NZ Principal Magazine Term 2 2014

June 2014 Volume 29, Number 2

Taranaki’s Toko School Collaborates Principal Geoff Lovegrove Retires Seven Values of highly effective principals

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CONTENTS

Magazine Proof-reader Helen Kinsey-Wightman Editorial Board Philip Harding, NZPF President Geoff Lovegrove, Lytton Street School (Feilding) Liz Hawes, Editor Advertising Stephen Tuck, Sales & Marketing Manager

June 2014

2 EDITORIAL 3 PRESIDENT’S PEN 6 NZPF Moot 2014 10 Geoff Lovegrove Retires 14 Gifted Curriculum in New Zealand: A Road Less Travelled

Jo Bate

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Note The articles in New Zealand Principal do not necessarily reflect the policy of the New Zealand Principals’ Federation. Readers are welcome to use or reprint material if proper acknowledgement is made.

Liz Hawes, Editor

TARANAKI’S TOKO SCHOOL COLLABORATES

Liz Hawes, Editor

CHALLENGING a Myth: Teachers do not have the greatest within-school impact on student achievement

Associate Professor John Clark

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New Zealand Principal is published

by Cervin Media Ltd on behalf of the New Zealand Principals’ Federation and is issued four times annually. For all enquiries regarding editorial contributions, please contact the editor.

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Seven Values of highly effective principals

David McKenzie, Edendale

Āta Whakaarohia – A Story of mentoring in a special Education setting

Jill De Kock et al

33 school lines Lester Flockton

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Take a deep breath: Integrating into a new school culture . . .

Helen Kinsey-Wightman

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Liam explains how he came by his cowboy hat. Toko School

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Editorial Liz Hawes

Editor

As I write this column, ‘Budget Day’ is dawning. Budget Day Bill English has announced that $857m of new money will be always generates an element of excitement, particularly if you allocated to Education over four years. $359m has already been work in Wellington. In part, this is due to the age old tradition announced and has been set aside for the controversial Investing of the ‘Budget Lock Up’, where journalists, lobbyists and selected in Educational Success policy. $156m will be applied to early others feverishly gather a few hours before the official Budget childhood to keep fees affordable and encourage participation release, and stripped of any communication device are given and $172.5m will go towards the upgrade and repair of schools. access to the Budget document. They are then quite literally A quick break down of the main increases shows that locked in together until after the Minister of Finance has schools’ operational grants will be increased by $85.317m delivered his Budget speech.

(2 per cent) over the four years; These days, the whole charter schools will get $8.337m Because it is an election year there process is less exciting because further funding in operations Governments tend to leak are likely to be some sweeteners grant; $4.68m for students with their major announcements high health needs; $2.37m to prior to the Budget. This gives that are kept secret until the actual extend the programme ‘Reading the public time to get used to Together’; $16.89m for the day. them so that when Budget day Greater Christchurch Education arrives, there are no surprises. For example we already know that Renewal Programme: property components; $38.13m for school in this Budget there is new spending on Education ($359m), property expansion; $8.5m for increased insurance premiums announced in January, money for Defence and for NZ Trade following the Christchurch earthquakes; $3.04m for the & Enterprise. We can expect health will get at least a modest computers in homes programme; $29.82m for the Public Private injection as it usually does. To neutralise opposition initiatives Partnership (PPP) at Hobsonville Point; and $10.38m for leaky that have gained some traction, there may also be a boost for buildings remediation. housing and something to counter Labour’s baby bonus. But Are these the sweeteners you were looking for? If you support overall we have already been warned that conservatism will the shift towards privatisation of education, then you will be rule the day. suitably satisfied with the Hobsonville PPP getting a significant Because it is an election year there are likely to be some increase in funding and charter schools getting a further $8.3m sweeteners that are kept secret until the actual day. The boost. It certainly makes the charter school funding an attractive excitement then is all about ‘sweetener speculation’ and whether option, as it sits at six times the rate of the normal public school what the Government has chosen to get them across the line per child funding. in the ensuing election battle, will actually resonate with the The 2 per cent increase in the operations grants for public voting public. schools will hardly set the world alight and the property funding We all have our personal dreams about what the Government is a response to growth and maintenance. should spend our money on but in the end it has to be about No, education was not a big winner this time round. The priorities. There will never be sufficient money to fund big sweeteners this year sit outside of the school gate with free everybody’s wish list and there are always competing interests. health care for children up to age 13 taking top prize. For those In the end we now know that the Government has surprised expecting some relief for the one in four children living in us with a huge new allocation to health so that every child under poverty, this announcement is big. It is an excellent first step 13 will have free health care. That’s a decision which will resonate and indirectly will help schools. Children who arrive at school with thousands of New Zealand families who struggle to pay for sick and hungry can’t learn. Together with the Food in Schools Doctor’s fees. It will also please the advocates for children living programme, extending free health care to 400,000 more kids in poverty and the Government must be congratulated on their will mean all children can arrive at school fed and greatly more inspired choice. Together with the additional paid parental leave, healthy. If the Government could also sort out the housing issues these two sweeteners will have a positive effect for young families. we’d be getting close to having every child arriving at school Of great interest in the NZPF office is Vote Education. ready to learn.

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President’s Pen Philip Harding

National President, New Zealand Principals’ Federation

When the notion of a replacement for the NZ Teachers are doctors nominated by the Minister of Health, and four are Council was first mooted, a number of concerns were listed as lay people – that is NOT doctors. its rationale.

The Education Amendment Bill No 2 makes no such sensible The appalling transgressions of people like James Parker at a suggestions, and is happy to see political appointments rule Northland school were oft quoted, and so too were the actions the day. In NZPF’s submission to the Select Committee we of Te Riko Henry Miki who taught at a number of schools using made it clear that it is not acceptable to remove democratic the stolen identity of a registered teacher. processes from the very people who must not only pay for These sorts of crimes were the Council’s work, but be used to illustrate supposed However it is the teachers who guided and disciplined by it failings by the current Council too. Those people by the way, to “keep children safe” through must pay for the new council, and are called “teachers” and are its screening and vetting proud to carry the teaching processes, and any number of it is they who must also own it. qualification that they earned, recommendations have now whether it was recently or back been handed down to strengthen school processes, and of course in the dark ages like me. legislation has been drafted in the Education Amendment Bill No 2, which will pass slowly towards becoming law as we move towards the election in September.

When a member of the profession is acting in a deliberate and criminal way of course, they are using every ounce of their cunning to hide their crimes and their behaviour, and set about grooming, conning, and convincing people who are trained to 10th Annual Teachers Matter Conference be trusting and empathetic in their dealings with others. There was no real failing by the Teachers’ Council, and it is creating a smokescreen to suggest otherwise.

So, what lies hidden behind the smoke?

The draft Bill is very badly written. It variously refers to the “teaching profession” and the “education profession” as if they are one in the same, and the Bill’s clearly preferred term is the latter. This broad brush label sweeps up all before it, including support staff and others who may eventually be empowered through the issue of a new Limited Authority to Teach to move between schools with that new ticket, teaching wherever a school struggles to appoint, or dare I suggest wishes to save its money by employing a non-teacher.

However it is the teachers who must pay for the new council, and it is they who must also own it. That sense of ownership is assumed by the writers, but I suspect that teachers will have a lot more to say about that if the Bill continues unchanged.

Leading International Speakers • Top NZ Speakers At the moment the entire governing Council will be appointed Specialist Workshops • Collective Wisdom Forum by the Minister, with up to five members coming from the Meet the Speakers Smorgasbord profession. Cynics will quickly recognise that “up to five” could 21/22 JANUARY SYDNEY 27/28 JANUARY ROTORUA be none, or just one, and with a sector as far flung as Education, that just won’t do. Critically, other regulating independent For more information: authorities genuinely represent their professions. www.teachersmatter.co.nz The Medical Council for example, is comprised of twelve or call us on 0800 37 33 77 people, of whom four are elected from the profession, four more

Inspire, Motivate and Focus your Team for 2015

NZ Principal | J u n e 2 0 14

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That is why we requested in our submission that the new Council be called the Teachers’ Council of Aotearoa New Zealand, or TCANZ. The Bill’s introduction states, that it “will strengthen the capability and quality of the education profession”. Of course New Zealand’s burgeoning charter schools are not bound by any of the requirements on public schools to employ registered teachers. They can employ anyone they choose, regardless of their training or lack thereof.

If a true profession is one that controls its own practice, standards, and ethical conduct, then true ownership is essential.

The shape of the current Bill leads me to believe that the new Council will fail miserably unless submissions are carefully considered, and lead to some fundamental changes. 1800 submissions have been received by the Education and Science Select Committee, and while many of those will focus on the Bill’s impact on the tertiary sector, there are many concerned teachers who have demanded to be heard.

There are other knee jerks within the bill too. The notion that ten per cent of the appraisal documentation relating to renewals of practising certificates in any year – in other words around 3500 documents – must be sent to Wellington for audit is extremely disappointing. It shows a lack of trust, not just in school leaders and boards, but also in the Education Review Office and its function. ERO visits schools every three years and

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is well placed to triangulate practice, paperwork, and the actual critical conversations that must underpin a truly developmental framework. The real risk of this approach is that schools will respond by developing portable paper-based systems that will withstand an audit process, and we will lose the much richer and more complex quality improvement notions that schools are using more and more.

Also put at risk are the Registered Teacher Criteria – clear statements of practice, developed in partnership with teachers and school leaders, and finally being used as clear statements of expectation and performance. This process has taken years, and will now be started all over again.

The current Teachers’ Council has worked hard in recent years at getting its processes sorted, and winning back the confidence of its profession. Now it will all be swept away. Already Peter Lind has accepted an offer from overseas, and we once again lose a professional of great mana and personal warmth from Wellington.

It is exactly this kind of devious doublespeak and hidden agenda, replicated in this bill, that has led the profession to its deep lack of trust in the educational direction of current government policy. If things are to improve then genuine trust will only start with greater transparency of purpose, and true co-construction of important initiatives. Let’s start with our very own Teachers’ Council.

