Sense Making and Professional Learning Groups

Our first Woolf Fisher sense making session  of the year at Hornby Primary last week. A great turnout of principals and leaders of learning analysing student achievement data and problem solving. A big thank you to Selena and Naomi for their wonderful facilitation!

This year our Uru Mānuka Cluster will have a relentless focus on reading ... teaching and learning practice that accelerates student progress and achievement.

High leverage practices (HLPs), as identified by by Woolf Fisher, provide the foci for our Teaching as Inquiries (TAIs) this year.

Teachers from our 7 schools have opted into one of 4 Professional Learning Groups (PLGs) based on the foci below. We have aligned our foci with Woolf Fisher classroom observations to provide us with an insight into our teaching practice.

This week we had our first cluster PLG with groups splitting off into their particular areas of interest. There was robust discussion and valuable connections established across the cluster. I am confident our relentless focus on reading will result in improved student outcomes and a better understanding of the high leverage practices that enable this to happen.

Otaki Convenors' Meeting

On Thursday 16 May Convenors met in Ōtaki and were hosted by the Te Reanga Ipurangi Ōtaki Education Trust. We had a warm greeting from Rachel and Jim (trustees) and it was interesting to see the great work the Trust is doing to support the local community

• Trust established under the mana of Ngāti Raukawa to serve the Ōtaki community - the Trust also sponsor the Central Pulse netball team.
• promote and lift educational achievement.
• contribute to the survival and prosperity of Māori as Māori.
• promote educational development of all people.
• promote the learning infrastructure for kura, schools and home learning.

I was impressed with Rachel's passion for the local community, and the infrastructure and opportunities the Trust is providing for all learners.

Takeaways from the day

• this kaupapa is about sharing PLD across schools and clusters. No one is telling us to do this, we have all agreed this is what we want to do.
• Blogger is the best platform for teaching Cybersmart. It enables us to engage outside of the community, for example, Summer Learning Journey. It enables children to make connections in a supported way and teach Digital Citizenship.

Data Collection

• important to include all children in data set. 
• we can advocate for them if we know who they are.
• once we have the evidence, we can advocate for these children ... difficult to do this if we only have anecdotal evidence. It requires visibility.

Junior Data
Why PM and not Ready to Read

• no one has figured out how to use Ready to Rewad consistently.
• PM is a better assessment tool - greater consistency.
• Why do we gather Junior data? Important to know if we are making a difference and we want to share good practice.

Board Forums
Russell also discussed the value of engaging our boards and holding board forums once a term. Some suggestions

• Get NZSTA to run a session
• Ministry of Education
• Other social agences; Police, OT, CDHB, ...

Another valuable opportunity to connect, collaborate and problem solve!

Manaiakalani Convenors Meeting

Hornby Primary had the pleasure of hosting our third Convenors meeting of the year on Thursday. Tier 2 Outreach started this year with 5 new clusters. One of the many enjoyable aspects of the gathering is the meal on the Wednesday evening before the meeting. This is a wonderful opportunity to reconnect with colleagues, or on this occasion, meet new members of Outreach. We chatted over lovely food and beverages at the Old Government Building in the Square. These opportunities should not be undervalued, they form the foundation for positive lasting relationships.

As usual we covered a number of topics. I will touch on four
1. Assessment data. In order to link evidence to practice, we require valid, reliable, longitudinal data so we can identify the practices that are accelerating progress and achievement. At this point, we believe JAM is the most reliable Junior tool.
2. Student and whānau voice. Student voice is crucial, what is working for students and what can we do better? The same applies for whānau and families.
3. Digital Fluency Initiative (DFI) which runs each Friday for 9 weeks each term. The course has a transformational vision based on Learn Create Share and is for teachers. Teacher feedback has been extremely positive.
4. Preparing for 2019 - PR and communication is crucial.
- how many devices will we need for new 1:1 digital classes?
- when do we let whānau know?

Be prepared for the following questions/concerns from parents
- games
- screen time
- handwriting
- wifi/brainwaves

One useful strategy is to get children to present their learning to whānau. From our experience, our children are our greatest advocates in terms of promoting Learn Create Share and the affordances of digital technology.

By 3pm on the day, we had covered a lot of ground with possibly more questions than answers, but very certain in the direction we are heading ... linking evidence to practice and accelerating progress and achievement for all our learners. I'm not getting off this bus!