Designing a Future Focused Leadership Team

Designing a future focused leadership team was one of my first priorities when I was appointed as Foundation Principal at Matua Ngaru.  We know that having the best people, committed to the "ubiquitous learning, on a wave of change" vision is essential to our success.  I had discussions with the EBoT at the first board meeting I attended and all were in agreement that we wanted to appoint our Deputy Principals as soon as possible.  Fantastic!  But wait there's more.  Reflecting on my learning from establishing Ormiston Primary School as a foundation Deputy Principal, I made a pitch.  My pitch was based on creative ways to recruit Lead Learning Coaches for Term 4, 2018.  Why?  Because time for induction of the leadership team and educators needs to be a top priority and a huge takeaway for me from my time at OrmPS is that you need time to induct well.  So my rationale was to recruit two Lead Learning Coaches (LLCs) in addition to the Deputy Principals (DPs) all to start in 2018.  I worked with the Board, our governance facilitator and staff at the Ministry to use our establishment year staffing creatively.  My hope was for one DP to start in Term 2, one DP to start in Term 3 and the 2 LLCs to start in Term 4- effectively costing us the equivalent of one educator for one term.  So we designed our recruitment process with Cognition Education as follows:

For DPs:
What we did:

• Advertise in the gazette with an application pack that included a job description and person specifications
• Shortlist to 6-8 with EBoT using a ranking matrix
• Visit applicants in their current school
• Informal meet and greet at cafe
• Shortlist again to 4-5
• Final Interview and presentation with EBoT and Principal
• Letter of Offer signed and Appointments made

What we noticed: that we had a diverse range of experience and expertise in our candidates. Because it was so important for us to design a team of complimentary skills, personalities and experience we looked closely at how each demonstrated leadership capability and capacity, genuine enthusiasm for the role and a proven growth mindset.  We found that our process gave us multiple 'performance pieces' to critique and learn about our shortlisted candidates and the school visits and informal coffee sessions were very valuable components of our decision making process.  

Our appointments: we were thrilled to offer the positions to:

• Wendy Ness, an experienced DP and acting principal from Henderson Primary School who demonstrated a passion and committment to leading a future focused school with proven experience partnering with community, leading the learning of educators and advocating powerfully for all learners
• Kirstin Anderson-McGhie, an experienced Vertical Team Leader and Connected Educator who demonstrated a growth mindest and committment to lifelong learning along with influencing change for learning with digital technologies, trialing innovative approaches and championing her learners and colleagues

For LLCs:
What we did:

• Advertise in the gazette with an application pack that included a job description and person specifications
• Shortlist to 12 with EBoT using a ranking matrix
• Collaboration evening: applicants to conduct a personality test and participate in the NZCERs Curriculum for the Future game with 3 Board trustees acting as the Panel, Principal and DPs acting as ethnographers/observers and candidates randomly placed in 4 teams of 3 each representing one of the curriculum options:
1. Competencies Curriculum
2. Co-developed with Learners Curriculum
3. Artificial Intelligence Curriculum
4. The Localised Curriculum
• Shortlist to 5-6 with EBoT
• Visit applicants in their current school
• Final Interview and presentation with EBoT and SLT
• Letter of Offer signed and Appointments made

What we noticed: that we had a room full of high quality, invested candidates.  The passion and enthusiasm that each candidate demonstrated was truly amazing.  Again, the multiple performance pieces, along with references, painted a picture for what we could anticipate.  We needed to balance this with ensuring our team had the depth and breadth of skills required for leading change within our expected junior heavy school.

Our appointments: our leadership team design completed when we appointed our successful applicants:

• Heike Micheel - an experienced educator who successfully moved a team towards innovative learning pedagogies in a traditional school with 5 and 6 year olds in a team of 4.  A proven learner herself and an agent of change who has provocated and advocated for collaborative learning approaches, Heike, who hails originally from Germany, absolutely enhances our SLT with her junior expertise
• Michael Davidson - a global educator, Google Innovator and MakerEdNZ initiator has been a mover and a shaker when it comes to innovative learning approaches and integration of STEM in NZ schools. Michael is a Canadian who is passionate for how digital technologies can leverage the learning and amplify learning experiences for all of our learners.

