Kāhui Ako ki Orewa

22 March 2019

Rāmere, te 22 o Poutū-te-rangi, 2019

Friday, 15 March 2019

Many people are saying that New Zealand changed irrevocably on Friday, 15 March 2019. This might be true. Were there too many of us relaxing in the naïvety of our innocence? Did we really think bad things of a catastrophic nature would not happen here? Yes, maybe we did, and maybe we have lost our innocence. But what happened in Christchurch has opened up discussions about inclusivity, indifference, veiled racist remarks and blatant discrimination. They are difficult discussions to have, but we have to have them. We can’t sit back and say thank goodness it didn’t happen to me.

They. Are. Us.

So what do we as teachers, as guardians of our students, do after the horrific terrorist attack? We talk, we listen. We remind students that words and actions have the potential to hurt. That watching and sharing videos can have dire and highly negative consequences. And we also share the aroha as far and wide as we can. Kia kaha Christchurch.

Many of our schools have participated in the Paper Doll project sent out by two Bay of Plenty siblings, eager for other Kiwi kids to support them in demonstrating that Aotearoa New Zealand is a place of diversity and acceptance. They want schools and families to send in their paper doll chains to form a single long, colourful chain representing harmony between cultures. If you have any paper dolls needing to be sent to Te Puke, you can bring them into the Orewa College school office by Friday afternoon, where they will then be sent on Monday as a response from our Kāhui Ako.

Rōpū Taunaki Ako/ Learning Support Group

On Monday 18 March, Leanne visited Theresa Rosborough at Pillans Point School in Tauranga. The purpose of the visit was to learn more about the Otumoetai Kāhui Ako’s model which has been created in line with the Ministry of Education’s new Learner Support Model.

We are on our way towards creating our Kāhui Ako new model of Learner Support. We have had our first hui for 2019, made our first completion of our numerical based register and been able to draw conclusions from the data we gathered. From the first completion of our register of all Orewa Kāhui Ako schools, we can now identify our main learner needs:

• ‘Dys” (Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, Dyscalculia)
• A.S.D
• Anxiety
• ADD/ ADHD
• Processing – Audio/ Visual

Our next steps include:

• Identifying our strengths and weaknesses
• Generating our list of local and wider providers and services
• Making connections with local providers and services
• Working with our Ministry Service Manager according to our needs

Student experts:

Rōpū Tuhituhi / Writing Group

A reminder that we will be having our first round of across school moderation based on the Learning Progression Framework on the 28th March, 3.30pm at Orewa College. This meeting is open to all teachers across the community with an interest in writing. The writing moderation form has been sent to all within school leaders (on the G+ Admin page) to assess and submit marks, prior to the moderation meeting. Please follow the link to the form here if you would also like to assess our samples. Forms need to sent in by Wednesday 27th March, they can be marked individually or as a group.

The moderation process helps teachers make dependable decisions about student progress and achievement. It improves decisions at one point in time, as well as over time. We aim, as a Kāhui Ako, that our moderation process will increase our assessment dependability.

Rōpū Pāngarau/ Maths Group

Andrew Ellis of Orewa Primary has shared his Maths LPF staff PD resources with the whole maths group. So when the maths leaders are ready to introduce LPFs to staff, they will have something to go on. For our next meeting, we will join with the rest of the group who is focusing on the moderation of writing.

Rōpū Te Reo Me Tikanga Māori

Top tip #2 for normalising te reo Māori:

Use te reo Māori to praise students in certificates, report comments.

Use te reo for praising students in certificates so the whole school can hear te reo Māori spoken from stage. Below are a number of examples that can also be used in your classroom.

For the full list follow this link

Pānui ngaio/Professional Reading

Below is the graphic showing the new Learner Support Delivery Model. If you would like to read the full version of the model, please use the link below:

New Learner Support Delivery Model

To keep up to date, follow us on our Kāhui Ako website: https://orewakahuiako.com/

Coming up: