Collected #30

Aotearoa NZ Histories Curriculum

issue 30/2022

EDITORIAL

Ka mua, ka muri – walking backwards into the future.

This whakataukī has been on my mind recently as I have spent many hours ‘walking backwards’ while working on various projects for the 150th reunion at our college. Spending hours in the archives preparing for displays and sharing memories with fellow alumni has caused me to reflect on the rich wealth of history we have, most of it stored behind locked doors; and living in the memories of those who went before. What good is it doing where no-one sees it? We need to show and tell the next generation where our school has come from.

With this in mind, I pulled out a lot of memorabilia and made my library into a museum for a week. I was surprised at the reception from our students, they were so enthused! From looking at 1970s Detention books, to class photos from the early 1900s, to school uniforms from the ‘60s, to seeing the changes on our campus, to finding their parents in the photobooks; they were absolutely engaged in finding out who, what, when, where, how and why. (And those who assumed my photo would be in the 2005 photobook endeared themselves to me forever!)

This exercise has illustrated to me that history is essential to our understanding of the world around us, and to quote Pearl S. Buck - If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday.

As you read through Collected #30, Aotearoa NZ Histories Curriculum edition, I know that you will find some helpful advice and ideas for how you can search yesterday to provide understanding for today in your libraries, and some inspiration if you are just beginning your ANZHC journey.

As librarians, it is our job to scaffold and extend the exploration and understanding of ākonga while supporting classroom learning. I’m sure many of us have daily requests for a selection of resources to be available for class use, (sometimes with an hour’s notice!) and having the right resource available at the right time is paramount; Esther and Sarah are bravely letting us glimpse the frontier of two primary school libraries as they currently spend time assessing their resources and catalogues for relevance, accuracy and consistency. For anyone with experience in dealing with primary children, you know that you really need to have a skillset that will cover any eventuality! It sounds like the future of history is safely in the hands of these two librarians.

As the language we use evolves, and perceptions of historical events undergo change, we need to move forward with our delivery and curation of resources in our libraries. At secondary level, Julia is doing the mahi to make sure that her students have success in their library use. Her initiative to replicate classroom language inspires me, it enables library users to look backwards in order to move forward,

as it illustrates a culture before colonisation that was “clothed with names, stories and a belief system”. (Gavin Bishop, The House that Jack Built, Gecko Press Interview, Collected #30, Dec 2022). I’m sure her students will be empowered and successful in their research while making connections – our ultimate objective as librarians.

Being a librarian often encompasses being an archivist, and if you have also been landed with that job, now might be a good time to explore those boxes you’ve never (had the time) to open and determine whether there are resources highlighting your local community that you can digitise or use for display.

I’m quite keen to ask Bev about best practice examples after her interesting day at Archives Central. Bev, did you get any ideas about the best way to archive a bottle of beer brewed especially for a school reunion back in 1971? I eagerly await your instruction!

While we are all busily assessing and curating our libraries’ content for future use, we should be mindful that we are actually making history. Yes, we are history makers too!

Mandy and Kirsty have made their mark on history already by creating amazing websites full of resources, not just for their schools, but for their communities to use. You should both feel proud about beginning this legacy for future generations.

If this is all feeling a little overwhelming for you, make sure you take a look at the article which we have reprinted from Te Rau Herenga o Aotearoa LIANZA’s Te Rau Ora Library Life Magazine. Samuel Beyer introduces a good place to start assessing your collection by using an easy-to-follow traffic light framework. (Don’t worry it has nothing to do with Covid-19!)

Throughout these articles I have noticed an overarching theme of COLLABORATION. For some, the change in curriculum might be challenging and you might be feeling alone. Now is the time to reach out to people you see doing things you think would be beneficial in your library, talk to your teachers and Heads of Department, reach out to people in the wider community, the local iwi, the listserv; there is always someone interested in sharing their knowledge and willing to join a committee or group.

We have what past librarians lack –technology that enables us to digitise resources, more ways to connect, instant access to anything we need, and resources such as websites that enable us to remove physical boundaries. How exciting that we can make our own mark on our libraries and easily collaborate with others.

And while you’re thinking about collaboration, SLANZA has been busily collaborating on a huge number of projects this year to raise awareness of the benefit of school libraries, too many to mention! You might want to consider becoming involved in the mahi in order to help this organisation continue to thrive into the future. Collaboration is beneficial to us all.

A huge thank you to all who have contributed to this issue, those who have submitted articles, proof-readers, our graphic designer and especially our business members, without their support, we would not be able to publish this magazine.

I wish you all well as you journey into Aotearoa New Zealand’s histories curriculum and what that looks like for your library, it is an exciting time of change. You are an important part of this, it’s time to get out there and make history!

Lauryn Urquhart-Eaton Editor, Collected Magazine

President's’ Column

Hasn’t Term 4 come around fast?! It seems like not that long ago I was putting this column together for our last Collected issue.

As a school librarian this can be a busy and stressful term with various ‘end-of-year’ tasks to achieve and for some, the nerveracking wait to see if hours and budget have been approved without reduction. In spite of our advocacy and relationship building within the wider education and library sector, it saddens me that some school library spaces continue to bear the brunt of schools’ senior leadership decisions to underfund and understaff their school libraries. The fact that some school leaders still do not see the value that school libraries bring to every student as they work through their educational journey is frustrating to me. Rest assured SLANZA NE continues to advocate for our sector in every available space we can. We need all of our sector to add their voice to discussions within their own communities - remember your local regional committees are there to support you. You can find advocacy tips and resources on our School Libraries Transform website.

When it comes to advocating for our space, we are in desperate need of local New Zealand-based research and data about our sector, so I have been delighted that Aotearoa school libraries have featured in several articles by Margaret Merga which were recently commissioned by The Education Hub These have effectively summed up, with peer reviewed research, the value and importance that school library spaces have in our education sector. Check them out on The Education Hub website if you haven’t had the chance to read these. I also look forward to the report on this year’s annual School Libraries in Aotearoa New Zealand survey which is conducted by National Library in conjunction with SLANZA and LIANZA. This survey is part of a longitudinal project that began in 2018 and is crucial to assist the sector to advocate for school libraries, and to help schools plan, build, and develop relevant library spaces that reflect their communities.

Our Pay Equity claim is progressing well. The three school librarian members on our negotiation team started training in early November with the understanding that the settlement negotiations will start at the beginning of December. The Evidence Report on the librarians’ claim is due to be out by the end of November. It will be made public and you will receive notification of this. Whilst this has seemingly felt like a long process, NZEI members along with Ministry of Education and NZEI staff have put in a lot of mahi to get this claim right since it was first lodged in November 2020. This mana enhancing process builds awareness, in our schools and more widely, of the importance of school libraries and the skills we have as librarians.

2022 has been a busy but exciting year in which SLANZA has worked as a team to accomplish a substantial number of initiatives, programmes and projects that support our members and advocate for the school library sector in Aotearoa New Zealand. As a grass-roots driven, professionally run organisation we continue to go from strength to strength.

It’s pleasing that our four NZLPP Strategic Partnership projects are trucking along nicely and have started producing positive results for our sector:

• The LIANZA-SLANZA Tertiary Grants Programme March grant round saw 36 applicants approved. Eight school librarians received funding to undergo qualifications that will develop them in their roles, allowing them to further support their school communities.

• 15 school librarians took part in the A Bit Sus (countering misinformation) programme during Term One, and thanks to further funding from NZLPP, 23 school librarians are participating in a second co-hort of this professional development course currently being held during Term Three.

• Two school librarians have been employed to work with the AnyQuestions/ManyAnswers team supporting the curation of local resources for the AotearoaNZ Histories Curriculum.

• Two Kahui Ako (Cambridge and Nelson) have been funded to financially support a School Librarian to lead PLD school library centered initiatives within their Communities of Learning, especially with the focus on supporting the implementation of the Aotearoa NZ Histories curriculum.

It has also been invaluable to have had the opportunity to be a part of the NZLPP Sector Reference group. This has given SLANZA a voice at the wider library and information sector ‘table’ enabling us to build awareness of school libraries, establishing sector wide support, and develop organisational level relationships, affiliations and networks.

Our regional and national PLD events continue to strengthen and build our knowledge. Another successful iQualify module was held last term covering Advocacy based on the SLA publication ‘Loud and Clear – Advocacy for Secondary School Librarians’ where there were lots of discussions and tips and tricks on building relationships within our schools and communities to show the value school libraries have for tamariki and rangitahi we all work with.

During August the inaugural Aotearoa NZ School Library Week was held. The organising team worked closely with the clever and patient illustrator, Paul Beavis, to create promotional material including posters and an Activities Guide for schools to celebrate their library spaces and services. Our grateful thanks go to schools who embraced this celebratory week and to our Business Members, and various stakeholders who supported this endeavour. We were delighted to get a raft of positive feedback from school librarians all over the motu and we hope to make this an annual event with the support of our members. Newsflash! We have convinced Paul to work with us on a SLANZA wall planner which we hope to be available for everyone to download and print by the beginning of December.

In early July SLANZA National Executive underwent an all-day Governance Training session with Carol Scholes from OverView Effect. We spent the day learning about adjustments we need to implement to align SLANZA with the new Incorporated Societies Act, such as changes to our constitution, policies and guidelines, as well as improvements to how we administer and manage our organisation that will be instrumental to moving SLANZA soundly and securely into the future.

One of the initiatives to come from our time with Carol, which we are most excited about, is that we are developing a new organisational structure over the next six months with the aim to evenly distribute mahi, giving more members the opportunity to be involved in growing a member-driven future-focused organisation that benefits our school library sector. We will be seeking members’ feedback and input as we work through these exciting changes – so watch this space!

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Anita Lamont for the exemplary mahi she undertook supporting our National Executive and SLANZA members in her role as National Administrator over the last couple of years, especially her focus on growing our Business Members which have led to stronger relationships within our sector and increased funding opportunities for SLANZA. SLANZA NE wishes Anita well in her future endeavours, but are comforted knowing that as a SLANZA member she will continue to support our sector. I would like to welcome Sarah Stretch on board as our new National Administrator. Sarah has considerable skills gained from working in the administration side of the non-profit sector and as a school librarian. I know NE are looking forward to tapping into her expertise and getting to know her better.

Our members are our driving force. Thank you for joining us and being an essential part of our journey.

Ehara taku toa i te toa takitahi, engari he toa takitini - Success is not the work of an individual, but the work of many.

Look after yourselves. I hope you all have a well-deserved restful and rejuvenating break over the summer.

Nga mihi mahana, Sasha Eastwood SLANZA President

Regional Reports

AORAKI

The Aoraki committee has undergone some changes this year; at our AGM we farewelled Karen Gardner and Tracey Hull who left the committee after many years of service. We really appreciate the work that Karen and Tracey have put into SLANZA; they were an integral part of the committee.

Our current committee members are Saskia Hill (Chair), Dayle Campbell (Treasurer), Liz Jones, Cathy Kennedy, Maree Silver, Sally Brown (NE Rep), and Becky Howie from Middleton Grange has joined our merry band this year.

Current subscription for the region stands at 116 members, which is an increase on previous years.

Members from Aoraki took on the role of updating the SLANZA reading lists this year and continue to work on them. A big thank you to Claudine Tapsell, Zac McCallum and Maree Silver, with whom I work in this group. If you ever have any questions or additions for the reading lists, please send us any suggestions.

We have had a busy year with SLANZA Aoraki functions, which included a buyer’s night at PaperPlus Hornby, and the University Book Shop; and we were thrilled to have an afternoon with Reading Ambassador, Ben Brown. Our annual day of PD in Term Three was a brilliant day of presentations and networking.

In Term Four we launched a new PD initiative - holding our first Lib Café. This one was a presentation by Andrew Lange from NZEI about School Librarian pay equity. We will finish the year with an end-ofyear Christmas quiz and social event at Heaton Intermediate hosted by Jane Boniface.

OTAGO

Kia ora koutou, Otago has enjoyed getting together this year with fewer restrictions, the ability to meet face to face has been fantastic. We kicked the year off with a book buying evening and a meal out at a local favourite Italian restaurant. This was well attended and a chance to get to know some of our newer members.

