100 Languages of Children PL

On March 24 Mel and I particpated in a wonderful day of learning about Reggio Emilia approaches at the Pakuranga Baptist Kindy.  Please see my notes below to capture the essence of their wondrous ways that found us so incredibly inspired!

From our values and beliefs to our principles and practices...early work with the SLT

#Dreamteam

Our team has been spending a great deal of time (their own time I might add) enthusiastically contributing to our curriculum development.   Kirstin, Wendy, Heike, Michael, Megan (EBoT) and I worked together on two Fridays after school in Term 1 to begin this very important work.  I am very pleased that I was able to appoint all four of these amazing educators last year so that they could contribute to this pivotal and foundational work before they are employed.

This of course begins with a firm grounding and shared understanding of our vision, uncovering our beliefs about learning to form our learning values and this will then lead to the construction of our curriculum framework which will underpin our approach to teaching, learning and assessment.  We used the following slides to guide our process.

Sharing our journey -ERO Visit #2 March 12

We hosted the team from ERO- Deb Jolly, Cynthia Manion and Graham Tregaweth on March 12 at Hobsonville Primary School.  We had lots of news to share with them since Alan and I met with them in November of last year.  The Board and I spent a number of hours with them sharing our progress to date using 12 criteria that they had suggested last year.  You can see these slides below.  We are confident that we assured them that we are very much on track to a successful opening.  Thank you to Alan, Megan, Dianne, Te Rongopai and James who supported me while we shared our progress report.

Powerful Connections and Purposeful Learning - New School Principals PLG @HPPS

A different kind of CoL!

Our new school principal PLG began in 2017 with the purpose of sharing and collaborating as we all move towards developing and opening our new schools.  Tony Grey- Te Ao Marama School in Hamilton, Gen Fuller- Taumata School in Tauranga, Mel Bland- Te Uho O Te Nikau and myself decided to join forces and share insights, resources and challenges along the way.


In Term 4 of 2017 we had our first face to face meeting which Tony coordinated for us at Endeavour School with principal Marcus Freke.  Endeavour opened the same year that Ormiston Primary (my previous school) did and he shared with us the journey that he, his leadership team, his teachers and his learners have been on to date.  Focusing of course on issues pertinent with opening a new school, emphasising the establishment phase, staffing and lessons learned. We also toured his school, Stage 1 (2015) and Stage 2 (2016-2017). As Marcus guided us on the tour he discussed the furniture choices, how the spaces are used and the rationale behind the changes made between the two stages.

In Term 1 of this year, on March 5th, I hosted our PLG at Hobsonville Point Primary School.  Tony and Mel stayed at Chateau Wilkes the night before and we enjoyed getting to know each other a little better before the 'mega learning' ensued.Daniel Birch, principal shared his highlights of opening a new school and provided sound advice on what to focus on and why.  He suggested that we make sure that we take time for ourselves to do some learning- we won't this this time again, but not to re-invent the wheel.  Focus on the two questions: what is powerful learning and what is powerful to learn with our foundation teams and gain clarity around what this means for us.  He also shared their collaborative recruitment process, use of the Hermann's Brain model to develop an understanding of each other and the importance of what the vision is, means and ensure all own it!  He also suggested some key thought leaders: Julia Atkin, Guy Claxton, Mere Berryman, Hattie etc. we could engage with and some stand out professional readings: enGauge 21st Century Skills, Literacy in the Digital Age https://pict.sdsu.edu/engauge21st.pdf . Lastly, he shared with us how his staff uses coaching. Ultimately, his big piece of advice is to be responsive to what's in front of us and get other principals (be careful of your advice Dan!) to come and speak to our teams.
We then took a tour of the school (it amazes me how much 'new stuff' I notice about their approach each time I walk around) to showcase their lovely school and the diverse, yet cohesive, approaches they use to deliver their conceptual, learning values and dispositions based curriculum while discussing how they have evolved since they opened 6 years ago.We spent the rest of the day discussing matters such as our school names, visions, logos, cultural narratives, property matters, staffing issues & future PL opportunities. We're looking forward to our next PLG - likely to be at Rototuna where Tony is currently based.