Ko Te Rautaki Reo a Kāhui Ako ki Orewa: 

Creating a community of shared understanding 

2019

Rārangi Upoko/ Table of Contents

Take/Purpose 3

Whakarāpopototanga/Synopsis 4

Whiwhinga/Acquisition 5

Ngā Whaitua/Domains 6

Mēhua haere/Measuring progress 9

Take/ Purpose

The Orewa Kāhui Ako has as one of its four focus goals the following:

The te reo Māori curriculum progressions are embedded into practice from ECE onwards. All kaiako/teacher are supported within the Kāhui Ako to build confidence and competence to achieve this. Tataiako and Ka Hikitia are documents that underpin kaiako/teacher and ākonga/student progress.

Whakarāpopototanga/Synopsis

On Thursday, April 4, 2019/Rāpare, te 4 o Paengawhāwhā 2019, leaders from across our Kāhui Ako Orewa gathered for a hui at our local marae, Te Herenga Waka o Orewa. The positive attendance showed a collective commitment towards achieving improved outcomes for our tamariki in the area of te reo me tikanga Māori.

Under the guidance of the Te Herenga Waka Kaumātua, Kereama Nathan, we have developed four key areas; Acquisition, Domains, Normalisation and Sustainability. These four areas provide the framework on which we develop our expectations for transformative and deliberate change across our Kāhui Ako.

Whiwhinga/Acquisition

• Share our curriculum frameworks across Orewa Kāhui Ako kura.
• Use a set of common waiata and karakia.
• Maintain strong links to Te Herenga Waka o Orewa marae.
• Develop kaimahi/staff (kaiako/teachers and non teachers) basic knowledge and skills.
• Establish common kupu that can be used across our kura.
• Kupu o te wiki, word of the week introduced at weekly staff meetings.
• Teachers in homerooms expected to teach te ao, te reo and tikanga Māori for at least an hour each week.
• All teaching staff write a pepeha to be used with confidence.
• Consider the ALLiS model to develop an across school program to fund an itinerant teacher to support kura with professional development and mentoring.
• Responsibility for delivering te reo Māori to remain with classroom teachers.

Ngā Whaitua/Domains

• Kura are encouraged to support local events such as Te kotahitanga day, Tū Māia Festival and the Kaipara festival.
• Tiriti o Waitangi to be acknowledged by our kura and presented to our ākonga/students in a meaningful way.
• Kapa haka to be accessible to all akonga/students across the Kāhui Ako.
• Te reo Māori is visible/audible in communications across the Kāhui Ako including but not restricted to:
  • Websites
  • Signage around kura/schools
  • Mottos/slogans
  • Newsletters
  • Noticeboards
  • Greetings from office staff
  • Loudspeaker announcements
  • Answering phones
  • Greetings from staff to staff and staff to students
• Develop Māori heroes for our ākonga/students (Tuakana), particularly at Orewa College for year 9 upwards.
• Tataiako Cultural Competencies and Ka Hikitia to be used by our kura.
• Values are translated to te reo Māori and used with equal frequency as English.
• Matariki and Te Wiki o te reo Māori are celebrated in our kura.
• Te reo Māori is included in certificates/awards presented within our kura.
• During all gatherings within our kura, te reo Māori will be used in some way that is meaningful these include, but are not restricted to, hui such as:
  • Assemblies
  • Meet the teacher evenings
  • Parent/teacher meetings
  • Staff meetings
  • Team meetings

Whakauka/Sustainability

• Links to ECE centres to be strengthened and the knowledge ECE hold in using te reo Māori built on at kura tuatahi/primary school entry level.
• Access to professional development for kaiako through channels such as Te Herenga waka, Orewa Kāhui Ako, VLNs study grants, Digital resources developed for future kaiako (future proofing).
• Develop expertise and confidence in te reo Māori, kapa haka and tikanga Māori.
• Take small deliberate steps and reinforce them so that staff are not overwhelmed.
• Ākonga/Students and kaiako are educated around the bicultural nature of Aotearoa and how this shapes who we are here.
• Collective/interconnected – Foster relationships between kura, marae, leaders and students to model whanaungatanga, kotahitanga and manaakitanga.
• Teachers model a growth mindset when using te reo Māori thus creating a safe environment for all members of our kura to step out and take risks when using te reo Māori.
• Allocate PD resourcing in schools to study te reo Māori
• Seek out experts/tohunga who are able to pass on matauranga Māori/knowledge of te ao Māori such as: raranga/weaving, whakairo/carving, rongoā Māori/Māori medicine, poi, mau rakau etc.
• Commitment/accountability – Māori kaiarahi/leaders to meet termly to gauge our progress and to support one another.
• Smooth transitions pursued in learning te reo Māori from ECE to kura tuatahi/primary school to kura tuarua/college.
• Whānau given opportunities to learn the curriculum content in our kura so that it can be used/reinforced at home.
• Te reo Māori me tikanga Māori becomes, ‘What we do’.