In Term Two we had Susan Wardell, a local author who recently published a children’s picture book, ‘The Lighthouse Princess’, which won a Gavin Bishop award. She spoke to us about the process of writing, we found her stories and her presentation enthralling.

We combined forces with National Library, as we did last year, and had a combined ‘Day of Goodness’ in Term Three. The lineup for the day was brilliant and well received. We laughed a lot with Swapna Haddow, a children’s author who talked to us about her childhood and her writing. We had a presentation from MOE as well as from SLANZA and National Library people. The turnout for this exceeded our expectations and we look forward to continuing this collaboration in years to come.

We have been fortunate to have a Central Otago librarian join our SLANZA committee and Angela Thompson has been organizing some incredible events in and around Queenstown this year. We continue to spread some Zoom events through the year to reach our whole area.

In Term Four we are planning a bit of a ‘knees up’ which will hopefully include a quiz and some good old-fashioned debriefing about the 2022 year.

Michelle Summerfield – Otago NE Representative

Sally Blake, SLANZA – Aoraki NE Representative

Zac McCallum presenting at our Aoraki SLANZA PD day

CENTRAL

Kia ora koutou from the Central region.

We have been pleased to have held Book Club meetings via Zoom every term this year, where members have an opportunity share our favourite current reads. This has been a great way to check in with other school librarians in our region by sharing books and stories about our libraries.

Our AGM was held in early July at Palmerston North Girls High School library. Connor Rennie from the Ministry of Education Aotearoa NZ Histories team talked us through the new curriculum and guided us through ideas of how we can assist our schools with the implementation. We welcomed Andrea Knap as a new committee member.

In August we were delighted to hold another in-person event, a Publishers and Buying Night at Palmerston North Paper Plus. Two publisher reps (Irene Gibbs from Scholastic and Tammy Ruffell from Allen & Unwin) showcased a long list of new releases and titles to look out for over the next few months. There were giveaways, browsing, catching up with friends and lots of books purchased. Over 20 people attended and everyone went home with a ‘goody bag’ thanks to the very generous store manager Victoria Hume, who also supplied a yummy supper. It was a fun night.

Together with Evan Greensides, current President of ARANZ –Archives and Records Association of New Zealand and Senior Archivist at Archives Central, we organised a ‘Archivist’s Day Out’ in September in Feilding. Attendees were treated to a tour of Archives Central as well as many expert speakers from within the archiving sector with a special focus on schools’ archives. This was another well attended event. Check out the more in-depth article about it by Bev Harrison in this Collected issue.

The committee currently consists of Christina Bate (Chair), Bev Harrison (Secretary), Katie McMillan, Sasha Eastwood (NE rep) and Suzette Stephens (Treasurer). We are always keen to grow our committee, so please get in touch if you are interested.

Our region will end 2022 with a respectable membership of 52 members.

We wish everyone a well-deserved break over the summer.

Ngā mihi, Central Committee

SOUTHLAND

The Readers Cup Regional competition was held in Invercargill, Monday 4th July at Ascot Park Hotel. We are very grateful to ILT for giving us the venue free of charge. Congratulations to Wakatipu High School for winning the competition. Our Southland SLANZA AGM followed this event and all participants enjoyed a lovely meal at the Ascot as we fulfilled the formalities.

In Term Three, Paula from Southland Girls’ High School hosted a PD session on the Aotearoa New Zealand Histories Curriculum. The SHGS Head of Social Studies spoke on the changes to the curriculum and how libraries can support the teaching staff. This was an excellent opportunity to discuss some of the opportunities and expectations that will come with the changes to the curriculum.

In Term Four, we will hold our annual Librarians’ Appreciation Day. This is a fantastic opportunity to spend a day learning and discussing a topic of interest. This year, the theme will be ‘Stories of Southland’.

Happy holidays to everyone!

Kirsty Adam – Southland SLANZA NE Rep

TAMAKI MAKAURAU AUCKLAND

One of the first things you may have noticed about this report is that our name has changed! SLANZA Auckland is now SLANZA Tamaki Makaurau Auckland. The reason we have done this is to reaffirm our commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi and our desire to honour Te Reo Māori as an official language of Aotearoa New Zealand. The resolution to change the name was passed unanimously at our recent AGM.

The AGM was held at Paper Plus Glenfield and provided not only an opportunity to do some shopping, but also a chance to hear from publishers about new books being released before Christmas. There are lots of exciting titles coming to add to our collections.

I presented the National Executive report and talked about School Library Week, the Great School Libraries in Aotearoa report, the updated and improved SLANZA Reading Lists website, the governance training N.E. has undertaken and the Advocacy Course offered to all members online. Michele Coombridge provided the Chairperson’s Report and we farewelled wonderful, hard-working, dedicated and passionate members of the Auckland Committee –Trish Webster (Rangitoto College), Annie White (Dilworth College) and Donna LeMarquand (Blockhouse Bay Intermediate). Thankfully we have two new Committee members – welcome to Wendy-Lou

Vosloo (Glendowie College) and Chantelle Dunn (St John’s School).

Donna LaMarquand kindly hosted the Picture Book PD we held in July 22 with Crissi Blair and Emma Smouldon from National Library presenting on the power of picture books. On the subject of PD, we have recently sent out a survey to Auckland members asking for their feedback on timing, location, attendance, online or offline, ideas for events and topics for PD. This has provided some very useful insights and information, thanks to everyone who responded. More to come on this. Look out for some amazing PD in 2023!

Our next social event is the Christmas function at Baradene College in Remuera with Melinda Szymanik. We are looking forward to some social festive fun.

The Tamaki Makaurau Auckland webpage on the SLANZA website has now been updated, so do check this out (http://www.slanza.org. nz/auckland) for upcoming social events and PD. Our wonderful committee is working hard to do the best they can for Auckland members, do let us know if you have any feedback, comments or ideas by emailing auckland@slanza.org.nz .

I presented a session on:

• all the benefits of reading comics

• why I call them comics and not graphic novels

• who gains from reading comics

• showcased 48 newish secondary-school comics in twelve topics. For example, science fiction, mental health, strong female, war, lgbtq+, strong male, mythology

While I went through the recommendations for comics for secondary school, Anne Dickson from National Library took the primary school members and talked with them about suitable titles for their year levels.

This was the first face-to-face meeting for a long time, and it was lovely to get together. A successful event with approximately twenty attendees, and the added bonus of seeing a new school library.

TE TAI TOKERAU

Reading Comics Is Real Reading

Term Two - Tuesday 6 June 2022

A combined SLANZA National Library event was held at the new Whangarei Boys’ High School Library in June.

Aotearoa NZ Histories Curriculum for School Librarians

Term Three - Tuesday 6 September 2022 | Via Zoom

Our guest speaker was Jane Jarman, History HOD at Kerikeri High School. Her presentation, Aotearoa NZ Histories Curriculum for School Librarians was a highly informative session by an expert in the subject. Jane, through the Waitangi Trust, was contracted by the Ministry of Education to produce four units of work for the Aotearoa NZ Histories curriculum. She is a passionate teacher who includes mātauranga Māori into the curriculum in a meaningful way. The session was relevant across all learning levels.

Claudine Crabtree – Tamaki Makaurau Auckland Representative

Out for our Rainbow communities, as well as sessions on creating a Rainbow collection from the Alphabet Book Club, Rainbow inclusion in faith based and primary schools and how to support Rainbow clubs.

We looked in depth at two of the four strands: Tūrangawaewae me te Kaitiakitanga – Place and Environment, and Whakapapa me te Whanaungatanga - Culture and Identity. For both of these units Jane outlined the content at each learning level and suggested appropriate fiction and non-fiction books to support the curriculum at each level. Jane emphasised that although the content looks very similar to the Social Studies curriculum, the focus is very much on the history of these issues.

Interestingly, this session was originally promoted as a face-to-face session on a Tuesday afternoon in Whangarei but we only attracted three people. By migrating it to a Zoom meeting to begin at 7.30 pm that same evening we had fourteen participants.

This session was followed by our AGM. We had fourteen attendees but still were not able to persuade any new members onto our committee nor find a chairperson. Our committee is:

· Julia Smith (NE Rep) – Kerikeri High School

Lynne Adam (Treasurer) – Maunu School

Jeannie Skinner (Secretary) – NLNZ

Dee Brooker – Whangarei Boys High School

Anne Dickson – NLNZ

Julia Smith – SLANZA NE Rep

TE WHANGANUI-A-TARA WELLINGTON

Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington

In spite of Covid-19’s effort to put a halt to every face-to-face event, SLANZA Wellington members have managed to get together very successfully, both in person and online. We have hosted a Zoom Book Club every term – the first discussing our favourite new reads, then a look at good biographies, memoirs and non-fiction, and last term a very helpful collection of books for “reluctant readers” or those kids not reading much. This term’s topic is ‘Summer Recommendations for Staff Reads’.

In June our Wellington SLANZA website was launched, as a place to find out what is happening in the region, how to RSVP for these events and a way to get to know your Wellington committee. The website also gives access to some of the PD that has been provided during the year, so will become a repository of shared knowledge for all members.

Also in June, we ran a very successful PLD day at St Patricks College ‘Creating Inclusive Libraries’, where Shannon Hennig from Inclusive Communication ran a workshop to help us understand the needs of our neurodiverse students. After a delicious lunch and some librarian networking, there was a presentation and discussion from Inside

In Term Three we held our first Shop Local Book Fair, hosted at Rāroa Intermediate including the following book shops – The Alphabet Book Club, Arty Bees, Graphic, Marsden Books, Sally Kean Books, Schrödinger’s Books and The Children’s Bookshops. What a fun night of book buying, prize winning, goody bags and general librarian book excitement. We will definitely be running another night like that!

Also in Term Three, we organised an after school PLD on ‘NonFiction: Organisation & Accessibility’ at Aotea College. We were lucky to have school librarians from all sectors who shared their experiences of adapting how they organise their non-fiction collections - Debbie Nguon from St Brigids School, Sarah Hunt from St Theresa’s School Plimmerton, Emma Kent from St Bernards College, Ellie Nicholson from St Patricks College Wellington and Kristy Wilson from Aotea College. We learnt about FrankenDeweying, changing Dewey numbers, mixing fiction and non-fiction and sorting by face-out category and much more. Videos of the presentations are available on the Wellington SLANZA website.

We look forward to celebrating having survived another messy year still standing with a Christmas party at the end of November at Wellington Girls’ College.

Wellington Committee

School Librarian Pay Equity Update 2022

CLARE FORREST – NE NZEI REPRESENTATIVE

We understand how frustrating it is to see our support staff colleagues having already reached their Pay Equity settlements with healthy pay increases and back pay, but this is where we are heading and we are very close to the finish line.

The Pay Equity claim was lodged in November 2020 by NZEI, and although ALL members of the sector will benefit from any secured settlement, it has been funded by NZEI members. Since then, a significant group of NZEI staff, NZEI members and the MOE Pay Equity team have been working very hard on this thorough process as interviewers, data analysts and legal advocates. We would also like to acknowledge the many school librarians and their leadership teams who have been interviewed, as well as the school librarians who took the time to contribute to the GARs (General Areas of Responsibility) feedback process. Your voice in the consultation and feedback has been an important part of getting this claim right.

NZEI on our behalf have entered this negotiation process in good faith with the MOE and we need to maintain this stance.

The settlement is solely reliant on both NZEI and MOE working together in good faith using the evidence that has been gathered during interviews and the GARs feedback process to formulate a matrix that accurately reflects the work our sector does. Rest assured your school librarian NZEI reps are working very hard to ensure all members of the sector are represented accurately in the Pay Equity matrix. We need your support as we work through this process.

We only have one chance to get this right.

Some information:

• This mana enhancing process builds awareness in our schools and more widely, of the importance of school libraries and the skills we have as librarians. By fixing the undervaluation we have had for years it will further add to this.

• The matrix is currently being worked on by NZEI and MOE Pay Equity teams. The matrix will define the responsibilities at each grade level.

• The comparators are from male-dominated industries where the work is similar, or is not similar but has similar demands, effort and responsibilities. They are used to compare work with the claimant group (in this case school librarians and library assistants) and are used to identify undervaluation of the claimant group.

