Te Tiriti O Waitangi and Future Focused Learning

CORE Education Breakfast Seminar Recording - 24.07.2017

Te Tiriti O Waitangi and Future Focused Learning

Article 1

Honourable Governance - Kawangatanga

• How involved are our children in the decision making around how the day is structured? Universal Design for Learning.
• Do we still have a traditional management structure? Team leaders, DP/AP, Principal. How can we change this?
• Do we have transparent communication? If there is a partnership model, there should be no staff room discussions held secret.
• You should be able to stand in any NZ school and know that you are in Aotearoa. 2 cultures equally represented in a school.

Article 2 

Rangatiratanga

Hapu have paramount authority over all that is precious to them.

It is important to remember that when the treaty was signed, Maori were hapu with some links. They saw themselves as in their own seperate governance from each other. It is only since then that "Maori" have seen themselves as one collective. They were before then, Ngai Tahu, Ngati Kahungunu and were very different from one another.

Being able to learn and explore as who I am as an individual. It 

• Children having agency and experiencing self-directed Learning are experiencing rangatiratanga.
• Children following interests and urges as well as choosing spaces to work within the room, children are also starting to experience asserting their rangatiratanga.
• Taking the secret out of Learning and trialling flipped Learning is a great way to introduce rangatiratanga.
• Ako - chn Learning from each other. Chn having a chance to be the teacher and support others with learning, are all examples of chn asserting rangatiratanga.
• Whanau being asked about Learning and school and schools going TO the whanau.
• The feeling of being on a marae as a pakeha out of their comfort zone, could be how our whanau feel at school. Why not have our learning conferences on a marae for example.

Article 3 

Orietangata - equitable citizenship

• Equitable representation of Maori and non-Maori in our schools (BOT, teachers, PTA etc)
• All kids should learn some Te Rep
• Are we exploring Maori forms of giftedness? For example, manaakitangata. Maybe someone has sense of the feelings of people around her. A gift for looking after manunhiri or kaumatua.
• Tikanga is valued and noticed.

Article 4

The spoken promise

• Ensuring Maori can succeed on their own terms and we all get to protect our spiritual beliefs and well-beings.

Take-aways

• Continue to explore ways that play-based learning allows 5 year olds to have say over the way their day is structured.

Mohi Bush Fun

Cultural Competence #1

26.01.17

Teacher Only DayFrimley School, Otatara Pa, Heipipi Pa, Bayview Historial Site Tipene Cotterell and Levi During one of our TOD's at the start of 2017, Frimley Staff went on a bus tour of important sites to Maori history and whakapapa within Hawke's Bay. This tour was guided by Tipene and Levi who told stories special to Hawke's Bay's history and shared the reo and many customs within these stories.
Main take-away points:

• Stories help to tie our children with their place, people, and identity.
• By understanding how important whanau and land is to our maori children, we are more likely to be able to connect in an authentic way and therefore help to get the results we are after!
• Many stories may contain mythical-type creatures (eg, giants, seapeople) but they do represent an actual person and these people may be in our children's whakapapa.

Next steps:

• Use diversity as a key word to guide tauparapara learning.
• Share more stories and waiata within the classroom from day one.
• Base hui nights (after initial meet the teacher) around legends and waiata.
• Use my reo in the classroom and bring my guitar to school!
• Children need to connect with nature for play-based learning but also for cultural competency so more trips like the Mohi Bush trip of 2016.

One of the stories to share...

The story of Kahungunu and Rongomaiwahine Kahungunu had heard reports of Rongomaiwahine’s beauty and high birth, but when he arrived at Nukutaurua, on the Māhia Peninsula, he found that she was already married to Tamatakutai. In an attempt to impress her people, he gathered enormous quantities of fern root, tied them into bundles with vines, and rolled them down a hill. Such were the quantities that it became like a landslide, blocking the doors of the house.

Kahungunu then went up onto a hill and watched the karoro (shags) diving. He practised holding his breath, counting ‘pepe tahi, pepe rua, pepe toru …’ (count one, count two, count three . . .) until the birds reappeared. Then Kahungunu went diving, holding his breath for as long as the shags had done. He filled several baskets with enough pāua (a type of shellfish) for all the occupants of the village. When he surfaced from his final dive, he had covered his chest with pāua, and everyone was very impressed. The hill has since been named Puke Karoro.

Having gained the approval of Rongomaiwahine’s people, Kahungunu set out to create discord between Rongomaiwahine and her husband Tamatakutai. One night he surreptitiously broke wind near the sleeping couple, causing an argument between them. In the morning Kahungunu joined Tamatakutai in the sport of surfing in a canoe. After several trips Kahungunu took over the steering, and capsized it on a particularly large wave. Tamatakutai fell out and, unable to swim, was drowned.

