TE KAHUI AKO O TARANAKI MOHOAO

Hi Team

It is my intention to send out a Central Taranaki Kahui Ako Panui each month. This will update everyone in our Kahui Ako about what has been occuring and what is planned. It will be sent as a PDF and with a web link for ease of access. Please share this with your staff, Board of Trustees and community where appropriate. I will be asking our Across School Teachers and or Principals to contribute to the content of this. Any feedback gratefully received.

New Appointments

Congratulations to Julie Anderson, Midhirst School who has been newly appointed.

WST Meeting - Wednesday 7th August - 3.30 - 5.00pm

This meeting will be taking place at Stratford Primary School. This will be our first meeting as a group to discuss the place of the WST within our Kahui Ako and to plan our next steps.

We have allocated our AST's an area to inquire into that links to our Achievement Challenge:

Tracy - Enhancing Learner Agency through a localised curriculum

Angela - Raising achievement through enhanced transitions - Year 7 and beyond.

Penny - Raising achievement through enhanced transitions. - ECE to Primary

Our AST's have been allocated schools:

Tracy - Stratford Primary, St Josephs, Toko, Avon, Huiakama, Marco, Makahu

Angela - Stratford High School, Taranaki Dio

Penny - Ngaere, Eltham, Rawhitiroa, Midhirst, Pembroke

Our AST's will be making contact with the schools they are attached to to arrange an initial meeting with Principals, to meet your WST's, if you have them, and to share any updates. They will have a series of questions to help us strengthen our network and to get to know our schools better.

Thank you to those of you that attended our Mid Year Inquiry Sharing!!! What a great turn out!

It was great to have so many schools represented and so many teachers and principals in a position that they could share their learning journey with colleagues in our Kahui Ako.

We have sent out a quick survey to gain some feedback. If you haven't already completed this can you do so asap.

Super Staff Meeting Feedback

As discussed at our Super Staff Meeting we have updated our Achievement Challenge to reflect feedback from our Teacher Only Day and our Principals/ECE Leaders Meetings. We are hoping everyone can take some time to read through this and provide feedback as an individual or as a school. What have we missed? What may need tweaking?

DRAFT ACHIEVEMENT CHALLENGE REVIEW DOC

FEEDBACK FORM

Ideally we would like this feedback by the end Week 2 Term 3. If you are unable to do this but would like to provide feedback please make contact with Kim Waite to discuss a suitable time frame for yourself or your centre.

Relationships and Responsive Transitions/ Weaving the Curriculums

Purpose: To provide support to Central Taranaki Kāhui Ako around transition pathways to school and kura, in particular understanding the connections between Te Whāriki and New Zealand Curriculum.

I can't wait to come back together and hear about all the gems of practice that have come from our mahi together. A few reminders as we head towards the end of the term.

Dates for Term 3 are …

• 1st August session 9.00 - 2.00 pm Taranaki Dio- Common Room

• 1st August session 3.30 - 5.00 pm Taranaki Dio - Staff Room

• 19th September session 9.00 - 3.00 pm Taranaki Dio

• Log into our ECE PD folder on drive to register yourself so we can book our catering: Register here

Our session on the 1st of August from 3.30 - 5.00 will be our transition group. Held in the staffroom. It will be a summary of the PD so far and a great way for those who have been unable to attend to gain some insight into the work we have done.

A reminder that the Kahui Ako will be using our Learning Pathway Matrix as our way of recording our journey. Could you please have these filled in and ready for our session on the 1st August. Just one per centre or school. Fill it in together! It is essential for teachers to fill in with their principal's or leadership team members.

It is really important that our PD is being responsive to your needs going forward. I would like you all to email me back with one area you want to look at deeper. Looking forward to your responses: penny@ngaere.school.nz

REMINDER CENTRES: As part of our "Achievement challenge" documentation we are collating a summary of each centre and school. Could all ECE please send me an approx. 2 - 3 sentence summary of your centre, highlighting the aspects that are special to you.

Penny Andrew - Across School Teacher

penny@ngaere.school.nz

June has seen a lot of changes and learning for me in the role of Across School Teacher. We now have a draft Achievement Challenge and our roles within the Kahui Ako have become clearer. With a particular Achievement Challenge in mind (Enhancing Learner Agency within a localised curriculum) I look forward to checking out some great practice across our schools. During the month I have also had an opportunity to talk with Ben about the work he has already done within our Kahui Ako in the Learner Agency space.

I have also had the opportunity to attend two Hui’s this month, one at Longburn Adventist College with many other Across School Teachers to share what all our respective Kahui Ako teams are doing. I have also been fortunate to attend the MOE Taranaki/Wanganui/Manawatu Leadership Forum held on the 13th of June.

