Webinar: Strengthening local curriculum

Speaker 1 – Rahera Ormsby: 

Tēnā koutou katoa kua huihui mai i te ahiahi nei. 

Welcome everyone to this webinar. Before we start this important kauapapa, let us begin with karakia. 

Me inoi tatou. 

Unuhia te pō, te pō whiri marama 

Tomokia te ao, te ao whatu tangata 

Tātai ki runga, tātai ki raro 

Tātai aho rau 

Haumi e hui e, Tāiki e! 

Kei aku ringa whatu, kei aku ihu oneone, kei aku ringa raupā mai i nga pā harakeke o te mātauranga, nau mai haere mai ki te kaupapa kua whatungia nei e tatou hei kahukura haumaru mō nga rangi e heke mai ana. He uri tēnei nō Ngāti Kahungungu. He kaimahi ahau mō Tātai Āho Rau. Ko Rahera Ormsby taku ingoa. Tīhei, mauri ora. 

I would just like to acknowledge all of you who are joining us today from all around Aotearoa. I'm Rahera, sending you all a warm welcome here from Tauranga Moana. 

Speaker 2 – Ngaire Shepherd-Wills: 

Tēna koutou katoa. Ko Ruahine te maunga. Ko Tukituki te awa. Ko Waipukurau tōku tūrangawaewae. E noho ana au ki Ōtautahi. Ko Ngaire Shepherd-Wills ahau. 

Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Ngaire based in warm, but very windy - we've got a nor’west day here in Christchurch. It's great to have you all here as part of this webinar. 

Speaker 3 – Angela Clements: 

Kia ora koutou katoa. Ko England, ko Ireland ngā whenua ō ōku tīpuna. Ko Te Mata te maunga, ko Tukituki te awa, ko Heretaunga tōku tūrangawaewae. Ko Angela Clements ahau. Kia ora. Huihui mai tātou katoa. 

I feel like I know you all. I've been greeting you as you joined us, but welcome everyone. I'm joining you today from the absolutely gorgeous Kowhai Coast north of Auckland. Thank you so much for joining us for this one-hour webinar, and, uh, to those of you who shared questions, a special thanks. We've made every effort to weave these into the content for the webinar, and thank you for guiding the shape of today's presentation.  

To set the scene today, we've taken the opportunity to showcase the vision whakataukī from the recent report, Strengthening Education with All New Zealanders. 

Whakamaua te pae tata kia tina. Whaia te pae tawhiti kia tata. 

Take a hold of your potential so it becomes your reality. Explore beyond the distant horizon and draw near. 

At the heart of this beautiful whakataukī is the kaupapa for local curriculum, which should be built on the relationships among local community members, learners, their whānau, hapū, iwi and the school. 

When we think about our national curriculum, we want to enact this so that every student experiences opportunities to learn and progress through a curriculum that values their identity, language and culture, and values their strengths and aspirations. And those of their whānau. Ngaire will frame our session today a little further now. Thanks Ngaire.  

Ngaire: 

Kia ora Angela. We will be guiding you through a series of slides and sharing insights gained from the recent local curriculum workshops. These were offered to some schools by the ministry in the first half of 2019. You will also have the chance to hear from Leanne Apiti of Kāwhia School on how partnering with mana whenua enhances local curriculum and relationships for learning. 

You will all be very familiar with the vision of The New Zealand Curriculum. Young people who will be confident, connected, actively involved, lifelong learners. We want all of our young people to have meaningful learning experiences. It is from there that we begin to understand the purpose of local curriculum design. 

The New Zealand Curriculum is a broad framework. This means that schools and kura have the flexibility to design local curriculum that meets the needs and aspirations of their learners and whānau. This broad framework can be made tangible and enacted through the involvement of whānau and community members participating in local curriculum review and design. Here, at the front and heart of our national curriculum, is the pivotal message around partnership with mana whenua and developing and strengthening relationships to co-design local curriculum.  

I'll now hand over to Rahera, who will share about what it means to be a treaty partner in Aotearoa.  

