Manaiakalani Convenors' Hui at Te Mahuri Mānuka

 We had the great pleasure of hosting the Convenors' hui at school on Friday 17 June. Convenors travelled far and wide from Paihia in the Far North to Hokitika on the West Coast of the South Island.

Our tamariki from Te Puna o Te Reo welcomed our guests with a mihi whakatau, then Russell Burt (Pt England) responded on behalf of Manaiakalani. This was was a wonderful opportunity for our leaners to share their language, culture and identity in front of an authentic audience. And after Russell's usual enthusiastic response to the Convenors' welcome, our tamariki were full of smiles and standing 10 feet tall as they walked out of the whare, thank you Russell!

                                                            Russell responding to our tamariki

First up on our agenda was Pat Snedden, Chair of the Manaiakalani Education Trust (MET).

                                                                    Pat Snedden's korero

Pat Snedden discussed the importance of strong leadership to continue the work we are doing. Our aspiration is to have all low decile communities access the opportunities that current cluster schools are experiencing; access to digital devices and accelerating student progress and achievement - this will not happen without strong dedicated leadership!

Dorothy covered Manaiakalani updates

• October Wananga where we can hopefully return to the Waipuna Hotel
• G Apps
• Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and Learn Create Share
• Toolkits
• Gearing Up for new schools 

                                                                 Hornby Hikoi

After morning tea our Manukura (school leaders) escorted our manuhiri around the school sharing significant points of interest.

We covered lots of ground throughout the day

Research team - Kiri

1. Reading observations
2. Reading programmes
3. Term 3 questionnaires
4. Middle leaders programme/research reflections

Manaiakalani Education Trust (MET) updates - Jenny
Tech updates - Dorothy

Another very special day of problem solving and supporting each other to progress equity for our learners and whānau. Thank you Manaiakalani and MET for this special taonga, we are making a positive difference!

What makes the biggest difference to student learning?

 I came across this recently ... suddenly all the 'dots joined' ... an ephiphany!

"John Hattie and his team have presented Collective Teacher Efficacy (CTE) as the 'new number one' influence related to student achievement several times ... Although Hattie's latest published list of 195 effects in The Applicability of Visible Learning to Higher Education (2015) puts CTE in second place, its effect size of d=1.57 is still huge: it is more than two times bigger than that of feedback (d=0.72), and almost three times bigger than the effect of classroom management (d=0.52). The message seems to be clear: together teachers can achieve more, especially if they collectively believe that they can do so!"

Uru Mānuka held a Teacher Summit (see Robin Sutton ) recently, 106 teachers and 23 workshops sharing teaching and learning practice from Year 1 through to Year 13.

Manaikalani Convenors meet each term at a Convenor's school, our lastest was at Paparore in the Far North. Using research, teacher and student observations, and student achievement data, we have identified high leverage practices (HLPs) that accelerate progress and achievement. Together we are co-constructing effective teaching and learning literacy practices that will raise student achievement.

Recent Uru Mānuka professional learning focussed on reading comprehension and oral language; 17 schools, including our high school and 190 staff attended.

So what is the big deal you may be asking? Uru Mānuka, supported by our Manaiakalani alliance is growing Collective Teacher Efficay (CTE), and as Hattie has identified, this is the 'stuff' that will make the biggest difference! This was what I was thinking as I was sitting in on the HOD of Science workshop at our recent Teacher Summit ... how cool was this! Secondary and primary teachers in the same room, sharing practice! We often talk about student agency, but I believe teacher agency is just as powerful and you cannot have student agency without teacher agency first. What I am observing now is that our Uru Mānuka teachers are starting to believe they do have good practice to share with others, instead of always looking to others or outside providers for all of the answers ... well actually, we can solve our problems and challenges from within, we just need to believe and share the knowledge and skills we possess as a collective!

Bandura(1993, 1997) defines collective efficacy as "a group's shared belief in the conjoint capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to produce given leverls of attainment." Bandura found that the positive effects of CTE on student academic performance more than outweigh the negative effects of low socioeconomic status.

Our deliberate and intentional foci must continue on CTE, I believe this will 'move the dial' and ensure we get the biggest 'bang for our buck' ... together teachers can achieve more, especially if they collectively believe that can do so!