• Pay Equity negotiation training starts in November with the understanding that the settlement negotiations will start at the beginning of December.

• The Evidence Report on the librarians’ claim is due to be out by the end of November. It will be public and you will receive notification of this.

We encourage everyone to join the union to increase our voice.

The School Librarian Pay Equity Negotiating Team

School libraries supporting the Aotearoa New Zealand’s histories curriculum

MIRIAM TUOHY AND YASHEEKA BERTRAM NATIONAL LIBRARY SERVICES TO SCHOOLS

School library staff have a key role in supporting the Aotearoa New Zealand’s histories curriculum (ANZHC), as you develop your school’s library collection, curate resources, share all these with your students and staff, and work alongside them to support research and inquiry learning.

NATIONAL LIBRARY’S PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR SCHOOL LIBRARY STAFF

Webinar: Introduction to the ANZHC

In July we hosted a webinar which was the first event in an ongoing series of professional development for school library staff, about supporting the new histories curriculum.

In the webinar, we take you through the journey for this curriculum, its content and structure, how it fits into your school’s local curriculum, and have a first look at how resources in your collection might fit with the curriculum learning progressions.

The webinar is one hour long, and you can watch the recording, read the transcript, and find all the links we shared, on our website. natlib.govt.nz/events/introduction-to-the-aotearoa-new-zealandshistories-curriculum

Great places to find digital resources

Next in our PD series we shared some great websites for locating digital resources for the ANZHC.

We’ll repeat this session in Term 1 2023, so keep an eye on our professional learning courses and events for information about how to register in the new year.

Here are our top 10 sites to check out:

1. He Tohu — New Zealand’s three founding documents – The Treaty of Waitangi, the Declaration of Independence, and the Women’s Suffrage Petition. Includes teaching and learning resources related to these documents. A Kōrero section has videos of New Zealanders talking about related issues, from women’s rights to the Treaty.

2. Tuia Mātauranga — Covers four areas: Voyaging | First encounters | Aotearoa New Zealand histories | Legacy of learning. Includes text, images, maps, timelines, and other resources to introduce 11 main topics. Curated resources including websites, apps, video, and Topic Explorer sets.

3. Topic Explorer — Curated resources (images, video, audio, articles) on topics requested often from Services to Schools’ print collection. Includes many primary sources. ( Topic Explorer guide).

4. Many Answers — Sister site to AnyQuestions. Curriculum topics covered in schools, grouped by year levels. Guides students to digital resources AND how to use them. Search for ‘New Zealand history’ and look at the Junior Secondary entry which has guides on how to find local history content.

5. Te Kupenga: Stories of Aotearoa New Zealand — Digitised stories for ANZHC from the book of the same name, with links to more resources for deeper understanding.

6. BWB books on EPIC — Use a keyword search across all the eBooks to find information quickly. Good for secondary students and teacher background knowledge.

7. Papers Past — Digitised NZ newspapers from the 19th and 20th centuries. Search by keyword, region, date, or content type. Useful content for family and local history.

8. He Meka! He Meka! — Sets of questions, images, and facts to prompt discussion about history, identity, and the future. Sets: Me, Me and my family, Me and my community, Me and my country.

9. Curiosity Cards — Digitisation of the cards sent to schools a few years ago. These enable you to access supporting information and resources. Includes PDFs of each card to download or print.

10. Digital NZ —Search 30+ million items including images, articles, audio, and video. Make a free account to create and share your own stories on DigitalNZ. (DigitalNZ guide).

TEACHING AND LEARNING RESOURCES

New primary source analysis tools

Primary sources stimulate curiosity in ākonga (students) by providing them with an immediate and personal account of people’s experiences across different time periods. When used alongside rich questions, primary sources encourage inquiry-based learning and help ākonga understand different perspectives.

Primary source analysis has been identified as a key skill in the Aotearoa New Zealand histories and social sciences curriculums. So, Services to Schools has recently developed a suite of primary source analysis tools to use in the classroom for years 1-13.

We have 3 levels of tools to support ākonga with different skills in primary source analysis:

• explore — the first step into primary source analysis to spark curiosity

• analyse — introduces key concepts, such as authorship and purpose, and identifying perspectives

• critically analyse — supports critical engagement with primary sources at a deeper level.

Check out our Tools for primary source analysis.

LEADING LOCAL CURRICULUM GUIDES

Strengthening local curriculum is at the centre of the national curriculum refresh. The Ministry of Education has developed Leading local curriculum guides to help school leaders on their journey. There are two guides about the ANZHC, and they use the Aotearoa New Zealand’s histories poutama – a staged approach to planning and implementing the curriculum in schools.

• Stage one — getting started.

• Stage two — developing understandings and relationships.

• Stage three — implementing Aotearoa New Zealand’s histories.

• Stage four — embedding and sustaining Aotearoa New Zealand’s histories.

Using the Aotearoa New Zealand’s histories poutama

Each stage of the poutama has prompts to help you find where your school or library currently is and identify next steps. To start your thinking about how your school library contributes to each stage, here are some examples and questions to consider.

In stage one, you might reflect on how your school library contributes to improving knowledge of te reo and mātauranga Māori:

New teaching and learning resources — Primacy source analysis tools — available on the Services to Schools website

• Is te reo Māori visible in your library signage, or in displays?

• Do you use Māori subject headings in your catalogue?

• Can you use some te reo Māori in your interactions with students and staff?

In stage three, you might reflect on how your school library includes national and local content that is relevant to all members of your school community:

• Are you aware what topics or units of inquiry your teaching colleagues are planning for next year?

• What resources do you have in your collection to support the planned learning, or where are the gaps?

• How might you share digital resources (such as our Top 10 above) with students, staff, parents and whānau in your school community?

MORE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT TO COME

We’ll repeat our Top 10 resources session in Term 1 2023. And throughout the year we’ll have more professional development to help you support the curriculum, including curating and sharing content, using resources in the classroom or library, developing information literacy, and advocating for your role as resourcing expert for the Aotearoa New Zealand’s histories curriculum.

To find out what professional development is available near you:

• keep an eye on our professional learning courses and events listing on our website

• contact your local Capability facilitator or call us 0800 LIBLINE.

Watch the recorded webinar — Introduction to the ANZHC — on the Services to Schools website

SUPPORTING THE NEW AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND HISTORIES CURRICULUM

This article was published in Te Rau Herenga o Aotearoa LIANZA’s Te Rau Ora Library Life Issue 493, October 2022. It explores some of the initiatives occurring over the country to assist teachers and ākonga (students) and the ways some library and heritage services are supporting these new curriculum changes.

The new Aotearoa New Zealand’s Histories Curriculum will be rolled out in schools across the country from Term 1, 2023. It establishes studying the histories of Aotearoa New Zealand as a key learning for all students in Years 1 to 10. One key element is a focus on local history and local stories. For libraries, museums, and cultural heritage organisations, this is an opportunity to connect with schools, highlighting taonga that will assist teachers to bring history to life in the classroom.

There are initiatives occurring over the country to assist teachers and ākonga (students) and the ways some library and heritage services are supporting these new curriculum changes are highlighted in this article.

Local libraries are important to this discussion as the curriculum requires students to explore their local history, and this means access to local curation sources is needed.

Samuel says, that while schools are going to be working with the new curriculum from 2023, they don’t need to embed everything straight away, but will have three years to implement it into their overall school curriculum. To support this implementation, he encourages libraries to think about a traffic light framework and take a planned approach to identify and make available collection items that could support the Aotearoa New Zealand’s histories curriculum:

Green light – look at what collection items are already easily accessible by schools, teachers and ākonga

Orange light - what relevant collection items could be digitized and made accessible relatively easily?

Red light – what useful collection items could be made more accessible but will take more effort or longer to do so?

“We’ve just started providing professional development in the history curriculum area to support library staff,” says Samuel. Part of this is unpacking the curriculum for them and what it might mean for resourcing. While focused on school librarians, this professional development is also open to public librarians.

SERVICES TO SCHOOLS AND TOPIC EXPLORER

Samuel Beyer is the Project Manager Curriculum at the National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa. He works with the Services to Schools team to support access to a range of teaching and learning resources, including Lending Service for schools, Tuia Mātauranga, Te Kupenga: Stories of Aotearoa, and Topic Explorer. Topic Explorer helps ākonga find quality, curated resources on a range of topics. Each topic features a carefully selected set of national and international resources, including websites, images, videos, books, and more.

Aotearoa New Zealand’s history has been a big focus of Service to Schools recently and the team has looked at their collections to see what resources already meet the needs of the new curriculum and where the gaps may be. They are working with other areas of the National Library, including the Alexander Turnbull collections, and also Archives New Zealand, and Ngā Taonga Sound and Vision to identify relevant collection items that could be digitized and made accessible to schools.

Samuel says that with the new curriculum there are clear indications of the key knowledge that schools will be covering. It provides a road map of how libraries can be approaching this area. “I think any local library could discuss this with their local schools and see what their resource needs are.” But he encourages taking a planned approach, working out what you have the capacity for, and working alongside others in this area such as schools, local museums, and possibly iwi.

SERVICES TO SCHOOLS - ANYQUESTIONS AND MANY ANSWERS

Another valuable resource to support the new curriculum is the AnyQuestions/Many Answers service provided by the AnyQuestions team managed by Services to Schools at National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa.

AnyQuestions is an online chat service offering help to students with their questions on weekdays from 1-6pm, supporting them develop their digital literacy skills in the process.

The Many Answers site guide inquirers to where resources are and are developed based on the questions being asked of the AnyQuestions chat service, with over 200 curated topics on the site.

Amy Jacob is responsible for managing this service and the local library partnerships that support the service. Seventeen public libraries partner with Services to Schools to run AnyQuestions and Many Answers, and SLANZA is an associate partner. There are close to 200 staff involved from Wellsford to Invercargill and all staff receive a two-day introductory training and then a yearly refresher training.

Included in Many Answers are topics related to New Zealand histories which provide a general overview of the topic. The AnyQuestions Histories Programme focuses on themes in the new curriculum and local resources.

AnyQuestions Histories Programme

The AnyQuestions Histories Programme consists of three projects that involve creating entries that introduce students to local information sources, explain how to access them, and help students develop information literacy skills, which will support them to think critically about the past – a key feature of the Aotearoa New Zealand’s histories curriculum. These entries will be published on the AnyQuestions website.

The three projects are:

Many Answers Regional Resources Project: This project involves partner libraries developing local Many Answers entries for 9 of the 10 Ministry of Education areas.

Auckland Libraries Many Answers Project: This involves the development of multiple Many Answers entries based on each of the curriculum themes to cover Tāmaki Makaurau.

SLANZA Many Answers Project: This project involves school librarians developing entries for Te Tai Tokerau. They will also be running user-testing workshops with students and conducting an impact study. This project is funded by one of the New Zealand Libraries Partnership Project (NZLPP) strategic partnership grants.

The entries will bring local collections to one site. Students can decide how they will use the information based on what they’re learning at school. “We’ve encouraged libraries to work out what relationships they already have, such as with iwi and through councils, to help develop their knowledge of information sources, especially on mātauranga Māori,” says Amy Jacob.

AUCKLAND LIBRARIES

Thanks to NZLPP funding, Auckland Libraries partnered with the Auckland History Initiative and the Services to Schools AnyQuestions team on a recent project to publish entries on the Many Answers platform. The entries link content from the Auckland Libraries’ heritage and published collections with topics covered in the curriculum in a format that makes local history content more accessible.

A subsequent project will create local history resource kits to support teachers in the delivery of curriculum topics. The work on the Many Answers content specific to the Auckland area is largely finished after a comprehensive audit of collections. A group of Many Answers operators trained by the Services to Schools team completed entries aimed at Year 7 and 8 students.

The Auckland Libraries Mātauranga Māori Unit, headed by Teri Ta’ala, are partners in this work. Erica O’Flaherty, Manager for Heritage Collections at Auckland Libraries says that conversations with the unit’s Poukōukiri Rangahau Māori are key to understanding how best to gather and select iwi-specific historical material appropriately.

