Making Connections with our iwi and HPPS

Lots to highlight in this post:

Iwi Consultation:

We have been so fortunate to have such high quality support and engagement from the local iwi Ngati Whatua O Kaipara.  It began with the gifting of our school name, alignment with our school vision and continues with support in aligning the cultural narrative to our school approach including our logo, branding and learning hub names.  Tracy Davis and Te Rongopai Morehu have been hugely instrumental and generous with their time and knowledge.  Tracy also connected us with Graeme Tipene who is a talented designer who worked with us to develop our logo, which will also begcome the framework for our learning model.  Te Rongopai and her colleague Dawn Piper have also gifted us PL time this term working with our SLT to ensure we are honouring the history of the local area, including appropriate tikanga in our process development and in selecting our whakatauki for our kainga (learning hubs).  They have also gifted us the names and stories of four animal with significance to the iwi to use symbolically for our kainga.  We'd also like to thank both Dawn and Te Rongopai for translating our mihi and planning ahead with us for Term 4 PL (we have applied for MOE PLD Funding to heighten our Te Reo and Tikanga knowledge- fingers crossed).

See all of our work in our Cultural Narrative document.

Growing our Team
I have been working with Alan Curtis to develop our process for recruiting our Office Administrator who will start in Term 3.  We have had a lot of interest and applications and interview our shorlist of candidates on Friday.

First Time Principal Support

My FTP support continues as well with meeting with Brian Gower who has provided me with essential advice and support with connecting at the MOE level.  Highlights from our March Hui included Appraisal with Dr Wendy Moore, Julien Le Sueur- Getting to Know Your Ministry, Carmel Riordon- Financial Mgmt and Patrick Ikiua from the NZSTA on Governance tips.

Here are my notes from the useful FTP Huis as well.


Immersion in our Current Context
Opportunities abound here at HPPS to learn from and with the team.  Kirstin and I joined in on a TOD session led by Daniel and Lisa that both inducted, grounded and guided their team into their approach to conceptual curriculum design.  So much goodness to borrow from their approach.  We also had an in depth tour of HPPS with Lisa who provided highlights of their leadership and learning journey as they have grown from 50 to 500 since opening.  She talked about how they are working to infuse more play based learning approaches to enhance their learner centred, dispositional approach to T&L.  There was also talk aout how they are focusing on HOW devices are being used in the school to maximise the impact of device use, while increasing exposure to and use of other media for learning.  We were also gifted some time with Kristyn, one of the DPS, who delved deeply with us into their coaching approach- including some very useful advice and some questions we can use to frame our MATEs (Mutually Agreed Team Expectations) which we will develop for the SLT in Term 2.  Kristyn is an absolute think tank and we will be hounding her for more insights along the way!

3 Brains Overflowing - NZEALs Conference with Mel and Bev

On April 18th to 20th I was fortunate to attend the New Zealand Educational Administration Leadership Society conference at the Pullman Hotel in Auckland. This organization supports leadership and innovation in education sectors in New Zealand. They have strong networks across primary, secondary and tertiary education institutions and are known for sharing research as well as quality practice while supporting aspiring and existing leaders.

I attended the conference with the lovely and lively Mel Bland and Bev Aerenga from Te Uho O Te Nikau. We thought that the conference was well organized with a range of inspirational think leaders as presenters providing us with a smorgasbord of learning around reconceptualusing leadership in Aotearoa. It was clear to us that a lot of thought had been put into the design of the three-day conference as each day had a different Focus.  For example Wednesday was about leadership for cultural inclusivity Thursday focused on leadership for collaboration and Friday was all about leadership for sustainability. 

My thinking was challenged around how we engage Maori and Pacifika communities within our New Zealand education sector. We were provoked as educational leaders to consider how we could should and need to enact change in our schools to ensure equity while remembering that the context of each individual school and surrounding community is central to how we do this. Organizational change requires leadership, relationships and project management skills and in order to enact this change we need to be transformative servant leaders. 
See all of my notes here and my Synopsis below. 