Reference: Collective Teacher Efficacy (CTE) according to John Hattie

Professional Development

 Professional Development (PD) or laterly Professional Learning Development (PLD), the same things, I will refer to PD for this post. We, being schools/boards, and the Ministry of Education, have put a lot of resourcing into this aspect of school improvement over many years. So the question needs to be asked, what does effective PD look like and have we been getting 'bang for our buck'?

An example from 30 years ago, my experience. Each teacher was able to choose 2 courses for the year and run it by the Principal who would say yes or no. I chose Kiwi Golf and a spelling course from memory. I had a wonderful day at Kiwi Golf and picked up a few ideas how to improve my swing. What impact did that year's PD have on my teaching and learning practice, and just as importantly, what impact did it have schoolwide? As you can probably infer ... not very much, if anything at all!

So here is what effective PD looks like ...

Uru Mānuka hosted a cluster-wide PD day at the Showgate Lounge (Riccarton Racecourse) today ... 7 schools, including our wonderful High School, approx 190 staff ... including our valuable support staff! Our focus was on reading comprehension and oral language, and was facilitated by Sheena Cameron and Louise Dempsey. We took everyone to the 'movies'! Not piecemeal PD like I have descibed above. For true meaningful, indepth professional learning to be effective and have an impact on our teaching and learning practice, it MUST be schoolwide and involve as many staff as possible.

Now you may well ask, can you guarantee that Friday's PD is going to have a meaningful impact on our teaching and learning practice across Uru Mānuka and Hornby Primary. I can confidently say this ...

1. there is a far greater chance that this approach will have a positive impact on our teaching and learning practice
2. it is up to leadership to ensure we plan for deliberate and intentional acts that will impact teaching and learning practice

A great day of connecting and collaborating ... New Entrant through to Year 13 teachers, support staff and principals. An authentic example of Learn Create Share that I have no doubt is going to have a positive impact on learners throughout Uru Mānuka and develop our teaching and learning practice in the important areas of reading comprehension and oral language, and as a consequence, will lead to accelerated student progress and achievement.

Going back to my original question about what effective PD looks like, and have we been getting value for our investment. I am a great believer in the power of the collective, our challenges are too difficult to overcome individually, but if we harness the power and expertise of the collective, we increase our chances of finding solutions to our shared challenges. And, I have no doubt that today's investment has been wisely spent and will lead to improved teacher practice and student learning outcomes over time.

A special thank you to Louise and Sheena for a wonderful day of learning, your presentations 'hit the mark' and I know we will be seeing lots of your activities and strategies implemented across Uru Mānuka classrooms from Monday onwards! 🙏

For a thorough summary of the day, refer to Uru Mānuka's prolific blogger Mr Robin Sutton 😀.
Link

Covid-19 Reflections

Never waste a good crisis Winston Churchill once said, or, 'so what does this mean for my learning?' when I was writing Learning Stories (narrative assessment) for pupils.

What are we to make or learn from this pandemic that has forced us to provide distance learning for 7 weeks for our learners and families/whānau? We have all heard about wonderful examples of engaged and motivated learners creating superb learning products and excelling in the home learning environment. However, we also know of many students that have not engaged in purposeful learning during this time, and there are a numbers of obvious reasons for this which still need to be addressed.

We have all witnessed how schools have responded to distance learning and how various governments around the world have responded to the pandemic.

During the last 7 weeks, the importance/value of the following has been strongly reinforced for me ...
1. leadership
2. collective action
3. coherence
4. challenging the status quo

I am not reflecting so much on the pedagogy in this blog, my colleague Robin Sutton at Hornby High has done some wonderful thinking in this space, I strongly suggest you read his recent posts.
https://whakataukihewakaekenoa.blogspot.com/

I believe our Prime Minister and coalition government's response to Covid-19 and their leadership has been superb, some have descibed it as a "masterclass." An explicit game plan, clear and regular messaging and involving a team of 5 million. As a result, everyone bought into the plan. Contrast this with the leadership on display in the USA and United Kingdom, or more accurately, lack of leadership! Countries that have displayed strong decisive leadership, and strong government, have reduced the curve of infection and as a result, have saved lives. An interesting sidenote, the majority of these countries are led by females.