“We’ve asked ourselves how we work in a way that makes sure that we meet the objectives of the project – and that we balance traditional knowledge frameworks with contemporary perspectives to develop research resources that deliver an accurate view of the Auckland context, where multiple viewpoints exist, such as the North Shore, where there is multiple Iwi with diverse historical perspectives,” says Erica. “The Mātauranga Māori unit supports how we engage in an appropriate way with Māori history and inform decisions on things that are important for this project.

“We’re doing this work alongside wider GLAMMIR sector representatives in the region and the NZ History Teachers Association. Those relationships have been useful to us to make sure we know who is doing what and that we’re supporting each other.”

Auckland Libraries also have a partnership with Auckland University and Dr Linda Bryder, from the Auckland History initiative, which supports students over the summer trimester to research aspects of Auckland history. The research topics undertaken by the students connect to Auckland Libraries’ heritage collections and build relationships with Iwi and GLAM communities.

Auckland Libraries are already getting inquiries from teachers looking for resources for next year, despite the period of three years given by the Ministry of Education to embed the resources.

SCHOOL LIBRARIES ASSOCIATION OF NEW ZEALAND AOTEAROA - SLANZA

In addition to SLANZA’s partnership with Services to Schools in Te Tai Tokerau, SLANZA is involved with two Kāhui Ako pilots in Cambridge East (Te Kāhui Ako o Te Oko Horoi) and in Nelson (Waimea Kāhui Ako). These are both website development projects that will include regional professional development (PD) opportunities. This project is also funded by an NZLPP strategic partnership grant.

“A key role for school librarians is to support curriculum learning in the classroom. School librarians are in an ideal place to find the information to help teachers on the new history curriculum,” says SLANZA President Sasha Eastwood.

“All of our SLANZA regional committees will be looking at running local PD sessions to bring all the GLAMMIR sector together, so they know about what resources are out there. We’re in an ideal position to be a bridge between schools, museums, public libraries, iwi, records, archives and marae.”

SLANZA is currently working with the Ministry of Education to look at how school librarians can be supporting the new history curriculum further.

One area where there is no pilot or partner project is in the Tairawhiti area. Services to Schools are working on how they can make sure there is no gap in the local history content in this area.

The library also coordinates the ‘Back Issues’ series of the Manawatū Standard – a weekly history-focused feature. They coordinate local writers to share different aspects of local history, with a strong visual element, and a recent focus on topics useful to local teachers in support of the new curriculum.

A pilot project led by the library called ‘My Migration Story’ is a recent addition. It matches primary school teachers with members of the local branch of the NZ Society of Genealogists with the general premise, “Can you teach other people’s migration stories if you don’t know your own?” The primary goals are to: learn how to use historical research tools and databases to determine a teacher’s own ancestors who were born in/or migrated to Aotearoa, use newly designed visual tools to help tell stories about their whānau’s migration story to and within Aotearoa, determine the location of family burial sites, and strengthen the connection to whenua and place.

In June 2022, Palmerston North City Library held an event “Ka Mua, Ka Muri”, meaning walking backward into the future, where heritage groups and historians offered resources and information to give teachers the tools to be able to teach the new curriculum. Groups included the New Zealand Rugby Museum, Te Awahou Nieuwe Stroom, the Manawatū Journal of History, and Te Pae Matauranga o Rangitāne.

Around 70 teachers from 24 schools attended. Organiser Virginia Warbrick said they recognised there were a lot of groups in the community with huge expertise in history so wanted to introduce them to teachers who may not have a history background.

Melissa Day is a teacher at Te Kura o Wairau in Palmerston North who attended the event and commented, “We’re looking at local history and this is giving us some idea of how we can go about teaching local history, instead of just the overarching New Zealand stories.”

HISTORIES

Kirsty Wyndham is the school librarian/inquiry broker at Cambridge East Primary school in the Waikato. Kirsty is part of a SLANZA pilot programme in partnership with the Te Kāhui Ako o te Oko Horoi (Cambridge Community of Learning) to enhance the role of school librarians and showcase the impact an effective school librarian can have within their school. One of the goals of the programme is to provide a kete of historical resources on Cambridge and its surrounding areas.

A prototype website has been established in collaboration with the local museum and Iwi. This will provide teachers, kaiako, librarians and learning assistants within the kāhui ako with valuable and carefully selected local primary and secondary resources to support ākonga to be critical thinkers and understand their local past.

The website is based on three local themes: Shaping of a Landscape, King Taawhaio & Kiingitanga, and Building of a Town. More themes will be added over time. There are also links to historical information on local schools in the area.

The website provides multi-media links to podcasts, videos, paintings, images, biographies, and books covering local and national primary and secondary resources. These resources are all linked to Aotearoa

Rangitāne historian Warren Warbrick talks with Annabeth Evans from Te Kura O Takaro about Rangitane history and culture and Palmerston North’s bicultural beginnings. Credit: David Unwin Stuff

KA MUA KA MURI - PALMERSTON NORTH CITY LIBRARY

TE KĀHUI AKO O TE OKO HOROI - INVESTIGATING

New Zealand’s histories and based on: Understand (big ideas), Know (contexts) and Do (inquiry practices). Teachers have access via a link to well-known resources from Digital NZ, EPIC, Papers Past, National Library, and Te Ara Encyclopaedia of New Zealand.

It is the beginning of a model and a journey where all parties involved can explore, discuss and debate together.

“We’re working hard to improve access to our Māori resources, by ensuring pathways to this knowledge are informed by a Māori worldview. We are at the early stages of engaging with users to identify barriers to access. It has been a confronting, but a hugely necessary, first step in what we know will be an ongoing journey.”

Aural as well as written content on the site is informed by eight values: identity, diligence, relationships, innovation, wellbeing, scholarship, humility and values. “These are the values that guide Te Arawa learners,” says Abigail. Ultimately the GTAS content will be migrated to a new site.

One of the things we’ve learned is that teachers value having pathways into information based on the curriculum, so we’re keeping the values and timelines but looking at how we can incorporate the structure of the curriculum as another pathway into those stories on the new site.” There will also be downloadable resources that teachers can use to support the stories on the site. During one feedback session, a teacher explained how they had been searching for a resource like this for years: high-quality narratives from a trusted local source.

Pathfinder handouts have been developed for different ages on the local history books available and the library is one of the partner libraries supporting the Many Answers regional project by providing links to Te Arawa and Rotorua history.

“The hardest thing to do was to limit the resources we included as there’s so much, we could have included,” says Abigail. The framework and training provided by the Many Answers project were very helpful in doing this.

TE ARAWA STORIES - TE AKA MAURI ROTORUA LIBRARY

Te Aka Mauri’s focus has been on providing an engaging website as a resource to tell local stories and history. “You’re telling the stories of local iwi so our relationship with them is important – iwi are already partners in this information, and we work with a Mātauranga Māori advisor on this,” says Abigail Wharne Heritage and Research lead at Te Aka Mauri.

Te Aka Mauri is the custodian of the Great Te Arawa Stories (GTAS) website. GTAS contains a collection of stories about people, places, and events that are applicable to Rotorua and to the people of Te Arawa. It was developed by Ngā Pūmanawa e Waru Education Trust to introduce learners to Te Arawa stories, encourage user education skills, support inquiry learning, and inspire the exploration of existing resources.

MORE RESOURCES:

NZ History Teachers Association: History curriculum content, view this link

Image from the GTAS website

SLANZA/ARANZ Workshop: Digitisation for the Future

BEV HARRISON - LINDISFARNE COLLEGE

Librarians and archivists share many of the same interests and concerns; in many libraries one person may perform both functions, so a meeting of SLANZA Central members and ARANZ (Archives and Records Association of New Zealand) presenters seemed like the perfect symbiosis.

Certainly, for the 25 librarians and archivists attending the workshop in Fielding on 24th September, there was a great sense of connection between the two professions, and an awareness of the benefit of working together to address the challenge of digitisation in our libraries.

Digitisation is a valuable tool in improving access to local history resources and is an important way that libraries can assist with the new history curriculum.

In the afternoon, we took a tour of Archives Central which included demonstrations of some of the specialised equipment. The tour gave everyone a fascinating insight into the process of digitisation and the issues around storage of the original material. There is a wealth of information in the Archives and it is of particular value in researching the history of smaller communities.

The attendees at the workshop came from a wide range of backgrounds, so one of the highlights of the day was the valuable networking opportunity. Those who are starting out on their archiving journey were able to learn a great deal from those already immersed in the process and were made aware of some of the potential pitfalls of the process.

Hosted by Central Senior Archivist and ARANZ President, Evan Greensides, presentations were a mix of live and Zoom sessions which covered a wide range of topics, including the technical and practical issues of digitisation and its value for isolated rural communities.

A huge vote of thanks must go to Andy Fenton from New Zealand Micrographic Services; Maja Krtalić from Victoria University of Wellington; Eric Boamah, Senior Lecturer at the Open Polytechnic of New Zealand; Helen Cahill from Massey University Library; and Anna Henry and Mark Beatty from Alexander Turnbull Library for taking time out of their busy schedules to share their expertise. These specialists are at the forefront of the information management sector in New Zealand.

Eric Boamah spoke to the participants about his ongoing research into the role of school archivists in New Zealand. He made us particularly aware of the ongoing issues of underfunding and isolation facing many archivists and that it is well known issue in the library sector as well. Eric is interested in interviewing more school archivists for his research. If you are interested in contributing to his research, please contact one of the SLANZA Central committee members.

SLANZA member Bev Harrison commented, “It was really interesting to find out what other people have done with their archives and to have the benefit of best practise examples from experts in the field. One of the real benefits of digitisation is to make resources readily available to communities”.

Thank you to Sasha Eastwood-Bennit and Evan Greensides for doing a lot of the groundwork needed to get this event off the ground and to the Central committee, especially Suzette Stephens, for all her work and excellent baking. Hopefully collaborations like this will be more frequent in the future.

Bev Harrison, Lindisfarne College

SLANZA - Waimea Kahui Ako pilot project

MANDY DITZEL - GARIN COLLEGE, NELSON

THE PROJECT

In 2021 SLANZA was awarded funding to trial two pilot programs that implant a school librarian into an existing Community of Learning.

Waimea Kāhui Ako is one of the selected Communities of Learning, and our pilot started in September 2021.

There are three major goals for this pilot to trial:

1. A Professional Learning Group (PLG) to be formed consisting of either the School Librarian, a Teacher in Charge of the Library, a Teacher Aide with hours allocated to the library, or a volunteer who oversees the school library. This PLG will meet twice a year for a full day to give guidance, advice, networking, and support. It will also focus on targeted professional learning to enhance the school libraries capabilities, professionalism, and relevance within the school community.

2. Working with the schools and established groups (as well as the local museum, the public libraries and our local history holders etc.) to help collate and digitize material that pertains to Waimea Local History in order to provide the resources required by teaching staff into a “Local History Kete” thus ensuring there is a one stop place to access each other’s archives, stories, and resources.

3. Working with an Inquiry learning team to share the knowledge gained from coordinating the gathering of information for the kete, and showcasing the skills of a school librarian to teaching staff.

WHAT HAS HAPPENED SO FAR

Professional Learning Group

The PLG group met in November 2021 at the local public library. This was the first time some of us had met each other, and due to a few issues, only seven of the 12 schools in our Kāhui Ako were represented. This day was called ‘Libraries 101’. We heard via Zoom from Glenys Bichan, immediate past-President SLANZA, about why school libraries matter, and how they transform. This was a valuable way to get people thinking and talking about barriers and solutions. This led to a discussion that took the remainder of the day, including over lunch, as we talked about the issues facing our local school libraries.

The intention was to follow up on this introduction in Term 1 of 2022 with a day touring around all our libraries, however all local schools closed to visitors in Term 1 due to the increasing risk of Covid-19 in the community, so this was delayed until Term 4. Planning is underway for this day as I write.

This has been a frustrating start to this aspect of the project, however we are optimistic that we will be able to build on our scheduled tour this term and meet again in the new year. Since we last met, two of the rural primary schools have agreed to move to Full Primary (catering for years 7 & 8) in a couple of years’ time, so they are looking at how this will impact their library space and resourcing. Another has agreed to move to a new purpose-built school in a new subdivision, so we will be helping them advocate for a stunning library space!

