How West Coast kāhui ako is forging a stronger future

Mahi tahi – Working together for young people on the West Coast.

The Māwhera Kāhui Ako covers the Grey District and in just a few years has grown to include five early learning services, 13 schools and nine associate members, which include Ngāti Waewae and Te Tai Poutini West Coast Regional Skills Leadership Group (RSLG).

Mandy Dodds, principal of Kumara School, and Shirley Serban, principal of Lake Brunner School, are the kāhui ako leads.

In 2021, they called an after-school teachers’ meeting to talk about what was needed for the children and youth of the area – and were amazed at the turnout.

“About 120 people arrived. That was quite exciting because we went into that meeting expecting very little and got just about every school rep and some early learning people in our area,” says Mandy.

“We both took on leadership roles with the kāhui ako because we felt it had the potential to be something powerful. Both of our own schools don’t necessarily have the same needs as other schools in the kāhui ako – we’re both small, rural schools – but while this resource exists, let’s tap into it for the good of all,” explains Shirley.

“We work very hard to change the mentality from ‘what does my school get out of it?’ to ‘what do the students of the region get out of it?’” she adds.

The Transition to School Arotahi Group who share a common goal of smoothly transitioning tamariki from early learning to school.

Shared data

The pair looked at shared kāhui ako wellbeing, attendance and academic data and while they had a few hunches about key issues, they took the data to the principals’ group, and then the 2021 meeting.

“We shared the data, along with a little about what we were thinking, and then we got them to brainstorm and write down what they thought we needed, how we should go about it, where we should go and what everybody’s needs were. Out of that, Shirley and I developed a new strategic plan,” explains Mandy.

The data identified four key areas along with the strategic plan (which is currently being reviewed and refreshed), and the acronym WEST was developed: Wellbeing, Engagement, Success for all and Transition. The plan was aligned with NELP (National Education and Learning Priorities) and the education plan of Ngāti Waewae.

Transition to primary school

Arotahi groups were set up to focus on the key issues of attendance and transitions between education settings. Two arotahi groups are going strong – early learning to primary school, and primary school to secondary school.

“We’ve let them continue organically where there’s momentum, but the idea is that it’s not made up of leaders saying, ‘Here’s a group, do this work.’ It’s a way to empower the in-school teachers as well to develop their leadership.

“Teachers who are interested in the topic meet quite informally twice a term. And before they come up with any answers, they define what the problem is,” explains Shirley.

Brenda Tomkinson.

Brenda Tomkinson, deputy principal at Grey Main School, teaches new entrants and is an across-school teacher for the kāhui ako. She came to the West Coast as a beginning teacher in 2001 and has taught most year groups at Grey Main School since then, but her particular passion lies in the transition to school.

“That arotahi group is just going from strength to strength and that has come from including those early learning services within the kāhui ako – we each have a common goal of what we want to achieve,” she says.

Early learning teachers and new entrant teachers meet once a term, and while the meeting is just an hour long, teachers can share information and build relationships.

Meetings are held at 5pm, rather than straight after school, which means that early learning teachers feel welcome and can attend.

“At the moment it is about smoothing those transitions. A big thing for us is developing a pamphlet that goes out to our early learning parents about preparing children for school. What’s cool is it has a voice from both the early learning services and the schools,” explains Brenda.

Transition to secondary school

Data showed that boys from small rural schools weren’t having issues when they went to secondary school, but girls were struggling.

“We put it down to the fact that our girls are full of confidence when they leave here – they’re leaders,” explains Mandy.

“Unfortunately transitions and identity are all mixed in the same pot when you’re going from being a big cheese in a small school to a tiny cheese in a big school. Their roles seemed to be reversed – they became non-achievers at secondary school. It surprised us,” adds Shirley.

Amanda Bailey.

Amanda Bailey is deputy principal of Awahono School in the Grey Valley and leads the Primary to Secondary School Arotahi Group. To address the large leap that rural school children may experience when they go to secondary school in Greymouth, an annual transition day was implemented in term 3.

“We interviewed the children and asked them what they are worried about when they transition to secondary school. The secondary schools sent along a variety of children – including those who found primary school challenging but have had the chance to shine in other areas at secondary school,” says Amanda.

“Our children are very sheltered. Some of them come from a setting where there are literally eight other children of their year level and suddenly, they’re going to be chucked into a setting where there could be 90 or 100 children in their age group. We want to break it down, so they have connections when they go on that first day.”

