26 November 2012

Kia ora koutou,

After a lot of to-ing and fro-ing we have worked out a timetable for the 2013 wānanga. We also intend to hold a national conference for He Kākano schools next year Monday 11 – Tuesday 12 March. See below. This national conference will be focussed on middle leaders and take place before the Wānanga 6. We will confirm the programme in the last communiqué for 2013.
We also intend to run two conferences in Terms 3 and/or 4 – one in the South Island and one in the North Island. We will confirm dates for those once we get feedback from the National Advisory Group.

1.    Wānanga  6, 2013 – Timetable

He Kākano Wānanga 6 Venues & Dates 2013

Note:
•    The dates are set. All venues have yet to be confirmed. Watch this space.
•    South Island schools requested their wānanga be held during the holidays, so we have accommodated that need.
•    We have tried to avoid clashes with regional and national events (e.g. SPANZ symposium, National Sports week, Polyfest etc.) as much as possible. Apologies in advance if there are still anomalies. We did our best.
•    While the focus is on engaging larger numbers of middle leaders, we still expect to see senior leaders at the wānanga to provide support. These will be the last in the series, so we expect a good turnout!
•    We will let you all know the timetable for the wānanga early next year.

2.    He  Kākano National Conference  - Monday 11th and Tuesday 12th March 2013

The focus of this conference will be on developing middle leaders’ engagement in the He Kākano programme, as a pre-cursor to the series of Wānanga 6 to follow. It is open to all He Kākano schools.

We will be asking researchers and developers of key Ministry documents (e.g. Rangiātea, Tātaiako) to provide workshops.

There will be no fees to attend this conference. We will pay travel and accommodation for up to three staff members from each school to attend.
We will provide more details in each communiqué.

3.    Articulating the He Kākano Model

If you were asked by a staff member to explain what the He Kākano programme was about, would you be able to do that clearly and relatively succinctly? What would the key messages in your school be? What would you want staff to be able to repeat? What would you want Māori students to say about it?

We ask these questions because the University of Victoria team evaluation team said that, in their recent experience, school leaders find it challenging to clearly articulate what the programme means without, in some cases, leaving the Māori students feeling they were being unfairly singled out ‘because the school said they were under-performing’.

We want to make it quite clear that this is as much about school leadership and staff change, achievement and successful performance as it is about improving Māori student achievement and success. The He Kākano umbrella is complex, so we have begun developing a one page diagrammatic model that will help leaders talk to others about what they are doing in detail (if they want), without losing sight of the big picture. This will be backed by a one pager written piece describing the model and the two key frameworks involved. The Manutaki will bring these to you as discussion pieces.

4.    To  finish – A Story from Queens High School, Dunedin

Thank you to Julie Anderson, Principal Queens High School for sharing this story about Anna with us. We will include other stories from Julie and other schools in the next communiqué. Although we can all tell stories about an ‘Anna’ in our own school, what particularly strikes the He Kākano team is the way Julie continues to provide the kind of leadership for her staff that is needed to change students’ lives for the better.

Anna
Anna was the oldest of five children and lived with her Mum. She came to Queen’s at the start of year 10 from another school. She had apparently had an unsettled year in her year 9 class, where she didn’t engage and was unhappy. Year 10 brought further challenges and she struggled with attendance and engaging in class. It was a matter of passive resistance – she would arrive late to school and leave school early, often not returning after sneaking out for a smoke at lunchtime. She continually wore the school uniform incorrectly.

After refusing to go on the year 10 camp, we managed to get Anna to go by providing her with financial support. The teachers on the camp saw a different side to Anna from the surly disengaged year 10 student we saw at school, because she really engaged with the outdoor activities and helped in the kitchen and with the clean-up.  

Although her attendance in year 11 was still only around 55%, Anna was a bright student and managed to get NCEA Level 1. She often linked with new students to the school who were transient or in difficulty, which meant she didn’t establish close links with the wider group of girls at her year level.

At the start of year 12 Anna looked like she may have to leave the school due to her smoking habit. In order to manage this we organised that Anna went home (which was nearby school) every lunchtime at her Mum’s request. This allowed her to get through the day. This was linked with conditions around engaging with the Health Nurse’s Stop Smoking package, being monitored by the Guidance Counsellor, and wearing correct uniform - including the right shoes!

Anna’s attendance and progress changed over year 12, but not overnight.

On reflecting on her progress in the school as a year 12 student, Anna described herself as having “low self-esteem and not many friends” in the junior school. (Her best friend in year 10, a Māori student, left school at the end of that year and has since had a baby).

So, what happened to Anna in year 12?  There are a number of factors we can identify. First, Anna was part of a Young Enterprise Scheme (YES) team that worked with the Breast Cancer Foundation, selling bras that were embossed with daffodil slogans. This group provided Anna with a new group of friends and high motivation to achieve team goals. Secondly, she engaged with the Economics teacher and enjoyed the self–directed, group-focused nature of this class. Anna’s team won the local prize for the finance section, which was Anna’s area of responsibility. Third, Anna’s other passion was working with children, and she completed our Early Childhood Course in which she gained numerous Level 3 credits. She also did the Gateway Course working in an Early Childhood Centre, as well as undertaking café work on Wednesdays. Fourth, Anna’s English teacher is known for forming particularly strong relationships with students and giving a lot of extra help. This helped build her confidence and motivated her to work hard in this subject area. Anna’s English teacher was delighted to tell me that Anna had won one of the Excellence awards for year 12 English.

I knew Anna did not have a computer at home and invited her mother to be part of our Computers in Homes programme. After being unsure if she could come, Anna’s Mum was the star of the course and gained special mention at our celebration award evening, when she received a computer for the home. At this event I spoke to her about how pleased we were with Anna’s progress and her great results in English. She said to me, “She wants to achieve now. She is going to go to University”.  By October this year, Anna had already gained her NCEA Level 3 as a year 12 student, from the standards she had attained in the Early Childhood and Gateway courses.  She has now decided that she will continue to year 13 and get her University Entrance in university-approved subjects.

Anna still wears the wrong shoes and doesn’t bring her blazer, but she did look perfect on the morning she spoke to the ERO team. She has stopped having to leave school to smoke at lunchtime and now smiles at me in the corridor. Her attendance is better - around 75% - but still needs improvement. She now has a computer at home with Ultrafast Broadband delivered through the school.

Thank you everyone. We have more good stories to come yet..

Mauri ora,
Paora and Hine

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