Our Journey

Following a review undertaken in 2020, we established 5 workstreams that are designed to focus our activity to boost student outcomes in key areas: Active Learning/Transitions, Pacific, Cultural Narrative, Literacy and Measuring Impact.

We launched our ever-evolving Agency Model which features key agency-related factors that impact learning behaviours. Then when the curriculum is applied we see academic outcomes. 

Working on developing the agency-related factors that underpin strong learning behaviours will result in stronger academic outcomes. 

Our model has measures built into it too. 

Digital Technologies Teacher Only Day

Our year began with a Kāhui Ako Teacher Only day at Elim Christian College Junior Campus, where around 250 teachers participated in some Professional Learning in Digital Technologies. 

Our facilitators, OMGTech, offered a variety of workshops for our teachers to opt into. 

South East Christian Kāhui Ako Kapa Haka Festival

Due to Covid19, the HPPA Kōanga Festival was unable to go ahead. Our Kāhui Ako decided to give our tamariki the opportunity to still celebrate Kapa Haka by putting together our very first South East Christian Kāhui Ako Kapa Haka Festival.

Almost all of our schools were able to participate on the night, including one of our ECE centres, Panmure Bridge Childcare Centre, via video.

It was a wonderful way for our tamariki to watch and enjoy Kapa Haka from across our schools. We began our night with a stirring pōwhiri and beautiful karakia. The night followed on with eight amazing performances. 

Thank you to Francesca and Allyson, two school leaders from Sancta Maria College who were our MC's for the night, to all the tutors and kaiako in our Kāhui Ako, who had put time and effort into supporting our tamariki, thank you to Sancta Maria College for hosting the night and providing an amazing venue. We also acknowledge our special guest Whaea Taini Drummond, who supported our idea from the very beginning. 

Thank you to the Across School Teachers, Kara and Andrea, who helped make this Kapa Haka Festival possible!

Play Based Learning Afternoon

On the 5th of August, Year 0-2 teachers and Early Childhood teachers from our Kāhui Ako were invited to attend a Play Based Learning afternoon. Teachers from Sancta Maria Catholic Primary School shared and presented their Learning through Play journey. 

It was a wonderful opportunity for all teachers to connect, network and ask questions about how Learning through Play is happening in our primary schools. Conversations were had about New Entrant teachers visiting Early Childhood centres in the near future.

We look forward to collaborating more between ECE and Primary.

February 

Collaboration Around Professional Learning Focus

Over the past nine months we have conducted a range of scoping activities with our wider Kâhui Ako community to select an area of common focus.  From this scoping we reached collective agreement that we could make the greatest difference to our student achievement by a common focus on building learner agency.  

A focus on learner agency should create powerful partnerships with our parents to strengthen learner, parent and teacher agency. Including our entire community (Leadership, staff, teachers, learners, parents, wider community, etc) will assist us to provide systems that enable best practice and a culture of agency within our schools and Kâhui Ako.

In addition to akonga/students themselves, a focus on learner agency should build teacher capacity, capability, and improve well being across akonga and kaiako. We anticipate this will create better transitions for our students at key stages on their educational journey whilst  acknowledging the diversity in our community with a focus on Maori and Pacific learners, priority learners and English Language Learners (ELLs).  The exploration of learner agency through a range of lenses, including faith, will ensure that ownership of learning and achievement will be empowering for our most vulnerable students.  This empowerment should provide a foundation for their journey through further education and their contribution to social innovation in a world that is likely to look very different to the one we see today.

Our Inquiry Question: How can we develop collective efficacy of teachers to raise student outcomes through the development of learner agency?

Week 3: After establishing our overarching inquiry question, the Within School Leads (WSL), in small groups, formulated more specific inquiry questions that showed links to our overarching inquiry question.

The groups of WSLs from across schools worked together to further refine their ideas and inquiry focus for 2019.  From that, the Across School Leads (ASL) collaboratively decided who would work with each group. The ASLs will be meeting with each of the WSLs they have been assigned to over the next few weeks to further strengthen our inquiry focus for 2019.

March

Charles Fadel Lead Forum Days - 6th & 7th March

Our Kahui Ako had the privilege of hosting Professor Charles Fadel for our Leadership Forum. He is a global education thought leader and expert, author, and inventor, and founder of the Centre for Curriculum Redesign.

The event was well attended by Kahui Ako Leads, Principals, Leadership Teams, Students, Teachers from around the country together with MOE staff. This was a unique opportunity to collaborate and be challenged around the future of education. Charles talked about our fast-moving world; how technology is improving at such a rapid pace and that the race between technology and education Digital revolution requires us to accelerate.

We used this opportunity to work with like minded educators to make sense of the conceptual ideas that Charles presented. Working within our home groups, we discussed how these ideas feed our implementation of school and Kāhui Ako developments.

April

Teachers are getting ready to implement the new Digital Technology Curriculum.  Our first steps are to complete a digital readiness programme through Kia Takatū ā-Matihiko.  Kia Takatū ā-Matihiko has been developed to ensure teachers and kaiako are ready to implement the new digital technologies content. 

