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COMBINED SUPER STAFF MEETING - WEDNESDAY 18th SEPTEMBER - 3.30 - 5.00
We received really good feedback about our first Super Staff Meeting and as a result have a second one planned. This will take place at Eltham Primary School. The focus for this meeting will be Learner Agency, Curriculum, Pedagogy. Staff will be encouraged to share their inquiries or areas of interest.
ACHIEVEMENT CHALLENGE REVIEW
Thank you for your feedback. We are pulling this together and will have the final refresh of this doc out soon.
ENHANCING LEARNER AGENCY WITHIN A LOCALISED CURRICULUM
July has seen more action across the Kahui Ako, with our first Within School/Across School Hui. Our roles are becoming clearer, with us now having a focus on one particular Achievement Challenge. I am excited to be working in the Learner Agency space, with so many schools already running their own programmes I am keen to come and see some great practice around our Kahui Ako. In the interim I am creating a one stop shop presentation for “What is Learner Agency?” Also a resource bank for those who want to learn more or improve their practice. There will be opportunities to begin to visit each others spaces in the near future. Please contact me at tracyw@sps.kiwi.nz if this sounds like something you would be keen on, or similarly if you or one of your colleagues are willing to share your programme with like minded people.
I have been lucky enough to already visit our three Eastern District Schools, Makahu, Marco and Huiakama, which was a great opportunity to see and hear about the fantastic things happening in our small rural schools.
I have also been busy working on our Kahui Ako website. A central point that will eventually be a great place to access resources, make connections and keep up to date with all that is happening. My hope is that by the end of the year all of our teachers will have this site bookmarked for easy and quick access.
https://centraltaranakikahuiako.wordpress.com
Tracy White - Across School Teacher
RAISING ACHIEVEMENT THROUGH ENHANCED TRANSITIONS
Visits to Pembroke and Dio have helped me to better understand their priorities and get a sense of their unique school cultures. The draft Achievement Challenges have proven to be a useful place to start engagement at Dio, Pembroke and Stratford High. Teachers are already strongly engaged in work that connects with the challenges and see the huge potential in collaborating around these challenges with colleagues in other schools. A common concern was how we will find the time to collaborate in our already very busy days.
We have started to collaborate around improving transitions for our students between Year 8 and 9. We had a great initial meeting of teachers and leaders involved in transition to high school which clarified the process as it currently happens. While we have some best practice occurring, we have identified some simple changes to the process of building connections that can be implemented quickly that should help both students, their whanau and schools to be better prepared for next year. Dan Woodd (WST) will be leading the changes to the Year 9 orientation programme at Stratford High and we will try and ensure that we can align their programme with Dio’s when appropriate. The next piece of work is to better streamline the transfer of knowledge about students between schools. I am looking forward to building a picture of the complex and rich body of knowledge that comes with each student as they move between schools. The teachers involved have plenty of ideas about how we can make the most of this knowledge in our planning. I am looking forward to progressing this work with them.
In addition to the significant transition between primary and secondary, I am starting to look at best practice with regards to the transition between schools. To that end, I am hoping to try and gather some baseline data about the numbers of students that move between schools as a starting point.
Angela Roberts - Across School Teacher
JOHN PARSONS - CYBERSAFETY EDUCATION - 2ND - 5TH JUNE 2020
For more information about John please follow the link: http://www.simulate2educate.co.nz/
RESTORATIVE PRACTICES - 16th - 18th MARCH
We are excited to announce that we are bringing Marg Thorsbury back to work with educators in our Kahui Ako. Educators will need to commit to a three day workshop.
It is important that the three day workshops be attended by people at the top if you want to change the direction of your learning centre and move from punitive to relational. You need to be there and take at least one significant staff member.
All staff at Taranaki Dio are trained in restorative practice including their boarding staff – they de-escalate “stuff” all of the time. We use it in our personal lives and we are approached by students to have a “restorative”. We are not all experts but want to have the best possible relationships with students, colleagues and parents.
Marg’s website https://www.thorsborne.com.au/
Marg’s blurb from her TED talk
When harm is done (by us or others to us), reconnecting is only possible when we are a) willing to communicate with the other b) honest about what happened (no blame or excuses) and how it has affected us and finally c) being willing to express our vulnerable feelings about what happened.
Marg is a passionate advocate for healthy relationships, conflict resolution, restorative justice and relational leadership. With a long history first as a teacher and counsellor, and now as a consultant, she works tirelessly to help school communities and organisations understand what emotional health and wellbeing looks like, sounds like and feels like.
She is widely recognised as an international pioneer and expert on school & workplace bullying, and has played a major role in the introduction of restorative practices into schools and workplaces in Australia, New Zealand, Asia, USA, Canada and UK.
If you are a little school and would find it hard to cover the 3 days leave then talk with us about what the bigger schools could offer to support you
Registrations are open for this now:
Fiona Green
Central Taranaki Kahui Ako
Support Principal - Graham Sands