Local History Kete

This has been a major learning curve! Not only getting my head around the new Aotearoa New Zealand History curriculum, but also creating a site to be our ‘kete’. I started by gathering any resources that sounded like they might be useful into a Wakelet, which is a very visual way to present curated sites, however it was quickly apparent that we would need a website that would allow us to create multiple pages for different areas.

Inspired by Kirsty in Cambridge and her amazing google site, and after asking our local History Inquiry team for their feedback about what they saw as the priorities with a site, I created a site for our Kāhui Ako:

https://sites.google.com/cloud.garincollege.ac.nz/waimea-kahui-akolocal-history/home

Rather than wait until the site was ‘finished’, I decided to publish it once we had some useful content for staff, as requested by them. This site is being populated with new resources as I become aware of them.

It is designed to be simple for students and staff at schools at all levels to use, again as requested. At the time of writing, the student pages are unpopulated, however the Inquiry team is meeting next week with the intention of adding resources. There is ongoing discussion about how our kura will cover history topics without students repeating them at every schooling level!

The next step is to add links to our local Iwi resources – Te Tau Ihu (Top of the South) has eight local iwi. They led a symposium a few days ago which included the release of new resources, which is very exciting, some of which are online and others in print.

CHALLENGES AND TRIUMPHS

The biggest and most obvious challenge to this project has been the ongoing pandemic. This year, while without the lockdowns of the two previous years, has seen major disruptions to school life as the virus went through our communities, and the ongoing Covid-19 fatigue has also held things back – everyone is cautious to schedule events that might have to be cancelled, and just plain fatigued from the constant changes to our lives! Momentum is hard in these times, both to build and then maintain.

One of my personal highlights thus far has been hearing from a staff member at a Kāhui Ako school. They have not been using their library for the past three years, as it has been required for a classroom due to roll growth. She has recently been approached to take on running the library (they had hoped from 2022 but now 2023). She has no experience but is very keen to do this, hence coming to our initial PLG. She said at the conclusion that if she had been offered this role a year ago she wouldn’t have wanted to do it because her lack of experience means she will be starting from scratch, but because of our PLG she knows that she will get the support she needs. This was a huge encouragement.

I might add here that the biggest takeaway for me personally from this pilot program is that if you are the sole charge library manager and already busy in your job, it’s very hard to add an extra job and do it justice. I keep reminding myself that this is a PILOT program, which means you work out what works and what doesn’t, and then add a big dollop of grace for Covid-19!

AOTEAROA HISTORIES - HOW ARE YOU PLANNING FOR THE NZ HISTORIES CURRICULUM?

KIRSTY WYNDHAM - CAMBRIDGE EAST PRIMARY SCHOOL

Kia Ora, my name is Kirsty Wyndham, I am the Librarian/Inquiry Broker at Cambridge East Primary School, 20 minutes south of Hamilton in the Waikato.

When I was asked to be part of a pilot programme developed by SLANZA in partnership with a Kāhui Ako/Community of Learning, I was excited take on the role of the CoL (Communities of Learning) School Librarian and the opportunity to play an active part in our local Te Kāhui Ako o Te Oko Horoi.

The name Te Oko Horoi is taken from King Tāwhiao’s description of the town, particularly Lake Te Koo Utu where King Tāwhiao and

The website is based on three local themes: Shaping of a Landscape, King Tāwhaio & Kīngitanga, and Building of a Town. More themes will be added over time.

It was also important to have a link on the website that provides historical information on our local schools, kura and ECE centres within Cambridge. For the remainder of the project, I am hoping to establish an inter-loan system so that our school communities can share their archives with each other, this will connect with the element KNOW and rohe, and local contexts in the New Zealand’s histories curriculum. This will mean students’ learning will be authentic, deep and meaningful.

The website provides multi-media links to secondary sources such as podcasts, videos, paintings, images, biographies and books. These resources are all linked and are connected to the Aotearoa New Zealand’s histories Understand (big ideas), Know (contexts) and Do

resources about Cambridge (Kemureti) and its surrounding areas. My passion lies in research, and teaching children Information Literacy skills, so I saw this as an exciting opportunity to develop a website of local history for teachers, kaiako, librarians and learning assistants to use to support the delivery of the Aotearoa New Zealand History Curriculum in 2023.

For the past year, I have been in collaboration and partnership with Cambridge Museum, as well as seeking guidance and advice from our local iwi, Ngāti Koroki Kahukura, on Cambridge (Kemureti) history. We all agreed that with collaboration and partnership this would be the beginning of a journey where all parties involved can explore, discuss and debate together. The overall outcome is to get everyone’s perspectives and provide carefully selected primary and secondary resources, which will support ākonga to be critical thinkers and understand our local past.

Inquiry wondering cards have been created to guide teachers when immersing students in Cambridge’s local stories. “I wonder” is the name used to describe the individual questions that students ask about their learning. When students are immersed in a learning activity, they are beginning to make connections and start asking: ‘How’, ‘What’, ‘Why’, ‘Who’, or ‘I am wondering why’.

As I reflect on the journey so far, I feel I have been able to provide an invaluable resource, not just for our schools/kura, but for all in Cambridge. Along the way I have developed long lasting relationships and friendships, and have heard some wonderful stories of interactions across time which are connecting people and places.

Kirsty Wyndham, Librarian/Inquiry Broker, Cambridge East Primary School

SUPPORTING DEEP AND VALUABLE INQUIRY THROUGH THE SCHOOL LIBRARY

ESTHER CASEY - SYLVIA PARK SCHOOL

We’ve been looking forward to the Aotearoa New Zealand Histories Curriculum for years at our full primary school. It puts greater emphasis on our stories and the matauranga that is most relevant to our tamariki and whānau combined with a framework that ensures learning is deep and valuable.

Te Puna Ngoi, our school library, supports inquiry learning in all three areas of the ‘Understand, Know, Do’ structure.

UNDERSTAND

Every inquiry at Sylvia Park School has a big statement or question, this is the concept or main idea that we intend ākonga to explore and understand. It is relevant to them and we try to phrase it in a way that a child would say it.

A recent history focused example is “Aotearoa: Our Story. Nau mai, haere mai!” where we looked at the history of Aotearoa from the dinosaurs through to the arrival of the first Europeans. While planning this inquiry, we wanted ākonga to understand the concepts of tangata whenua and manuhiri, the way we welcome people to our school, our communities and our country and the impact of new people on the environment.

Another example is from 2015 where our Term 1 inquiry was “Keep calm and carry on. How can we deal with conflict?” and we learned about dealing with conflict in our own lives through the context of the First World War.

In Te Puna Ngoi, one of the ways we have been able to support these big ideas is through making age appropriate stories accessible. There are so many great fiction stories about welcoming people, or dealing with conflict, that it is easy to make sure that ākonga of all ages can explore the deeper concepts and through skillful conversations, we can help to connect them with the historical context that they are learning about. We are also lucky to have lots of beautiful picture books and fiction in Aotearoa that place human stories into exactly the places and times in history and that makes it really easy.

Having a good understanding of the books in our collection, and useful notes in the catalogue, ensures that we can support students and teachers with just the right story to connect the big understandings with the students’ needs at the time.

KNOW

There is always extensive content knowledge with every inquiry, especially so with history where we want ākonga to learn about

people, places and events, and the different perspectives on these.

In Te Puna Ngoi, we try to curate quality, reliable content that presents the information we need our students to know in a way that is easily accessible for them. These information sources may include books, websites, videos and people. Using National Library loans to support inquiry has always been a way we can ensure that we have plenty of material. We have also created a great DigitalNZ story about our local area. At the beginning of a new inquiry, teachers are invited to select the books that they will need and useful digital content is added to the inquiry planning documents. As the inquiry progresses, books and digital content are on display in Te Puna Ngoi for everyone to see when they come for their weekly lessons. The weekly lessons are an opportunity for me to show students useful content at that point in the class’s learning which is informed by shared planning and student interest.

DO

When we study history there are lots of things that we do. These need to be taught explicitly and scaffolded as ākonga become more independent in their learning. The school library is the perfect place to ensure consistency across these skills and practices.

In Te Puna Ngoi, we use a framework that outlines research skills such as finding and evaluating information, taking notes and actively seeking out different perspectives at different levels of the school. Short lessons in the library build on these skills and ensure that the language and tools that we use are consistent year after year. Teachers have access to the resources we use in the library and can apply them with their classes as they research independently. Other history specific skills, like creating timelines, are integrated into learning, and templates are available alongside other inquiry resources in displays and online.

I think school libraries have a huge role to play in making the Aotearoa New Zealand Histories Curriculum come to life in schools. At our school, we are making sure we have a wide selection of relevant resources, especially anything local, as well as including fiction that helps ākonga to connect with the big ideas. We curate these resources and promote their use. We identify and teach the skills and practices of inquiry research in the library so that they are consistent across the year levels and all ākonga know where and how to understand perspectives, and access information and the tools they need.

Esther Casey, Sylvia Park School

NZ HISTORIES CURRICULUM ONE LIBRARIAN’S JOURNEY

SARAH SEMPLE - PLIMMERTON SCHOOL

There are two teachers who have responsibility for rolling out the ANZHC at our primary school. They are currently working their way through what this will mean.

INSIGHTS

• Schools have been given a lot of autonomy to figure out what the curriculum means for their school and how they will implement it

• There is very little published local material available for the area that we live in

• Local librarians should work together (and share their catalogues) since many school libraries have similar books and the challenge is identifying them. For example, other libraries could access our school catalogue externally and type in ANZHC to bring up our resources.

STRATEGY

• Identify all books in the library that have NZ historical content. This is a long but useful process as I am also weeding at the same time, although clearly not weeding any ANZHC books

• Update the catalogue entries for these books – add the tags “Aotearoa NZ History Curriculum” and “ANZHC” to all relevant books

• Add a unique sticker to the front of the book

• Update catalogue information with a summary of the book (if missing), key words, book cover (if missing) etc

• Update the spreadsheet with the book details

SPREADSHEET SAMPLE

• Add web site links to the catalogue that have good quality, child-friendly Aotearoa History

• Purchase a browser bin (in next year’s budget, but not approved yet) and move all relevant/flagged books into the one location

• Work with the lead teachers to identify the gaps, and how to fill them

CHALLENGES

• There are a surprising number of books that could be of interest, but the process of locating them is time-consuming. I do a little each day. We currently have 259 books/websites flagged.

• Trying to understand what the actual focus will be for next year and whether the curriculum focus is likely to change each year, which is why I am taking a global approach and attempting to identify each book that contains NZ history or is relevant historical fiction

• We don’t have any relevant junior fiction books (chapter books aimed at Year 2, 3 and 4) that I have located so far

• Finding local content

• Making sure that the teachers use the catalogue (and/or spreadsheet if easier) and utilise the wonderful resources that our library has.

PROGRESS

•

Picture Books and Sophisticated Picture Books have been completed. I have nearly completed Middle Fiction and have started working on Non-Fiction. I hope to finish this process by the end of this year.

• I have catalogued all episodes of the NZ on Air “The Aotearoa History Show”

All suggestions for improvement are welcome.

Sarah Semple, Librarian, Plimmerton School

ORGANISING NON-FICTION COLLECTIONS TO EMBRACE

TE TAKANGA O TE WA, THE AOTEAROA NZ HISTORIES CURRICULUM

JULIA SMITH - KERIKERI HIGH SCHOOL

In all the excitement and anticipation of Te Takanga o Te Wā, the Aotearoa NZ histories curriculum going live next year, I wondered how school librarians are organising non-fiction collections to embrace the new curriculum.

You may be learning about the content, assessing the resources you have already, and collating and collecting more non-fiction to add to your collection. That’s great. What we also need to consider is how we organise those books on the shelves to best support our ākonga and kaiako. It seems like the perfect opportunity to reassess and reorganise our non-fiction collection in a student-friendly, stafffriendly organisational model.

Our students are learning new vocabulary. Although many of the words are already integrated in the social studies curriculum, in the histories curriculum the focus is very much on the history of these issues. It is that vocabulary, those keywords and topics that the students will learn about in the classroom that we need to replicate on our history shelves to ensure easy access.