Rahera: 

Thanks Ngaire. Ngā mihi nui. Over the next few slides, we'll be looking at how we might support learning communities to design a future focused localised curriculum that enables equity and success for all. Te Tiriti o Waitangi is the founding document of Aotearoa New Zealand. When educators understand and enact Te Tiriti o Waitangi in policy, organisation, and practice, all learners have the opportunity to learn about and honour their dual heritage and serve Māori effectively. The teaching profession has a collective responsibility to provide a leadership approach that enables Māori and their whānau to learn, achieve, and succeed as Māori. Having a clear and shared understanding of what Te Tiriti o Waitangi means to each of us, and within schools, from the outset is fundamental when designing your local curriculum. 

A localised curriculum that reflects both Māori and Pākeha worldviews demonstrates a commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi. 

We are also going to include three videos as part of this webinar. The first, very shortly. 

We will now play the video Giving mana to Te Tiriti o Waitangi. 

Video - Janelle Riki-Waaka: Giving mana to te Tiriti o Waitangi in our schools 

Janelle: 

One way that schools can give mana to the Treaty of Waitangi is to think about how their schools are unique as schools of Aotearoa. So we are in Aotearoa, New Zealand. There is only one place like this and this wonderful special place has a very rich bicultural history. We have indigenous people that are Māori that have been here for a very long time, and that is the only place in the world where you will find Māori people is right here. So our schools, to my mind, need to reflect that beautiful bicultural history. For children I don't believe it's a privilege to come to school and see your culture, particularly for Māori children. It should be a right. We're in Aotearoa. They have a right to see and feel their culture everywhere they go, but most importantly in schools where they're going to spend a lot of time learning and growing. 

And so one of things that I ask teachers and principals and leaders to do in their schools is ask themselves that tough question. How would I know I'm in a school in Aotearoa? If I'm standing out the front of our school. If I'm standing in the staff room, if I'm in one of the classrooms, all of the classrooms, how would we know we're in Aotearoa New Zealand? 

Inevitably, I have teachers and leaders who will say to me that we are a really multicultural school. And that is increasingly what is happening in our communities. We are becoming much more diverse, so all of our schools are becoming much more multicultural, which is amazing. We're very lucky to have such a rich, diverse community in Aotearoa, and some leaders and teachers will struggle with - how do we reflect every child's culture? Um, we have so many and how would we do that? And I think it's important to find ways to be able to do that so that all kids can see themselves and feel connected to their school. But I think it is vital, absolutely imperative, that the Māori culture is reflected in every single school because people that have chosen to come and immigrate to New Zealand and they've chosen to live here with their children, most often, their cultures, their language, their practices is absolutely being preserved in their home countries. Their language is rich. It's being preserved. They are able to hear their language and see their culture and live their cultural practices in their home country. 

If we don't look after te reo Māori, if we don't look after tikanga Māori, and if we don't reflect the beautiful bicultural heritage of our country and our schools in Aotearoa, it won't happen anywhere else in the world. I believe it's imperative. I believe we have a moral obligation as well as an ethical obligation to ensure that all Kiwis are able to see, and hear, and feel our bicultural history in each and every one of our schools. 

[Video ends]. 

Rahera: 

That video was of Janelle Riki-Waaka from Core Education. She reminds us how imperative it is that educators protect and honour te reo Māori, tikanga Māori, and the bicultural history for each student in every school. That's what makes Aotearoa unique. Mana whenua, the local tribal people of an area are our invaluable source of information in the design of a school's local curriculum. 

I'm going to hand the rākau over to you, Angela, who will focus on Te Tiriti relationships. 

Angela: 

Kia ora Rahera. This graphic is a simple outline of Te Tiriti relationships and demonstrates how the education system fit ins. It helps us to better understand the foundational partnership between the Crown and the indigenous people of Aotearoa. It's vital that we as leaders and teachers understand the relationship between the tribal people and the Crown and how our nation became. 

Te Tiriti was signed between the Crown and some hapū. Under the Crown, schools are Te Tiriti partners with tangata whenua. As Ngaire mentioned earlier, this commitment is also articulated in The New Zealand Curriculum. Tangata whenua consists of hapū and iwi that hold mana whenua over a particular tribal area. Mana whenua means customary authority exercised by an iwi or hapū, in an identified tribal area. 

Māori learners and their whānau belong to hapū and iwi throughout Aotearoa. So, for everyday school curriculum decisions, this means that they are constitutionally in partnership with their school. 