Strong leadership has been required during Covid-19 in order to support our learners and whānau during distance learning. This has not been easy, however, leaders who have employed the following qualities have been able to successfully navigate these challening times.

Kiwi Leadership for Principals (Ministry of Education, 2008). Four educational leadership qualities underpin principals' ability to lead their schools:

• manaakitanga (leading with moral purpose)
  a strong values base is essential for decision making
• pono (having self belief)
  a strong values base enables self belief
• ako (being as learner)
  non negotiable, effective leaders must be life long learners and 'walk the talk'
• awhinatanga (guiding and supporting)
  Sergiovanni refers to 'servant leadership'

Throughout this journey I have focused on all 4 qualities to varying degrees. I must admit there were times when I questioned my  'pono' ... was I up to this? However, a strong manaakitanga, always open to ako and awhinatanga convinced me I was ... my community and staff were relying on me. During times of crisis, leaders stand up, strong leadership is crucial if we are to win the battle. 

Because I am a political junky and am fascinated by Donald Trump (not in a positive manner), I will draw the comparison when the above leadership qualities are absent ...

• manaakitanga - Trump is 'value free', only believes in winners and losers, and what is in it for him
• pono - like all narcissists, plenty of self belief but unhinged and deluded, and lives in a parallel reality
• ako - a "stable genius", does not need to read or seek expert advice, has little if anything to learn
• awhinatanga - not a team player or capable of building high functioning teams, thrives in chaos

Barack Obama describes the current USA administration as a "chaotic disaster." This should not be a surprise to anyone.

Collective action ... no better example than the Manaiakalani Education Trust, which includes The Manaiakalani Programme (TMP). 

None of us are good enough to do this all by ourselves. The following collective action has put Hornby Primary and the Uru Mānuka Cluster in a very strong position to support our learners and familes/whānau during the lockdown. It looks like this

• Manaiakalani Education Trust (MET)
• shared pedagogy based on Learn Create Share
• affordances of digital technology to supercharge learning
• Woolf Fisher Research Centre (WFRC) data analysis and research, including high leverage  practices that accelerate student progress and achievement
• shared sense making sessions with WFRC
• Uru Mānuka Educational Trust (UMET)
  provide funding to employ Educational Programme Leader (EPL)
  supports procurement and provisioning of digital devices for families/whānau
• Uru Mānuka Teaching as Inquiry PLGs that meet every term and share inquiries about raising student progress and achievement
• Manaiakalani Digital Fluency Intensive (DFI)
  9 week intensive on Google applications and Learn Create Share pedagogy
• One digital solutions provider across our cluster

Collective action has provided valuable support, not only locally, but nationally. Being able to connect with other principals in the same situation was invaluable, a problem shared is a problem halved. Manaiakalani Convenors were meeting weekly and sharing ideas and planning for each Alert Level. This certainly created more clarity for myself and I was able to share this with our Uru Mānuka cluster colleagues. An interesting sidenote, as a result of these weekly Google Meets, there is a desire to continue these Meets during Alert Level 2. 

It also begs the question, in the future, do our cluster meetings need to be face-to-face (F2F)? Or could we have a blend from now on, some F2F and some online Meets? May this be a more effective way of utilising our precious time?

This collective action, some may refer to this as a systems approach, not sure if it really matters, has undoubtedly placed Hornby Primary School and the Uru Mānuka cluster in a strong position to

• reduce the digital divide
• address fairness, equity and the moral imperative
• accelerate student progress and achievement 
• ensure fully engaged digital citizenship
• ensure our learners are equipped to reach their full potential

As a result of five and a half years of collective action with Manaiakalani, Hornby Primary was well prepared to ensure learning was accessible and continued  throughout distance learning.  The UMET enabled 12 families to purchase chromebooks during this time also which ensured these learners were connected and able to access learning from home.

Coherence ... when all of its parts fit together. I love this word! Thank you Pat Snedden (Manaiakalani Chair), I first heard Pat use this word in 2015 when addressing our cluster at Hornby High and it has resonated ever since! Leadership and collective action will not be effective or reach its full potential if coherence is lacking. How does one enable or facilitate coherence? Certainly not by remaining in the Principal's head. Everyone must be 'singing from the same songsheet', fully undertand the game plan, and be intentional about the implementation. It is then the leader's job to keep the vision alive and enacted.