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MOOT 2014 Liz Hawes Editor

Preparations for the 2014 Moot were shaped by a on the policy. It was therefore not surprising that a significant backdrop of growing disquiet over the Prime Minister’s ‘Investing contingent of 140 provincial principal leaders assembled in for Educational Success’ (IES) policy announcement. The IES Wellington this March. policy challenged the profession to choose collaboration over The Moot, or day of discussion and debate provided a jam competition. That seemed an innocuous enough proposition for a packed programme heavily weighted in favour of political profession steeped in collaborative practices and the government debate, especially about the IES. Beginning with the President’s investment to encourage more of it was initially applauded. What speech the programme included the Minister of Education, was not so straightforward was that this collaboration would be Hekia Parata, Secretary for Education, Peter Hughes, and in the situated within a framework of clustering schools under what afternoon an ‘on the couch session’ chaired by retiring principal the Prime Minister called ‘Executive Principals’, selected for Geoff Lovegrove from Feilding, which featured representatives their expert skills and who would be paid $40,000 in addition from all the major political parties. to their ordinary principal’s salary. There would be 250 of them In between, the Te Akatea President Peter Witana and Pasifika and they would leave their own schools for two days a week to spokesperson Faatili Iosua Esera updated us on issues of lead these clusters of about ten schools each, although being in concern to them. Phil O’Reilly from the Employers’ Federation a cluster would remain voluntary, at least initially. Beyond the gave us a run down on his expectations of schools, including executive principals would be expert and lead teachers who that they develop good citizens who are problem solvers and would also be paid additional money ($20,000 and $10,000 each critical thinkers, who are resilient and persistent, who tell the respectively) to share their expertise with other teachers and truth, turn up on time and can work in a team. Kids with these there could be as many as 6,000 of them. ‘Change principals’, attributes, we were told, would be work ready. He showed less about twenty in number, would be paid an additional $50,000 as interest in schools focusing on any skill set beyond a good an incentive to take on the most troubled schools and transform grounding in the basics because skills, he told his audience, can them. Further, an innovation fund of $10m would be available be trained. Cathy Wylie of NZCER told us of the current state for professional development. of schools’ health. Her research The goal of this policy was Collaboration is trusting that showed that principals are expressed very clearly as lifting stretched too thinly. Whilst student achievement especially better things will come from us all parents are happy and boards for priority learners. confident, principal stress working together than from one of are To pay for all of this, the levels are higher. There is Prime Minister was prepared us working alone. That means all disappointment that progress to invest $359m, nearly all of in teaching practices for the which would be going towards participants are treated and valued NZ Curriculum has stalled and boosting the salaries of selected it is difficult to acquire suitable equally. teachers and principals. This PLD. The system needs more new shape for collaboration was somewhat different from the coherence, according to Wylie’s findings, before progress can traditional collaborative practices where teachers work in teams be made. and syndicates to share best practice within schools and where principals form clusters outside of their schools for various NZPF President’s Address purposes and engage in professional development programmes President Philip Harding’s address set the platform for the Moot agreed by the participants. In these existing clusters, no one gets which was always going to focus on the IES. He reminded his paid more for sharing what they know and no one is considered audience that the policy would proceed with or without the more of an expert than anyone else. Everyone has a contribution support of principals. The national executive, he said, believes to make and cluster co-ordinators are chosen from amongst the that true collaboration is a preferable way to operate than participating principals. It is not uncommon for the participants competition and it is better that NZPF retains its membership to bring in an expert in a particular field or pay an advisor for of the working party and has as much influence over the design of the policy as possible. training a cluster of principals in some agreed area of need.

He was quick to point out the features of the policy that The Moot promised to explore the many elements of the IES policy and invited participants to feed into the NZPF position troubled him. Collaboration, he said, is ‘trusting that better

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Secretary for Education Peter Hughes, NZPF President Philip Harding and Minister Parata all addressed the Moot

things will come from us all working together than from one of us working alone’. That means all participants are treated and valued equally and the notion of ‘executive principal’ does not sit comfortably in that space. He quoted Canadian educationalist Michael Fullan who concurred that an imposed top-down structure was unlikely to work without genuine buy-in from the players.

Harding noted that the policy was being launched into a sector ‘characterised by deep mistrust after six years of betrayal and hidden agenda. There is no ‘shining star’, showing that the path this policy leads to is a good path to embrace,’ he said. He noted that the policy was not based on best evidence or sound research and said that principals would never agree to national standards being the arbiter of all that is good about schools or clusters of schools. He raised the issue of wider consultation saying that despite the undoubted affect the policy will have on parents, communities and Boards, these groups had been left out of the discussions. He also signalled that weaker schools could be swallowed up by their stronger neighbours and the policy could lead to the establishment of ‘super boards’ governing clusters of ten schools which would be led by a single principal. ‘It could signal an end to ‘Tomorrow’s Schools’ and self-management as we know it,’ he said. He predicted that principals would not be motivated by the extra money and would not want to leave their own schools for two days of every week to work with ten others.

The working party designing the policy, he said, had made some changes. These included removal of the position titles and making cluster participation voluntary. He also said that the money was increasingly being referred to as a resource rather than ‘additional pay’. ‘The policy,’ he said, ‘is developing into a ‘tight-loose’ state. It is tight enough to get cabinet approval but

loose enough to be flexible and improved at the implementation stage.’

The Minister & Peter Hughes The Minister opened her address by dispelling a number of currently circulating rumours. She assured her audience that: ■■ ■■

■■ ■■

■■

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‘There is no funding review.’

‘There is a drive to ‘declutter’, to get rid of those things that impede good leadership.’

‘We will keep ‘Tomorrow’s Schools’ and parent involvement.’

‘We are interested in PAI (public achievement information) not league tables.’

‘The Regulations Taskforce is hunting out regulations and compliances that get in the way of your work. If it is not a value add we will get rid of it.’

‘The review of the Teachers’ Council is to achieve a more rich consultative mechanism between what you do and what we do in Government. We have quality teaching and leadership and they make a difference. They are the cornerstone of EDUCANZ, the body leading your profession.

It will determine how registration and re-registration occurs, capturing a balance between qualifications that are theory and practice.’

The Minister introduced the IES policy as a collaborative system creating communities of schools, four new roles, inquiry time and of course money to support career pathways. ‘It is the best way to close the equity gap,’ she said.

In answer to a question from the floor about whether the framework for IES is in fact fixed, the Minister replied, ‘It is not the practice of any Government to negotiate around a

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Geoff Lovegrove chairs the ‘on the couch’ session with the politicians

Principals from across the country discuss together the pros and cons of the IES policy

Budget announcement’. ‘The thrust and intent of this change is about professional learning and collaboration. It is about career pathways and a $10m innovation fund. How the roles fit together is the job of the working group. This is not a structural change,’ she said, ‘it’s about communities of schools. It’s about issues that schools bring, not about individual schools.’

The Minister was also asked about the lack of consultation on the policy and secrecy around the working party. She replied, ‘We have all the sector heads in the Cross-Sector Forum [engaged in] many work streams. I made a judgement that the Cross-Sector Forum and the Asian delegation are the consultation groups.’ ‘It’s Government that makes the policy decisions,’ she said, ‘but we have looked at what the work streams have told us.’

In answer to another question about what would happen to existing clusters that are working well, the Minister said ‘We will not just land an executive principal on your group. We are not Shanghai.’

Peter Hughes told the audience that the IES working group had been meeting for a month and a half and everyone [in the group] was contributing. ‘I had a request to rule out national standards last week but I didn’t agree,’ he said. ‘Everything else I have agreed on.’ He went on to say that so long as Government agrees with the changes the working group has suggested, principals would be very surprised at how vastly improved the policy is in a number of aspects. ‘Many of your concerns and views are already in the working group report,’ he said. He acknowledged that there would have to be negotiated changes to the collective agreements to implement the policy but that there would be no changes to the Education Act. He also acknowledged that you can’t make people collaborate through top down use of authority so the process would have to be bottom up, be owned and be permissive. He expected to see three or four clusters up and running before Christmas.

of their education policies. All MPs took questions from the floor.

What did become clear in this debate was that there was considerable synergy across the Labour, Greens and NZ First parties on a number of issues such as charter schools, which sat comfortably with the NZPF position.

‘On the Couch’ Session with Political Leaders Retiring principal of Lytton Street School, Geoff Lovegrove accepted the responsibility of chairing the session with education spokespersons from each of the four major parties, Labour (Chris Hipkins), National (Paul Foster-Bell), Greens (Metiria Turei) and New Zealand First (Tracey Martin).

Each was given the opportunity to present their party’s policies on education, although because it is election year and early in the campaign cycle, most were not in a position to divulge all aspects

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The principals’ Debate The central theme of the afternoon debate was how to use the IES to make a significant and positive difference to children’s learning. Participants agreed that collaboration could assist in achieving this goal and set out to produce a list of key conditions necessary for true collaboration to occur and thus for the IES policy to be successful. The provisions included: ■■

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■■

■■

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That this policy development process must be evidence based and supported and informed by the advice and input of recognised academic experts as it is developed and then implemented That the policy is explicit in its detail that a wide range of success indicators may be used by ‘Communities of Schools’ to set and evaluate achievement statements, and not be reliant upon National Standards and NCEA results as the only indicators of teacher and school performance That principals, teachers, parents and boards be properly consulted on the full detail of this policy, which is made clear and transparent to them That this policy development must be allocated the time and process it needs to be wisely crafted, jointly owned, and successfully implemented That this policy is sufficiently flexible to allow true collaboration within a wide variety of different contexts and settings

The day concluded with a Karakia led by NZPF Kaumatua Tauri Morgan. The NZPF President Philip Harding summarised the day saying that the speakers had provoked and challenged them to consider a broad range of issues, many of which fed into the afternoon debate on the IES. He acknowledged the diverse views that had circulated since the announcement of the IES policy, and thanked the participants for their considered input to the day’s debate. Finally he congratulated everyone for their work and for recommending a set of conditions that would guide him in his own deliberations within the IES working group.

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FAREWELL TO THE CONSUMATE PRINCIPAL Liz Hawes Editor

On Saturday evening 12 April, Geoff Lovegrove and his and a true gentleman.’ Other speakers, notably Kelvin Squire, wife Sue were piped into Lytton Street School hall to a standing focussed on Geoff ’s sense of humour and love of language. ‘We ovation. This would be Geoff ’s last official occasion as principal, both subscribed to the notion that the most wasted day of all was after more than forty-two years of serving New Zealand’s the day on which you have not laughed,’ he said. ‘We also shared children. a love of language,’ said Kelvin, ‘and none was as quick-witted as He was led to his ‘big softie armchair’ which could easily have Geoff.’ Kelvin told his captivated audience that Geoff was once been borrowed from the comedy chat show host Graham Norton asked how to change centimetres into metres. The answer came (only without the ejection lever and the bright orange covering). in a flash. ‘Remove the centi . . . ’ The jokes aside, Kelvin moved There he would sit, centre stage on his elevated platform for on to give us a list of words he would use to describe his friend the rest of the evening, whilst and colleague. They included: current and former colleagues, A favourite maxim of Geoff’s was ‘none possessing good judgement, school parents and family compassionate, understanding, honoured him and regaled the of us is as good as all of us’. It is a honest, trustworthy, principled, considerable audience with maxim which he lived by, taught by reliable, loyal and witty. their stories and reflections of Ian Roberts, a colleague and a friend, a father, a colleague and led by. friend with some thirty years’ and a true professional. experience in the teaching profession, took the role of MC for Former President of NZPF Nola Hambleton set the tone. ‘Very the evening. Pacing an evening to honour such an outstanding few times in your career do you meet a colleague who personifies leader would always be challenging, as speakers lined up from professionalism, passion for education and the unending pursuit near and far to share their experiences of Geoff, reflect on what of advocacy for fellow principals whilst remaining humble, caring they had learned from the great man and above all tell us how thousands of New Zealand children were advantaged by his choice to join the teaching profession.

We heard of his great love and empathy for the children he taught, and especially his ability to connect with them. We learned of his extraordinary leadership capabilities not just to lead New Zealand schools, big and small, rural and urban, but to lead his own colleagues regionally and nationally, advocate for them and support them. His international profile was also acknowledged particularly through his membership of the International Council for Principals where he had gained the highest respect from school leaders world-wide.

