What actions underpin your relationships for learning?
What information do parents and whānau want to share? | Teachers?
Essential teaching and learning conversations – when and how? | What can you do now?
You can use it to lead conversations with:
It contains guidance, review questions, activities, examples, and resources to enable deep discussions in your school about information sharing and learning partnerships. These discussions will help to maintain a clear focus on equitable and positive outcomes for all your students. The start of the year is a good time to begin conversations with your staff that can continue throughout the year.
The guide series is part of a package, including workshops and tools that will support schools to develop and review local curriculum.
Email [email protected] or contact your local Ministry of Education office for further support and information.
Download the guide (PDF)
Leading Local Curriculum Guide – Information sharing and building partnerships (PDF, 819 KB)
Poipoia te kākano kia puāwai
Nurture the seed and it will blossom
Information sharing and building partnerships is about developing three-way genuine relationships that focus on learning and progress. They’re the sorts of relationships in which you know that you are working together on something that is really important – a child’s learning and wellbeing.
"I love being in control of what I am doing, it means I get to do what I love and makes me feel more capable, strong and trusted. Being told what to do is not learning, it is just being told what to do."
11 Year old girl, Year 7
"Good teachers, teachers who are helpful, they make the difference between me achieving and failing."
Student in alternative education – Māori; Office of the Children's Commissioner – Education Matters to Me: Experiences of Tamariki and Rangatahi Māori report
Ākonga are more likely to make progress and succeed when parents and whānau, and their teachers:
School conditions should support parents, whānau, and students to be active partners in learning.
"You know your child better than anyone, including their strengths and weaknesses, their interests and talents, and what works for them.
You are the most important out-of-school influence on your child’s educational success."
Education Review Office Partners in Learning (Guide to Parents)
"I would like to be part of the team who creates plans for my child. I would like to understand the system and support my child."
Parent/whānau - European
"I want an inclusive environment which respects diversity of the learners at school. I want teachers to recognise prior learning and respect cultural capital of each learner."
Parent/whānau - New Zealand European/Pākehā, Filipino
Examples of schools developing the conditions for students, parents and whānau to participate
Schools are moving away from the notion of a one-way flow of information to two-way, ongoing, genuine information sharing between teachers, parents and whānau.
Conversations about student progress and achievement across the curriculum require meaningful, ongoing information sharing processes. It’s important that roles and expectations are clear for students, teachers, parents, whānau, and the wider community. Sharing information is an essential part of creating relationships for learning.
When it comes to sharing information for learning, there is broad agreement about what we don’t want. We don’t want accountability-driven, one-way flow of information processes such as those shown in the table below.
| One-way, accountability-focused reporting | Information sharing that informs learning and builds partnerships (to be filled out in the Activity) |
| Teachers report to parents what their children have learned or achieved. | |
| The focus is on describing successes and failures. | |
| Accountability and compliance are the key drivers. | |
| Reporting is done once or twice a year only. | |
| Reporting takes no heed of parents’ knowledge and views about their children’s learning. | |
| Reporting is from school to parent, essentially a one-way “take it or leave it” message. | |
| Paper-based reports are sent home. |
Refer to the table above, create indicators that are meaningful for you that you want to go under the heading – "Information sharing that informs learning and builds partnerships".
Look at the ways that Owairaka School supported parents and whānau to see they are genuine in wanting to develop strong reciprocal relationships
The Education Review Office has developed a set of indicators and examples of effective practice for educationally powerful connections and relationships.
You may find it useful to discuss the following effective practices – School Evaluation Indicators – Domain 3: Educationally powerful connections and relationships p. 26
Parents and whānau expressed their views through the Education Conversation. They said they would like more:
"[We] would like to be consulted with before education decisions that affect my child’s future are made and implemented."
Parent/whānau – Māori
"My son’s teacher has asked about his interests and they have been [uptaken] for use in classes."
Parent/whānau – European
"Information that addresses their holistic learning including cultural, as opposed to just academic."
Parent/whānau – Tongan
Through the Education Conversation, teachers expressed that they want to share what students are doing across the curriculum, including their successes. Teachers said they wanted to help when things get a bit tough. They want conversations that focus on future actions and summarise learning progress at key points in time.
"We’ve been sharing progress about literacy and maths and suggesting to parents what they could be doing at home but we have rarely said much about the whole curriculum. Even our conferencing has focused on literacy and maths yet children’s art work and other project work is all around the room. It would be good to focus on and celebrate the whole child when we talk with parents."
Teacher, Taranaki Full Primary
Explore the stories of schools building strong relationships with parents and whānau throughout this guide.
Discuss what you would like to share with parents and whānau. Think about the whole curriculum, certain events you have at school, your school vision, and individual student goals. Work in small groups such as in syndicates or learning areas.
Compare and contrast what you want to share.
How does your description of what all parties want to share match your criteria for information sharing and building partnerships?
What schools are doing to find out what parents want
These schools have used surveys, hui and fono to actively engage with parents and whānau, including what they want to know about their child’s learning.
It’s a good idea to plan the learning conversations that you want to take place over the year. There are many opportunities for conversations about learning and progress with these three purposes:
Some conversations are more critical than others. For example:
Everyone wants information sharing to be timely and manageable. This can look different for different people. There needs to be careful consideration about when and how.
"Taking a multi-modal approach including paper surveys, online surveys, hui, events, focus groups."
Principal – New Zealand European/Pākehā
"Offering a variety of ways for engagement – digital, face to face, and offering multiple opportunities."
Tumaki – Māori
"Face to face meetings. Hui that involve students performing or showing their learning. Visits to homes when parents don’t come to school."
Principal – New Zealand European/Pākehā
"We are invited to hui and asked for input on our children’s education. The kura consults with us the whānau on what better works for our children."
Parent/whānau – Māori
In small groups, discuss your context and then fill in the left-hand cell of this table.
| What is shared/discussed? | When? | How? |
Now take what you share and use the questions below to help you fill in the other two cells of the table.
Example of a school explaining expectations around a student-led conference
Point Chevalier School – Student led conferences
Point Chevalier School describes the purpose of three-way conversations, why they are important, and how parents can help their child before, during, and after conferences.
This report has examples of schools implementing deliberate strategies to improve their learning partnerships. Each case explores the review the school undertook and the changes they are making. ERO also has some starter questions that may be useful for your discussions.
Building genuine learning partnerships with parents, ERO 2018.
Some examples from the report:
Review your criteria for information sharing and building partnerships.
How can you use this opportunity to:
When you have agreement on what should be shared when, and how.
There may be some teachers, with parents and whānau, who are willing to trial some new ideas. For example, you might want to trial: a new way of digitally sharing, new topics on a written report, having students contribute to the written report. Make sure the ideas to be trialled have:
Not all trials are successful; however if the trial shows promise, ensure you can resource any changes to practice school-wide.
Published on: 27 Nov 2019