We are a Year 7-13 high school. After extensive discussions of the curriculum with our History Head of Department, I have chosen the following topics for our Aotearoa history section of the library:

• Hekenga | Migration

• Whakapapa me te Whanaungatanga | Culture and Identity

• Tino Rangatiratanga me te Kāwanatanga | Government and Organisation

• Ngā Pakanga o Aotearoa | The New Zealand Wars

• Whakapuakitanga o Mana | Expressions of Mana

• Tangata nō Moananui-a-Kiwa | Pacific Peoples

• Ngā Pakanga o te Ao | International Conflicts

• Tūrangawaewae me te Kaitiakitanga | Place and Environment

• Kōwhiringa Ohaoha me te Whai Oranga | Economic Activity

• Hītori o Te Tai Tokerau | Northland History

In our library, the keywords and topics we have chosen are used as shelf-dividers to define and promote the learning topics. The shelf-dividers are clearly labelled and sit at the front of each topic section. These topics are searchable on the catalogue in both Māori and English, and each book within that topic has the same three-digit code. Alongside this topic will be at least one face-out book on display, hopefully, more.

Our history collection has already been sorted within these topics so it is easy to see gaps in our resources, for example, we have only one book on The Declaration of Independence. Obviously, I will attempt to locate more books on this, but I will also ensure that a couple of the general Aotearoa NZ history books with significant content on The Declaration will be included on this shelf. Importantly, it is a flexible model, in that, we will adapt our topics in response to our students’ needs. We may find it would be more helpful to ākonga to separate out the Ngā Pakanga o te Ao | International Conflicts, into the different wars. We will see how the collection develops and the students’ ability to easily locate the books, and adapt as needed.

I have chosen this system of organisation throughout our non-fiction as it is easiest for the students and staff. It minimises barriers as we know that not all students can use the catalogue, or actually locate the resources that the catalogue directs them to. This system empowers our students to be independently successful, it gives them confidence, especially those who want to browse. It is a student-friendly model, browsable, flexible, and aligned to the curriculum, in that the keywords and topics the students are learning in the classroom are the same as the topics on the library shelves. Clear signage is an important component to providing an accessible and independently navigable collection for our students.

Many primary schools are already arranging their non-fiction collections by topics in bins and boxes, with forward-facing books for the students to flick through. Signage can be images and/or words. If you wanted to further this organisational model to include the history curriculum, discuss subject content with teachers and the Head of Department of those subjects. Communication and collaboration are the key to staff understanding, trusting, and therefore, utilising the collection.

Looking through the document, this is my overview of topics for the junior levels:

Students in Years 1-3 will be learning about tangata whenua, Māori place names, mythology, Māori origins and stories, Waitangi Day, local history, immigration and settlements.

Ākongi in Years 4-6 will be covering topics that include immigration, international conflicts, Te Tiriti o Waitangi | The Treaty of Waitangi, Government policies, Māori tools and technologies, Māori land development, early European settlers, resources and trade.

These lists may be useful in helping you provide a shelving model that is student-friendly. I don’t purport to be an expert on the histories curriculum, I am a school librarian who wants our students to engage with non-fiction resources, and am dedicated to providing our school library with a flexible, curriculum-aligned, browsable, student-friendly organisational system that gives our ākongi, as well as our kaiako, the best chance of locating and utilising our nonfiction books.

How are you organising your non-fiction collection to embrace te Takanga o te Wā?

Julia Smith, Librarian, Kerikeri High School

U n l o c k 3 m i l l i o n i m a g e s f o r e d u c a t i o n

.

6 5 o f t h e w o r l d ’ s l e a d i n g i m a g e l i b r a r i e s , c u r a t e d i n t o o n e s a f e d a t a b a s e f o r e d u c a t i o n . S u p p o r t t e a c h i n g , l e a r n i n g a n d c o n t e n t c r e a t i o n w i t h t h e b e s t a n d b r o a d e s t o f f e r i n g o f r i g h t s c l e a r e d , c u r r i c u l u m r e l e v a n t i m a g e s f r o m a r o u n d t h e w o r l d

F o r m o r e i n f o r m a t i o n : e l e a r n e b c o m / b r i t a n n i c a i m a g e q u e s t

T e r m s a n d C o n d i t i o n s a p p l y C o n t a c t u s f o r d e t a i l s

V i s i t e l e a r n e b c o m / b r i t a n n i c a i m a g e q

e w Z e a l a n d s c h o o l s c a n s u b s c r i b e n o w f o r 2 0 2 3 a n d e n j o y t h e r e s t o f t h e 2 0 2 2 s c h o o l y e a r f r e e ! *

History for Schools

Bridget Williams Books (BWB) o ers a range of resources to support the new Aotearoa New Zealand history curriculum in 2023. Through our Books in School Libraries programme, digital BWB Collections and BWB Talks Online, New Zealand schools can access historical narratives that connect vividly to key themes in the curriculum. All freely available to teachers and students!

From

BWB Collections

Access scholarship from Aotearoa’s leading historians anywhere, any time and on any device through the digital BWB Collections. Highlights include:

• A rich source of Māori history, including the award-winning Tangata Whenua narratives

• Hundreds of ebooks from across BWB’s acclaimed New Zealand history publishing

• Short, illustrated Stories from Tangata Whenua perfect for use in the classroom!

Free to all teachers and students online through EPIC (www.natlib.govt.nz/librarians/epic).

The New Zealand History Collection

Access award-winning New Zealand history and biography anywhere, anytime and on any device.

One authoritative resource of life on these islands, from earliest beginnings to present day.

Managing Time in a Digital World

ZWIMPFER MNZM – DIGITAL INCLUSION ALLIANCE AOTEAROA

When I originally prepared this column, it was on the eve of Techweek22: Connect for a Better Tomorrow1. Techweek22 was held from 16 – 22 May. It is now far too late to join in, or is it? Digital time is different to regular time – the almost infinite storage capacity of the internet means we can engage with events whenever we like. Who watches TV in real time these days? Who waits for the next weekly episode of a TV series when you can binge watch the whole series with On Demand streaming? Who joins a Zoom webinar in real time when you can watch the recording whenever it suits?

The big challenge with Techweek and other real-time events is that there are so many other things that get in the way. And if anything, Covid-19 has taught us to treat time as a very precious commodity.

I wonder if you have ever read Tanya Batt’s book The Time of Your Life. I have a grandson called Ben (7), and as this is a book about Ben struggling to understand how he can get some more time, I bought it recently from the Children’s Bookshop in Kilbirnie2. Ben likes to know how things work and while Tanya’s book doesn’t try and compete with Einstein, it does raise some interesting questions about how to get more time. In my view this is recommended reading for all 7-year-olds, their parents, teachers, and all significant others.

The other thing that drew me to this book is the illustrator – Bruce Potter from Alexandra. Google ‘Bruce Potter’ and you will discover one very talented person. So impressed were we, that we commissioned Bruce to write and illustrate a book about DORA, our mobile learning centre. DORA The Bus Goes Round and Round was launched in Alexandra in March 2022, and yes, it is also available from the Children’s Bookshop in Kilbirnie. But as I am always interested in whether anyone ever reads my articles, the first five school librarians to email me (laurence@diaa.nz) will receive a complimentary copy.

Which brings me back to Techweek22. Our focus for the week, as it is for every other week of the year, is on people who are missing out in the digital world. People who are digitally excluded tend not to be centre stage when it comes to technology, but this year’s Techweek acknowledged that digital inclusion is a priority, as does the Government’s recently released Digital Strategy for Aotearoa3, for that matter. A big focus for our Alliance and some of our partners during Techweek22 was on seniors (who are now referred to as older people). The Digital Inclusion Blueprint4 identified older people as a group that is more digitally challenged than other adults. Many older people are fortunate to have children and grandchildren who can help them navigate the digital world; others do not and rely on support from public librarians and local community organisations.

Now this shouldn’t be too difficult a nut to crack. According to the 2018 Census 15.2% of our population are seniors (65+), that’s just over 715,000. 17% of our population are youth, aged 12 to 24, around 800,000. This suggests there is at least one ‘digital native’ youth for every senior. It’s that simple – connect every senior with one youth and we achieve digital equity (at least for seniors)!

My challenge to school librarians is to accelerate this outcome by helping equip young people to support older people and share their digital knowledge and skills.

And if anyone is left wondering about where Bruce Potter fits into all this, google Penny the Prolific Pooing Cow. Or better still - invite Bruce to visit your school with his one-person digital art performance, you and your students will be amazed.

REFERENCES

1 Techweek22 https://techweek.co.nz/

2 The Children’s Bookshop, https://www.thechildrensbookshop.co.nz/

3 NZ Government, The Digital Strategy for Aotearoa, September 2022 https://www.digital.govt.nz/digital-government/strategy/digital-strategy-for-aotearoa-and-action-plan/

4 NZ Government, The Digital Inclusion Blueprint, March 2019 https://www.digital.govt.nz/assets/Documents/113Digital-Inclusion-BlueprintTe-Mahere-mo-te-Whakaurunga-Matihiko. pdf

LAURENCE

Business Members

MARTIN DREW – ETV

Schools, kura and early learning services have access to a huge selection of video resources including thousands of NZ History programmes, many of which are accessible at no cost in ETV’s free library. Many more are available to schools that subscribe to ETV, and a free three-month trial is readily available on demand.

Teachers at Hobsonville Point Secondary School in West Auckland have enjoyed access to ETV’s eclectic range of video resources for many years. Principal Maurie Abraham says ETV is an excellent resource for teachers and a useful tool in the classroom.

“It has a particular focus on New Zealand-based content, which makes it relevant across all curriculum areas, and it provides teachers with a range of content that you can’t find elsewhere.”

Maurie also values the interactive elements that allow teachers to insert their own annotations to any video.

At Forest View High School in Tokoroa, English and Social Sciences teacher, Rachel Toy appreciates having the resources categorised by age level and subject.

“I love the way nothing is limited; if I want a particular documentary or programme from TV to be recorded, I can request it.”

For 12 years ETV has captured and catalogued over 150,000 programmes from New Zealand free-to-air channels, Sky TV, some overseas channels, and legitimate internet channels. As noted by Rachel, teachers can add to the catalogue by asking ETV to capture any upcoming programme simply by clicking the Request Recording button that appears on every page. The programme will be captured, catalogued and uploaded to ETV making it permanently available for all teachers to use.

SUPPORTING TEACHING AND LEARNING.

From early learning right through to tertiary education, there is a wide range of relevant content available to cover all curriculum learning areas for every age group. Navigating the website is straightforward, with resources categorised by subject and age level.

Teachers will find ETV’s resources useful to support curriculum content for Aotearoa New Zealand’s histories. There is also a wide range of resources available in the free Library at no cost, uploaded from contributors such as Archives NZ, which has placed over 300 videos of historical value.

ETV resources align with flexible learning. The Covid-19 lockdowns emphasised the importance of making learning resources accessible to students for anywhere, anytime learning. ETV is internet based, so learning and engagement can happen either in the classroom, in your school library or at home.

MAKING LEARNING COME ALIVE

Teachers can manage the resources with the tools provided by ETV. For example, by using Enhanced Video Annotation (EVA), teachers can turn any video into an enriched interactive experience with 17 different types of annotation and interactive tools that pop up while the learner watches the video.

Today’s digital natives (and especially reluctant students) will readily engage with video. This is because audio visual content utilises sight, sound, colour and movement which inspires deeper learning, better retention and reinforced motivation.

HOW TO ACCESS ETV RESOURCES

ETV is the largest online video library for educators in New Zealand with over 150,000 videos in the subscription catalogue and a huge selection of resources in the free Library.

In order to access all the free library resources, teachers need to register on ETV, as it is not a public platform. Registration is easy, simply visit www.etv.nz and click the First Time User Registration button.

Using the free library and video annotation tools incurs no cost to schools, nor any obligation to use the subscription resources.

If your school would like to access ETV’s full subscription catalogue beyond what the library has to offer, a free three-month trial is available by visiting www.etv.nz and completing the enquiry form, or by contacting

Martin Drew, General Manager. martin.drew@etv.org.nz 0800 438 388

Business Members

The 2023 implementation of Te Takanga o Te Wā and Aotearoa New Zealand’s histories curriculum will be an immensely exciting time for all New Zealand educators. It is a truly wonderful development in the way that history is both conceptualised and taught in schools.

