Engaging families, improving outcomes

KERY MITCHELL reports on a central North Island school's experience of Te Kauhua, a project aimed at improving Maori student achievement

Productive whanau-school partnerships are resulting in better attendance, behaviour and academic results for the students of a once troubled rural school.

Taihape Area School was formed in 2005 following a Ministry of Education network review. The decision to amalgamate the local primary and secondary schools was unpopular in the largely Maori community and this began to show in poor attendance, behaviour and NCEA results. Parents began sending their children out of the area to other schools.

Principal Boyce Davey joined the school 14 months ago and, with the help of a Ministry project called Te Kauhua aimed at providing schools with opportunities to address Maori student achievement, has begun to turn its negative statistics around.

Schools involved in Te Kauhua use research evidence to develop professional learning models for their teachers. Key outcomes since the project started in 2001 include enhanced teacher effectiveness, improved social and academic outcomes for Maori students, changes in school systems to support a new way of working, and enhanced whanau-school relationships.

The latter is where Taihape has enjoyed particular success, with the Education Review Office so impressed that it wants to cite the school's whanau-school partnership model as an exemplar of best practice.

Four years ago Boyce was principal at one of the Te Kauhua pilot schools, Te Akau ki Papamoa near Tauranga, and spoke enthusiastically about the project at his job interview with the Taihape board of trustees.

"I had to develop a strategic plan for underachievement by Maori students and one of my strategies was to get the school involved in Te Kauhua. Within four months of my appointment we were taking part and because of my prior work at Te Akau ki Papamoa we were invited to become a lead school."

Boyce's appointment as principal spurred the first iwi involvement in the school – a powhiri to welcome him aboard. "That was great because when I came into the school the iwi came with me."

The first step to addressing Maori student under-achievement was listening to what iwi in the Mokai Patea rohe (district) wanted for their school. This was formalised with an iwi representative appointed to the board of trustees.

"We developed this partnership at the macro level. At the micro level the first thing we did was bring in an external audit team to look at what teaching in the school was really like. That was really important because it told teachers and myself where learning was at in the school. Then we planned the professional development from our needs," says Boyce.

The school has two Te Kauhua facilitators – teachers Nicola Chase and Ngahina Transom – so that professional development is available to the whole staff on a weekly basis. Iwi told Boyce they would like to see more tikanga and te reo Maori in the school so Ngahina also spends one day a week working with teachers to boost these areas, an initiative that is funded by the school.

The facilitators work both one-on-one and in groups with teachers on their professional development needs, as well as liaising with whanau and hapu, the school guidance counsellor, students and external support services.

"Our other role is to coordinate with iwi and get their voice into the school. We find ways to facilitate their needs and feed back what has been achieved. This is important because these people are mandated by our whanau and it ensures there is conversation among our whanau about what is happening at school. It also encourages our parents to come on site and feel comfortable here," says Nicola.

She says engagement with whanau involves a lot of hui, many of them away from the school, and a lot of talking and listening.

Once the conversation is under way, the relationships are formalised and the school and whanau work together on identified needs.

"Each term we focus on an area that needs to be strengthened and get ideas from whanau to help us. And we have to use those ideas, not just store them away in a dusty box. We don't ask a question unless we're going to do something with it, so asking the right questions is really important," says Nicola.

For example, the school has recently been working with a whanau group on successful transitions, including the transition between the local kohanga reo and the school.

One indicator that whanau have successfully engaged with the school was the turnout of about 60 parents to a meeting with the Education Review Office to share their excitement about their children's successes and their concerns. Another is the improved problem solving between whanau and school, says Boyce.

"If there is an issue or problem, the way it is handled and solved is far more positive. In some of my initial meetings [with whanau] there was anger and blame. That blame culture is not there now. Everything has become 'how can we solve the problem?'. Whanau engagement is about developing that 'we'."

Boyce says there have been great improvements in student attendance and behaviour this year, although they are still areas that need to be closely monitored. He also expects this year's NCEA results to be better than last and to gradually trend upward over time. "Today's efforts will give us tomorrow's results."

Key contact: bdavey@tas.school.nz

Goal setting

Another way that Taihape Area School wants to enhance whanau-school partnerships is to move away from the traditional reporting and interviewing cycle and include parents in a 10-weekly goal-setting and review of their children's progress.

At each appraisal, parents, teachers and the students are all involved in establishing goals for the student's next 10-week period.

Boyce helped to develop this model at Te Akau ki Papamoa and all of his staff have visited his former school to see the model in action.

"It's about setting realistic goals that are achievable in 10 weeks. And because parents are involved they don't have to wait until the end of the 10 weeks if they have any questions. Once we have this right then I really think we will start to win with achievement because whanau will have a real say in learning at the micro level."

For teachers it will involve approximately four student appraisals a week as opposed to writing 24-30 reports at the end of term, says Boyce.

"You know you will be working with those four students, fine-tuning their portfolios. It becomes part of the culture of the classroom, not an add-on."

What is Te Kauhua?

The Te Kauhua project moved into phase three in 2006. Currently there are 12 schools in the project, making a total of 25 schools having participated in the programme since 2001.

Te Kauhua is a professional learning programme that began in 2001 to provide mainstream schools with opportunities to address Maori student achievement.

Schools involved in Te Kauhua use research evidence to develop professional learning models for their teachers. Key outcomes since the project started include enhanced teacher effectiveness, improved social and academic outcomes for Maori students, changes in school systems to support a new way of working, and enhanced whanau-school relationships.

Two key areas are developed in phase three, including schools working to embed new learning, and current schools becoming lead schools to work with at least one other school in clusters.

The action research methodology that will be applied in this phase of the project recognises that Maori students' learning opportunities improve when schools recognise that Maori students are an extension of their whanau and that whanau engage with a 'community' of schools in their region, either as a result of multiple children in a whanau or through transition between schools.

It also maintains that schools and teachers are best served when they are connected and have strong networks within the community that are focused on raising achievement of each and every child.

Te Kauhua is part of the Ministry of Education's Te Tere Auraki – Maori in the Mainstream strategy. Te Tere Auraki (meaning to navigate the mainstream river) is a strategy that invests in professional learning programmes focused on improving teaching and learning for Maori students in Englishmedium (mainstream) schools and includes Te Kauhua, Te Kotahitanga, Te Mana Korero and Te Hiringa i te Mahara.

Related weblinks

More information about Te Kauhua, including case study overviews, can be viewed on TKI

http://www.tki.org.nz/r/maori_mainstream/tekauhua_e.php

An article about Cobden Primary School's success with Te Kauhua appeared in the Education Gazette on 20 June 2005, volume 84, number 11 and can be viewed online at

www.edgazette.govt.nz