A favourite maxim of Geoff ’s was ‘none of us is as good as all

Geoff Lovegrove, centre stage in his ‘big softie’ chair

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The farewell cake with its many school related symbols

Cutting the farewell cake is a family affair

of us’. It is a maxim which he lived by, taught by and led by. We learned throughout the night that he adopted this principle as his own motivating force and it governed the way he operated and interacted with people be it the children, their parents, his teachers or principal colleagues. I recall speaking to one of his Deputies, Sarah McCord, some years ago, who described him as empowering, confidence building, a great leader and mentor, with an open and supportive style of leadership. ‘It’s a bit like working for your own Dad, really,’ she said. ‘You’re encouraged and pushed but never given responsibilities you can’t manage and he’s always there to pick up the pieces.’

Geoff never saw himself as the colossus of the profession as so many did. He was always quick to credit those around him for any successes. He spoke highly of his dedicated teaching teams who, in his view, were the ones responsible for his well- run schools, and his achieving children. His role was to lead the teachers and he spoke of them as his biggest class. In his tongue in cheek way he would also say they were the most difficult class because they were challenging, assertive, stroppy and strong. Then he would add that it is through them that he got to continue learning

himself because they always had something new to teach him.

Julie Hepburn, a current NZPF executive member, spoke of her early days as a principal and the way in which Geoff, as a senior principal in her region, went out of his way to support and encourage her in her new leadership role. ‘He was a true mentor who gave me courage and confidence to lead my new school,’ she said, ‘ and I always knew if I picked up the phone, Geoff would give me the best advice, whatever the situation.’

Julie also credited Geoff for inspiring her to stand for the executive of the NZPF. As a long term member himself, and former President, Geoff understood the significance of having an independent voice for New Zealand principals and building the all-important connections with Ministers and sector heads in Wellington. Without those relationships, it is nigh impossible to have any influence over a Government’s direction for education and during his years of NZPF service, Geoff Lovegrove used those relationships well. It was no surprise that four former presidents and the current NZPF President were present at his official farewell ceremony. Every one of them knew the influence that he had wielded in his time as their national leader.

Board Chair Keith Dobson presents Geoff with the symbol of chieftainship, the mere pounamu

Geoff’s son honours his father

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Six NZPF Presidents: From L to R Paul Drummond, Philip Harding (current), Judy Hannah, Kelvin Squire, Nola Hambleton, Geoff Lovegrove

Kelvin Squire regales the audience with stories of Geoff the humourist

Julie closed her address with the words of the great Nelson Mandela ‘What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead.’ She insisted that Geoff could stand proud knowing he had made a significant difference to the lives of thousands of New Zealand children, their teachers and fellow principals.

The accolades did not stop with his colleagues. Geoff ’s son, speaking on behalf of the family, some of whom had travelled from as far away as Seattle, said his father was a remarkable man who despite his demanding professional life, always had time for them as a family. ‘I think he must be the most highly skilled time manager in the world,’ he declared. ‘If you ring Dad and ask to discuss something with him, he immediately sets a time and when I post something up on face book, he is usually the

first to comment.’

An impassioned speech from a parent who later led a rousing haka in Geoff ’s honour, told of his high standing with his Lytton Street School parent community and how much the community appreciated the positive difference Geoff had made to the school, its families and most importantly of all to the children.

Board chair Keith Dobson had the last word. He endorsed what the many previous speakers had said and presented Geoff with a mere pounamu, the most revered of all Māori weapons and a symbol of chieftainship. A fitting presentation for the principal of such high mana.

A sumptuous supper followed the ‘family’ cutting of the cake, which had been specially decorated with Geoff ’s portrait and numerous artefacts symbolising his long and successful years leading New Zealand schools.

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Do you: Have at least two years teaching experience?

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Neil Mackay Total Teaching 2015 Tour After four sell out tours in the last six years, Neil Mackay, the internationally renowned dyslexia expert is returning for a speaking tour in 2015.

In the climate of ever reducing support and ever greater pressure on classroom teachers, Neil presents strategies which close the gap between thinking, reading, writing and equips teachers to take “notice and adjust� when students are stuck.

Neil will be exploring his concept of Total Teaching, differentiated and accelerated learning for students without formal diagnosis of learning needs, but who will benefit when their specific needs are identified and addressed in the unsupported classroom.

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Whole School Events Neil is available to attend schools from 18th to 22nd May to speak to the teachers in your school or group of schools. Price and details on application. www.aquilabooks.co.nz/total-teaching-tour NZ Principal | J u n e 2 0 14

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Gifted Curriculum in New Zea Travelled Joanne Bate, former Associate Principal at Gifted Kids

“Schools are the first port of call for gifted education in What’s Happening for Gifted Students in New Zealand New Zealand and should be offering the most comprehensive Schools? approaches to meeting the needs of gifted learners,” says Dr Research conducted just over a decade ago (Riley, Bevan-Brown, Tracy Riley, Associate Professor at Massey University and Trust Bicknell, Carroll-Lind and Kearney, 2004) found that only 10–15 Board Member at Gifted Kids. For this to happen, schools need a per cent of New Zealand schools used a curricular model to guide written framework for differentiated learning. Tracy warns that their practice. Tracy Riley is currently analysing results from without such a framework, provisions for gifted and talented a replication of this study which shows similar results. “New learners may be poorly planned, difficult to evaluate, lacking in Zealand schools still need more solid plans around what they rigour and complexity and, ultimately, are doing for their gifted and talented ineffective. students,” Tracy concludes.

The New Zealand Ministry of Many schools in New Zealand are Education suggests that there are putting people and resources into three levels of curriculum: national catering for their gifted learners. The curriculum, the school curriculum, and concern is: What is guiding their the classroom curriculum (Ministry of practices? What frameworks are being Education, 2007). It requires schools used and where do these come from? to develop curriculum that responds How is effectiveness being measured? to the needs, interests, and talents of Overview of Te Whakawhanake individuals and groups of students in Pūmanawa: Developing Talent their classes.

The curriculum developed by Gifted Over the past ten years, the team Kids, provides an example of a planned, of specialist teachers at Gifted Kids differentiated and effective learning have been developing a curriculum framework, just what Tracy is calling framework as part of their commitment for, for New Zealand schools. to providing responsive, differentiated and specialised learning opportunities to Te Whakawhanake Pūmanawa: the gifted students in their programme.

Developing Talent supports the A major review in 2013, resulted in the development of students’ gifts most recent edition, Te Whakawhanake through enriched and accelerated Pūmanawa: Developing Talent. learning. Bringing like-minds together This article shares the curriculumis fundamental to the Gifted Kids development journey of Gifted Kids. Te curriculum and enables the delivery of Whakawhanake Pūmanawa: Developing the programme goals – for students to: Talent provides an excellent example Gifted Kids teacher Nomi Wald conferences with ■■ Develop an understanding of Zulkifli about his talent development project of a quality curriculum for gifted and themselves as gifted individuals; talented learners that schools can draw upon. Their experience provides a successful model for ■■ Explore and develop gifts, talents and passions; curriculum development which can be used by schools when ■■ Engage in abstract and complex learning; ■■ Experience and embrace new challenges; and developing a learning framework for gifted learners.

■■

About Gifted Kids: Gifted Kids is a charitable trust that offers a one-day-a-week withdrawal programme for academically and creatively gifted children in years 2–8. The programme enables students to work with like-minded peers and specialist teachers, over an extended period of time.

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Create and innovate.

Te Whakawhanake Pūmanawa: Developing Talent has three content domains.

Personal Development: students learn about giftedness, grow in their understanding of themselves as gifted individuals, and learn to self-advocate and problem-solve for personal and social change.

land: A Road Less

Talent Development: students receive enriched and accelerated learning in their areas of talent and pursue their learning passions.

Conceptual Development: students learn about universal and macro concepts, such as Discovery, Change and Systems, and their associated big ideas, including generalisations, principles and theories, which facilitates abstract, complex and integrated content learning.

Each of the curriculum domains is included as a separate component, however, they are integrally connected and much of the students’ learning draws from more than one content domain.

The content domains are accessed and developed through differentiated learning processes related to thinking and research. These learning processes facilitate greater depth, complexity, personalisation and self-directedness in learning.

The Curriculum Development Process Getting to this point has not been a quick or easy task. The curriculum has been through numerous iterations over the years and an ongoing process of literature review, practice, reflection, evaluation and internal and external review has helped to refine the document. This follows the Ministry of Education’s recommendation that curriculum design should be a continuous, cyclic process (Ministry of Education, 2007). This process can be replicated by schools to develop their own curriculum frameworks, either for their gifted students or other groups of students whose learning needs require extensive differentiation.

Key Milestones Deb Clark, CEO at Gifted Kids, sites a number of events as key milestones in the curriculum-development process. While these milestones are specific to Gifted Kids’ experience, there are key messages for all those working to develop curricula for gifted.

Changes in staff: In the mid-2000s, key staff members who had started the programme left. They had a huge wealth of knowledge about the gifted curriculum but this was not well documented. This prompted the Gifted Kids team to better record their practices and the theory and research that underpinned it. The curriculum has also been challenged and further developed by new staff members joining the team, bringing new ideas and practices to the organisation. With gifted education often being the responsibility of a single staff member in a school, it’s important that they are supported by a committee and the process is well documented. New staff should be invited to contribute to curriculum The Gifted Kids Curriculum capitalises on opportunities for like-minded development and should be familiarized with the children, like Trace and Rody, to work together. curriculum as part of their orientation.

International conferences: When Gifted Kids began (Gifted Children’s Advancement Charitable Trust, known as in the early 2000s, very little was happening in Gifted Education Gifted Kids, 2013) in New Zealand, so they went off-shore for inspiration. Staff A key component of the 2013 edition of the Gifted Kids members have attended conferences in Australia, Canada, the curriculum is the inclusion of Progressions and Scope and United States and Asia. “Each time staff went to an international Sequence frameworks to guide planning and assessment. conference, there was a shift in our curriculum,” says Deb. “Students can attend Gifted Kids from Years 2–8, so it’s Attending international conferences, subscribing to journals important for us to provide learning experiences with increasing (like APEX: The NZ Journal for Gifted Education), joining sophistication and complexity. We also need to be able to professional associations (like giftEDnz: The Professional measure growth in the depth of students’ understanding and Association for Gifted Education) or joining a listserv (like the their ability to be self-directed learners, over time,” says Anna TKI Gifted and Talented Community) also provide schools with Meuli, Associate Principal at Gifted Kids. opportunities for engaging nationally and internationally with other research, theory and practice.

NZ Principal | J u n e 2 0 14

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Epeli and Daniel tackle advanced algebra problems together, as part of the talent development programme

Mia and Epeli with some of the Big Ideas about Discovery that they developed with their classmates

The establishment of a Focus Group: In 2006, Gifted Kids formed a Focus Group, made up of their own specialist education staff. This team was given responsibility for curriculum review and development. This was an important milestone,” says Deb, “because it allowed for a valued and targeted focus on curriculum development.” A school’s gifted and talented committee may engage in similar reviews, or a review panel can be established for the purpose of evaluating a school’s curriculum for gifted.

Stay focused: Effective curriculum development requires an unwavering focus on the needs of your learners and your programme goals, especially when development occurs over many years. There can be a temptation to latch onto one idea and be blinkered to alternatives or to follow the latest trend. Looking at what others are doing is one component of curriculum development, but it should not dominate the process or be seen as a “quick fix”.