Each school is uniquely based in a tribal area with its own tribal whakapapa (history), including tikanga (protocols), sayings (whakataukī), stories, and narratives about past tribal leaders and significant local landmarks from that area. Establishing and maintaining authentic relationships with mana whenua from local hapū can enrich a school's curriculum design. 

And it provides strategic direction of the school through the school's vision, values, and programs of learning. Through these relationships, it's possible to establish a collective approach to support all learners and their success. 

Rahera is going to explore the treaty in action for education for us. 

Rahera: 

Ngā mihi Angela, thanks for that. In addition, acknowledging mana whenua and valuing their input in curriculum design ensures the four articles of Te Tiriti  o Waitangi are honoured and upheld. Please take a moment to look at the slide and how the articles of Te Tiriti can be enacted in education. 

Looking at this through a more practical everyday school and kura lens, this graphic reflects what you might see, hear and feel within learning communities that are honouring Te Tiriti o Waitangi. It provides examples of the types of outcomes you would expect through working alongside mana whenua. It is a handy guide and includes ideas working from strategic level through to classroom planning. 

Some of these examples tie in really nicely with localising your curriculum. You can download it for school use from Core Education's website, and we've shared the link in the resources section of this presentation. While there isn't time to go through all of these examples, the value for learners, mana whenua, and the wider learning community is that decisions for learning promote the use of te reo Māori and protocols, a te ao Māori perspective to enrich learning and builds identity and helps to strengthen language and culture.  

If we look at one of the examples under the “I see” section, an example from a local school in my rohe dedicates a seat on their school board for a whānau representative from the mana whenua because they value their cultural guidance. They recognise the relevance of having a te ao Māori perspective and that the aspirations of Māori learners, their whānau, and local hapū and iwi are considered when making strategic decisions at board level. 

One other example under the “I feel” section involved a school's leadership team working with mana whenua, where they explored the attributes of past leaders - Māori ancestors who are renowned in their particular area and they based their school values of whakapono - leading by example, having high expectations; kaitiakitanga – caring for our whenua, caring for one another - so their learners could learn about those past local leaders, their narratives, and relate to them through their attributes. 

Ngaire: 

Thanks for those great examples, Rahera. We'd like to build on those by sharing the story of Kāwhia School told by Principal Leanne Apiti. Unfortunately, Leanne couldn't join us today, but we've recorded her recently. We really appreciate her willingness to share the journey of her kura in developing their local curriculum. Ngā mihi nui e te tumuaki. 

Leanne helps us to understand how partnering with mana whenua provides schools with support in numerous ways, such as enacting Te Tiriti o Waitangi, learners experiencing and understanding local histories, building cultural capability of teachers and leaders. Rangatiratanga- the sharing of protocols in mana whenua’s role as decision makers, and acknowledging the mana whenua as kaitiaki of the land where their school stands. 

We're going to watch the video now.  

Leanne Apiti – Principal – Kāwhia School: 

Kia ora te whānau. Ko Leanne Apiti tōku ingoa. Ko au te tumuaki o te kura o Kāwhia. I'm principal of Kāwhia School, which is situated on the west coast of the North Island, about an hour and a half drive from Hamilton. It's a dual medium school with about 54 students. We're a decile 1A school, so very high unemployment. Over 90% Māori. 

So, when I first came to Kāwhia School, it was, for want of a better word, a very Pākeha school, even though there was still that high population of Māori. The atmosphere of the school, the environment of school, is focused on te marautanga. Even though there's instruction in English, for example, our, we do, whakamana tamariki, which is a small school version of PB4L. 

So, our uara -  our values - are all in Māori. So it's not in English, it's not translated because you feel it. And as we move more strongly to dual medium, we wanted to capture our whānau’s voice about what they wanted their tamariki to achieve. And that was the lever for us to create our marau ā-kura. We were engaged with the SAF - Student Achievement Function practitioner, Robyn Roa,  facilitated whānau hui to ask the parents - the whānau – he aha te ahua o te tamaiti? What's your graduate profile? What would you like your children to leave Kāwhia School with?  

It was important that for us to bring a facilitator in, I didn't want the parents to feel like they had to answer to the principal. So, she did a brilliant job. We had about 90% of our parents or more turn up to the hui. And from that the parents openly shared what they would like their children to achieve. One of the important thinking was, again, for me not to lead, but to be a participant, with the parents so they could see that I was on the learning journey with them and that they were actually the experts. 

