Wednesday, April 22, 2020

THINGS ARE NOT ALWAYS WHAT THEY SEEM

This morning I have shared a few thoughts about an experience which I had  in my local park a few days ago which I entitled Things are not always what they seem. I hope you enjoy reading this little piece. I am very fortunate to live just a few steps from Hagley Park, one of the most magnificent public parks in the country. The early British settlers in Christchurch made it a priority in their very precise town planning, to allow for a wealth of public spaces. I am very privileged to be able to enjoy my life in Auckland and to still have a home base in the Garden City.



Sunday, April 19, 2020

TRIUMPHANT

PRINCIPAL’S SPECIAL BULLETIN No.4 

Monday 20 April 2020


Kia ora and welcome to this new week!


Over the weekend I found an “elocal” magazine in a box of memorabilia and the article which was included in it, from early 2016, gave me something to smile about. 
Apart from the fact that the photo is a lovely one of Roy and Moananoa, two of the head prefects of that year, it was a phrase related to the school’s future which caught my attention: “towards a triumphant future.”
In term 1 of this year, I sensed that our school was starting to get closer to this feeling of triumph than has been the case for quite some time. I know many of you have been feeling the same level of excitement as we have seen our numbers grow and grow. While we know there are a lot of challenges ahead of us, and that we will continue to face, we know that our school is flourishing. “Triumphant” is an unusual word to choose but it’s a word that gives me a little bit of a thrill when I read it. It’s a grand word, 
and it’s used in connection with our great and wonderful school. I get a thrill every time I walk into our 

staffroom and see the wonderful, clever and creative staff we have gathered together, who make such a vibrant and happy team. I get the same thrill every time I sit on the stage in our junior assembly and look down at hundreds of junior students, whose families have chosen to enrol them in our school. I guess that is “triumphant.” The list goes on...

Wednesday, April 15, 2020

IMAGINE

PRINCIPAL’S SPECIAL BULLETIN No.2 

Thursday 16  April 2020

IMAGINE

Many years ago, in the course of  a conversation with a very conservative Deputy Headmaster in the school where I was employed,  I made the suggestion that schools should be agents for social change. My colleague poured scorn and contempt on such a notion. I have never forgotten that conversation, and it has troubled me for the past 20 years. As time has gone by, I have become increasingly convinced that I am right about my notion, and that my colleague was wrong.

Schools have a powerful influence over social norms and behaviours in a number of ways. For sure, preserving the status quo and protecting the rights and entitlements of the privileged in our society is still very much the “kaupapa” of some of our schools. In our school, Papakura High School, we have an amazing opportunity to engage with our community and the society around us, to progress our pathway to becoming a bi-cultural society. This pathway will help to confront the deficits we see all around us in terms of social inclusion and engagement. The education which we offer our young people, our rangatahi, plays a big role in this. The changes we have made in our school’s own culture are the first steps in this direction. Our school motto “Kia Rangatira” is a power statement in this regard. This morning I struggled to remember the Latin motto “ Summa Pete”. 

For real change in our society  to occur, we need to turn some of our social norms on their head. Imagine if being bilingual became one of those social norms. The participants who make up our society must be able to see the value of overcoming social disengagement to be able to embrace something as radical as this.  As educators, we need to be at the forefront of this. We have opportunities to take steps to grow in this area. Many of our staff already come from cultural backgrounds where being bi- or trilingual is the norm. Our school can be an agent which contributes to positive social change and growth. There are naturally a number of ways this can happen. I have just identified one which I think can make a real difference right now. 


During the lockdown, Hemi Kelly’s “A Maori Phrase a Day” facebook page has repeatedly appeared on my phone screen. Hemi’s approach is very clear and basic, and offers an excellent opportunity to pick up and enhance your reo Maori in a really non-threatening and relaxed way. His lessons are also on Youtube.

I have really enjoyed dipping into Hemi’s facebook page and even reading some of the questions and answers which follow each lesson.
Our period of enforced lockdown provides us with a great opportunity to learn something new - or a lot of new things!





Tuesday, April 14, 2020

PRINCIPAL’S SPECIAL BULLETIN No.1 

Wednesday 15 April 2020



Welcome to the first day of Term 2 and to our new mode of teaching! We are all go today! I am looking forward with great excitement to hear the stories of these first encounters with our students via your digital classrooms. 

 Last week in our online meeting I mentioned being struck by this huge poster of Sir Edmund Hillary hanging in the arrival hall at Christchurch airport. It gave me a lot of food for thought.

There’s no question that the current context is one which throws into relief the incredible importance of our self-management skills, our ability to organise ourselves, our motivation, and our capacity to entertain the possibility of doing things differently. Many of us have been teaching for a long time. We have developed habits which are hard to shift. We have also developed approaches to our teaching, which in time, have become entrenched. I know this from first hand experience!  Some of us have allowed the wealth of professional learning related to digital pedagogy, which we have been offered as a Kootuitui school, to slide over us superficially, and have not made significant changes to our practice. Because we haven’t always been convinced of the need to change. Now of course, is the time when this is being forced upon us. Not just us, but teachers all over our country! Fortunately, we have colleagues who are hugely supportive, and whom I have sensed, will never be patronising or demeaning in their response to requests for assistance. And we are all going to require assistance in some area or other, as operating as an online school, or, in some transitional form, will require learning for all of us.

As human beings, “conquering ourselves” is enormously challenging. Sir Edmund Hillary made a profound statement here. Sometimes rousing ourselves to learn something new, or changing our practice, can be incredibly difficult. But as individuals working in an educational context, this is extraordinarily important. During our lockdown, we are also  having to face tests of character. These include coping in homes where children are becoming frustrated and bored, to supporting confused elderly and vulnerable whanau, or those like myself whose “bubble” is a solitary one. Develop our patience, tolerance and understanding of others is part and parcel of this process. For all of us, embracing change, however, is the biggest mountain we have to conquer, as we launch into our new  term. 

One lesson we have all learned, is how much we need each other. As a community of colleagues and  friends, there is much we have to offer each other from ou own experience and learning. And simply, in terms of social contact and emotional support. We have really exciting times ahead of us with new opportunities.   No reira, kia kaha, kia rangatira! 

Wednesday, April 8, 2020

A NEW DAY

A New Day



Today was a new day for the staff of Papakura High School. It not only marked two weeks since the beginning of the Covid-19 national lockdown, it was the first time ever that our whole staff got together - not physically present in one room, but on a Google hangout. Seventy faces all excitedly greeting each other and happy to be in the same space again. The world we live in is changing, and our circumstances are dictating different ways of doing business, doing school, and this was a landmark moment for us. Funnily enough, over the past five years, since the launch of the Kootuitui ki Papakura Trust and the first distribution of chromebooks for our year 9's, we have spent so much time engaged in professional learning, with not only the Manaiakalani mantra of "learn, create, share" but also with our own focus on creating ubiquitous learning for our students... maybe though, without the sense of urgency which was called for.  Thank you to the Kootuitui team for not giving up on us!

Somehow, until today, there was a theoretical aspect to this approach to learning. As teachers, we tend to be quite set in our ways - and yet we, of all people in our society and in our communities, should be at the forefront. Many are, of course, but there are equally many who lag behind. Well, no more of that, as next Wednesday we launch into our new day of online learning. Today we shared the joy of reconnecting with each other - it had a fun element to it, and along with its important messages, there was also the sheer joy of being together. Now now have the serious business ahead of us, firstly to connect with our students, and secondly, to hook them into a new style of learning.