Deb Clark concludes, “Te Whakawhanake Pūmanawa: Developing Talent provides a model that schools can draw upon of what gifted kids need to support and advance their learning. It’s a New Zealand model and is about what New Zealand educators and kids need.” There is clearly a need for further curriculum development for gifted and talented learners in New Zealand schools. Thankfully, principals and teachers can draw on the experience and expertise of the team at Gifted Kids.

Keys to Success Not all curriculum development is good and not all curriculum development results in quality provisions for learners. There are a number of keys to ensuring the process is successful.

Allow time: “If you really want the quality, if takes time,” says Deb. Time needs to be allocated to staff to do the work required.

The formation of a Focus Group with regular day-long meetings is an example of how this can be successfully done. It also takes time to put recommendations into practice and to review and refine a curriculum. Curriculum development is an evolutionary process that takes years, with no specified end point.

Connect with experts: Ongoing review of current literature and an awareness of relevant research is very important for effective curriculum development. It’s also important to involve others outside of your school or organisation in your journey.

For example, in 2009 Gifted Kids sent their curriculum to four gifted education “experts” for review, which provided excellent recommendations for further development. In 2013, they brought Kim Tredick, Lead PLD Facilitator on the use of the Depth and Complexity Framework from J Taylor Education in the US, out to New Zealand to work with the Focus Group on the Conceptual Domain of the curriculum. The group also worked with Tracy Riley on the Scope and Sequence component.

Work collaboratively: It’s important to take a collaborative approach to curriculum development. This means involving all of your staff at some level so that they have ownership of the curriculum. Different staff members will all be involved at different levels – some are curriculum developers and writers, others put the curriculum into practice and provide feedback.

“Not everybody has to be involved in the initial creation to own it,” says Deb.

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Note: Gifted Kids Consultancy provides tailored professional development services for educators, curriculum delivery and parent support workshops. If you are interested in speaking to Gifted Kids about curriculum development, professional development or the delivery of Te Whakawhanake Pūmanawa: Developing Talent in your community, please contact admin@giftedkids.co.nz.

References Gifted Children’s Advancement Charitable Trust (known as Gifted Kids). 2013. Te whakawhanake pūmanawa: developing talent.

Unpublished document.

Riley, T., Bevan-Brown, J., Bicknell, B., Carroll-Lind, J., and Kearney, A. (2004). The extent, nature and effectiveness of planned approaches in New Zealand schools for identifying and providing for gifted and talented students. Wellington: Ministry of Education.

Ministry of Education. (2007). The school curriculum: design and review. [Online] Retrieved 16 April, 2014 from http:// nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/The-New-Zealand-Curriculum/Theschool-curriculum-Design-and-review.

NZPF CONFERENCE 2014 –

A REAL SOUTHERN EXPERIENCE

If you haven’t already registered for the NZPF Southland hosted conference 23–25 September then now is the time. ‘Early Bird’ discounts run until 1 July so take advantage, and think about bringing your deputies and assistant principals with you.

The programme is themed on navigating new pathways for leadership and many of the key note addresses and workshops will be equally relevant to both you and your leadership team.

One Keynote being talked up will be presenting in New Zealand for the first time. He is Richard Gerver. According to Sir Ken Robinson, “Richard Gerver is one of the clearest and most passionate voices for radical change both in education and in business. As a highly successful and revolutionary school principal he has transformed the expectations and achievements of children, teachers and communities alike. In his compelling presentations and books he now takes his powerful message of hope and possibility to educators, policy makers and business leaders around the world. It’s a message that has to be heard.”

Gerver was awarded the prestigious School Head Teacher of the Year Award at the British National Teaching Awards in 2005 after turning a failing school into a global innovation success story. Communication, empowerment and impact are, according to Gerver, the principles underpinning creative leadership. He is a strong critic of modern day global educational reform, including performance pay for teachers. In an article published last year, he described performance pay as equating teachers with industrial workers who need bonus structures for motivation, this practice, he writes “[stems] from the workhouses and factory landscapes of 19th century Britain.”

Of teachers he says, “The vast majority of teachers choose to work in education not for money and certainly not for an easy life, but to enact the simple moral imperative that is to serve a community and its children, to invest in the future and to leave a legacy that is greater than their own.” Enthusiastic commentators describe him as life changing and even moderates call him inspirational.

Gerver will share the Invercargill

Craig, Chapman, Schools’ ICT Advisor, funded by ILT Foundation

stage with several more very strong keynote speakers. Two of these are Mo Fox, who fuses art and design to create problem solving techniques and Patti Dobrowolski, who will demonstrate how to be a visual goal setter. Both are seasoned presenters nationally and internationally and bring diverse approaches to creativity and leadership. See the conference website at http://www.nzpfconference.co.nz/speakers for more.

Following the keynotes there will be break-out sessions or four ‘world café’ times. The four ‘worlds’ will be creativity, e-learning,

NZ Principal | J u n e 2 0 14

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The venue provides ample break out spaces where delegates can gather and discuss, network or just socialise

culture and leadership. Each will be facilitated by an expert in the field to help bolster discussion. Keynotes will, in turn, have introduced and prompted thoughts and ideas in each of these areas.

Because we all know how important it is to remain connected to the outside world when attending conference, there will be free WIFI that will work every day, every time, everywhere in the stadium for all of us! The conference MC remains a mystery as deep as any supermassive black hole although as this journal goes to print there are indications that an announcement is imminent. According to the rumours, televisual fame and much fun is guaranteed . . . can’t wait!

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Ample free parking space surrounds Stadium Southland

It’s a long way south to Invercargill and whilst closer to the Antarctic than any other city in the world, you won’t find an emperor penguin crossing the main street or a leopard seal basking on nearby Bluff ’s recliner rocks. That’s not to say the Southland city doesn’t have its own special attractions and while you are there, you’d be well advised to take in a few.

The Southland Museum is a good starting place and there you can meet the tuatara family of fifty. The museum’s tuatara breeding programme is unequalled in the world and centenarian ‘Henry’ tuatara continues to sire young in captivity.

Any respectable chocolate lover won’t miss Invercargill’s ‘Seriously Good Chocolate Company’ which describes itself as ‘Pure New Zealand Indulgence’. The on-site café offers excellent food options and of course the best hot chocolate ever. A tour of the factory can be booked for those keen to observe first-hand the craft of chocolate making.

Fine examples of Victorian, Edwardian and Art Deco architecture scatter the central city and expansive, carefully designed public gardens contribute to the charm, tranquillity and exquisite beauty. The attractions abound but in the end the greatest attraction of all is the people.

‘It’s all about our distinct style of hospitality,’ says Ben Witheford, Chair of the conference committee, ‘We know how to make people feel welcome and show them a good time.’ The conference venue is the newly constructed state-of-the-art ILT (Invercargill Licensing Trust) Stadium and Velodrome. ‘There’s no chance of a roof cave in here,’ quipped Ben, ‘no matter how much snow falls in September.’ He was referring to the 2012 stadium roof collapse when the weight of an unprecedented snow fall proved too much for the roof structure which buckled under the strain. It has been rebuilt to very stringent standards so that such a catastrophe could never happen again.

The ILT is a special feature of Southland. The Trust owns pretty much all the Southland hotels and profits are poured back into the community. It’s a system from which sport and education benefit greatly.

‘We have this amazing Stadium because of the Trust,’ says Ben. ‘It was the first indoor velodrome to be built in New Zealand,’ he boasts. The Trust’s generosity doesn’t stop there.

‘Every school in Invercargill was given an interactive whiteboard by the Trust,’ says Ben, ‘and the Trust funds a full time teacher, Craig Chapman, to support and advise schools in their IT programmes. It also supports the ‘Enrich’ programme for talented and gifted kids and pours money into school sports,’ says Ben.

Velodromes are all about cycling and every delegate will have a chance to show their cycling skill through the roller racing competition

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The Stadium itself is massive and will provide ample space for keynote addresses, break out areas and importantly areas where delegates can gather in smaller groups to work together, chat together and share ideas over morning tea or lunch. Outside there is ample free parking space, an absolute treat if you come from Auckland or Wellington.

The adjoining Velodrome is the scene for the fun side of conference including the conference dinner. Delegates will be seated at tables in the middle of the velodrome to be entertained by competitive cycle races, both experts and amateurs. It is hoped those amateurs do some practising before they hit the track which slopes at a staggering 45 degree angle with the floor!

Whilst details released so far have been scant, we understand that

Conference Committee Chair Ben Witheford demonstrates the steepness of the Velodrome track

there may be an amateur inter-regional competition involving people we know. Like the MC, this may be another ‘wait and see what’s revealed’ affair. Every delegate can also participate in ‘roller racing’ on fixed bikes – the fastest four women and four men will race off during the conference dinner so don’t forget to pack your lycra!

It is within the parallel social programme for the conference where that famous ‘Southland hospitality’ will play out. You could be away at dinner every night, enjoying the diversity of the Southern experience as you meet more conference goers and of course the locals.

A final note for the oyster lovers of the world: You will not be disappointed!

TARANAKI’S TOKO SCHOOL COLLABORATES Liz Hawes Editor

Ever since the Prime Minister announced the Government’s depicting every child who has ever made a representative team Investing for Educational Success (IES) policy, collaboration has in the history of the school, which dates back to the 1950s. become the buzz word. It’s been talked about such a lot that you ‘It’s not unusual for community members to visit our school might mistakenly think it was a brand new idea. just to check out the sports photos,’ says Kim. ‘It’s well known Not so. Collaboration has been common practice in the around the district that we keep an archive of our high achieving New Zealand teaching context for as long as we have had sports stars,’ she said. schools. There are many models in use and schools collaborate The eight schools combine for athletics at Toko School, for a variety of purposes because Toko has the depending on their biggest sports field, and issues, their needs and a juniors’ play day is held the environment in which at Midhirst School. All they operate. The Prime the schools travel into Minister’s model of having Stratford for combined one principal paid extra to swimming competitions assume special status in a and to Rawhitiroa School cluster is a new concept for the cross country, and rather different from which takes place in collaboration as it is a neighbouring farm typically practiced by the paddock. Midhirst School profession. is again host for the end Common definitions of year tabloid sports. of collaboration include O t her comp et it ions bottom up initiatives and for which the schools partnerships of equals who collaborate include the have chosen to network year seven and eight The Key Competencies are aligned to the Learning Stars together for a common debating competition purpose. The participants and the Jones Cup, an each add value by correspondingly contributing their ideas historic rugby and netball competition for year three to eight towards achieving agreed goals. Collaborative practice is based children. on the maxim that ‘none of us is as good as all of us.’

‘The collaboration works really well,’ says Kim, ‘and gives our Toko School has long worked in collaboration with other children the opportunity to meet other children from the district schools in rural Stratford. ‘We participate in two different and to compete.’ clusters,’ says principal, Kim Waite, ‘which serve very different Separately, Toko School invites the three sole charge schools purposes.’ to join them in other activities such as the ‘Maths Road Show’, a ‘One involves eight schools and is for the purpose of giving all hands-on maths day, ‘World of Music Art and Dance’ (WOMAD) of the children the opportunity to enjoy good healthy sports and and the cycle safety programme. ‘The sole charge schools are too debating competitions. The other is a professional development small to run programmes like these,’ says Kim, ‘but by joining us cluster for principals and teachers and involves four schools,’ at Toko, their children don’t have to miss out,’ she said. she said.