My job as principal was to gather all those pieces of paper together, listen to what the parents had said and to actually document that so that it became part of the marau. And their voice reflects very strongly in that. So for every hui that we have about the curriculum, the whānau feedback that came to us was that it did not feel like a consultation hui, it felt like a comfortable get together. 

And I think that's really important for us as leaders to make sure that we create that environment. The wives brought the dads, the board of trustees brought on parents who were dads and they were actually very animated and very involved. There was an instance where they had to talk about part of our whakataukī - Kāwhia moana, Kāwhia kai, Kāwhia tangata o te whenua -  and part of that they started to talk about birthing and the waters and how it surrounds the child. And you know how education is like that. And it was - wow. These came from the men, and it was very deep and very meaningful. So they made a very valuable contribution.  

We're very lucky to have our kaumatua be in our school daily, and he's much loved by the tamariki. He shares a lot of our local history Our kaiako’s partner was also a very important part of Kāwhia in terms of the knowledge of the history and the mana whenua that our school was actually on. So to have that knowledge around us, we were blessed.  

Our teacher in our rumaki class based on our marau, takes our children every week to a landmark in Kāwhia, and teaches them about the history and the importance of the landmark. And it was really exciting to hear when ERO came they asked, they were telling him about the different landmarks and he was so excited to hear the children know their place and, they can teach me about important places in Kāwhia. So to him that was a great example of localising the curriculum.  

So I think first and foremost, leadership plays a really important part in creating that environment where these people come in, especially the whānau. That's my role to create that high trust amongst the local iwi, the kaumatua, the whānau.  Establishing those relationships and making those connections first is really important because then you get to be able to talk to people on a kanohi ki te kanohi level, face to face and in a relaxed way. I think belonging is a key word. So if everybody feels that sense of belonging, then they will actually actively participate. And that's our marau. 

The best thing I did was to stand back, and not drive it. Standing back and allowing the whānau, the board of trustees, the kaumatua, the iwi to actually run that process of designing the curriculum was so exciting. It created a lot of collaboration that I don't think would've happened before. 

And it empowered a lot of our whānau that did not value what was actually really important in the children's lives. I think it's really important for us as leaders to lead that passion. So, to be genuinely interested in mana whenua. To be really inquiring and wanting to know, not just being lip service, not doing it because you have to do it, but because you actually want to know about it is really an important lever and driving the marau - the localised curriculum. 

[Video ends]. 

Rahera: 

The team at Core feel very privileged to share Kāwhia's story with you. Leanne also wanted us to share how the development of Kāwhia's localised curriculum with PB4L embedded in the marau ā-kura has impacted their current students. They undertook a wellbeing at school survey this year. 100% of their students said that teachers make learning interesting and fun. 

The school also trended better than the national norms for all aspects of the survey. They also undertook a “feel brave” survey with their junior students and there was a 96% positive response in terms of self-confidence, resilience, and responsibility. Leanne says that this is affirmation for the whānau that they know what is needed for their own tamariki to thrive and feel great about being at kura. 

We’re also loving how the school's mission and vision is so powerful. They have even put it on t-shirts for their ākonga to wear. 

Angela: 

Wow, what an amazing lived statement that is of a kura’s vision. From the questions you shared with us, several people asked about how different types of curriculum fit. It was a timely question, as the ministry has just recently developed this new diagram to illustrate how to enact the national curriculum. 

Curriculum in New Zealand schools and kura is designed and interpreted in a three-stage process. We are just going to take the time to define or clarify these stages for you.  

Stage one is the national curriculum, The New Zealand Curriculum, and/or Te Marautanga o Aotearoa, describes the learning all young people should experience no matter which school or kura they go to. It provides the framework for schools to use in their curriculum, their local curriculum design.  

Stage two. That's the school or kura curriculum. We also call it the local curriculum. This is designed by schools and kura with ākonga, parents and whānau, hapū, iwi, and community. It is based on the national curriculum framework and is connected to their local curriculum context. It provides a common direction for classroom curriculum so teachers can be responsive to all learners. 

