A new journey

How do you start a school in the way that you mean to go on?  You'd have to argue that creating a learning culture that values a dispositional curriculum as much as an academic one is easier than changing a existing and embedded culture, but where to start?

Last week was the first 'official' one of my new job.  Over the past few weeks we have been working with the EBOT on the emerging vision of the school.  We refined their ideas using a hierarchy chart and post-it notes.  We valued the most, ideas such as, a sense of belonging, recognising the uniqueness of all learners, being connected, having motivation and confidence, being part of a community, resilience, creativity and curiosity.  From here we started developing our Vision: Connect, Inspire, Soar: Empower our people to be connected, collaborative, community-minded learners inspired to soar to their potential.  We have taken inspiration from the kāhu - a bird frequently seen in our area and that our hapu see as chief-like and leaders.  Te kāhu i runga whakaaorangi ana e rā, te pērā koia tōku rite, inawa ē! The hawk up above moves like the clouds in the sky, let me do the same!

As a leadership team we had also begun sharing readings that resonated with us strongly as a way of getting to know each other in a professional capacity while we were still living at opposite ends of the country.  The Nature of Learning - Using Research to Inspire Practice, Edited by Dumont, Istance and Benavides on behalf of OECD's Centre for Education Research and Innovation; Understanding John Hattie’s Visible Learning Research in the Context of Carol Dweck’s Growth Mindset, by Gerry Miller; and Supporting future-oriented learning & teaching - a New Zealand perspective by Bolstad and Gilbert with McDowall, Bull, Boyd and Hipkins.  These readings have started shaping our initial guiding Values and Principles - which will act as a framework for further developing our vision, values and principles as we move towards creating an inspiring, connected and inclusive curriculum.  

Our emerging Values are:

Growth Mindset:  We will value a Growth Mindset, that through self-belief, self-awareness, a willingness to take risks, commitment and resilience, we can achieve personal excellence.

Innovation:  We will value innovation through being curious, inquisitive, and questioning.  Through collaboration, creative ideas and solutions can be found.

Respect:  We will value ourselves, others, and our environment.  We take care of each other and value diversity.  

Community-Minded:  We will value community-minded citizens who contribute to, and are valued members of, our school, whanau, community and beyond.

Our emerging principles are:

Learners at the Centre - having our young people actively involved in, and drivers of their learning, and raising their awareness of how they are as learners. New Kinds of Partnerships - recognising that our school forms only one component of a wider learning ecosystem, and the value of community partnerships and relationships in a range of settings.  Emotions are integral - our year 7-10 learners are emerging adolescents, a period of rapid change.  They are developing an awareness of self, and they have an increasing need for independence and responsibility.  The Social Nature of Learning - learning is socio-constructivist. It should be shaped by the context in which it is situated and is actively constructed through social negotiation. Learning should be organised in a way that fosters interactions between people.  New Views of Equity, Diversity and Inclusiveness - that when similarities and differences are celebrated, they become powerful contributors to the fabric of the school and the wider community.  An inclusive learning community fosters compassion, respect and the skill of relating positively with a variety of people. Knowledge to Develop Learning Capacity - we need to equip our young people to use knowledge, create knowledge, solve problems and find solutions. Culture of Continuous Learning - teachers need to be able to access the learning that they need, and leaders need to support a culture in which teachers are encouraged to grow and take risks as part of shared inquiry.

All of this groundwork is leading us on a pretty new and exciting journey.