I am looking forward to all the exciting opportunities/actions coming next term. Beginning with our Across School/Within School Hui 7th August 3.30pm (Week 3).

Tracy White - Across School Teacher

tracyw@sps.kiwi.nz

Our recent Teacher only Day well and truly told us that transitions particularly from primary to secondary was a place that we would like to do some work around. One of our new Achievement Challenges will be raising achievement through enhanced transitions. We invite all teachers, team leaders, deputy principals, deans, Year 9 form teachers to come along for this first brain dump about what transitions might look like in the future. It is all up for grabs: not just the transition of curriculum and pastoral data but also a strengthening of relationships with learners and their caregivers as they move between our ECEs and schools. Week 2, Tuesday 30 July 3.30 - 4.30 pm, Taranaki Diocesan staffroom.

It has been great to see teachers across our kahui ako continuing to build their professional relationships and their collaborative capacity at our latest ‘super staff meeting’. I have been buried deep in the New Zealand evidence as I have started to build a process for improving the transitions of our learners between schools. I am really looking forward to bringing together those responsible for ensuring a smooth and successful transition, particularly between primary and secondary. We will be considering how we already transition the rich knowledge that we hold about all of our learners and how we can improve on these processes so that our students have the best transition possible. We will be looking at all aspects of our learners – academic, pastoral, and cultural.

Angela Roberts - Across School Teacher

ra@stratfordhigh.school.nz

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:

REGISTRATIONS

Fiona Green

fionag@taranakidio.school.nz

We are in a position to be able to appoint another Support Principal to our team.

A letter expressing your interest in applying for this position including skills/knowledge you bring to the role will need to made to: principal@toko.school.nz by Friday 2nd August.

The suggested focus for this position will be wellbeing. However if you wish to apply and feel you have another area that you can contribute to our Kahui Ako please include this in your letter.

Graham Sands has already been appointed and his focus is building cultural capacity for our Kahui Ako.

If you would like to know ore about this position please contact Kim Waite.

Rumatiki Timu

Kiaora Koutou,

Recently we have been able to make a connection with Rumatiki Timu from Ngati Maru (Iwi). He was able to come along to one of our Kahui Ako o Taranaki Mohoao meetings. During this meeting he spoke on historical information about many of the local schools. Those Principals that were there were able to listen to some of his knowledge about

this area. We were all amazed with his ability to connect his knowledge with our schools.

We also spoke about having a specific Karakia and Waiata for our Kahui Ako. Hence if we were to go anywhere we could use it. Rumatiki has offered his skills to compose (with consultation with Ngati Ruanui) Karakia and Waiata and teach us.

During the discussions the name MOHOAO was mentioned. This word is in reference to the local environment (Historical Reference). Mohoao gives reference to the land being of rough terrain laden with forrestry. We would like to take that name for our Kahui Ako as Waenga is more an english transliteration of ‘Central Taranaki’. Mohoao is

specific to this area.

Graham Sands - Support Principal

principal@midhirst.school.nz

Te Kahui Ako o Taranaki Mohoao.

All activities relating to the Kahui Ako will be logged on the calendar including venues.

What the calendar entries mean:

AST Meetings - Across School Teachers

WST Meetings - Within School Teachers

KLT Meetings - Key Leadership Team Meetings

If you receive a calendar invite for a Kahui Ako meeting please do not reply to the e.mail just click: YES / NO / MAYBE regarding your intention to be at the meeting or not. It is very time consuming chasing up people who do not respond to calendar invites :)

Central Taranaki Kahui Ako Board of Trustees Training - Governance Essentials - 23rd July

Please promote and encourage new and existing BOT members to attend this meeting.

This will take place at Stratford High School from 7.00 - 10.00 pm.

Kahui Ako Boards of Trustees - Wine & Cheese - 20th August

We are encouraging Board of Trustees to attend this 1 hour meeting so we can update them collectively on our work to date and moving forward.

This will take place at St Josephs Parish Hall from 7.00 - 8.00pm

Restorative Practices - Marg Thorsbury - 16th - 18th March 2020

3 day Workshop for Educators in our Kahui Ako. The Kahui Ako will cover all registration costs. The single cost to schools will be relieving costs.

Principal/ECE Leaders PLD Cultural Inclusiveness - Thursday 8th August

Principal/ECE Leaders Hui - Tuesday 12th September 2.00 - 4.30

Lead Principal - Kim Waite

Support Principal - Graham Sands

Email: principal@toko.school.nz
Website: https://stratfordcol.wordpress.com/
Location: Central Taranaki
Phone: 0273483550