The school, kura, or local curriculum engages ākonga in rich opportunities to learn from and with their community. Experiences can be at the local, regional, national, or even international levels.  

Stage three. This is the process part that we call the classroom curriculum. It is designed by teachers with ākonga, parents and whānau, and it's based on the school or kura curriculum. 

Classroom curriculum interprets the learning of our young people in that class or learning environment in ways that meet their individual strengths and aspirations. It is responsive to individual progress and supports ākonga to transfer learning to new contexts. Classroom curriculum is designed using the school local curriculum, and the teaching as inquiry process. 

Ngaire will explain further focusing on local curriculum. 

Ngaire: 

This newly developed diagram shows how to enact the national curriculum in local curriculum development. It shows how the elements of The New Zealand Curriculum come together to help you bring your school's vision to life for every learner, every day. Your school vision is central to your school's strategic plan and should drive the design of local curriculum. 

This ensures that you are valuing what your community believes is important in education. It is vital that the community's needs and aspirations have contributed to your school's strategic plan in an authentic way. 

We know that designing local curriculum is complex and takes time. There are many different starting points for schools to consider when they begin the process of reviewing and constructing their local curriculum. Our experiences in the local curriculum workshops with schools showed a wide range of starting points. 

Some schools chose to review their school vision. Where others, who were confident with their vision, instead chose to focus on another element such as school values or a principle such as community engagement. It is important that students, parents, and whānau have had direct input into curriculum design. 

Consider carefully the strategies that you use to gather voice to ensure they are inclusive and equitable. In this short video, teachers and students from Manurewa Central School share the different ways they gather quality feedback to inform their local curriculum design. We'll watch this video.  

Video – Learners contribute to curriculum design – Manurewa Central School. 

Child:  

Now we have a suggestion box, and if you've got a suggestion, you write down something on a piece of paper and you put in the box. 

Michelle Dibbin, Deputy Principal:  

The children can put in anything to do with their learning, anything to do with classroom management or systems or processes, then the teacher will then action them. But we also have, at the end of units of work, teachers will ask them, Well, how's it going? And that takes a more formal approach. So they might give them a little questionnaire. 

Liane McLeod, Year 5 and 6 teacher:  

They value being asked, they value knowing that you want to hear what they've got to say.  

We started off by surveying. Then as time's gone on, we are developing better ways of getting student voice.  

Michelle: 

One of the big things we did was a curriculum review at the end of last year, and we spent a long time asking the children what it was they wanted to learn. 

So the quality of the feedback we got from the students in year five and six was incredibly powerful for them because year fives can now see what they've talked about playing out and what they're learning about this year.  

[Video ends]. 

Angela: 

Welcome back everyone. As we start to unpack how to create curriculum, we can see the richness of including student voice from Manurewa Central School. 

Schools have also found it useful to have a theory of action to frame the key steps for their curriculum design process. This was trialled in the local curriculum workshop series. A theory of action complements a change process. It informs key actions and can serve as a reflective tool. This version has two key phases, and the first is understand. 

Taking time to deeply understand your context will inform your design in a way that recognizes the uniqueness of your school and school community. At Manurewa Central, this included asking ākonga and allowing them ownership of their curriculum through the expression of their interests and aspirations. 

At Kāwhia School, Leanne stepped back. She participated as a learner and allowed others like whānau and her board of trustees to guide the discussions so that what they want for their children drives curriculum decision making, and what they see as special about their place is valued as a context to shape learning programmes. 

From the knowledge gained from phase one, you can decide on a starting point for developing your school's curriculum and weave this into strategic planning.  

The second phase is strategies to innovate. Schools used this framework to create their own school-based action plans. Also, to revise and construct their school curriculum. 

It also offered direction for them to explore the four high impact practices which are profiled in a range of resources released by the Ministry of Education. We will talk to these in more detail shortly. 

 Ngaire is going to do a quick tour through these resources, which really do contain the steps to help bring all of the important actions to do this together. 

The practices and behaviours that the resources themselves unpack are what's important, as we heard from Leanne before.  

Over to you, Ngaire. 

Ngaire: 

There is a suite of great resources available to support your curriculum journey. They can be used in a variety of ways, depending on your context. Released earlier in the year, the Leading local curriculum guide is one of a series of three. These guides are for curriculum leaders and contain ideas, prompts, and reflective questions to help with planning in school review. 

