9891 Please visit www.temata.school.nz and our website www.blackcateducation.co.nz We look forward to hearing from you. Nga mihi.

Education Gazette deadlines | June - October 2021 Publication dates

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16 August | Issue 10

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14 June 2021

Tukutuku Kōrero

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Apply for the Creatives in Schools programme Work with artists to deliver new and exciting creative learning experiences for your students.

The Creatives in Schools programme provides funding of up to $17,000 per project. Creative projects can cover a wide range of artforms such as visual, performance, digital arts, Pacific arts and ngā toi Māori.

If your kura or school is planning to run a creative project for your students in 2022, start preparing your application in partnership with an artist or a creative professional. Round 3 opens on Friday 18 June 2021 and closes on Friday 20 August 2021. Up to 117 projects will be selected for this round.

For the latest updates and tips to help prepare your application visit:

creativesinschools.tki.org.nz If you have questions, email:

CreativesinSchools@education.govt.nz