The second cluster of four schools has been operating for many Toko School, with a role of 114 children, is surrounded by years and has a focus on professional development. It involves other small rural schools. ‘There are three sole charge schools in Ngaere, Inglewood, Toko and Stratford schools, affectionately our cluster and another small school east of Eltham,’ says Kim. called the NITS cluster!

‘There are also three other small schools around Stratford so it ‘The cluster was originally set up as a three year professional makes sense for us to combine for competitions and share our development programme in Information, Communications facilities,’ she said. and Technology (ICT) and was funded by the Ministry,’ said Sports competitions are a highly valued feature of Taranaki’s Kim. ‘When that programme came to an end, some of us agreed history. Toko School’s main corridor is a sporting ‘hall of fame’, to retain the cluster for professional development in other

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The children at Toko School are bright and engaging

areas. The first of these was identified as the NZ Curriculum implementation.’

‘We agreed to engage an expert (Lester Flockton), in curriculum development to help us work through the establishment of key competencies in our schools,’ said Kim. ‘That is how we developed the ‘Toko Learning Stars’ which align with the key competencies,’ she said. ‘They include a challenging curriculum, personal best, learning to learn, connected and well- being.’

‘We then moved on to national standards and as a cluster we shared our information and interrogated the data to see what it was telling us. We found that across all our schools we needed more professional development for our teachers in written language skills. We all contributed to contracting two experts in written language skills who has been working with our teachers for some years,’ said Kim. ‘It is so useful for our teachers to be working with other teachers at their own level,’ she said.

The collaboration doesn’t stop there. Alongside internal moderation of assessment data, the cluster has moderated the collective data from all four schools to get a broader picture.

‘This was a useful exercise for us, particularly as we are a smaller school,’ says Kim. ‘It gives us a sense of where our children sit in relation to the wider group.’

Many projects have emerged as a result of this collaborative practice including developing the deputy principals’ leadership capabilities and running teacher only days in self-regulated learning, which encourages children to take ownership of their own learning and become self–managers. For this year’s teacher only day, thirteen staff from each year group visited two schools in the province to observe the teachers in their classes. Each year group visited two different schools and later shared what they had observed in a feed-back forum. ‘Exposing our teachers to others’ practice proved to be a hugely valuable experience,’ said Kim. This year a Massey University expert will be running

Principal Kim Waite takes a break under the shade tree overlooking the sports field

The school gardens flourish at Toko School

NZ Principal | J u n e 2 0 14

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and frequently exceeds the budgets of the smaller schools.

‘We have to apply to the Taranaki Electricity Trust each year to fund our professional development programmes,’ says Kim, ‘and who knows how long that will last.’

One can’t help but think a few thousand dollars of the Prime Minister’s $359 million tagged for IES would go a long way to helping out the Stratford cluster and no one there is asking for $40,000 extra in their pay packet. In this cluster, the principals have agreed that the Stratford principal will take care of administering the funds and Kim will lead the cluster. It’s not a big deal and any of them would be capable of taking on the extra responsibilities.

Back in Toko, I get to stroll through Kim Waite, Principal, offers a warm welcome the park like school grounds, as a programme on e-learning and the use of iPads in all four the children have their morning play time. It is a beautifully schools to record children’s writing process, make movies and presented school and well maintained. Much of this is thanks record videos. to the efforts of an outstanding community. ‘We don’t have a The cluster works exceptionally well, identifying common caretaker here,’ says Kim, ‘but we do have wonderful parents and needs and responding with high quality, timely and appropriate grandparents who willingly volunteer their services,’ she says, as professional development programmes. This, in turn, provides a grandparent emerges from the ceiling of the sick bay! ‘That’s greater learning and achievement opportunities for the children. sorted half the insulation,’ he smiles jovially.

Quality professional development does however come at a cost ‘It is the school parents who maintain the gardens, spray the

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The sports photographic gallery at Toko School dates back to the 1950s

grounds, mow the lawns and the fields, clean the swimming pool, erect the rugby goal posts every year, and eradicate the wasp nests,’ says Kim proudly. ‘Even our school bus ‘turn around’ area was completely funded by our community,’ she said. ‘This sheltered waiting space was created so that our kids would be protected from the main highway where vehicles travel at 100kph,’ she said.

School fundraising also takes on a different flavour in heartland Taranaki. In the paddock adjacent to the school grounds two heifers graze unobtrusively. ‘They are our fundraising,’ smiles Kim, ‘donated by one of the parents.’ ‘We use the paddock to fatten them up then they are butchered. We sell the meat and the funds come back to the school!’

The children at Toko are confident, polite and engaging. Some of them are third generation Toko School kids. I am fortunate to visit a year four class during ‘news time’. I learn of eight year old Liam’s visit to a garage sale where he bought a cowboy hat for a dollar, which he proudly showed his class. He confidently explained that the hat had a mark on it but you could hardly tell.

When asked who had owned the hat, he answered, ‘the people who gave it away!’

These are country kids who live close to the land and have a strong interest in their environment. This year the school has chosen sustainability as their learning theme. Already the school is registered as an enviro school and is proud of its bronze status award and of the Taranaki Regional Council award in recognition of their environmental programme.

‘It all began with the establishment of an orchard,’ said Kim. ‘Every class is responsible for two or three trees. The responsibility is shared around so that in the end every child

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Collaboration and sharing ideas is normal at Toko School

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has looked after every tree.’ The most recent addition is a feijoa hedge. It is intended to sell the feijoas and spend the money on new enviro projects.

The enviro programme is led by a group of year five and six students who are only too willing to explain how they nurture the trees. They describe how they encourage the bees through companion planting, and plant comfrey to help the trees grow.

When the comfrey gets too big the leaves are cut back and soaked in water to make comfrey tea which is then poured back on the gardens. Recycled waste is stored in bins and reused as compost. All of the children are taught to use the recycling bins for their organic rubbish. They also learn about the importance of worms, how to farm them and how to feed them. ‘For many, these activities are an extension of their own home life,’ says Kim, ‘and if not, we encourage the children to integrate these practices into their daily lives at home,’ she says.

‘The next stage is learning how to graft trees for future planting and for selling,’ explains Kim. In the end, it’s all about teaching the children how to make

their environment sustainable, keep it alive and through their actions, help keep the world alive.

It is no surprise that even parents who work in town choose to keep their children at the local Toko School. There is a strong sense of extended family, of reaching out to others and of inclusiveness. Children are well supported by their teachers and their peers. Academic standards are high and, the children are stretched to take on new challenges. School is a safe, comfortable and colourful environment where everyone has value. The children engage easily with their teachers and with their peers.

Collaboration is not just for the teachers here at Toko. It is embedded in the culture of the school and is the natural way that the children work, play and learn from each other.

Such a culture does not create itself. It requires a vision and for the leader to bring the staff, the parents and the children on board. Kim Waite is one principal who has taken the maxim ‘none of us is as good as all of us’ and applied it not just at every level within her school but beyond its walls in the wider community of schools.

Companion planting with comfrey in the orchard

The feijoas are a new addition for the orchard

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Challenging a Myth:

Teachers Do Not Have the Greatest Within-School Impact on Student Achievement A/Prof John Clark

School of Educational Studies, Massey University, Palmerston North – j.a.clark@massey.ac.nz

There is a widely held view that teachers have the greatest watching what a child is performing in physical education. At the within-school impact on student achievement. It is an idea other end, it may be complex and rather formal, such as NCEA promoted by politicians, policy makers, teachers and academics examinations or international testing such as PIRLS, PISA and alike. It is an article of faith, beyond question, for it seems so self- TIMMS. Between, somewhere, are the various achievements evidently true. But is it? No, it is not. A compelling argument can which collectively are cashed out as National Standards, as be made which refutes the idea which is so patently false. And reported by the Ministry of Education. Since all of this is so doing so raises anew just how we ought to go about locating the familiar to teachers, nothing more need be said about student causes of the inequality of school achievement and generating achievement. viable solutions to this, our biggest education problem.

What causes, or brings about, student achievement is quite The argument is a simple one and such another matter altogether and is where an obvious one. It is so simple and so What causes, or brings about, deep conceptual misunderstanding obvious that it is a puzzle why so many arises. What students do, their ignore it while, by embracing received student achievement performances such as giving an wisdom, they defend the indefensible. oral answer to a teacher’s question Some clear thinking should help to is quite another matter through to writing an answer to an sweep away the conceptual confusion altogether and is where examination question, doesn’t just surrounding this most intractable arrive spontaneously from nowhere: and troublesome challenge. If we take deep conceptual it comes from somewhere. Where it student achievement as our starting comes from is the brain, pure and point, and then work back from there, misunderstanding arises. simple. The brain in all its complexity we will begin to make some progress in is the repository of all of a child’s sorting out the whole matter in a much more rational manner. learning and what it contains is drawn upon to generate the Student achievement is the public display of children’s learning. multitude of school achievements each child displays. If the brain It lies on a continuum. At one end, it may be quite simple and contains what is required to exhibit a certain achievement, such informal, being no more than a teacher having a conversation as completing a mathematical equation, then it is likely that the with a child about some aspect of what the child is doing or child will do so successfully (but not always since there can be

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all sorts of reasons why a child may not perform to expectations on particular occasions, including illness, lack of interest, peer pressure and the like). On the other hand, for a child who lacks the requisite content then the only achievement outcome possible is underachievement (barring the luck of just by chance selecting the right answer, but this is hardly a good strategy for on-going success in achievement).

The brain does two things fundamental to school achievement.

First, it is where learning occurs, and second it is where learning is stored in memory for future use. Put simply, the 100 billion neurons with their up to 1000 trillion synaptic connections form a complex neural network which makes possible the initial processing of information received from our senses and filters that which is retained in memory from that which is pruned.

Synaptic connections come and go in the process of learning as well as being the result of other events, such as brain damage and brain disease. It is this neural plasticity which permits new learning to be retained in memory and also lost forever. To illustrate with a simple and familiar example. The very first time a child hears a teacher say “Two plus two equals four”, while processed by the brain the equation is quickly forgotten. Many repetitions later, through the chanting of the favoured method of rote learning, the equation is so locked into memory that it is never forgotten until Alzheimer’s Disease ravages the brain.

Now, if the brain is the only source of learned information for subsequent student achievement then it is the only thing which has a direct impact on student achievement. When children come to school and engage in observable student achievement activities (as distinct from unobservable student learning which takes place in the brain) then the one thing they bring with them is their brain and with it all of the neural content which is so critical to successful student achievement. In which case it is simply false that the greatest within-school factor influencing student achievement is the teacher. The brain is. That this is so simple and so obvious should be self-evident to all but somehow it passes us by when irrational ideology trumps logic and science.

This brings us to what has the greatest impact on student learning, taken in its most expansive sense. All that is processed by a student’s brain and saved in memory to be drawn upon at a later time for displays of student achievement, is acquired from sources both within and without the school. Some student achievement may rely on learning largely acquired outside of the school; including family, friends, print media, digital technology, social media and peers amongst other things. Other student achievement may be much more finely focussed on classroom learning of a kind rarely found in out of school sources and where the teacher’s influence is more keenly felt. In short, what children learn and how they learn it is contained within a vast flux of experience which is so complex that it is not easily unravelled to identify the contributing factors. But one thing is certain, the within-school factors are far outweighed by the beyond school factors. However good a teacher might be, a child who comes to school ill or hungry or cold because the parents are too poor to pay for a doctor’s visit or buy food for breakfast and lunch or have the money to provide shoes is unlikely to learn and more likely to underachieve. This is not to deny that within-school factors are important, for they are; but it is to assert that in the scheme of things they are of less importance than beyond school forces.