We highly recommend this easy-to-read and use resource. There are some great practical activities in here. 

Here is the graphic of the four high-impact practices taken from the guide. It defines and summarises each of the practices and explains how the practices and their related behaviours collectively strengthen local curriculum design and development. 

The Local Curriculum Design Tool expands the high-impact practices and can be accessed using your Education Sector Login. Some Kāhui Ako use this platform across their schools. It is also now available for individual teachers and schools to use as well. The website provides directions for gaining access via the Ministry's helpdesk. 

The tools are also now available in a downloadable PDF format from the resources tab of the Local Curriculum Design Tool. Schools in the workshops reported that these resources are extremely useful. They all support you to strengthen your local curriculum.  

Rahera: 

Thanks for that, Ngaire. 

 The localising curriculum toolkit is also available in re reo Māori. 

It's called Rapua te Ara Tika. This is an online tool designed to help Kāhui Ako, kura and wharekura with the design of their marau ā- kura for Māori medium learners and their hapori (local community).  

This relational tool is based on tikanga Māori approaches and uses wānanga to explore, share, and discuss ideas with whānau, hapū and iwi to support the school to make decisions to create a meaningful learning pathway. 

Schools who have dual medium such as rumaki and bilingual units would benefit from using this tool. 

Here is a school-based example that reflects both an English medium pathway for learners and a Māori medium pathway for ākonga . It demonstrates how a dual medium school using both The New Zealand Curriculum and Te Marautanga o Aotearoa might think about the different elements and weave these together to make decisions when designing their marau ā-kura and local curriculum. 

I'm going to hand the rākau over to you,  Angela, who will focus on rich opportunities for learning. 

Angela: 

Ngā mihi Rahera. 

Now we will share some practical ways that schools have developed the high impact practice of rich opportunities for learning. The workshops earlier in the year, showed time and time again that schools are able to create integrated authentic learning experiences which support effective local curriculum when they create experiences for students that do the following: 

• to use and develop the competencies and capabilities that community sees as important for learning and working life  
• to do the things that matter to them and their community in ways that reflect their values and their learning, and 
• to get involved with social action. 

The next slide features tools and examples of rich opportunities for learning. 

Many schools are using place-based learning approaches and drawing on the history of their local area. Te Takanga o te Wā provides a framework for teachers wishing to explore Māori history with their learners. The resource is presented through five themes, which provide student and teachers with a way to connect to Māori history and to weave a te ao Māori perspective within their curriculum. 

The framework and supporting digital resources provide a wealth of examples and school stories. 

Our national curriculum for schooling, The New Zealand Curriculum and Te Marautanga o Aotearoa will be updated to make learning New Zealand's histories explicit so that all learners and ākonga have opportunities to learn about the events that shaped our nation and the different perspectives New Zealanders have around these events. 

The curriculum changes will come into effect in 2022. 

Rahera, will you share the local curriculum story of Kaiwaka School with us? It's a beautiful illustration of some of these important ideas.  

Rahera: 

Sure, Angela. An example of how one school used their local history to develop rich learning opportunities for their students comes from Kaiwaka School in Kaipara, Northland. 

The school collaborated with a range of people to design and build a waka. Te Waka Rangimarie o Kaiwaka - now sits proudly at the front entrance of the school. They drew on the local history of their area when deciding to build a waka, because waka were important in the development of the Kaipara area. Kaupapa representatives from iwi, whānau, students and community all contributed ideas. 

Principal Rosie Ellis said, “Our local master carver, Tim Codyre, designed and carved the masts based on the whakapapa of the area, and student voice. The waka stands more than five metres tall and is 25 metres long. The symbols and elements included represent the children as well as the history of the area. 

For example, depictions of sports and digital technology were included alongside Māori legends and stories as these were important to the children”.  

The story of Kaiwaka School is a powerful example of how taking the time to build mana whenua relationships for learning, to identify what matters for ākonga to learn ,and what their whānau value, contribute to the school's vision. 

It is simply good practice. 

Ngaire: 

Thanks for sharing that beautiful story, Rahera. I'd now like to share an example from high school students. Rich opportunities can arise from the connections your school makes with industry and business as they develop relationships for learning.  