We are fortunate to be working with Viv Chandra from OMGTech, who will be supporting our staff in growing their competency in the new Digital Technologies curriculum.

May

Board Of Trustees Hui

Board members, Principals and Senior Leaders from our six schools had the opportunity to come together to share our Kahui Ako journey. 

The Lead Principal, Across School Leads and Support Principal co-presented and shared -

• Who are we? 

• Our Learning Framework

• How we work together

• Working in new and different ways

• What we have achieved as a group that we could not do on our own

• Unexpected results of working together

• Professional development opportunities

and ended with an open discussion and questions.

At the end of the evening, many commented on how they could see and experience the rich collaboration and connection we have as a group of schools. The passion and enthusiasm for the work we are doing together was clearly evident on the night.

South East Christian Kahui Ako BOT Presentation.pdf

Other News

ASLs and WSLs met up to share their inquiry journeys, inspiring others with some 'gems' that they encountered. Alison Davis came along to talk to our WSLs and gave them a small insight into what the Teacher Only Day will provide teachers with.

Our Lead Kahui Ako Principal and ASLs were also busily planning the organisation of the Kahui Ako Teacher Only Day.

June

Strategic Leadership Hui

Our Kāhui Ako Lead Action Group were fortunate enough to be invited to a Hui facilitated by Melanie Riwai-Couch at Elim Christian College, Botany Campus.

We used this opportunity to look at how we work together as a leadership team and what tools we could use to support our thinking around systems change management and problem solving.

We were also reminded about the importance of involving our whānau and community in the decisions and direction of the Kāhui Ako so that we work together as one - whānaungatanga.  We are working on using  whakawhanaungatanga, which is the process of forming relationships and getting to know each other, to continue our work into the future.

Teacher Only Day 2019

On the 4th of June, our all teachers and support staff from across our Kahui Ako will come together for a Teacher Only Day. This day will give us the opportunity to connect and network with each other, and take away some valuable learning and understanding on learner agency. 

Alison Davies will be coming along to facilitate the day and presenting a keynote. The focus of this keynote address is identifying and exemplifying six key aspects to building and sustaining student agency. This address will set the scene for the three year group workshops and provide an overview of agentic teaching and learning.

Leitia Leota-Preston - Knowing the learner - building self concept and attitude

Jude Parkes - Self efficacy and student agency

Dr Alison Davis - Practices to build the concept of Value 

Teacher Only Day.pdf

Kāhui Ako Leaders Forum - Wellington 6th - 7th June

At the beginning of June, our Kāhui Ako Lead Action Group (Lead Principal, Across School Leads, DPs and Support Principal) flew down to Wellington for a Kāhui Ako Leaders Forum facilitated by Infinity Learning.

We used this opportunity to share our views with colleagues about the recent Charles Fadel event. We discussed what actions had been taken since and what the response had been from broader groups. 

We also discussed the type of lateral learning relationships that are forming in our Kāhui Ako developments.  The session focussed on the interest/energy/commitment coming from students, teachers and whānau. 

It was great to hear from other Kāhui Ako present ideas about how they intend on sustaining their Kāhui Ako beyond 2020. This allowed us to reflect on our actions in sustaining our own Kāhui Ako.

We were also introduced to a new contract opportunity around Learning Maps, Trends and Support.

The project links three ideas 

• Mapping the interactive web surrounding each student’s learning,  

• Identifying learning trends worth developing to ensure students grow relevant competencies for the future, and

• Engaging appropriate people within the student’s interactive web (peers, professionals and whānau/community) to intensify learning support for students in challenging circumstances.  

Our Kāhui Ako are very interested in becoming involved with this project.

Other News

Our ASLs have been working closely with Jude Parkes from Vision Education to formulate a plan on implementing aspects of learner agency with our WSLs.

The ASLs looked closely at feedback provided from our teachers and the areas they will need more support in. 

July

Kāhui Ako ECE Hui

We began Term 3 with a successful Kāhui Ako ECE Hui, where local ECE centres came along to express an interest in becoming involved in our South East Christian Kāhui Ako.

Learning Maps, Trends and Support

The ASLs are working closely with Brian Annan, Jean Annan and Mary Wootten from Infinity Learning on Learning Maps, Trends and Support. 

The project links three ideas

·      Mapping the interactive web surrounding each student’s learning, 

·      Identifying learning trends worth developing to ensure students grow relevant competencies for the future, and

·      Engaging appropriate people within the student’s interactive web (peers, professionals and whānau/community) to intensify learning support for students in challenging circumstances. 

Over the term, the ASLs plan to implement and trial Learning Maps within their own classrooms. 

August

This month, some WSLs had the opportunity to book a session with Jude Parkes to continue to discuss their inquiry journey with her. Jude has been great at facilitating these sessions and asking WSLs very probing and reflective questions. 

The WSLs also got together at another hui to share their gems and discuss with colleagues what's on top for them. It was very interesting to find out how their perceptions of their role has changed now that they are sitting more comfortably in their roles. One WSL saw themselves as an "influencer as well as an inquirer".