Placing this to one side, we are still left with the problem of determining what within-school factors are at play in student learning and which ones are to be accorded the greatest weight.

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If we stop for a moment and think of a child in a classroom, any child in any classroom, then we can ask what do they learn between 9am and 3pm each week day at school and where do they learn it and from whom do they learn it? If the teacher’s only pedagogical method was of direct instruction and nothing else conveyed within the confines of a strict regime of discipline then we might concede that the teacher is the principal if not the only factor impacting on student learning. But modern New Zealand classrooms, certainly in primary schools, are not like this at all. They are vibrant social communities at the best of times even if strict regimentation does occur from time to time.

What influences are at play? There are many: books, computers, digital devices such as iPads and e-books, radio and television, other children and, of course, the teacher. In the day to day life of the child, the lived moment so to speak, there may be more immediate factors of greater influence than the teacher. Talking with other children who sit in the same group, watching a programme on TV, reading new information downloaded from the internet and the like may be far more powerful stimulants of learning than the teacher. Whether the teacher is the most powerful influence on student achievement is an empirical matter and it may turn out that the teacher is far less important than is often thought. To be sure, the teacher may control the classroom to ensure student behaviour is of a kind that makes good learning possible, but this is not the same as actually being a cause of student learning. The teacher may say things to students which focus the student back onto the task at hand, but this too is not the cause of new learning. In short, many if not most of the things a teacher does is to facilitate the conditions for learning but these things do not, in and of themselves, actually constitute a direct influence on students learning this, that or the other.

Over the course of a normal school day, a teacher has far less direct and immediate impact on student learning than some other forces. A high-achieving child sitting next to a lowachieving child may have a far greater influence than the teacher.

The information gleaned from an internet search may be of far greater significance for student learning than that information passed on by the teacher. And we could go on with countless other examples. In which case, why should it be thought that the teacher has the greatest single within-school impact on student achievement. To do so is to succumb, once more, to an ideology rather than be persuaded by the empirical evidence which lies around us in every classroom.

So, to conclude. We need to dispel two common myths peddled as if they were self-evidently true. First: teachers are not the single most important determinant of student achievement; achievement is dependent on that which the brain learns and remembers which is drawn upon for later achievement. Second: teachers do influence student learning but more often than not this influence is of less significance than other within-school influences. Once politicians, policymakers, teachers and academics accept this simple truth and look more critically, rigorously and systematically at where the causes of student learning lie then the greater the chances that subsequent student achievement will be raised.

Seven Values of Highly Effective Principals David J C McKenzie Edendale Primary School – Southland

At its foundation, the leadership that we undertake as overcomes in the face of adversity.

Principals is about the application of a collection of values which are applied consistently and consciously to the everyday cut and Self control – This may surprise many as being one of the top thrust of our role. seven values but it is my belief that we overlook the value of There are many values. Some values work in partnership with self-control at our peril as leaders. each other like a team, with a captain value and player values.

Robert E Lee in the 19th century once stated, “I cannot trust a Some values can work alone. The context will determine which man to control others who cannot control himself.” I believe this values operate. applies equally to us as the men and women who lead and exert Values are always at play as part of our character, influencing influence over our New Zealand schools here in the 21st Century. our thinking, and shaping our actions.

Some of the situations that we face can be very emotionally Values are most commonly demonstrated in and through straining. Our levels of tolerance can be pushed to their extremes. relationships. A school is a complex It is in these moments when a good dose and diverse collection of relationships Values are always of self-control is crucial to help us not to including our staff, the pupils, our react emotionally or unintelligently. A parent communities, BOT members, at play as part of our negative reaction could compromise our s up p or t i n g b u s i n e s s e s , w i d e r character, influencing professionalism and credibility with our community groups, and agencies such staff and community. Comments once out as ERO and the MOE. of our mouths are hard to retract. Statements our thinking and It could easily be argued that for a once made in writing through e-mails, blogs principal every value is important and shaping our actions or on social media can turn around and bite I would not disagree with that. We as us. Having the self-control to hold our voice leaders, we as Principals, need them all. A lack of just one could gives us the high ground. be our undoing. However, I do believe that there are a special Self-control means we remain silent when emotionally we cluster of seven high stakes values that when aligned with the may want to vindicate, justify and defend our course of action. leadership role of a Principal increase our effectiveness and Self-control also means that we stay professional when we want influence. to let our humanness overwhelm our response.

Easily said but harder to put into practise.

These seven values are . . .

Resilience – Leadership is very stretching. We juggle diverse Integrity – As leaders of our nation’s schools, a huge amount expectations and conflicting opinions and have only finite of financial and physical resources pass through our hands. We financial resources and personnel at our disposal to solve some are also privy to a considerable amount of information that we difficult decisions. It can be draining physically and emotionally. need to report to various internal and external people or agencies We need resilience. Charles Swindoll writes of resilience this including our BOTs, the children’s parents, auditors, the MOE way, “People who soar are those who refuse to sit back, sigh and ERO. When dealing with all this we must do it with integrity. and wish things would change. They neither complain of their Implicit in integrity is honesty and truthfulness. lot nor passively dream of some distant ship coming in. Rather, A lack of integrity is when we knowingly, consciously they visualise in their minds that they are not quitters; they will misrepresent something in order to save face or obtain some not allow life’s circumstances to push them down and hold them perceived gain. A lack of integrity ultimately erodes trust, under.” How true! damages our credibility and can undo a career. Acting without Resilience is needed to get back up after the knock downs, integrity is like walking across a snow covered glacier – it looks to face up when we know there is opposition, to move forward safe but just underneath the surface are deep crevices that pose when others want to stay anchored to past structures and pending doom. beliefs. Resilience helps us to keep going and going and going We as Principals face a plethora of situations. Even after years when we would otherwise stop. It is a deep inner strength that of experience new incidents occur. It is not always entirely clear

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what should be said, written or done. There are times where it truly is a judgement call. Integrity acts as the rudder to guide the ship in the right direction.

Integrity does not mean we don’t make mistakes. These will happen regularly. Integrity simply means the mistakes that we do make are honest mistakes. They are mistakes from a genuine lack of experience or knowledge. Integrity means those mistakes are soon put right and we move forward back onto firm ground.

Respect – This really is summed up by the scriptural adage of “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

Respect is very much about acknowledging the inherent humanness in everyone. This is where politeness and manners are birthed. The ‘pleases’ and “thank-yous’ to all that we interact with. The ‘you first’, the ‘door open for others’ which simply shows we value them as people. Respect, when shown in actions, is very honouring.

Respect is easy to show to people who we admire for their talents, appreciate for their personality and esteem for their accomplishments.

The first challenge with respect is to give it to people that we actually don’t like, disagree with, or can’t gel with. There will always be these types of people either on our staff, in our parent community or as part of wider school related organisations.

A second and greater challenge with respect is to give it to someone who has shown to us the complete opposite and has been openly impolite, actively unkind or overtly offensive. These people are treating us like an enemy. In these situations we have

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to ‘turn the other cheek’ and give back to them what they have not given to us – politeness, kindness and encouragement. Maybe it was this that was going through the mind of Confucius when he said, “Without feelings of respect, what is there to distinguish men from beasts?” Continual and unrelenting respect is a very powerful value when working towards school community cohesion.

They say respect is earned. I believe one of the ways that it is earned is by showing it to everyone irrespective of who they are.

Humility – This value may seem mutually exclusive from leadership until we consider its opposite ‘arrogance’. When given the option of choosing an arrogant leader or a humble leader almost without exception people will choose the humble leader.

The question behind this is ‘Why?’ The answer comes back to one of our core functions as Principals and that is to equip and empower our staff to be the best they can be. Who does this better, an arrogant leader or a humble leader?

A humble leader will act strongly in their strengths but, will openly acknowledge their weaknesses and get people around them to support them. This reflects what Charles H. Spurgeon is quoted as saying, “Humility is to make a right estimate of oneself.” Humility is knowing our good points, and knowing our weak points.

A humble leader will acknowledge the contributions of others and praise them for it, will allow other leaders in their school to grow and develop; will encourage each staff member to grow in their gifts and talents; will not feel threatened by the accolades and accomplishments of others around them and will support a staff member when they make a mistake so that they grow and learn from it.

I have heard it said that one feature common to many great leaders is humility.

Arrogant leaders will want to draw the praise to themselves.

They won’t acknowledge others’ strengths. Arrogant leaders are driven by their own egos at the expense of everyone else. It becomes about their accomplishments and perceived trophies.

The school is a stepping stone for a bigger and flashier position.

The staff are a means to an end. Staff find it hard to grow and blossom in the shadow and darkness of an arrogant leader. They are starved of warmth, light and nutrition.

Humility in leadership is a binding cohesion for a talented team.

Here’s an interesting quote from Lao-tsu – an ancient Chinese philosopher – which reflects humility as a quality of powerful leadership. Lao-tsu says, “To lead people, walk beside them ...

As for the best leaders, the people do not notice their existence.

The next best, the people honour and praise. The next, the people fear; and the next, the people hate ... When the best leader’s work is done the people say, ‘We did it ourselves!’ “ Are we prepared to be the unnoticed leader? That is a real challenge!

Reflection – This is a powerful value for incremental growth.

Reflection requires a leader to look at how something went and then wring out of it the good, the bad and even the ugly. A reflective leader will go ‘there’, into the darkness of mistakes, the arid bleakness of problems and the turmoil of disputes in order to learn, and learn, and learn.

Ngahihi o te ra Bidois at the recent NZSTA Conference in Auckland said that ‘Thinkers lead and leaders think’. What is

it that they are thinking about? Improvements, refinements, adaptations, innovations, growth. This all starts from looking in the mirror, seeing what is there and turning to the school’s vision for what we would like to see there.

A reflective leader knows they don’t know it all. A reflective leader is a listener. A reflective leader is an observer. A reflective leader is a reader. A reflective leader is a thinker. A reflective leader is a change agent for improvements. Our schools need us as Principals to be constantly reflecting so that each year our schools grow and progress.

Grace – This final value, I believe, has slowly slipped out of Western consciousness. It is a very deep value. Possibly one of the deepest of the seven. It has been missing in action for so long that many of us may even struggle to grasp what it means anymore. Grace is that second chance. Grace is dropping the mental lists of hurts that people have made against us. Grace is the gift of forgiveness.

If we as Principals cannot forgive, the stress of this job will consume and erode us. There are many hurts that scar us; betrayal by a staff member; the resistance of a BOT member; the gossip of a parent. We are not exempt from the damage this causes us on the inside. The longer we spend in the job the more internal wounds we can accumulate. We can become cynical, bitter, critical, impatient, intolerant, snappy and judgemental. I say it because I know it for myself. After almost two decades of being a Principal I know the pain the role can bring.

Grace, that ability to forgive someone even when they did not ask for forgiveness, is a profound release from the emotional chains their hurt can bind us in.

Grace, that ability to forgive ourselves when we got it wrong, when we messed up, is a gift of freedom that we give ourselves.