An example of this, recently reported on Radio New Zealand, is the Taranaki Futures Project, which involves the local council, businesses, and students from the region.  

It aims to remove the barriers some students face, especially in rural areas, to get their restricted driver's licence - a key capability for many when entering the workforce. One of the mentors commented that improving learner confidence on the road is of benefit to all of the community. 

A student participant was excited to be able to help her whānau more, especially to get out and about and be more connected. 

When working with older students, the School Leader's Toolkit is useful as a collection of resources to refocus on critical competencies for work and life. It includes ideas for how to create learning opportunities that might enrich coherent learning pathways and grow collaboration across community. 

There are resources for teachers as well as students and their whānau. During the earlier local curriculum workshops, schools and kura particularly found the coherent pathways tool useful to develop transition statements as a descriptor of progress. We’ll highlight some more tips from those workshops later. 

Angela: 

Ngā mihi, Ngaire. 

Another resource for us to share with you is the latest NZC Online spotlight. This also has some excellent activities to support you with the design process and to find your starting point. We had over 1100 educators take part in the local curriculum workshop series that was held around the country in term one and term two of this year. 

We wanted schools to be able to use the popular activities with all of their teachers, and the spotlight features some of the ones that we used. 

The spotlight is ideal to use as part of a staff or team meeting. For example, this activity shown in the slide asks people to reflect on what having a local curriculum means to them, and what's in their local curriculum. We found during the workshops that these prompts promoted strong discussion, and were the first step in deeply understanding your own context. 

There are also quite practical activities like this one where you map the relationships in your community. Again, we found in practice that this helps schools to think deeply about who they connect with. There was another question about the quality of those connections and the question -“Whose voices are missing?” - identified some surprises at times, and some key actions moving forward for schools who are seeking to build educationally powerful relationships. 

This is where I get to do my first “hot off the press”. Our national curriculum now includes digital technologies learning - a response to this fast evolving world. Two more handy resources will be released shortly to support schools. One is a guide to accompany and complement the Leading local curriculum guide - the one we showed you earlier. The Digital Technologies Guide will be called Equipping Your Students for Tomorrow's World, Reviewing and implementing the Revised Technology Learning Area. It is going to be published to TKI under Strengthening Local Curriculum.  

The second resource, which you can see from this slide, is a planning tool. 

And it's to support leaders through implementation. It will be available from TKI Technology Online. Look for these over the coming weeks. And a quick tip from us, NZC Online really is a great place to go for updates. 

When considering the design of your local curriculum, a question worth asking is, “How could digital technologies provide rich opportunities for learning?” There is a wealth of curriculum supports and PLD workshops available from kiatakatu.ac.nz. 

[Note: This site has been retired and now directs users to Kauwhata Reo and Technology Online.] 

Ngaire: 

Thanks, Angela. Some amazing resources out there.  

We'd now like to share some of the practical tips that schools in the phase two workshops have shared with us based on their experiences. Schools definitely found creating an action plan as they engaged in curriculum review was critical. This helped keep them on track and accountable, as we all know how busy it is in the life of the school. 

One school said that deciding on roles to complete actions was important. Some things needed to be worked on all together. Some things would need involvement from students, whānau, and learning partners, but some small jobs could maybe be done by a group. 

Asking the “whose voices are missing?” was often an “aha” moment for schools. One school we supported realised that the voice of fathers was often missing in their school. Another school decided it was key to increase the opportunities they had for whānau to be involved in everyday school life in order to have ongoing learning conversations in informal ways. 

And when developing a graduate profile, schools found the Coherent Pathways Tool useful in developing their vision and curriculum around the capabilities. Identifying what was important for their students to learn, what is too important to leave to chance, critiquing and further developing the graduate profile of their school, and aligning their graduate profile to the school vision. 

We're really grateful to the workshop schools for sharing their key learning with us. 

Today our aim has been to weave answers to the questions you had prior through this webinar. We hope that we have been able to answer most of these within the content of this webinar but do refer to the resource section of the slide deck. Also, for now, we've selected a couple of remaining questions to highlight.  

A common question schools asked was - How are schools pulling all this information on localising the curriculum together? What does the paperwork look like? What frameworks, How does this look visually? Here is an example from West Melton Primary School | Te Kura o Papatahora, located in the Selwyn District in Canterbury. The school has a long history, but recent developments have seen what was once a small rural school grow to over 400 student. 