Restorative practice

Through their wellbeing data, the kāhui ako identified areas to work on and sought funding for regional professional learning development.

“We took on restorative practice because our wellbeing survey was telling us that in some ways things were going well and although the children knew what to do, they weren’t always putting it into practice,” says Mandy.

“A lot of the feedback was ‘my teacher doesn’t care about me as a person, or my culture, or what I bring to the table’. Most teachers will say ‘that’s not true’. However, it’s student perception – that’s how they feel, so we have to address it,” says Shirley.

“One of the things we have noticed with the wellbeing data, is there are always going to be areas to work on but considering what our communities and schools have been through over the past couple of years, the fact that it’s stayed very similar is a huge win.

“We’ve had this tumultuous couple of years and we’re not seeing the stress rising,” she adds.

Shirley, Mandy and Brenda share a passion for collaborative leadership – and the youth of their region.

Relationships and collaboration

Anecdotally, stronger relationships and better communication are already making a difference.

“We’ve still got areas to work on, but I think schools are becoming more aligned because of the kāhui ako. For example, we’re seeing people not afraid to take on structured literacy because they can pick up the phone and say, ‘I’ve got a release day, I met you at a kāhui ako, could I come into your classroom to observe?’” says Amanda.

“If we weren’t a part of the kāhui ako, those of us in smaller schools just couldn’t have that PLD which links back to raising achievement. What it also means for our children is that they hear the same language at every school they go to in the kāhui ako,” she adds.

Brenda has just started her third year with the kāhui ako and says the arotahi groups are breaking down barriers.

“My biggest achievement has been the relationships I have built up so people can feel they can share and contribute. For me [as an across-school teacher], it’s being able to go into the secondary schools, down to the Trades Academy and into early learning services, knowing that I feel really welcome and that they understand why I am there.”

A recent Transition to School Arotahi Group hui was held with educators from early learning services and primary schools at Paroa School.

Partnerships

A recent kāhui ako teacher-only day about the refresh of The New Zealand Curriculum saw a couple of hundred teachers gaining an overview of the changes.

“It still amazes me that people will turn up because we’ve asked them to,” laughs Mandy.

Stacey and Alysha from Active Explorers, Nelson Street discuss the mahi.

“For things like the refresh, the kāhui ako days work well – we get an overall picture. Even with the restorative practice, it’s big picture stuff and making connections and talking to each other.

“The next Accord Teacher Only Day will be in term 4 – we won’t do that as a kāhui ako because everybody now needs to put their own flavour on it and make it fit their school. We certainly don’t want everybody doing exactly the same thing, because we’re not carbon copies of each other,” explains Mandy.

The kāhui ako has received funding to engage with Ngāti Waewae to build better relationships and resourcing to help students understand the world view of Mana Whenua.

“That’s been going really well. Through that, all staff in the kāhui ako have been connected to the Ngāti Waewae website – we’ve got PLD through that,” says Mandy.

The iwi has developed picture books for their whānau on subjects such as their own narrative about pounamu.

A recent Transition to School hui focused on a pamphlet for whānau.

“We can provide some funding as the books are being developed and that will benefit our staff because we have Ngāti Waewae students in our schools and we want to support their aims as much as we can. When we do our strategic plan, we try to align as much as we can with their aspirations,” says Shirley.

The big picture

Big picture thinking has attracted associate members to the kāhui ako who share the same goal to help West Coast tamariki and rangatahi succeed.

Te Tai Poutini West Coast Regional Skills Leadership Group (RSLG) is one of 15 established by government to identify and support better ways of meeting future skills and workforce needs.

“When our children leave school and tertiary training, we want to ensure they have the basic skills and qualifications needed to secure jobs and build careers,” says Graeme Neylon, co-chair Te Tai Poutini West Coast RSLG.

The RSLG approached the Māwhera Kāhui Ako to learn more about their vision and strategic plan, discuss alignment with the Regional Workforce Plan, invite them to participate in Workforce Plan workgroups and seek input into RSLG advice to the Tertiary Education Commission. 

“We have the same purpose. If we can see that next generation of children now in early learning finish secondary school, some of the mahi we’re doing now is going to result in better wellbeing, engagement, smoother transitions and everyone having a chance for success in their own space as children of Māwhera,” concludes Shirley.

Read more about collaboration on the West Coast in Education Gazette(external link) Volume 101, issue 15(external link).

The Transition to School Arotahi Group with across-school teachers, within-school teachers, early learning educators and primary school teachers all share common goals.