Matariki 2018

Oral language initiative shared meeting

Oral Language initiative shared meeting held at Remuera Primary school Monday 11th June was another opportunity for teachers from CPDS, Maungawhau and RPS to meet together and share ideas. 3 Staff from Cornwall Park and Mark Hassall ( ASL) attended a PD day in Whangarei with Sheena Cameron & Louise Dempsey. This meeting gave them a chance to share some effective oral language strategies and for the teachers to explore how these might be integrated into their inquiries &/or classroom programmes. The meeting also provided further opportunities for some great dialogue between our schools. Thanks to all who attended.

Maths Initiative Meeting

Last Thursday, the Maths Initiative Team were lucky to have the meeting at Newmarket Primary’s amazing new vertical building. 

We discussed the results of the maths attitude survey and discussed interesting trends, such as Newmarket Primary have a dip in Year 4 students attitude towards maths compared to the national norm which is year 5.

Sonya Van Schaijik (lead ASL) shared an amazing resource she created, inspired by Mary Chamberlain. All three schools will be putting in their ideas so we can collaboratively create an action plan for mathematics. Included will be the key drivers/desired outcomes.

From the discussions, the ASLs and ISL’s are very excited to get a group of students from each school together to trial a mixed ability CoL maths group (watch this space!) This is something we are very excited about so students within our initiative will have an opportunity to network and extend themselves. We are hoping this will also allow our students to have a smoother transition between primary and intermediate.

ASL Meeting Term 2

On Thursday 7 June the Across School Leaders had a productive and engaging day with Jill. The morning started off with Bryce from ANI updating everyone on the assessment pilot group that has started. Following this, Jill ran a leadership workshop with the ASL’s with a focus on leadership in action. Through a range of activities, we were able to think about what we were doing as leaders, the challenges we face and what our next steps are. 

Activity 1

Activity 2

Team 1

Team 2

Team 3

Samoan Language week - Remuera Intermediate whole school Sasa

Samoan Language Week

For Samoan Language Week this year, Carl Maskell planned and coordinated a whole school Sasa with the help of some very capable student leaders. A revised version of our school Sasa was shared with each teacher as a video, and student leaders made available to teach the movements to each of the 28 classes in the school. Over the course of the week classes practiced in class time, fitness and PE time, and on Thursday 31st May the whole school assembled on the courts to perform. The students performed with pride and the results speak for themselves!

Seeing the View from the ‘Top of the First Hill’: MOE Kahui Ako Leaders Day 29th May

Sonya caught Mary Chamberlain for a photo with some members of her fan club.

From Left: Clara Kim, Leigh Duncan, Mark Hassall, Alaric Nicholl, Sonya Van Schaijik, Mary Chamberlain, Lisa Murphy, Sue Spencer

The MOE Forum day for Kahui Ako Leaders, 29th May was inspiring and energising. Mary Chamberlain from Evaluation Associates was a highlight for the day. She covered so many ideas, but a stand out for me was her emphasis on the vision and purpose in a Kahui Ako. She emphasised the importance of a shared vision, one that is simply stated and sets up an inspirational challenge for all involved. After Mary’s keynote, the day was structured into six different sessions, each one involving discussion in changing group arrangements. This provided excellent opportunities for sharing experiences and swapping notes with other community leaders. As I shared our progress in Auckland Central, I was reminded that we have rich learning to share with other communities, based on the fact that we were an early adopter of Kahui Ako. Our experiences in the different phases of our development have provided authentic learning and understanding of why we are now in our ‘refreshed’ stage. Brian Annan’s presentations around collective advantage and organisational structures, clarified the fact that our six new initiatives are enabling us to drive change forward in 2018 in the ACCoS. New energy is being generated in our community as learning and practice is shared. Our leadership structures, purpose and roles continue to clarify. I felt that the quote that Mary included on her first slide represents where our community is at right now, “When you reach the top of your first hill your view changes and you see different paths, different possibilities”.  It is exciting to be involved, we are at the ‘frontier’ of change in education right now. ASLs finished the day discussing ideas for next steps in the community.

Building Collegial Learning among Kahui Ako Leaders

Yesterday we attended a meeting organised by the MoE to get together members of different Kāhui Ako from around the country. The day was facilitated by Mary Chamberlain and Brian Annan, and they ran a day filled with rich discussion and ideas to challenge us. We were deliberately seated, and asked to move tables regularly, in order to provide us with opportunities to listen to a range of perspectives.  This proved to be one of the highlights of the day for me. At my first 2 sessions I met people who were just beginning on their journeys, those who had well established connections across their community, and others feeling that they were just now getting into purposeful work.  Both Brian and Mary asked questions that got to the heart of the issues around we are trying to do...and why it is sometimes hard to see our way ahead. I especially loved Brian's visual image of the 'melee' as a way to describe the interconnected nature of how we work.  Mary brought us into the 21st Century by posing the question ' How might we demonstrate tangible progress across a rich curriculum'? We were asked to think about the 'Why' of our work. How does having a collaborative, collegial organisation make us stronger than we would we working alone ?
Unfortunately I had to head back to school for parent interviews so missed the second half of the day. If it was anything like the first half, I know I missed a number of hours of insightful and thought provoking interaction with other passionate educators. Kia Kaha, kia manawanui to those who put this day together.