West Melton wanted to create a space where all their teachers could access and use their local curriculum, keeping it living. As you can see, they have developed a Google site to house their important documents. They can then update this easily. The school story is based around their learning landscape. 

This was developed in consultation with their children, parents, teachers, rūnanga, and wider community. It encompasses their vision, values, logo, learning pathway, and graduate profile. They have been gifted their cultural narrative by Ngāi Tahu and have identified the key places in their area to connect to. Their local rūnanga, Taumutu, have also named the school and gifted them a whakataukī that is visible in many of the school spaces. 

The school has been reflecting on the four high impact practices as a lens for their local curriculum development. They are part of the new Pedagogies for Deep Learning Global Initiative, which has a focus on authentic learning that sticks with ākonga for life. This is an example of their overarching statement about rich opportunities for learning. 

They would be the first to tell you that their local curriculum is a work in progress but using the tools and frameworks available are a great support.  

Rahera: 

Thanks, Ngaire, for sharing that wonderful example from West Melton School.  

Here's another example of a curriculum from Kāwhia Primary School. Leanne, the tumuaki, shared aspects earlier about their journey in developing their marau ā-kura and the positive outcomes it has made for their ākonga and their learning community. 

Part of that journey included developing icons and symbols relevant to their area. For example, the ākonga hoe-ing their waka with the phrase Kāwhia Kai, Kāwhia Moana, Kāwhia Tangata, Aotea Whenua is a significant saying from their tribal area, which Leanne also mentioned and referred to in the movie.  

Those terms are also their four strands for their learning. Kāwhia Primary School's, marau ā-kura, a PowerPoint, is an evolving document and in development. The school curriculum includes their vision, mission, school logo, and its meaning, values, a graduate profile with schools that were developed by whānau. And in addition, it includes a list of kauapapa for learning under each of their strands, a yearly plan, and their term plan. Here is an example of their learning. 

Further examples of schools and support can be found in the localising your curriculum toolkit on the TKI website online. Over to you, Angela, for the final question. 

Angela: 

Ngā mihi, Rahera. 

Our final question, question two, is - what evidence is there that local curriculum is relevant to our students in the school community, and why is this the approach we are taking today in education?  

To answer – evidence from Te Hurihanganui – Restarting Te Kotahitanga - shows that when whānau are engaged in authentic educationally powerful relationships, better outcomes for ākonga will follow. There's more information about Te Hurihanganui in our resource link section below.  

Adding voice to these ideas, the Education Conversation, Shaping a Stronger Education System with New Zealanders, identified that schools, ākonga, their whānau, and communities wanted greater support to develop and review their curriculum so that it enriches the whole child and reflects their local context, their language, identity, and culture. 

The local curriculum and marau ā-kura kaupapa is a response to help schools to develop a rich and engaging local curriculum to build effective learning pathways in partnership with ākonga, their whānau, hapū, iwi, and communities. 

Let me conclude with the following quote from the relationships for learning tool.  

“When a child learns from and with their community, they come to understand how their community works socially, politically, economically, and culturally. They also learn how they can contribute to and help shape their community.” 

Rahera will now bring our time together to a close Kia ora, Rahera. 

Rahera: 

This is the resource links page that we've been mentioning. Here you will find all the links to all the resources that we've referenced today. 

And now we've come to the conclusion of our localising curriculum webinar. We hope you were able to add to your kete how strengthening your local curriculum can make a positive difference for your learning community and especially your tamariki. We'd like to acknowledge the schools and organisations who were so generous in sharing their kete of mahi with us. 

We would also like to I'd like to pay tribute to my co-hosts.  

Heoi anō, i te tuatahi ka tuku ngā mihi ki a koutou katoa i aro mai ki tēnei kaupapa whakahirahira. 

We want to thank you all for your presence today and let us close now with karakia – me inoā tatou. 

Kia hora te marino 

Kia whakapapa pounamu te moana 

Hei huarahi mā tatou i te rangi nei 

Tātou i a tatou katoa. 

Angela: 

Kia ora, Rahera. Kia ora koutou katoa everyone. We’ve really appreciated you joining us today. 

Kāwhia School example told by principal Leanne Apiti.