With such a large, overarching change, there will be many smaller adjustments needed in school libraries to make sure that new resources are organised so as to support the structure and values of the new curriculum.

What do we mean by this slightly cryptic statement? Simply this: when changing the language and structure of the way history is spoken about, you must also shift the labels your resources carry, so that these labels accurately reflect the language and values that will be used for teaching in the future. The catalogue records in your school library are one such example of how this statement can be applied at a practical level in your school.

WHY CATALOGUE RECORDS?

For centuries, catalogue records have been an integral part of resource classification and identification in libraries. They enable those looking for information to use subject headings to efficiently find the resources most relevant to them, as well as like resources. Traditionally, catalogue records have been kept on cards. However, in recent decades a quiet revolution has digitised catalogue records and, in the process, made them even more essential to the search for information in a library.

Think about it. When your students enter your library looking for resources, many will often head straight to a computer and search for what they want before even glancing at the shelves. Understandably, students these days are often more familiar with a digital search field than they are with the browsing book shelves. The subject headings and labels applied to resources will often directly dictate the number and relevance of resources that a search returns.

Therefore, using up-to-date, accurate headings and tags consistently across all resources that fall under a category is crucial to your students finding what they’re looking for. If the language and conceptualisation of history moves forward, it’s also important that the resources relevant to the new curriculum are correctly identified in your catalogue records for students through the language they will be using to search for them.

HOW CAN I MAKE IT EASY FOR STUDENTS TO FIND RELEVANT RESOURCES?

It all starts with a good base. If you have been using consistent classifications in your records over time, then making sure your history resources are searchable in your catalogue will already be relatively straightforward. If you’re wondering how you can find out whether these things are consistent, you can look at where you’re sourcing your records from to start to establish this.

At the Schools Catalogue Information Service (SCIS), we’ve been incorporating Māori-specific and New Zealand–specific headings into our records for 20 years in order to ensure that our subject headings meet the needs of New Zealand schools.

More than 40% of schools in New Zealand subscribe to SCIS, and we’ve worked with schools for decades to ensure that our subject headings provide a strong base from which history resources can be easily searchable for schools.

How your library catalogue records can help you prepare for Te Takanga o Te Wa and Aotearoa New Zealand’s histories.

Business Members

A list of our current Māori and New Zealand history headings is below:

• Māori – History

• Māori – History – To 1642

• Māori – History – 1642-1840

• Māori – History – 1840-1907

• Māori – History – 1907-

• New Zealand – History

• New Zealand – History – To 1642

• New Zealand – History – 1642-1840

• New Zealand – History – 1840-1907

• New Zealand – History – 1907-1945

• New Zealand – History – 1945-1999

• New Zealand – History – 1999-

• New Zealand – History – 19th century

• New Zealand – History – 20th century

• New Zealand – History – 21st century

CAN I USE THESE HEADINGS TO HELP STUDENTS SEARCH WITH TERMS AND PHRASES USED IN THE NEW CURRICULUM?

These headings provide a solid grounding from which you can tag your resources with additional search terms that help students find them as they adopt words and phrases from the new curriculum. If you consistently apply any new terms to resources that already have consistent subject headings, you’ll find that students will quickly find them with the custom search terms you have added.

Preparing your catalogue records in this way will help your school community assimilate to the new curriculum, as they will be able to apply and practise new language terms as way of searching for educational resources.

HOW CAN I UNDERSTAND MORE ABOUT HOW TO OPTIMISE MY SCIS CATALOGUE RECORDS?

If you are a SCIS subscriber, we provide customer service from 9:00am to 5:00pm AEDT Monday to Friday. Our team of dedicated and experienced cataloguers are available to help you with any cataloguing queries. Simply email us at help@scisdata.com or call us on our toll-free New Zealand number 0800473565 within AEDT business hours.

If you want to understand more about catalogue records and how they work so that you can further customise yours, you can attend one of our professional learning webinars. These run each term and are live, so you can ask questions as we show you how to navigate the fundamentals of cataloguing.

New curriculum teacher notes

The House that Jack Built by Gavin Bishop

New teacher notes for The House that Jack Built tailored to the new Aotearoa New Zealand Histories Curriculum are available at this link or on the Gecko Press website.

These detailed and carefully researched teacher notes written by Defyd Williams – part of the Ministry of Education reference group for the new curriculum – are perfect for teachers of Years 3–10.

Author Gavin Bishop answered some questions about the book below, which has been used to teach the history of colonialism for many years in both Aotearoa and the United Kingdom.

NZ Post Book of the Year

Notable Book of the Year

Award for Best Use of Illustration in a New Zealand Book

“Gets better with each rereading.” The Listener “There is pleasure to be found at many levels in this splendid book.” Magpies

What is The House that Jack Built about?

It is the story of the British colonisation of Aotearoa / New Zealand. I used old English nursery rhyme to give the book a structure and an English point of view.

Why did you choose this poem?

I can’t remember, but I think it was because it introduces many things that were were new to this country. Creatures such as cows, cats, dogs etc. had a big impact on the natural world of Aotearoa.

What does this book tell us about Aotearoa New Zealand’s bicultural history?

My book is about the impact of a foreign civilisation on a totally foreign society. Many useful things were introduced from Europe that improved life for the tangata whenua but on the whole the loss of life, land, language and mana was devastating.

What is the significance of weaving the different narratives of Jack and the Māori legends together throughout the book?

I wanted to contrast the strict English repetitive structure of the rhyme with the looser and more organic structure of the Māori stories.

What makes a book with rhyme and pictures the best way to tell this story, for any age?

The well-known rhyme creates a form that is set and rigid. There is nowhere to go with the text so the story must be told throughout the illustrations. They, like the text, must be read.

What is the significance of the eyes of Ranginui and the taniwha?

I wanted to make it clear that when the first Europeans arrived here this place had already been “clothed with names, stories and a belief system”. The sky was Ranginui and the earth, which supported all life, was Papatūānuku, the earth mother.

teacher notes

Book Protection I’m green™ bio -based

Bio book covering

lms

are made from renewable natural resources

The vegetable-based BIO book covering lms have been produced with renewable natural resources, without fossil origin raw materials. They provide environmentally friendlier protection for the surfaces of books, magazines and other publications against dirt, moisture, and wear and tear.

We use water based acrylic dispersion adhesives without solvents. All our products are manufactured in Pello, and their raw materials come from Finland and EU. We are continuously developing better and more environmentally friendly solution for book protection.

Versatile BIO book covering lms

Our high-quality book covering lm is recommended by professional users worldwide. It is extremely easy to use by hand or automatically in book lamination machines. We have developed a short delay in adhesion to enable small adjustments.

Pelloplast book covering lms come in di erent roll widths and lengths. The standard sizes are presented in the following table.

Main applications

books, magazines, paperbacks and other publications.

Pioneer in the manufacture of GREEN surface protection lms

Roll width x length

5 cm x 25 m (5 rll / pkt)

7 cm x 25 m (5 rll / pkt)

20 cm x 25 m 20 cm x 50 m

25 cm x 25 m 25 cm x 50 m

28 cm x 25 m 28 cm x 50 m

30 cm x 25 m 30 cm x 50 m

32 cm x 25 m 32 cm x 50 m

35 cm x 25 m 35 cm x 50 m

40 cm x 25 m 40 cm x 50 m

45 cm x 25 m 45 cm x 50 m

50 cm x 25 m 50 cm x 50 m

Contains Graphic Content reviews by Greig Daniels

DAISY BLACKWOOD: THE CURSED ISLAND (DAISY BLACKWOOD: PILOT FOR HIRE BOOK 1) –

BY RYAN HOWE ISBN-13

The glory days of pulp fiction (despite what Quentin Tarantino might think) are well behind us. Pulp fiction, the term given to the breezy action filled stories of the early part of the century have passed into folklore. The classic heroes: the hardboiled detective, the science fiction hero, the action hero, the cowboy, the intrepid pilot or adventurer have all crossed over into movie genres and other media. Originally published in cheap magazine form, the “pulp magazine” featured heroes like Doc Savage, The Shadow, and Nick Carter in action packed text stories. The pulps were so called because they were printed on cheap paper, where flecks of wood pulp still showed through. Pulp magazines were also the training ground for many famous writers such Dashiell Hammett, Patricia Highsmith, Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov and many others.

The pulps died out in the mid 1950s due to the influx of cheap paperbacks, comics and television.

However, the pulp heroes are still with us in spirit; and now female versions are featured in comics, games and movies like Indiana Jones, Tomb Raider and the two titles featured here. This is not to deny that strong female characters such as these did not exist in the 30s, but they were in the minority in those days. Doc Savage’s intrepid cousin Pat Savage and The Shadow’s companion Margo Lane come to mind.

This time around I’m going to look at two graphic novels that are heavily influenced by past pulp fiction, one is Athena Voltaire by Stephen Bryant and the other is Daisy Blackwood by Ryan Howe.

Inspired by famous real people and other fictional characters, these series have been appearing infrequently over the last ten years.

: 978-0995842366

Both series had their beginnings as webcomics and have gained sizeable online followings and now are appearing in print.

Athena Voltaire, created and drawn by Steve Bryant is an archaeologist and pilot roaming the 1930s world in search of arcane objects and thwarting evil groups who also search for these totems. Like her distaff counterpart Indiana Jones, these include Nazis secret societies and mercenaries, crooked industrialists and other more venal archaeologists. There’s also a slight tinge of the supernatural in many of the stories.

Her adventures are often tongue in cheek and like Jones she has companions in her adventures such as British operative Derek Forsyth and Emily Summer.

Athena Voltaire’s adventures are full of historical detail but exist solely as blood thunder adventures with a little character development here and there. Biographical details are few so Bryant can use her adventures as a blank canvas. We know Athena is talented pilot and archaeologist who grew up in traveling circuses and air shows. The later stories are tightly plotted.

Art-wise the stories are drawn in a lush realistic style by a variety of artists. Most of the main stories are drawn and written by Bryant. Some of Bryant’s collaborators are Yusuf Idris, Gary Carbon and Chris Murrin. The latest installment of Athena’s adventures is the trade paperback Athena Voltaire and the Terror on the Orient Express. Athena’s earlier adventures are available as trade paperbacks.

I first discovered Daisy Blackwood when I was researching aviation strips for an article on Milt Caniff’s Terry and the Pirates. I was instantly attracted to the clean lines of Ryan Howes’ drawing style. The daring female pilot whose adventures were both fanciful and fantastic had a real appeal as did the 1930s setting.

Daisy is an adventurous pilot in the style of real life figures such as Amelia Earhart, Amy Johnson, Jean Batten and Jacqueline Cochran. Their adventurous exploits and solo adventures were an inspiration to writers and directors of the 1930s.

But in comparison to these record breaking figures, Daisy is a working woman, a cargo pilot by trade working in what looks like South East Asia. The time setting is indistinct. It could be anytime from the 30s to the 50s. The planes are of that vintage, as are some of the fashions. There is very little background story detail,

In “The Cursed Island” there’s a brief prologue of explorers and scientists on an island who discover something mysterious. Then we meet Daisy who accepts a job to fly some goods to a further destination. Once in flight she is surprised by one of the scientists from the island prologue who hijacks the plane. He is in a very agitated mental state and clutches a mysterious object. We also learn that he is being pursued by mercenary Lucky St John. There’s a brief dogfight and the plane is downed on the island, and events escalate to the conclusion.

The story moves along at a brisk pace and the action overshadows the plot. However, there are a few inklings and an epilogue that hints that this might be part of a larger story.

I quite liked the fact that we, like Daisy, are dumped into the middle of an ongoing story. We don’t learn much about Daisy except that she is smart, talented and resourceful as she reacts to events in a pragmatic way. She works with men as her equals and her flying business seems to be in a precarious financial position. She has a sense of humour and is compassionate.

Howe’s art style is loose and open and he suggests detail with as few lines as possible. He uses blacks to create mood and the actual drawings are quite loose and uncluttered. The choice of black and white suits Howe’s straight forward visual storytelling.