October

Ulearn

The ASLs and Lead Principal were fortunate enough to attend ULearn19 in Rotorua during the school holidays. We attended many breakouts and keynotes that addressed themes of Whanaungatanga, Citizenship, Cultural Responsiveness, Disruption, Innovation and more! We came out of the breakouts feeling inspired and wanting to share our new learning over meals.We are all looking forward to having further discussions back at our own kura about this new learning and finding ways to implement this into our own classroom practice.

WSL Meeting - Celebration of Inquiries

On the 24th of October, the WSLs and ASLs came together to plan together our upcoming Celebration of Inquiries Afternoon. All teachers in our Kahui Ako will have the opportunity to attend sessions led by our ASLs and WSLs, who have discovered some gems while inquiring into their practice this year. The WSLs and ASLs have worked incredibly hard on their inquiries this year and this Celebration will be a great way to connect all our kaiako and share in learning.

2019 Reflections and Learning Maps

The Kahui Ako Leadership team recently reflected on our first year as a fully functioning Kahui Ako. The ASLs and Kahui Ako Lead, with support from Brian Annan, analysed these reflections and looked at the gems and the challenges that our Kahui Ako has faced this year. Our next step will be to re-group with the Leadership team to share our analysis and look at where to next for 2020.

The ASLs also updated Brian on our Learning Maps journey. We are all at different stages of the process, but are beginning to see the benefits of students mapping their learning. This encourages students to be more active in their learning, more collaborative and more innovative to resolve challenges as learners. We discussed how important the interactions are between the learner and the person, place or tool..

November

Inquiry Celebration Day

Tuesday the 19th of November saw many teachers from our Kahui Ako come together to celebrate the variety of Inquiries that had been undertaken by our WSL's this year. 

There were many positives and accolades from teachers, leaders, expert partners and MOE. They were so impressed with the calibre of deep learning and reflection they saw and heard.

January 

At the beginning of 2018 all teachers, support staff and leadership teams came together for a Kāhui Ako Day to share our collective journey. This proved to be a valuable experience as our teaching communities came together for the first time to share thoughts and ideas, listen to our guest speakers, Dr Brian Annan (Infinity Learning) and Dr Howard Youngs (AUT). Igniting true connections across our schools.  

Over the last year our Boards of Trustees Chairs and Deputy Chairs came together for two meetings with the Principals, Ministry of Education, Expert Partner and New Zealand School Trustees Association (NZSTA) personnel to keep our boards informed and up to date with the progress of our Kāhui Ako.

September

In September 2018, the South-East Christian Kāhui Ako hosted the Kāhui Ako Leaders Forum at Sancta Maria Catholic College, where members of Kāhui Ako from all over the country came together to analyse what is happening in other Kāhui Ako and designing road maps for 2019. 

November

November was a busy month for our ASLs. We began the month with a trip to Wellington to attend a Kahui Ako Inquiry Seminar which focussed on Academic Learning Areas and Student Agency. We connected with other Kahui Ako and had rich discussions 

WSL Induction: The WSL Induction day was a great way for our WSLs to meet, network and collaborate. They were informed on how the Kahui Ako was established and unpacked the Learning Framework (https://padlet.com/abegunk/bq397smlqjn8)

School Visits: Throughout November, the ASLs and Lead Principal were fortunate to visit all schools part of our Kahui Ako. This gave us the opportunity to make connections and build relationships. The ASLs gathered vital information about the direction of each school, their goals and Professional Learning they had undertaken.

Planning Days

October

In order to create a sense of community, a consultation and sharing day was organised where two parents, two teachers and a group of students from each school were invited to come together and collectively complete a survey about learning. This was an inspiring day where we saw our communities working  in and across mixed groups of young and older, all supporting each other.

The Data Inquiry Group collated all the surveys from this day and the wider school communities to help inform decisions around our Achievement Challenges. This process is explained in detail later in this document.

September

As a group of Principals and Senior Leaders we have worked collaboratively since September 2016 to form a strong learning community. The connectedness of our Kāhui Ako is our faith. From the beginning we have deliberately focused on building positive relationships and strengthening our understanding of each other’s context. Part of this process included our Principals and Senior Leaders visiting each school as a group. We listened to the leaders of each school talk about their unique journey, areas of strength and challenges moving forward.

What was clearly noted during each school visit was the tangible Charism that shone through, giving us all the strong sense that faith was paramount in every aspect of each school. 

The Principals and Senior Leadership came together on a regular basis to collaborate as a group and to drive our community of learning forward.  We were determined as a group that we would progress carefully and deliberately as we were going through the process of direction forming and creating strong foundations for collective practice. We had a strong sense that “slower is faster” and that collaboration is a continuous journey and needs time to be nurtured and sustained.  

In order to build a clear purpose to forming our Kāhui Ako and to purposeful collaboration, two smaller groups were developed, a Visioning Group and a Data Inquiry Group. These groups would meet regularly and then feed back to the larger group on the progress.