Kicking things off we were immersed in the aspirations of Chris Hipkins, Minister of Education who reminded us that educational leadership, not governance, will make the biggest difference for our learners and that we have the responsibility to empower the teaching profession by unleashing the potential of the NZC without the constraints of National Standards. And closing the conference was Professor Martin Thrupp from U of W emphasising the importance of policy and being brave leaders through our individual and collective leadership voice. Tahu Kukutai (UoW) challenged us to consider if we are working towards diversity or divergence and proclaims that Maori have been removed from the conversation at the policy level for too long.  The professor asks how are we addressing racism and colonialism in our education system when more than 10% of people identify with multiple ethnicities and more than half of Maori identify with another ethnicity? If Te Tirit o Waitangi is essentially our first immigration policy, how are we honouring this? Do we as a nation view Maori as a problem to solve and migrants as a resource?  What is our vision for national belonging and how can we embrace an indigenous disposition? A lot of questions with little time for discussion on possible solutions. Fortunately, Professor Melinda Webber (UoA) reminded us of the aspirations within Ka Hikatea and the 8 characteristics (Ka Awatea) for realising Maori potential. Local leaders Deidre Alderson, Laurie Thew and Di Cavallo share how their schools embrace and respond to cultural diversity highlighting the need for cultivating a sense of belonging through visible values, strong educator-learner relationships, effective transitions to school and how doing what we do when we don’t know what to do (as leaders) sets the tone for our school community.  Additionally, Sue Dockett, ECE expert from University of Australia suggested that effective school transitions are seamless, invisible, peaceful and to achieve these we must examine the: opportunities, aspirations, expectations and entitlements of those involved.  How do we develop social respect, personal regard, competence and perceived integrity as we induct whanau into our schools? Damon Salesa charismatically provoked us with the fact that future Pasifka leaders are here in NZ, and we have segregated ourselves socioeconomically and ethnically, so how are we growing this leadership resource?  If we know disruptive innovation occurs in areas of disadvantage and every single Decile 10 ten school outperformed every single Decile 1 school what does the future hold? Noelen Wright shared her research on how educators and learners make sense of an ILE (Rotouna), the nature of collaboration and involving community in learning authentically, calling for leaders to think and act differently.  Her learning identified the difficulties and struggles of leading in ILEs which aligned with the message from Rachael McNae (UoW) who highlights the importance of relational leadership- why is change so unnatural in human organisations? Ross Notman, University of Otago, outlined his research on what effective principals do→  1.Leading T&L, Support for staff PL 3.Care for our OWN personal and PL 4. Collaborative Leadership Strategies  5. Intrapersonal leadership. Dr Bruce Barnett, University of Texas shares explores the differences between mentoring (expertise, longer)  coaching (skills based) and counseling (emotional) and how these feature in our development and induction of emerging leaders. Dr Howard Youngs proclaimed we are human beings not human doings and asks “what’s damaging the conditions of learning, teaching and research in your organisation?”  While Murray Fletcher reminded us that the hardest thing to shift is a person's beliefs. What do I/we stand for? How can we go about connecting head, heart and hand because modern leadership needs integrative thinkers and thinking!  What are the cognitive, psychological and social aspects of effective leadership?

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!

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.

Enlightening and Inspiring - Di and Mel visit some incredible Christchurch Schools

Wow!

After the amazing learning and connecting and ideating we did in Sydney during the SingulairtyU Conference, Mel and I wasted no time and promptly returned to Auckland for one night (me to attend my friends final concert as The D4 and Mel to migrate her pooch Guchi to new doggysitters) and then we were off to Christchurch early Friday morning to visit schools.

We met at the airport, with Mel's Board Chair, Karen Gibson and trustee, Lionel Mickell in tow.  I rented us a car and we drove straight to Waimari School to meet with Mike Anderson, Principal (and for an observation of a prospective TUONT DP!).

We were blown away with the candor, honesty and sheer brilliance that were bombarded with at Waimari and that continued as we visited Rolleston, Haeata, Ao Tawhiti Discovery, Haeata Campus and Waitakiri Schools.  I used the Supporting Future Oriented Learning & Teaching article  that the NZCER Published in 2012 to frame my noticings and takeaways from these, and other, school visits during term 1.