Status quo ... let's get back to normal as soon as possible. This is often the call we here in regard to Covid-19. But what we had before the lockdown was not working for all learners, reverting back to the status quo is not the answer as it was failing a significant portion of our learners. Dr Anne Miln in her video Colouring in the White Spaces: Reclaiming Cultural Identity in Whitestream Schools, states we cannot 'sit on the fence', we have to take a position and do something about it. Absolutely!

Challenging the status quo requires boldness, leadership and collective action. The status quo is easy, we don't have to do anything except keep reinforcing deficit theorising and blaming others which lets us off the hook. Let's take control and put ourselves at the centre of the problem and look for solutions, they are out there. Utilise our collective strength, support systems and expertise, and anything  is possible!

Hornby Primary will not be wasting this crisis, the pain and suffering endured by many dictates we have a moral responsibility to learn from Covid-19 and develop our practice to ensure we are providing the best possible learning environment for all of our learners so they reach their full potential and become positive contributing members of society. This is possible through leadership, collective action, coherence and challenging the status quo. No excuses, we can do this!

Note: the political views expressed by the author do not represent Hornby Primary, Uru Mānuka or Manaiakalani.

Authenticity

Authentic: the adjective authentic describes something that is real or genuine and not counterfeit ... something reliable, based on fact, and believable.

Whaea Heather teaches a Year 4-6 bilingual class (Level 2). Each year we have an Anzac Service at the Hornby War Memorial on the school grounds. Last year's service below.
                                                                   

Under lockdown this year, such a service was impossible ... but check out the video link below to see what this year's service looked like ... it was authentic!
Here is a short movie of our google hangout.

I found this learning creation inspiring! Why ... it included all the underlying principles of Learn Create Share, where the learning was
- authentic (culturally responsive practice)
- visible
- connected
- ubiquitous
- empowered

Our pupils were still able to Learn, Create and Share in lockdown without physically being at school. Arabella posted about her great grandfather who was a member of the 28th Maori Battalion and Mikaylah posted about her koro who served in WW11.

Side note: this learning experience was enriched by supporting roles from
- Matua Hector; reading the Ode in te reo Māori
- Arabella's mum sharing about great grandfather
- Whaea Christine our wonderful Resource Teacher of Māori (RTM)
This strengthened the authentic learning context further.

This was possible due to the affordances of the technology and Google Meet/Hangout. This is just another example of the learnings that are arising during Distance Learning. The challenge for us is to ensure we incorporate these learnings into our teaching and learning practices so that we engage and motivate all of our learners when we return to school and face-to-face.

Distance Learning - Term 2

Today is Day 1 of Term 2 and our first experience of Distance Learning thanks to Covid-19. Our last day of the term was 26 March, since then staff have been working tirelessly preparing as best we can for the first day of term today.

At 9.30 this morning we started off with a schoolwide karakia and waiata. It was wonderful seeing so many smiling faces! After this classes broke off into various learning activities, guided by teachers and support staff. I participated in 3 senior Google Hangouts. We often talk about the importance of relationships and connections. I witnessed the power of both in our Hangouts this morning! Dorothy Burt reinforces the importance of teacher-led learning and seeing our staff's face is a 'gift' for learners, your are dead right Dorothy!

How did we get to today?
1. The Manaiakalani Programme (TMP). We are in our 6th year of TMP - Learn Create Share and the affordances of digital technology. I cannot think of a better time for visible teaching and learning, and rewindable learning to be available to us all. A massive thank you to Pat Snedden, Dorothy and Russell Burt for your relentless support and pursuit of equity in our education system! There are many other unnamed people and organisations who make TMP so successful ... you know who you are ... thank you!
2. Hornby Primary staff who have worked through their holidays to have sites up to speed, learning activities and devices in homes.
3. Kelsey Morgan our wonderful Education Programme Leader (EPL) who has been supporting our staff and principals within the Uru Mānuka Cluster - thanks Kelsey!

Hornby Primary School and Uru Mānuka are well-placed to confidently take on this unique challenge we find ourselves in. I thank all the above and feel very privileged and proud to be leading such a professional and committed team!

Kia kaha
Gary

An example of a class site with a Home Learning link for our learners, and a links to our Morning 
Karakia and Google Hangout.

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.