Achieving Educational Success as Maori

The Prerogative of Maori Education

In keeping with the theme of the Maori Language Week here is a post on education of Maori.  The following power point was presented at staff meeting on Monday.

Maori achieving as maori from WaihiCollege

Many of our schools 2015 priority learners recognise themselves as Maori.  Part of our responsibility (duty of care) for the students in our classroom is effectively providing for their (and their whanua's) needs.

Questions that we need to ask...

1. How am I going as a teacher (am I positively impacting the learning)?
2. What informs me on my answer to Q.1.?
3. What is my sense of urgency around this?

[These questions need to be asked of the students as well].  

This post is related to RTC #1. "Establish and maintain effective professional relationships focused on the learning and well-being of ākonga." And RTC #7. "Promote a collaborative, inclusive and supportive learning environment part ii. foster trust, respect and cooperation with and among ākonga.  And ERO's School Evaluation Indicators Domain 3 "Educationally Powerful Connections and Relationships".

ART Year 12's

ART Program The Next Steps

We have a new ART (Achievement, Retention and Transition) and Vocational Pathways coordinating supervisor assigned to us from MOE.  Her name is Dr Christine Pritchard and her role is to guide the programs we have in place for achieving 85% of our students getting Level Two.

Here is a timeline that I've created to try and illustrate the events that we'll put in around our students (those that we identify).  The mantra for the ART programme is the idea of working with the three N's (names/numbers/needs).

The intent at this stage of the year is to narrow down our year 12 cohort into those 25-35 students that we will assign individually to teachers (hoping for teachers to have a one to one relationship).  These teachers will mentor these year 12's through this year of schooling.  This is a too big of a job just for a dean or for the learning advisors - although they are key stakeholders too.  

This week we will be looking at our cohort and which students are in greatest need (remember that we're looking at the amber students (those on the margins of passing).  What I am hoping for is that for these students we will have one staff member each who will be able to engage with these students about their progress.

Green - Those students who will pass.
Amber - Those students that are on the margin.
Red - Those students that won't pass.


This post is related to RTC #1. "Establish and maintain effective professional relationships focused on the learning and well-being of ākonga." And RTC #7. "Promote a collaborative, inclusive and supportive learning environment part ii. foster trust, respect and cooperation with and among ākonga."

Priority Learners

Priority Learners - Targeting Specifics

In our recent visit ERO had specifics about how the school approaches priority learners from all levels. 

• They commented "When we asked teachers who are the priority learners in this class" they gave answers like 'I treat them all as priority learners.', 'I'll just look that up on Kamar.' or 'I don't know'." This they lamented "how can there be strategies for these struggling kids if the teacher doesn't know who they are immediately?". 
• Maori Students.  They commented that in documentation that there is much use of the word 'Maori' but one reviewer said "there is no Puku to it".  They wanted to know how the staff were catering to their Maori students.  They were critical that staff didn't see the necessity of this - one reviewer recommended that staff have to see that we're struggling to motivate, retain, our students.  They said that using 'participation' data masks the real case and we should show staff Maori stats in 'roll' data. 
• They indicated that they wanted the school charter/documentation to specifically require staff to link names and numbers of priority learners. 

ERO Define Priority Learners as...

Priority learners are groups of students who have been identified as historically not experiencing success in the New Zealand schooling system. These include many Māori and Pacific learners, those from low socio-economic backgrounds, and students with special education needs. Evaluation at a Glance: Priority Learners in New Zealand Schools [August 2012]

Here at Waihi College we've a community which has a significant number of students that are easily identifiable as being a Priority Learner. We have 28% of our roll identifying as Maori, 2% as Pacific Islander and of course we are a decile three socio-economic school.



So how are we going with our education of our Priority Learners?

Online Information About Waihi College (and all NZ high schools).
There is recently a live website called Education Counts.  www.educationcounts.govt.nz 



Here is a slideshow of some of the key information we have on the website...




Where this leaves us at this stage of the year.  I think that some of the key next steps is for us (collective us) to...

1. Formulate a list of which students at each level are identifiable as 'Priority Learners' - this is beyond just seeing if Kamar has ethnicity of Maori/PI or if the student is in the Memphis Centre.  Query - how readily accessible should this list be?  Do the students on the list need to know they're on it?  Do the parents?  What avenues are there for parents to indicate their child should be added to the list?  Can parents/students opt out of being on the list?
2. Formulate what can be recognised as good practice around the education of 'Priority Learners'. 
3. Look at the levels of expectation we have for the additional support for our Priority Learners - what are the minimal additional actions that are needed by staff.
4. Look at each individual learner - try to systematically identify where the needs are of these Priority Learners.

This post relates to RTC # 10. "Work effectively within the bicultural context of Aotearoa New Zealand part ii. specifically and effectively address the educational aspirations of ākonga Māori, displaying high expectations for their learning." and RTC # 3. "Demonstrate commitment to bicultural partnership in Aotearoa New Zealand."

Senior Leadership Planning Days

2015 Plans and Initiatives
This week the Senior Leadership team (and Learning Leaders on Friday) retreated into offices in town to focus upon the direction of the school for 2015.  It was an excellent chance to review the current year, the recent ERO review and look to enhance our practice.  


There were several key areas which we dedicated our time to.  Several of these will be the subject of much professional development over the next few terms.  Primarily for your information these are some of the core focus points...

1. Priority Learners - this was a core point emphasised by ERO.  They were particularly interested in how we were identifying these students, what expectations we as senior leaders have and what strategies are being utilised by teachers in the classrooms. 
2. Learning Advisories - we undertook a detailed analysis of the current set up of Learning Advisory.  From the time of day, regularity of advisory time, role of the Pouako, purpose/intent of the advisory, horizontal/vertical forms, to the a similar system observed on a recent DP trip to Auckland.  
3. The House System - what ways can we enhance this competition.  Creating leadership opportunities for our year 13 students.
4. Global Curriculum View - how can we consciously map the entire learning experience for our students.  Across all learning areas, over the seven years of Waihi College what ways are we reaching our learners.  This also encompassed much discussion on assessment data.  
5. Calendar of Events for 2015 - this will be a separate post.  But primarily scheduling in the core events of the Waihi College community.  Interesting things of note; Spirit days move to end of term two, and the senior prize giving moved to after NCEA external exams.   
6. Staff Meetings - at length discussion on the number of meetings, times and days of the week.  Looking at 2015 dropping the Tuesday 8am meeting - rather looking at having more regular after school Monday meetings.  The plan is to look at Monday pm meetings being on a three week rotation following the rotation of (week 1 - Senior Leadership meetings, week 2 - Learning Leaders meetings, week three - TIC/Subject specific meetings).  Thursday morning meetings will move into 'Ako Meetings' where teams focus on full cohort of students (more information to follow on this).
7. Quality Assurance - looking at the goal from ERO to make the exceptional practice the common practice here at Waihi College.  What will this look like for staff and learners in their lessons?  

The retreat was a great time for the senior leadership team (and the Learning Leaders - on Friday) to get a chance to think of the big picture.  Being my first retreat I really enjoyed the experience as we 'nutted out' the pro's and con's of each new idea.  It was very much the case that we had a constant thread of thinking "how will this idea be implemented in the classroom".  I trust that we've come up with some workable ideas (most require 'work' though).  

Naturally we are expecting that there are yet uptapped good ideas amongst the staff.  I would hope that you are able to come and present some new ideas or feedback.  Please do take the time to consider your ideas and come to speak with one of the senior leadership team.  

This post relates to RTC #5. show leadership that contributes to effective teaching and learning and RTC #   6. conceptualise, plan and implement an appropriate learning programme