Thank you so much to the leaders in these schools for sharing your learning, approaches and advice with us new school principals!

Key takeaways from each school can be viewed in the following slides (Slides 5-19).

                          

SingularityU Synergy - Akoranga Adventure with Mel

My Exponential and Abundant Learning at #SUAU18 - UNDERSTAND. ADAPT. THRIVE.

Re-spect means to look again so for me the SingularityU Australia Summit was the convergence of transformative thinking from experts in artificial intelligence, technology, robotics, medicine, biotechnology, criminology, public policy.  The experience empowered me to appreciate and visualise where we’ve come, where we’re going, and what’s possible for humanity in the face of accelerated change and technological empowerment.  As an educational leader charged with opening a new school, it is imperative for me to stay informed, aware and resilient because the future is now.  We owe it to our learners to arm them with the the permission to imagine, a growth mindset and the adaptable skills they need to engage with the, yet to be imagined, exponentially technological and innovative opportunities of tomorrow.   

"The future is limitless. We need to encourage the imaginations of our children to shape this future with hope and possibilities." - Edie Weiner

Our world is no longer on the cusp of exponential change, it is well within it!  Moore’s Law dictates exponential growth and both the rate of improvement and amplification potential of technological advances is no longer linear.  It would seem that we will be in a global place of inequity in terms of technology and resources but Tiago Mattos challenges this mindset with a mental model of abundance, rather than one of scarcity.  As the primary leader of learning at Matua Ngaru School it is essential that I ensure that our systems are designed with this in mind and this will first require careful unpacking of our vision and alignment of this to everything we do.  What do we believe as a school community?

“The first step to making a difference is realising we actually can, realising one person can make a change and that we need to show up and stand up for what is right.”  ~David Roberts

What will we do at Matua Ngaru School to expand horizons through imagination, to say ‘yes’, to foster creativity, to solve problems, to get it wrong to get it right and to nurture wonderful, compassionate, critically thinking human beings who want to contribute positively to the world by believing they can make a difference? I hope to develop a curriculum and pedagogical approach that makes Matua Ngaru School a ‘billionaire’ school that grows kind, curious change agents who can collectively touch a billion lives. So how can we become a place that nurtures the soft skills that future work will require? Our NZC is a wonderful guide, especially the values, principles and key competencies which will frame our learning design and ready our learners for work in the future spaces Edie Weiner predicts as vertical farmers, food printing specialists, compost designers, global policy makers or even AI food designers!‘

In addition, the opportunities that our vision of ‘ubiquitous learning, on a wave of change’ affords are #limitless. We have a wonderful community where we can innovate- looking at the things that matter to our learners. Will our school be a place where ideas will be born, ideated, prototyped, tested, failed and iterated again? Yes!  I believe that we will make our school a place that breathes the philosophy that ‘you can’t break an idea’, where you can contribute to science as a child by being bio-curious or acting as a citizen scientist and a place that is forever on a wave of change.  What an exciting place this will be!  Impossible = I’m possible. Let’s be #futurehunters!!

"I'm very optimistic. The best is yet to come – but there's one area I'm worried about... A crisis of imagination. Because of exponential technologies, your reach exceeds your imagination. So the biggest risk is not thinking big enough." – Amin Toufani

#ubiquitous   #abundance  #disruption   #globalgrandchallenges   #4DPrinter   #ubiquitousrobotos #virtualVERSUSreality   #innovate  #MooresLaw  #everythingisenergy   #bio-curious    #limitless #futurism  #youcan’tbreakanidea   #templosion  #bebrave #exponential   #liquidbiopsy #citizenscientists   #cryptocurrency   #BAANGFUEL   #hackitup #re-spect #convergence #waitbutwhy #cyborg   #humanity #compassion

A manic two weeks of planning and learning!

Week 2 and 3 have been manic!