Hurts hold us back. Negative words can control our actions.

Cynicism stops us from seeing opportunities. Bitterness breaks relationships. Impatience produces frustration. Judgemental attitudes alienate. Grace enables us to break free of all this to be the Principals that we need to be.

Of all the seven values I would rate grace as a mega-value. It is that important.

To conclude we need resilience, self-control, integrity, humility, respect, reflection and grace in order to fulfil the fullness of our roles. These are, I believe, the high stakes collection of seven values that are at the heart of a highly effective Principal.

They are like a personal vision to continually aspire to. As we mature, we become more cognisant of our actions and by aligning our actions to these values we place ourselves in the ‘sweet spot’, that place where bat meets ball with power and finesse.

This collection of values may have surprised you but I can guarantee when these seven are exercised in unison, on a daily basis, over time, through and in the situations that we face, they will give us credibility, professionalism and sustainable longevity in the very important role that we undertake as leaders of New Zealand’s schools.

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Āta Whakaarohia – A story of mentoring in a special education setting Jill de Kock, Neil Jourdan, Sarah Copeland, Devs Charles, Sheryl Willis & Phyllis Jones Āta Whakaarohia is a Māori word that is used to explain thinking about your thinking. Āta means to enquire deeply.

Whakaaro means to think, brainstorm or consider. Hia means to do or to want. This title reflects the on-going process that Parkside School in Auckland engages with in relation to an evolving mentoring program. This article describes the evolution of the mentoring model developed across the school that serves students with severe and profound learning disabilities, identified as eligible to receive ORS (Ongoing Resourcing Scheme) in a base and varied satellite settings. It demonstrates the organic nature of any whole school development and change. The school community accept the Mahoney and Matthews (2004) definition of mentoring as a mutually beneficial process between mentee and mentor, reflecting the practise of Tuakana-Teina: Reciprocal Learning. The school is committed to the mentoring process in order to ultimately improve outcomes for students by focussing upon the constructive support given to teachers.

The Evolution of Mentoring at the School Historically, mentoring at the school was undertaken by the principal as part of on-going induction, tutoring and coaching of new teachers. At this point the terms tutoring, mentoring and coaching were used interchangeably with the main focus staying with the induction and coaching of new staff members.

The school’s teacher appraisal process was kept separate from the mentoring to maintain an emphasis on constructive developmental support.

In 1999, an evolution occurred when the new deputy principal assisted in the induction of new staff but then continued working with them in an on-going supportive way. Seven years later a new associate principal was appointed who brought experience as a tutor teacher and continued the support offered by the school with more in-depth coaching, for example, explicit modelling of lessons. At this time, the part time school psychologist also worked with the teachers to support the induction into the special school environment.

In 2007, the school implemented an initiative around Assessment for Learning (AfL), which became the backbone of the teaching approach at the school and thus fundamental in the schools approach to mentoring. As part of the AfL initiative a lead teacher was identified, professional development was provided and an outside facilitator supported the implementation of AfL in the lead teacher’s classroom. In the spirit of a cascading model of professional development, the intention was for the lead teacher to ‘grow’ another teacher in AfL. This required the lead AfL teacher to observe, provide feedback and support a colleague through the journey of implementing AfL; in essence,

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mentoring them through the AfL process. Many of the key skills required to be an effective AfL teacher (such as, open to learning conversations, Robinson, 2009) are also skills associated with an effective mentor. Hence it was through the AfL initiative that the lead teacher gained new skills that made her a perfect candidate to be a mentor teacher. In addition the school principal offered her the opportunity to do further training to upskill as a mentor teacher. In 2011, as a reflection of the Ministry of Education‘s priority on mentoring, it published the Guidelines for Induction and Mentoring and Mentor Teachers (NZTC, 2011). It was fortuitous that the school mentoring process that had evolved was completely in line with the new policy initiative and allowed the school to further formalize their mentoring approach.

The Mentoring Model At the school, mentoring transcends working solely with beginning teachers. The staff team is made up of teachers from a wide range of experience. Therefore it has been necessary to provide mentoring for overseas trained teachers (OTT), beginner teachers (BT), teachers new to special education and teachers moving to different classes within the school. For teachers who have mainstream teaching experience yet are new to special education, ongoing mentoring is essential for their professional development These teachers may not be familiar with the pedagogy and application of teaching practices for students with severe, profound and complex needs.

In 2012, four Dean roles were established. The lead AfL teacher became Dean of Professional Practice and Support and serves as the lead mentor teacher. There is also a Dean of Māori and Secondary Satellite, a Dean of Outreach Services and a Dean of Engagement Profile and Scale. In addition to their specific roles, each Dean was invited to be part of the school Mentoring Community of Practice (C.O.P). A member of the management team, the Director of Specialist Services, formed the fifth member of the C.O.P. The aims of this C.O.P are: ■■ ■■ ■■ ■■ ■■ ■■

Support colleagues in the Mentoring Process Contribute to learning for the participants Clarify roles and terms specific to Mentoring Support the development of skills for Mentoring Develop a shared understanding of Mentoring at the school Investigate and develop the process of Mentoring at the school

In addition to weekly C.O.P meetings, on-going professional development around the process of mentoring occurs with an outside agency . The C.O.P is involved in a school based inquiry

initiative in collaboration with the University of South Florida.

Dr. Phyllis Jones supports ongoing inquiry into the aspects of the mentoring program that the C.O.P chooses to focus upon. This research will be shared through the publication of an article for the Australian Journal of Special Education. With the exception of the Director of Specialist Services, each Dean was assigned a staff member to develop a mentor/mentee relationship. The role of the four Deans in the mentoring process evolved through group discussion and is illustrated in Figure 1. Figure 1 also describes the model of mentoring currently in place.

Often within the professional work environment we do not know our colleagues personally.

‘Getting to know’ may be over a coffee off site or a lunch and include discussions around family, personal history (professional / cultural / historical).

The Dean of Professional Practice and Support along with the other 3 Deans and the Director of Specialist form the Mentoring Community of Practice (COP). The COP engages with professional development; is conducting mentoring research and provides collegial support

Dean of Professional Practice and Support, Dean of Māori and Secondary Satellite, Dean of Outreach Services, Dean of Engagement Profile and Scale

Setting Protocols: Discussions to build the relationship, process and expectations. This may include an outline of class visits; focus of class observations; method of capturing the observations (notes / video); details of mentoring sessions (co-constructed agendas; taking of minutes; reflective journaling).

Director of Specialist Services

Each Dean has engaged in a mentoring relationship with a colleague. The Dean of Professional Practice and Support often engages in numerous mentoring relationships as she supports those staff members who are BT’s and PRT’s

Teacher with many years of SEN experience

Fully registered teacher

Meet and Greet: Informal meeting to introduce oneself. Although you may know the staff member, this is an opportunity to discuss mentorship/your role as a mentor.

Getting to know each other:

Lead Mentor Teacher: Dean of Professional Practice and Support

Beginner teacher (Provisionally registered)

support guide for the mentor and additional documentation was developed for each step in another effort to maintain consistency. Each mentor keeps a log of the mentoring activity.

This framework respects the dynamic relationships that exist by offering a structure that can be adapted according to the needs of each relationship.

Class Visit: This is an opportunity to get to know all staff and students and work with a group of the students or even take a lesson. This may occur at different times of the day and week. This is a good time to access students’ profiles, programmes and specific support required.

It’s at this point that we move into a more structured mentoring process including fortnightly meetings and/or class observations; assisting with resources; sharing relevant professional reading.

Provisionally registered overseas trained teacher

This mentoring relationship is twofold: Firstly; to support the mentee in their professional practice and secondly; to provide the Deans with the opportunity to further their skills as mentors within the school.

The Mentor/Mentee relationship and resulting support and professional development (along with reflective journals, observations and feedback notes) form the basis of the research inquiry into mentoring within the school.

Figure 1: Model of Mentoring

The school mentoring framework is outlined in Figure 2, which demonstrates the growth in structure of the programme, the continued commitment to giving all teachers developmental and constructive support and the intention to create consistency across each mentoring relationship. The process is framed as a

“What’s on top” meeting to discuss current concerns / issues. Opportunity to ‘check in’ with mentee

Teacher directed class observations: teacher requests mentor to focus on a specific area (e.g. Morning circle)

Feedback session: Share observation feedback / review video observation / discuss sticking points

The mentor will keep a log of all observation sessions and meetings as well as observation feedback and minutes of meetings. Both parties maintain reflective journals on the process and professional practice.

Figure 2: Mentoring Framework

Mentoring in New Zealand is unique in that it reflects the acceptance and promotion of Māori pedagogy across the education sector. This validates the positive imprint of indigenous learning concepts that celebrates the cultural aspect of its people. This is also reflected in the mentoring approach of the school. All cultures (Pākeha/ Non-Māori and Māori) share similar aspects and skills of mentoring with the major difference being the purpose of the

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mentoring relationship. Winitana (2012) explains that the Māori view is to uphold the mana (status) of all the people involved, whereby the Pākeha view is generally to enhance the mana of one individual or to achieve an outcome. Māori cultural views embrace the importance of relationships and ensure that there are opportunities for reciprocal interactions between the parties.

The acceptance of Māori pedagogical concepts exist today from the promotion and use in government funded mainstream documents. Resources such as Ki te Aotūroa: Improving Inservice Teacher Educator Learning and Practice (MOE, 2008) incorporate how Māori cultural concepts can be used to enhance and educate mainstream practises as well. The inclusion of Māori vocabulary to explain some principles of mentoring is further validated by the research and findings of Te Kōtahitanga programme (Bishop et al, 2003). The inclusion of words such as Ako (being a learner), Tuakana-Teina (reciprocal learning) and Āwhinatanga (guidance and support) continues to portray mentoring as a constructive and reciprocal relationship between mentor and mentee; something the school is particularly committed to.

With respect to mentoring, the school continues to be engaged in an ongoing process of reflection, inquiry and development.

The structure and organization afforded to mentoring is explicitly valued and supports a coherent whole school approach to vision, mission and pedagogy. The mentoring framework transcends the traditional BT model of mentoring to encompass all teachers at their different stages of professional lives. Relationships between mentor and mentee are central to enable both parties to coconstruct developments in understandings and practices about pedagogy for students with severe and profound disabilities.

The mentoring is distributed across four Deans in the C.O.P

who are committed to the continued evolution of the mentoring approach to ensure an effective and useable framework that can be sustained across the busy school; a true reflection of Āta Whakaarohia.

References Bishop, R., Berryman, M., Tiakiwai,S., & Richardson,C., (2003).

Te Kotahitanga: The experiences of Year 9 and 10 students in mainstream classrooms. Wellington: Ministry of Education.

Hobson, A.J., Ashlby, P., Maldarez, A., & Tomlinson, P. (2009).

Mentoring Beginning Teachers. What we know and what we don’t. Teaching and Teacher Education 25, 207–2016 mentoringtesol.pbworks.com/f/MentoringBeginningTeachers. pdf. Retrieved May 2013.

New Zealand Teacher’s Council, (2011). Guidelines for Induction and Mentoring And Mentor Teachers. Professional Learning Journeys: Wellington: NZ. Ministry of Education, (2008). Ki te Aotūroa. Improving In-service Teacher Educator Learning and Practice. Te Whakapakari I te Ratonga Whakangungu Kaiwhakaako. Learning Media Publication. Wellington: Ministry of Education.