Ritenga/Normalisation

• Karanga and haka used in each kura
• Certificates include te reo Māori.
• Whakataukī frequently used to teach life lessons.
• Correct pronunciation pursued.
• Tikanga Māori taught and lived by in our kura.
• Tumuaki/principals and leaders to lead the way through increased usage of and expected use of te reo Māori by themselves and staff such as:
  • “Tēnā koutou”/hello to a group
  • “Ahiahi mārie”/good afternoon
  • “Ata mārie”/good morning
  • “Kia ora”
  • “Mōrena”
  • “Kei te pehea koe?” “Kei te _____ ahau.” “E pehea ana koe?”
• Start of year pōwhiri for new staff and students.
• Te reo Māori to be visible and displayed within and around our kura
• Over time, te reo Māori will be heard and seen in meaningful and authentic way across all kura.
• Learning shared and pathways offered to our community/whānau so that te reo Māori can be continued at home and in domains beyond our kura.
• Karakia regularly used in akomanga/classrooms, rūma kaimahi/staff rooms and hui.
• Māori karakia used for shared kai.
• All kura to have their own unique school haka.
• Waiata being sung/played in akomanga/classrooms.
• Kaiako/teachers are given the option to be called by the title matua or whaea rather than Mr. or Mrs.

Mēhua haere/Measuring progress

Leaders will self evaluate where they are at the outset by highlighting protocols and systems that are already consolidated in their own kura. Leaders from across our Kāhui Ako will meet each term to check progress against the 4 areas of the strategy document, ‘Ko Te Rautaki Reo 2019 a Te Kāhui Ako ki Orewa 2019’. These hui will be used to measure the success of this strategy in transforming the culture of our kura and importantly, the quality and consistency of learning experiences for our ākonga/students whilst moving through our Kāhui Ako. Honest reflection will provide an element of accountability as we work to collectively to solve problems.

If you are on the look out for some websites to help students with their writing, why not start with this Padlet?

On this link you will find 13 tried and tested sites, all with ideas for getting students writing. They are suitable for primary and middle school students. As the term progresses we will be adding more sites to this Padlet.

On 28 March, 2019, we held our first moderation kōrero for writing. Teachers were well prepared having completed the initial assessments, either individually or in groups at their own school prior to our meeting. The LPF is not designed to be used for assessing only one piece of writing evidence, but rather collecting evidence from a variety of samples across the curriculum. Our moderation meetings is a good check-in  to see if we have consistency. The ultimate aim of our moderation was to compare individual school judgements to then arrive at shared understandings, with informed agreement. We will continue to embed this practice each term, across all of our schools. Our results table shows the percentage of agreement in placement of students prior to, and after, our moderation meeting:

Link to full results here

This link includes the samples of work moderated, as well as graphs depicting the moderation process. 

From the rich professional dialogue, robust discussion and conversations that took place we were able to closer align our decisions, though not for all samples.  

Colleagues took part in a process of deconstructing, reconstructing and co-constructing knowledge and skills with a better understanding of the LPF. This process helps  to enable teachers’ tacit knowledge of writing to be made more explicit. There is much potential to build new knowledge and teacher capability in these meetings so that students have improved outcomes. Sharing writing from across the curriculum also allows us to see purposes for writing involving more complex concepts and understandings.

Our term 2 moderation meeting is set for week 8, Thursday 20th June. Information will be shared early in term 2.

Dialogue about our next moderation round included the following points:

● The combined meeting was an opportunity for rich professional conversations.
● Colleagues took part in a process of deconstructing, reconstructing and
co-constructing knowledge and skills with a better understanding of the LPF.
● This process helped to enable teachers’ tacit knowledge to be made more
explicit.
● There is much potential to build new knowledge and teacher capability in
these meetings so that students have improved outcomes. – this needs to be
pursued more.
● Sharing writing from across the curriculum allows us to see purposes for
writing involving more complex concepts and understandings.

We started our hui on Thursday with some tips on how to introduce te reo Māori into lessons in a natural and effective manner. Thanks to Simon Koziarski, in-school leader at Orewa Primary, for both the fantastic tips and the resources which are available by following  this link

*Please feel free to use these resources, bearing in mind our Creative Commons license.

Here is a link to the summarised LEARNING PROGRESSIONS MATRIX , as worked on by the writing group in 2018. Please feel free to use this for any writing moderation.  It is based directly on the framework provided by the ministry. For access to the website, please follow this link .

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On Thursday, 6 March 2019, we held a meeting for our combined Boards of Trustees. This had a dual purpose. The one reason was to meet with Ministry of Education representatives to discuss the proposed site of a new school in our district. The second reason to meet was to introduce the Kāhui Ako leaders to the BoTs. One of the clear sentiments expressed at the property meeting was the power of a combined approach. The ministry responded to the Kāhui Ako appeal for a meeting and this gave us a real sense of our community standing in solidarity together.

This meeting also gave the leaders of the Kāhui Ako a chance to discuss the overview for 2019. We discussed the proposed plans for each focus group, as well as a discussion about our visits to individual schools. In addition to this, we shared our website and reminded board members of our weekly newsletters. This is our way of connecting with our community, sharing professional learning opportunities, and keeping people abreast of developments within our Kāhui Ako group.

Here are links to most of our presenters’ sessions from the conference. Please be mindful when using these resources that they are the intellectual property of these teachers. Feel free to ask permission to use them in a way that suits you best. Alternatively, use them in the form in which they are here.