Kāhui Ako ki Orewa

Friday, 5 July 2019

Rāmere, te 5 o Hōnongoi, 2019

In this week’s update:

• Summary of the Kāhui Ako combined board meeting
• Analysis of our second round of moderation
• Matariki round up
• Learner support tips
• Podcast number 3

As Term 2 draws to an end our Orewa Kāhui Ako grows from strength to strength. Our purpose of building our collaboration and connections between our leaders: Principals, Boards of Trustees, Across School Leaders, Within School Leaders, Teachers and Schools continues to be our strategic intent.

While we are maintaining our focus areas of Maths, Writing, Learner Support and Rōpū Te Reo Me Tikanga Māori as defined by our school principals, the development maps from the Kāhui Ako toolkit are guiding us in our Kāhui Ako journey, with particular emphasis on the following domains.

Domain 2: Leading for progress and achievement for every child and every teacher

Domain 4: Pathways developing and connecting along the whole educational journey for every child.

Domain 6: Building a thriving Community of Learning/Kāhui Ako

Every educator walking alongside our tamariki has an integral role in this journey and is part of the life of each child of our Kāhui Ako. We can make a difference, beyond our own school gate expanding on a web of interconnected pathways which support the journey of our tamariki. This week was a perfect example of this collaboration when we held our combined Board of Trustees meeting to inform and update school boards of our progress so far. Discussion across the B.O.Ts about the potential for our community of learning was very positive.

Thank you to all who help work towards making our Orewa Kāhui Ako a thriving community. Enjoy a well earned break and see you all next term.

Rōpū Tuhituhi / Writing Focus Group

Results from our week 8 across school writing moderation have been analysed and is now able to be shared with our community. A full copy of the results can be found here.

A snapshot of the results.

While we still need to work on developing closer alignment the practice of across kura moderation has many benefits.

• Enriches our understanding of the LPF
• Provides opportunities for different views to be shared and heard
• Maintains the focus of discussion on the student samples and the LPF
• Evidence of learning can be confidently shared
• Reliable information is used to make teaching and learning decisions, which helps when communicating with other professional agencies
• Assessment practice improves, made with increased confidence
• Reliability, validity, and fairness within the process is enhanced, so achievement decisions are defensible.
• Closer alignment in our teaching and assessment practices

Our focus aspects for our moderation meeting in Term 3, week 8, will be based on the text type – Information Report. Further information will be shared next term,

Aspects

• Using writing to think and organise for learning
• Creating texts to communicate current knowledge and understanding
• Writing meaningful text: vocabulary knowledge

Rōpū Te Reo Me Tikanga Māori

Matariki snaps from our kura:

Collaborative Tapa artwork for Matariki Year 7 Orewa College

Matariki Circuit cards Wainui School

Matariki Collaborative Star Displays Wainui School New Entrant

Silverdale School celebrated Matariki by flying kites at Metro Park

Rōpū Taunaki Ako/ Learning Support Group

Here is the second instalment of what we can do in our classroom to support our learners. Remember UDL (Universal Design for Learning) = whichever strategies we use for one could benefit all in some way

Adopt the way you do things:

• Learn new skills yourself as an educator
• Implement new skill sets and strategies in your classrooms for a variety of ways to tackle tasks
• Adopt an attitude and behaviour of collaboration with colleagues in and across schools
• Include cooperative learning in your classroom
• Accept various needs and levels of students
• Have expectations for all students at all levels

Pānui ngaio/ Professional Reading

Teacher Wellbeing

Follow the link here to listen to the podcast about teachers, with teachers and for teachers from the NZ Teaching Council.

Podcast number 3

Average is a myth, so why should it control our lives?

We measure ourselves — and others — against averages all the time. Think GPAs, personality tests, standardised test results, performance review ratings. These are average measures that tell us little about what makes us unique. And this is not just a feel-good argument. It is a mathematical fact.

In his bestselling book, The End of Average: How We Succeed in a World that Values Sameness, researcher, professor, and president of The Centre for Individual Opportunity at Harvard, Todd Rose, explains the history of average and how it became so embedded in our culture. He goes on to explain why now, more than ever, we need to move beyond its impact on our schools and our workplaces.

Podcast link here

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