Robinson, V. (2009). Open-to-learning Conversations: Background Paper. Module 3: Building Trust in Schools Through Open-tolearning Conversations. First-time Principals Programme. The University of Auckland: NZ. Winitana, M., (2012). Remembering the deeds of Maui– what messages are in the tuakana-teina pedagogy for tertiary educators?, Mai Journal, Volume 1, issue 1.

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NZ P r i n c i p a l | J u n e 2 0 14

School Lines Tomorrow’s Schools: Yesterday – Today – Tomorrow Lester Flockton

feedback, feedforward, Feedup, feeddown lester.flockton@otago.ac.nz

Tomorrow’s Schools was yesterday’s schools, not today’s schools, and certainly not tomorrow’s schools! Yet, somehow, we constantly hear the baying, “We’ve had Tomorrow’s Schools for 25 years. Surely it’s time for change.”

A known Auckland school leadership academic pronounces, “The self-managing school model should not be treated like a sacred cow – it needs to evolve to meet current needs”. Well, it has been evolving and evolving to meet needs, although not necessarily the needs of schools, but the wants of the system!

A known Auckland literacy academic told Radio New Zealand last year that “more central control over schools was needed for standards to improve.” Well, those controls were enforced on schools in 2010 with the pronouncement and regulation of National Standards, prescriptive target setting and checking, but improvement has so far proved negligible.

A known Wellington schools’ researcher opined in our national daily that a national network of around 20 education authorities should be established and responsible to a national director who would be part of the senior leadership team of the Ministry of Education. “Each authority would have ultimate responsibility for the quality of the schools in their area . . . ”. So, twice the number of the former Education Boards – not to mention that ultimate responsibility usually leads to ultimate control!

Clearly, Tomorrow’s Schools has changed, and changed, and changed throughout the past 25 years, and is set to change again and again over the next 25 years, to the point that David Lange would probably marvel that today’s schools are still referred to as Tomorrow’s Schools. If anything, it has proved a very successful branding for change, yet ironically it’s not so much schools that have changed, but the system that prevails upon them. Equally ironically, Tomorrow’s Schools has become the whipping boy for all who would have things their way.

Let’s take one example that clearly shows Tomorrow’s Schools is no longer Tomorrow’s Schools: the Ministry of Education. One of Lange’s central points of reform was a vast slimming down of education’s bureaucracy and major decentralisation of the schooling sector. A “hands off ” Ministry was to replace the Department of Education, with the main functions of providing policy advice to its Minister and dispersing cash to schools. In ridding the country of its 10 Education Boards and whittling down the bureaucracy to around 800 staff, it was trumpeted that much of vote education could be redistributed to individual boards of trustees. Schools were to be self-managing institutions able to exercise much greater discretion and autonomy, while being obliged to respect broad policy guidelines set by the Government.

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Literacy and Numeracy Initiatives: vast amounts of taxpayer money spent on creating literacy and numeracy approaches and programmes that have largely failed to show a commensurate impact on New Zealand’s placing in the international horse race (OECD league tables, etc.).

■■ School Advisory Services: effectively eliminated with remaining whittled down services and professional learning opportunities controlled by Ministry of Education contracts awarded to “big players” and confined to Government and Ministry agendas.

■■ Boards of Trustees: changes to constitutional arrangements “to allow more flexible, alternative governance arrangements for new and merging schools, and allow boards to combine where Tomorrow’s Schools, 1988, p.1 this would increase capacity and capability (MOE Annual And so it goes on. Empowerment of localised decision-making Report 2013)”. was at the hub of Tomorrow’s Schools, a point pushed home on ■■ A School Trustees Association that compromises its the first page of the Tomorrow’s School booklet with a quote from independence by opting for Ministry funded contracts that Thomas Jefferson: promote and support the implementation of Governments’ ideas.

I know of no safe depository of the ultimate power of the ■■ A Regulatory Framework (NEGs): society but the people themselves subjected to successive Ministers of and if we think them not Tomorrow’s Schools Education changing compliance demands enlightened enough to exercise on schools (no sausages, fitness for was yesterday’s their control with a wholesome primary but not secondary kids, annual discretion, the remedy is not to plans, charters, targets, reporting, schools, not today’s take it from them, but to inform national standards, etc.) their discretion. schools, and certainly not ■■ Collective Employment Agreements that have invoked Government But things have changed dramatically. tomorrow’s schools’ professional standards, appraisals, and According to its 2013 Annual Report, changed working conditions. as of 30 June 2013 the Ministry had a

The institution (the school) will be the basic “building block” of education administration, with control over their resources – to use as they determine, within overall guidelines set by the state.

The running of the institution (the school) will be a partnership between the professionals and the particular community in which it is located.

Each institution (school) will set its own objectives, within the overall national guidelines set by the state.

These objectives will reflect the particular needs of the community . . .

whopping staff of 3,329 (2,569.8 full-time equivalents) based in 41 locations around New Zealand, and 49 new managers joining a heaped chain of command. Lange’s eyes would surely pop!

The catalogue of ongoing changes, reforms and re-reforms, both backward and forward, is growing by the volume. A few examples give sufficient evidence: Big changes from 1988 to 2014 ■■

■■

■■

■■

■■

■■

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The Education Act 1989: Amendments after amendments giving Ministers and Government agencies more control and schools more responsibilities.

The entrenchment of politicisation in all things education with a concomitant devaluing of community and professional voice and values.

A Ministry of Education that has stepped up to become the “building block” of the school system, with a host of new statutory discretionary powers (e.g. school interventions) Fully blown target setting and data driven systems for monitoring, checking, comparing and publicising school performance on a narrow scope of curricular goals (PAI).

An Education Review Office that has repeatedly changed its review and reporting methods and focus to suit Governments’ shifting agendas, including a dark period of “name and shame”.

Unenlightened followed by enlightened curriculum change: first, Lockwood Smith’s failed “Achievement Initiative” with its parade of new learning area statements and levelled achievement objectives developed by little committees, then The New Zealand Curriculum, developed in full collaboration, internationally acclaimed, but shunted into the background by National Standards.

NZ P r i n c i p a l | J u n e 2 0 14

■■

And so the list might go on. These and other changes are clearly a reflection of a dynamic (i.e. changing), re-reforming, centrally controlled, and highly politicalised schooling system. Tomorrow’s Schools effectively opened the gates for these things to happen.

We are seeing much improved school buildings and the infectious spread of computer-based technologies. We are witnessing some weird but not wonderful ideas about the job of teaching and the function of schools. We have a complex entanglement of the good and the bad, the sensible and the nonsensical, the wise and the witless. But whether we still have Tomorrow’s Schools is a moot point. Perhaps it’s time to replace the banner with a more appropriate one that reflects the reality of both today and tomorrow, like “Government Schools” (staffed, of course, by Government Teachers).

Take a deep breath: integrating into a new school culture . . .

Helen Kinsey-Wightman

I once went waterskiing in Lake Taupo – I say once because chose to assume he did this to allow him to focus fully on the despite the fact I am reasonably good at waterskiing and it was an quality of my oratory – in the days and weeks that followed staff exhilarating experience it is one I may never persuade myself to came and shared widely varied aspects of their lives with me and repeat. To say the lake was cold would be a vast understatement I have been able to find common ground which may not have – the shock of entering the frigid water took all the breath out of happened with years of staffroom conversations. my lungs and I have never got up onto a ski as swiftly! If asked In addition I think it is critical to remember that all staff to repeat the experience, the memory of the moment of entry matter in the enormous task of creating a positive learning would be likely to bring on terminal environment. My mother was a school procrastination. cleaner for as long as I have been a The prospect of entering a strong, well ‘ . . . every school has its teacher – remembering that cleaners established, successful school culture in own culture and that and caretakers don’t typically receive a senior leadership role can be similarly the email invites we send out for culture is built on the daunting. staffroom drinks or tickets to the In joining a new school be it half way Christmas Concert means that we around the world or around the corner, it relationships between must make the effort to invite them is crucial to remember that every school all of the individuals in person. Whilst the groundsman has its own culture and that culture is initially looked a little uncomfortable built on the relationships between all of who work and learn when I mentioned that I had 2 tickets the individuals who work and learn there. to the school performance of Guys’ I think it pays to put equal amounts of there . . . ’ & Dolls, he recovered his composure energy into getting to know the entire when I added that he might like to community – the students, teachers, parents, admin staff, have them both and bring his wife! caretaker and cleaners.

Getting to know students whilst only teaching one class is a Saying this is of course one thing – achieving it is quite challenge I am still getting to grips with. I find it horrifying that in exhausting! To get to know staff I gave a presentation in which a school of 1260 students it is entirely possible that there are girls I used a Prezi to visually introduce them to my hometown, whom I may never individually address in their 5 years of school background, my life experiences, my values and my family. – since admitting this possibility I have made it my mission to say Whilst it was possibly more nervewracking than the job hello and smile at as many students as possible during my school interview, and despite the fact that at least one staff member day. Whilst some days this does leave me feeling (and possibly appeared to have his eyes closed for the entire presentation – I looking) slightly demented I do think it matters!

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When it comes to what areas to focus on during the first term and whether it is wise to make immediate changes there is a breadth of opinion.

During my time overseas I heard the story of a new principal who arrived at a successful international school. She came with an impressive track record as both a principal and an Ofsted (the UK version of ERO) inspector. Unfortunately, when she arrived she forgot to hang up her inspector’s clipboard. She proceeded to carry out a full-scale review and visited every classroom in the school, giving forthright and fulsome points for improvement to every teacher. Before long, her unfortunate deputy principal was supporting a stream of colleagues who began beating a path to her office door in various states ranging between tearfulnesss and outrage! At the same time she had to attempt to support her new principal who was more than a little lost in her foreign environment.

Having lost the support of the teaching staff the new principal then proceeded to make a succession of unfortunate gaffes.

Having never before lived overseas she was somewhat unfamiliar with the notion that she was never off duty as a school principal – particularly at a social occasion. At the annual BWA (British Women’s Association) Ball she had one wine too many and confided in the very friendly woman seated next to her that she had heard that the BWA were often referred to as the B***hes, Witches and Alcoholics. The very friendly woman just happened to be the Secretary of the Association . . . suffice to say that within the school year the deputy principal had stepped into her role as acting principal and when she returned home, went on to be appointed as her replacement.

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NZ P r i n c i p a l | J u n e 2 0 14

I think it is tales such as this one – entirely truthful though it is – that lead people to give new school leaders the advice that they shouldn’t change anything during their first term – some would even say first year. To me this is patently ridiculous – I believe a new leadership role comes with the permission to make change – albeit change that is well researched, implemented carefully and is focussed on supporting teaching and learning – or teachers and learners. My first change was the introduction of Google Calendar – it was relatively simple to do, it made teachers’ lives easier and had the added bonus of removing the giant whiteboard that had housed the previous master calendar from my office wall.

Having survived the first term with my professionalism intact, this term I am organising relief. Inevitably, despite my best efforts to dash for the phone, I am sure the day will come when my far too articulate 3 year old will answer the phone at 7am and tell one of my new colleagues that Mummy can’t talk now because she is in the toilet; since this is his area of special interest there is no knowing what details he may choose to divulge . . . time for another deep breath!

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