6 August 2021

Post date: Aug 09, 2021 9:10:2 PM

What a finale to the week we have had! Our children and teachers, as you will see in the video, have so many reasons to be so proud. As it says on our school sign, Ka mau te wehi - Grasp the magic! We certainly did!

Sitting behind this, there have been many hours with Henare Parata, our Kapa Haka kaiako as well as plenty of practising at school (and stories I hear .... many at home too!), Whetūkairangi T shirt design and print, funding grants..... passion, commitment and energy to get us to a place where we could totally celebrate and wear the T-shirt proudly.

This is our first ever Kapa Haka Celebration for us, as a Kāhui Ako, a group of schools, in the Eastern Suburbs of our fair city. The vision for our 13 schools at the inception in 2018 was "Collaboration for educational change to strengthen our culture of inclusion and excellence".

The schools being:

    • Evans Bay Intermediate

    • Hataitai School

    • Kahurangi School

    • Kilbirnie School

    • Lyall Bay School

    • Miramar Central School

    • Miramar Christian School

    • Miramar North School

    • Rongotai College

    • Roseneath School

    • Seatoun School

    • Worser Bay School

    • Wellington East Girls College

(Linking with ECEs - but policy-wise they are not included in this model.)

As part of our belonging to this group, we have been able to open up opportunities for our teachers to grow. This has seen Suzanne Kershaw start out as a 'Within School Lead Teacher' and this year appointed to an 'Across School Lead'. Ximena Aitken is now wearing the 'Within School Lead' hat.

It's not without its challenges! Not all contributing schools' children attend these two secondary schools and plenty of students who attend both Wellington East Girls and Rongotai College come from other areas. It makes using NCEA results as a measure of success..., um, difficult!

However... there have been some good moves in terms of building a professional community and increasing understanding for transition points and learning from each other for the good of the children. We are about to review work to date and agree on a new Strategic Plan, including more relevant measures, for the Kahui Ako, so I will let you know when it is drafted.

Another plus is we are having our very first Kāhui Ako wide Staff Only Day in history. Please remember School is closed on Friday 3 September for this event being held at Wellington East Girls College. Suzanne has been part of the 'make it happen' team. Staff from all these schools = immense. The theme is biculturalism - growing understanding of Te Ao Māori.

In addition to this, we have staff attending a range of professional learning through Te Kura Ahurea https://wharewakatours.maori.nz/cultural-engagement/ and also the Ministry of Education project, Te Ahu o Te Reo Māori, which all leads to a strong foundation to keep moving forwards with our work, whilst strongly meeting the Government priorities for schools in NZ.

If you were at the Parent Workshop last night, you will have seen a brief mention of a Māori Health Model - Te Whare Tapa Wha (Mason Durie) which is basically the same as the Flourish model in many ways.

When I reflect on this and the week we have had with Kapa Haka, the Parent Workshop, upcoming Arts Celebration and all the rich learning happening .... well, it's just got to be good for us!

Positive Health - tick; Positive Accomplishment - tick; Positive Emotions - tick; Positive Engagement - tick; Positive Relationships - tick, tick, tick, tick!

We need the ticks adding up so we have plenty in reserves as individuals or the collective us - for when we don't and need to build our supply! Things go wrong and we are all human!

On that note, a massive thanks from me to the staff for their commitment to their own learning, in order to do best by our children who are wearing that black and white T-shirt with kaha!