Update: Lastly, in Term 2 we advertised and appointed our Office Administrator.  This is a person who has a role pivotal to the Strategic Leadership Team and the Board was thrilled to appoint Amanda Culverwell who has a passion for learning, a love for learners and a commitment to our school.

and so we are the ... Matua Ngaru #DreamTeam:                                          

			Office Administrator:   ~Amanda Culverwell Principal:   ~Diana Wilkes Deputy Principals:   ~Kirstin Anderson-McGhie & Wendy Ness Lead Learning Coaches:   ~Michael Davidson and Heike Micheel Learning Coaches & Support Staff: ~TBD

See the advertisements here.

Initial Community Consultation Evening at Huapai District School

What a privilege it was to meet with members of our community last night.  We had a fantastic turnout of over 80 people and it was great to share some of our initial thinking around our new kura.  Our Board spent a rainy Saturday doing a flyer drop to advertise the evening to most of the homes in our proposed zone a couple of weeks before the evening and we think this certainly helped!  John Petrie was very accomodating in allowing us to hos tthis event at his school and we a grateful for the support and generosity of spirit from our soon to be neighbor.

A major highlight of the evening were having Tracy Davis open the evening with a karakia and sharing with everyone how our school got its name.  We also had John McCulloch, a representative from the Private Public Partnership ShapEd consortium, share the 'fly through' of the school design and answer a few questions.

I then had the opportunity to share some embryonic thinking around our school vision and our approach to teaching & learning including how this would be situated in an innovative learning environment through collaborative pedagogy.  Alan fielded queries about our proposed enrolment zone as well.  After the presentation, the members of the board made themselves available to answer questions around the school design, enrolments, iwi consultation and the general nature of the school to come.  In addition, James Le Marquand, the principal from Arohanui Special School, was able to speak to community members about how our partnership will work within the Matua Ngaru School site. It is an exciting time!  See the slides from the evening below.

#ubiquitouslearning #waveofchange

Te Kura Tuatahi o Matua Ngaru

The Matua Ngaru School adventure begins... 

Actually, it began for me in June 2017 when the Establishment Board of Trustees appointed me as principal and co-opted me onto the Board.  A lot of work had been completed already including drafting the school zone with principals and BoT representatives from local schools: Huapai District School, Waimauku School, Taupaki School and Riverhead School.
The Establishment Board also successfully coordinated the renaming of the school from Kumeu Primary School to Matua Ngaru School:

The Ngati Whatua chief of the Waimauku/Huapai district could see the changes occurring to the land where his iwi lived by the Kaipara River. He climbed Pukeatua Mountain seeking spiritual support and guidance as to what he must do.  He witnessed the approach of a great wave coming up the river against the river current. This sign gave him reason to descend to his village where he instructed his iwi to move the village to the edge of the track that had been cleared in preparation for future changes. That track became the railway line that is still in use today and the road that crosses over the line is called Matua.  Matua Ngaru refers to the vision that the chief had seen from Pukeatua. Hence the name “Te Kura Tuatahi o Matua Ngaru”

Being appointed so early on meant that I was able to participate in some milestone events including the soil turning at the site of our kura, meeting with ERO in the pre-establishment year and designing a recruitment process for Deputy Principals and Lead Learning Coaches with Cognition Education.  I was also co-opted onto the Establishment Board of Trustees.

As a Board, we began co-constructing our vision in July with the guidance of our Governance Facilitator- Micheal King, Board Chair- Alan Curtis and iwi influence from Te Rongopai Morehu and Tracy Davis who are with Ngati Whatua o Kaipara.  The result:

Ubiquitous Learning, on a Wave of Change

See some of our work here:

I feel so fortunate to have had this time with the Board before I started as Principal as it enabled me to build relationships, understand more about governance and begin to ideate our way forward at Matua Ngaru.