Daisy Blackwood Pilot For Hire: The Cursed island is the first in a series of five small format paperbacks and I am looking forward to reading the rest. The webcomic can be found at https://www.daisyblackwood.com/

Both these series are recommended for readers 10 to 18, looking for a quick adventure fix.

Reviewed by Greig Daniels, Tokomairiro High School

Book Reviews

KAWAI –

BY MONTY SOUTAR

Reviewed by Julia Smith, Librarian, Kerikeri High School

Aotearoa New Zealand is hungry for great historical fiction that tells our story.

Monty Soutar, a critcally acknowledged Māori historian, has achieved that with his powerful narrative that informs our past.

Kāwai is an exploration of Te Ao Māori pre-colonisation. From the everyday life of cultivating, gathering, building, collecting, games, and laughter with a strong sense of family and community, through to the intertribal warfare, intergenerational grievances and cannibalism. The strength of voice and focus of intent was clarified with the use of te reo Māori conversations, followed by the English translation. I loved that. Each chapter begins with a whakatauki and the book includes a whakapapa and glossary. A map would have been a bonus.

I enjoyed how the characters sometimes had to pause to consider the meanings of whakatauki from the context in which it was delivered.

I’m looking forward to sharing this with my staff and students - we’ll need more than one copy of this in our school library.

THE BRAVEST WORD – BY KATE FOSTER

Reviewed by Julia Smith, Librarian, Kerikeri High School

A gentle gem of a novel, beautifully written. An authentic voice of an eleven-year-old boy struggling to understand his mental illness. The parallels between the dog he rescues and himself are astute and insightful. Be prepared, this will catch your heart and squeeze it tight. I’ll definitely be seeking other books by Kate Foster for our school library.

PONY – BY R.J. PALACIO

Reviewed by Michele Coombridge, Pinehurst School

Haunting, beautiful, intriguing, and distressing at times, R. J. Palacio, author of Wonder, has pulled another piece of genius out of the bag with her latest novel, Pony.

The story begins when a posse of outlaws decide they need the help of Silas Bird’s father and take him away by force. They leave Silas alone on the prairie with only his invisible friend Mittenwool to console him. Only, Mittenwool is much more than an imaginary friend - Silas’ companion from childhood is the ghost of a dead teenage boy.

When one of the outlaw’s ponies, unexpectedly returns to the prairie house, Silas feels that it is a sign to pursue his father. Mittenwool disagrees and tries to convince Silas not to follow the posse of bad men, who have since disappeared into the dark forest beyond. These lands have been home to slain indigenous Indians – and it is here we witness that Silas can see the dead, including the way they took their last breath from this world.

So be aware! This is not a book for young children. While there is a boy who finds a pony, there is a chilling side to the tale. Silas has ‘the sight’ and is able to talk and learn from the many bloodied victim-ghosts he comes across on his dark journey.

But there are also many wonderful moments and characters. There are cowboys and sheriffs, and a genuine mystery to unravel. There are rough types, educated types, the kind and the lost, counterfeiters and photographers and a story of love and redemption sprinkled throughout. The book is intriguing and gripping – and I couldn’t stop reading!

I’m a big fan of Katherine Rundell’s middle grade novels, so when I spotted this Illustrated story, I grabbed a copy for our primary school library.

While out playing in the town square after bedtime, a girl named Mink finds a baby Zebra with a very sad story to tell; his parents have been kidnapped by an evil collector of wild animals!

Knowing that adults must always follow the rules and cannot be relied on to come up with helpful solutions, Mink and Gabriel the Zebra hatch a plan to find out where Gabriel’s family have been taken. With the help of a communique barked out by the neighbour’s dog and the wily skills of a squirrel named Rodentia, they carry out an elaborate rescue.

Just lovely – Five stars.

THE ZEBRA’S GREAT ESCAPE – BY KATHERINE RUNDELL. ILLUSTRATED BY SARA OGILVIE. Reviewed by Michele Coombridge, Pinehurst School

IF NOT US – BY MARK SMITH

Reviewed by Michele Coombridge, Pinehurst School

Hesse is seventeen. He loves to surf, hang out with his buddies, and work at the local surf shop. It’s an idyllic spot on the coast, but just around the corner from this picturesque bay, a power station pumps out its dirty emissions and is quietly ignored.

When Hess and his friends are given a school assignment about climate change, they become more aware of the complexities of tackling climate change in their own back

yard. Hesse makes friends with Fenna, an international student from the Netherlands and starts to gain an understanding of the work his mum’s action group have been doing to stop the sale of the power station to a multinational.

A wonderful multi-layered plot with believable and authentic teenage characters. Suitable for older teens. 5 Stars.

WHEN YOU TRAP A TIGER – BY TAE KELLER

Reviewed by Michele Coombridge, Pinehurst School

A sad and beautiful story blending Korean Mythology and Magical Realism.

Lily and Sam have always loved to listen to their Halmoni’s (Grandmother) Korean folk stories. But now that their mum has uprooted them and moved Lily and her sister back to Halmoni’s small town, the magic of those times has all but dried up. As Halmoni’s hallucinations become worse, her stories seem to grow larger than life for them all.

Lily becomes convinced she has seen the tiger from one of Halmoni’s tales and believes it is time to return the stories that the tiger was once cheated of. Lily thinks there is a chance that doing this will help Halmoni get better again.

I must admit there were parts of the mythology and magical realism combination that left me confused, but none of that affected this being a wonderful story with a delightful setting and a great range of characters. And what a cover! This book was the Newbery Medal award winner in 2021.

THE WAY OF DOG –

Reviewed by Penny Walch

BY ZANA FRAILLON

I absolutely loved this verse novel, from the point of view of Scruffity, a neglected puppy born into the gloomy world of a puppy farm, where he is taken from his mother and locked in a concrete cage where he ponders what it means to be a dog.

He watches as some of his siblings do not survive their harsh environment, whilst others are chosen to go and find a new home with a real family. All Scruffity wants is to find a ShoeLeg he can love... and who will love him back.

There is hope in the form of ManPup - the boy who names Scruffity and who is also unhappy living with GrowlManJim, the brutal owner of the farm. He thinks that

with ManPup he has found the way of dog - playing in fresh grass, rolling, loving, licking and spinning. So much spinning. But GrowlManJim wants to separate the pair and desperate measures have to be taken.

When Scruffity and ManPup escape, all seems well. They are finally free. But when tragedy strikes, Scruffity is left alone and searching for his one and only friend.

It did take me a moment to get into the rhythm of the story and to fully understand Scruffity’s voice, but once I did, it was all on! His voice is so very dog and he is such a beautiful, engaging character that you can’t help but fall in love...

Add to that the gorgeous cover and illustrations by Sean Buckingham, and you have a beautiful, powerful book for 7-12 year olds.

SOVEREIGNTY VERSUS RANGATIRATANGA: WARS, LAWS AND POLICIES –

BY RUTH NAUMANN Reviewed by Pamela McKirdy

We recently bought this book for our library. The layout is attractive with many illustrations. It has short chapters on historical topics relating to Māori and the Crown or settlers, and each chapter has a section called ‘Mahi Skills’ with questions or activities for students to pursue. The text is written in very simple language in the present tense and there is a lack of speech marks which make it impossible to tell what is a direct quote and what is paraphrasing. Possibly this style will prove engaging for students, but I found the combination of present tense and dodgy punctuation odd and irritating.

A sample of the text from p. 21:

Trader Phillip Tapsell from Denmark says he worked, among other things, as a pirate, but now it is 1823 and he is marrying Maria Ringa in New Zealand. Less than a day later Maria runs away. He marries again. Karuhi, sister of a Ngāpuhi chief, who is fluent in English and will act as interpreter and guide.

Flicking through the book, my attention was caught by an engraving on page 12 of a woman being pulled in opposite directions by two men. The corresponding skill states: Establishing accuracy: This image described as Māori marriage customs, appears in the 19th century at a time Europeans are interested in cultural practices different to their own. Find out how accurate the image might be. [sic]

There is no context for the image, no date and no picture credit. It turns out that all of the picture credits are in tiny print on the back of the title page. The credit for this image just says it comes from iStock. I searched for this image and found it in a publication from 1874, but still with no context. Then I went looking for traditional Māori marriage customs and found that the image is in fact an accurate depiction of one marriage custom.1

I worry that the way the image is presented will lead students to conclude it is not accurate - how many would take the time to investigate the source or context of the image? The other image on page 12 has a completely incorrect image credit.

‘Perspectives’ on page 111 has a short section on native schools (which it calls Māori schools), which states that “some children will be punished for speaking te reo Māori at school” but does not mention that often it was the school committee or children’s parents who punished them.2 The paragraph goes on to say “any history mentioned will be that of Britain and elsewhere rather than that of New Zealand, the wars or local history”. This just is not true. The New Zealand School Reader published in 1895 has lots of local content including The Treaty of Waitangi, The Lindis and Gabriel’s Gully in 1861, Heke at Te Kahika, Death of Hauraki, and The Taking of Ohaeawai, 1845.

There is also a 10-page appendix on how to pronounce Māori words. The Fifth Imperial Reader published around the same time has chapters on the siege of Orakau, alluvial gold mining in New Zealand, the kiwi and native flax. The perspectives in these old textbooks might be Eurocentric or patronising, but the topics were definitely being read about in schools.

This leads to another gripe: the book has no index. Even though there is content on native schools, it’s hard to spot. This will apply to many other topics touched on in the various chapters.

Overall, I think this book will be useful for the new Histories Curriculum, but I would promote other sources of information before this one. The writing style and simplistic statements grate with me.

1Best, Elsdon (1903) Maori marriage customs, p. 41. https://paperspast. natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/ TPRSNZ1903-36.2.5.1.4/1

2https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/ newspapers/NZH19080129.2.7

SYLVIA AND THE BIRDS – BY JOHANNA EMENEY. ILLUSTRATED

Reviewed by Michele Coombridge, Pinehurst School

This lovely new book from Johanna Emeny is a mixed media delight!

Sylvia Durrant is a bird rescuing hero, well known to all who live north of the bridge in Auckland. According to the book, ‘The Bird Lady’, as she has become known, has helped over 140,000 sick, injured, and lost birds during her lifetime.

Johanna Emeney’s book is a tribute to the incredible work Sylvia has dedicated her life to, rescuing birds and caring for native wildlife. It is also a biography of her fascinating and devastating early life, beautifully portrayed through photos, text, graphic novel chapters and drawings by Sarah Laing.

An essential book for every school library.

BY SARAH LAING

SLANZA is committed to providing quality professional development opportunities to its members, and we are very grateful for the ongoing sponsorship of professional development provided by Book Protection Products. This sponsorship is invaluable and greatly appreciated by the National Executive as it significantly broadens options for regional committees. The funding provided by The Book Protection Products team goes to the regional committees so they can organise professional development sessions that will fulfill your personal learning needs. Please continue to support Book Protection Products as they are SLANZA’s major sponsor, and if you have an idea or topic for professional development in your area, let your committee know!

BUSINESS MEMBERSHIP

Business members support the work of SLANZA. Current members are:

Book Protection Products Limited

Accessit Software Limited

Bridget Wilson Books

Britannica Digital Learning Asia Pacific Cengage

Digital Inclusion Alliance Aotearoa

EDU SER AUS LTD SCIS

Education Television and Video Communications Trust Gecko Press Limited

Ged Maybury

HarperCollins Publishers New Zealand

Int.workspaces

KOWHAI LIMITED (NZ Geographic)

Library Tech NZ

Perform Education

Softlink Pacific Limited

WHY SHOULD YOU JOIN SLANZA

The benefits of membership include:

Connection and networking with other school library staff locally Discounted conference and professional development registrations

Support for school libraries at a national level

Opportunities to gain skills and professional development from people who do what you do

Opportunity to apply for the SLANZA awards

Opportunity to apply for study grant assistance with library–related studies

Permission to use the cover images of publications of major publishing houses

Access to the LIANZA professional registration scheme

Access to our collection of Professional Development eBooks

Fee-free study opportunities with the Open Polytechnic

NEWS + CONTACT

If you’re not sure who does what or who can help you, check out our Contact page on our website. It links to all region representatives.

Follow our blog for up to date information

Check out our Facebook page.

SLANZA Members can also join our group or follow us on Twitter