Ko Ruapehu te maunga
Ko Pungapunga rāua ko Wanganui ngā awa
Ko Aotea rāua ko Te Arawa ngā waka
Ko Tuwharetoa me Ati Haunui-a-Pāpārangi me Kūki Āirani ngā iwi
Ko Ngāti Uenuku rāua ko Ngāti Hinemihi ōku hapū
Ko Te Puke rāua ko Kauriki ōku marae
I te taha o tōku matua whānau
Ko 'Ikurangi rātou ko Te Manga, ko Te Atukura e Maunga Tea ōku maunga
Ko Awarua te awa
Ko Te Matahorua, ko Apaipai Moana, ko Takitumu oku waka
Ko Uke Ariki te Tūpuna
Ko Ngāti Akatawira te hapū
Ko Taputapu-atea te Marae
Ko Monique Nees-Kairua ahau.
Well, this year is the year that I take up the mahi of our schools CoL Leader and with that comes the responsibility of completing a Teaching as Inquiry cycle and sharing my progress over the year. This has been a key component within Manaiakalani from its early stages however, formally became a Ministry of Education Kāhui Ako in December 2016.
For me to be able to complete this role effectively it needs to revolve around collaboration with my colleagues, whānau and wider CoL teachers. With that in mind my first step when looking into an inquiry that targets one of the 6 highlighted Achievement Challenges from Manaiakalani I need to discuss them with my colleagues.
As a senior school, we came up with some key focus points that will help centre ourselves when it comes to our inquiry focus. Our target is to improve writing for our students but what does this look like in a predominately Pasific school?
It's first getting our students to understand the writing process. As this is the foundation of all writing genres. We then want to empower tamariki by equipping them with exemplars of what writing we are trying to achieve, and unpack and purposefully teach the writing progressions.
Our tauira need to know, understand be a part of feedback and rubric/success criteria. We then want to empower them to be able to give constructive feedback to each other.
Another key aspect of this inquiry will be empowering whānau at home. We want to take strip away the notion that only we as teachers are the experts. When we bring everyone up with us we become an empowered community that moves forward together. This will be done by connecting with learners and whānau and unpacking key focus areas for their children and showing how parents can support their children. As a school, we have previously provided workshops for our whānau to help strengthen home-school partnerships. I think this will be key in raising achievement, expectations and enjoyment of our Literacy, especially writing.
Lastly, it needs to include whānau voice. We need to know their needs, their expectations and their direction for their children.