Kahungunu and Rongomaiwahine marry

Frimley Kindy and Frimley ELC visits

January 25 2017
9am - 10.30am
Tessa Arcus, Suzanne Wilkinson, Lucie Macdonald, Stacey Mabey
Frimley Kindergarten and Frimley Early Learning Centre


As learning community leader, I took a team of 3 teachers, plus myself, to Frimley Kindergarten and Frimley Early Learning Centre as part of the developing transition practices at Frimley School.

We were able to ask questions of the ECE teachers regarding how their programme was structured and the resources they use and store.  Ideas around storage were helpful and we were able to see a variety of hands-on play from both centres.  We were also able to ask about students starting school that had attended their ECE centre.

The portfolios were interesting to look at as it gave an idea of the different activities and learning provided at these two different centres.  We noted that links to Te Whariki were not written up in these areas and we would like to add these links onto our Learning Stories (Play based learning).

Of particular interest, was the resourcing in the outside areas.  The flowing water and user friendly sandpits with outdoor storage are on our list of things for the outdoor junior area.  The outside fake grass and the use of the gymnastic gear in both centres was noted.

My next steps as a result:

• Pass ideas for outside Junior Play area onto Tim and Lynda.
• Provide adequate funding from team budget for storage in Heretaunga Ararau classrooms.
• Add Te Whariki links to the learning stories.
• Add Te Whariki reading and development into team meetings.
• Keep in contact with these ECE centres in order to have them support the transition 4 year old programme.
• Contact ABC Omahu for visits to their centre in Term 1.

Collaborative Practices

Tim White
Teacher Only Day (26.01.17)
Frimley School


MindTools
www.mindtools.com/fsnp

Form - Storm - Norm - Perform

Establishing rules for working - how do we work together collaboratively (systems, expectations)

Collaborative Reflection
(Tessa Arcus, Suzanne Wilkinson, Kate Woodward, Lucie Macdonald, Stacey Mabey)

Team Function

• Meetings once a fortnight with catch up meetings on the off week.
• Use the Google Site with increasing efficiency to allow for communication and sharing of ideas, resources and information.

Enabling Conditions

• We discussed in depth the level of cooperation between the classrooms at the beginning of the year while we are in our rooms setting up.  
• Sharing of resources and ideas will be key.
• Move to more LC level events once swimming has finished.
• Stacey to look at regularly releasing teachers to work with and observe, each other.

Collective Responsibility

• Work together with play initially.  We talked about how Sarah will help each individual as well as supporting the collaboration factor in our rooms.
• No one-upmanship.  A creative and uncomfortable place for success doesn't need to equate to a one-upmanship 'vibe'.  Not collaborative.
• Data will also be a collective responsibility.  This includes the distribution of learning assistants, resources, and 'hard conversations'.

Embracing innovation/opportunities

• How best to improve with Sarah's help.
• How best to use Stacey at the beginning of Term 1.
• Play is more than resourcing.  People will find that there is a strength for them that we can all pool off when moving forward with this.  For example:
  *  resourcing
  *  learning stories
  *  curriculum links and what to do with them
  *  social coaching
  *  academic coaching

Where to next for me:

How to enrol your child

As part of the first change to the transition documentation, I have written a guide (with Paul Jamieson - DP) around the steps to take when enrolling your child.  This was in response to a visit I made to a local daycare that deals with families that have difficulty understanding this information.  The daycare also found themselves feeling unable to help as they were unsure of the practices around enrolling your child at Frimley School.

How to enrol your child booklet

In Term 1 of 2017 I will be visiting our contributing ECE centres and distributing this booklet as a guide for helping parents.  There will also be some available in the staffroom for visiting families.

Arts Festival

At the end of Term 2, 2016 Heretaunga Ararau joied the rest of the school to put on an Arts Festival for our community.

Leading up to this time, I coordinated our specialist Te Reo and Taikanga Maori teacher, Whaea Kerri, to create/discover a waiata for our Room 1,2,3 and 22 students to present on the night.  This waiata was woven into the legends that Whaea Kerri would deliver during her sessions in each class.

Kei roto i te moana...

As team leader, I coordinated the different teachers into roles that made sure that all practices and costumes/props/staging, was made throughout the term as part of the children's learning or any plenty of time.  As a result the learning programmes continued in each classroom uninterrupted and each teacher was well informed in plenty of time, what the timeline of events were.  Teahcers were also provided with set roles to take leadership of and therefore distributing responsibility, involvement, and leadership throughout the team.  Karlene O'Dowda was able to take some lead in the positioning of the students on the stage, Tessa Arcus on props, myself on music and costuming, Kath Winnie and Mandy Menzies on costuming with all helping.

The children enjoyed learning the new vocabulary and performing both on the night and during rehearsals.  This linked to our learning of living things and habitats for the term also.  It was well linked to our Aquarium visit also.