What the haps highlights:

• Budget- continued work on the budget in preparation for the Board Meeting
• Met with Georgina and Paul from Spotless to begin the FF&E review
• Updated the Team with the events and plans for the first month
• Engaged with TELA to procure a device for myself and the DPs
• Worked on the creation of a vision media to share with the communicaty
• Visited Ken White at the MOE to discuss some queries around staffing and funding
• Met with Phil from Torque IP to discuss the IT infrastructure that will suit our needs
• Met with Roy Fletcher from NZEI to learn more about how to engage with this organisation
• Communication with School Docs to set up our school with a site for policies and procedures
• First official Board meeting of 2018 held at Huapai District School

Key Learning:
FTP Meetings were fruitful.  First meeting with Brian Gower (FTP Leadership Advisor) to discuss how the support will work with the First Time Principal's Programme.  It turns out that as I am in the establishment year of my school, I will receive three years of support.  Brian suggested that I hold off on enlisting an official mentor, and that aligned well with my thinking, as I am currently being unofficially mentored by Daniel @HPPS, Luke @OJC and Heath @OrmPS.  I will likely be in a better position to identify an 'official' mentor next year.  Other items we covered were my appraisal, tips and tricks for leadership info gathering, collaboration with other schools, budgeting advice, the leadership dimensions, the role of the Board Chair and Governance Facilitator and suggested professional learning/readings for me.  We will meet twice a term and I keep an agenda/notes of these.

I have also spent a few days with Mel Bland (who is anything but!) from Te Uho O Te Nikau.  We visited Ken White at the Ministry to gain clarity on how our schools are funded, to gain access to the associated policy, to get copies of the 'blue dot' map for our schools and to pitch for increased staffing.  Mel, Tony, Gen and I, along with our Boards, are all keen to have the Ministry review their policy around how new primary schools are staffed to gain equity with junior colleges/high schools.  We would like to be able to recruit and hire the Learning Coaches for Term 4 of this year.  Ken has suggested we contact Resourcing and that is our next step.  In addition to this, Mel and I met with Phil from Torque IP to review the maps of our schools and discuss IT infrastructure and procurement. I am very excited about how we can align our vision, the needs of our learners with future focused digital technologies.  Procurement will start in Term 2.  Other points covered in our meetings included:

• Planning our trip to Sydney for the SingularityU Conference
• Planning our trip to Christchurch to visit recommended schools
• Isthmus planting designs for both schools- lovely designs for both schools
• PL Plan- we are keen to band together to share PL costs for some 'retreat weekends' in Term 4 (if we do not get our staffing requests approved, we do get funding to release the teachers we appoint for 5 days in term 4) and we identified a number of other local, national and global PL opportunities that could be enlightening 
• Shared and discussed the Principal Report formats that each are using with their EBoT

But... the standout learning highlight of the past two weeks for me was joining in (crashing?) the Flat Bush Schools PL at Ormiston Junior College that featured Tony Burkin from Interlead.  Tony challenged us all to unpack and strive for Stretch Collaboration in our quest to lead "Metanoia".  Moving from Conventional Collaboration where we Force- Adapt-Exit to Stretch Collaboration involves us accepting that there cannot always be harmony within relationships:

• Stretch #1 recognise that people have different ideas- dialogue and fighting take place and are preferred to silence.  (Leader- foster DISSONANCE)
• Stretch #2 Adapt- experiment with finding a way forward, take risks to see what works rather than trying to build the ultimate plan in advance before committing (Leader- cannot be people pleaser)
• Stretch #3 we cannot control what other people will do.  Shift in how we understand our role (Leader from director to contributor) in the problem-solution.   "Ïf you can't see how you are part of the problem then it follows logically there no way you can be part of the solution except from the outside through force".  

So whatever the problem is... well-being, culture, accountability-responsibility, work-life balance, providing thinking space, educator voice, building team, PD vs PL, grit/growth mindset, failing is learning, expertise, defining our role... we have to use Stretch Collaboration.  This will take considerable learning and discomfort to embed as standard practice within our teams in our schools.  See my brain dump from the day in my blog post here.


What's coming up:
Looking forward to Sydney!

(see the next blog post for the awesomeness from SingularityU !)