Slow Learning

While our main focus over the last 3 years has been to create a quality learning environment for the students and teachers of Hobsonville Point Secondary School we have also made it clear to ourselves, and to anyone else who cares to listen, that we are out to redesign the NZ secondary schooling environment.

Back when I first started talking about this I most probably was thinking mainly about school structures and programme design features - structures and design features that would enable our pursuit of relevant and personalised learning. While I am convinced that these changes are vital it is more evident to me that the whole culture of schooling and learning that needs to be revisited.

I am absolutely over the moon with what we are achieving in our establishment journey but we a re very conscious of colleagues and other institutions and wider community who are critical of the culture we are trying to develop and the practices we are building to support that culture. We often get told we can only do what we are doing because we have a brand new building, we have hand-picked our staff, we are high decile etc.

Others talk about us using students as guinea pigs and having teething problems (I hope we always have teething problems!). Others have a view, without ever having visited our school, that there are no structures, that our students can do what they like and that we can't prove, as other schools can, that our students are learning.

Each one of these points could be the focus of its own blog post (and they may well emerge in one later). As far as I know every school hand picks it's staff. As well, I know that I have not been in a school whose structures that support Years 9 and 10 learning are so rigorous and where learning is tracked so closely. And yes, students have a huge say in their learning. We ask them to identify which contexts they would like to explore their learning in and we ask them to suggest the best ways for them to process their learning and the best ways to evidence their learning. As well, we seek their views on any major decisions we are going to make. We do not, however, abdicate any responsibility for curriculum coverage, learning progression or for having high expectations of what they are capable, especially when it comes to making responsible decisions about their own learning. Why would we want anything else in a school?

Staff listening to student voice on MyTime

We have had hundreds of visitors from schools across NZ, from Australia, from Singapore, from Korea, and from USA. What is hugely satisfying is that they not only leave impressed with what they see and experience, largely by talking with students, but that they feel inspired to go back into their environment and lead change to a different type of schooling.

I have the awesome privilege of escorting many of these visitors throughout our school and to hear what students say to them, to observe students in the act of learning, to hear what teachers say to them, and to observe teachers in the act of teaching.

Students explaining learning to one of our many visiting groups

I know our teachers are working very hard; there is no place for pre-planned units of work taken off a shelf in a school which is setting out to personalise learning and to make authenticity and relevance visible by linking subject disciplines together in forever changing combinations. As well, for the first time in their careers, teachers are Learning Coaches, Project Guides and collaborative planners, teachers and assessors. What I have noticed more clearly now, though, is that the act of teaching is calm, unhurried and responsive.

Calm, unhurried, responsive collaborative teaching in action

This has got me thinking about the concept of slow learning.

One of our Principles is to inspire students through deep challenge and inquiry, This is impossible to achieve when school is a mad rush to get through stuff while at the same time continually assessing the stuff. Such a culture place too much stress on both teachers and students.

I'm liking the sound of the slow learning movement. This has been reinforced through a series of meetings Claire and I have had with the 15 Year 11 students that we have and their families over the best pathways for them as they attempt to  move through their qualifications pathways. The realisation I have come to is that these students and their families enrolled in our school because they had faith in the model of learning we were aspiring to - which includes not contributing to the culture of assessment anxiety that exists in almost all schools (see ERO). Yet what we initially proposed to support this small group of learners was going to do just that (and create too much stress for staff). Claire really nailed it when she started talking about there being no need to rush and that it is OK to take time to move through and eventually graduate from school. As a result, almost all of these students, with the support of their parents, have decided to travel through school with the current Year 10 cohort with the likelihood of 6 years at secondary school. I see these students as the pioneers of the slow learning movement.

And when you look at our Vision (and I expect most schools') to create an inclusive and stimulating learning environment which empowers learners to contribute confidently and responsibly in a changing world and at our 2 Pathways of Excellence - Academic Excellence and Personal Excellence - how can you rush this through in a pressure cooker environment.

What might a slow learning movement mean?

• more teaching and learning and less assessment/testing
• less broad coverage and more deep challenge and inquiry - see Cairan's post of one of his examples of deep challenge
• a greater focus on a dispositional curriculum
• more student voice
• more student agency - see great post from Claire
• lower levels of anxiety and stress for teachers, students and parents
• well-balanced, life-long learners

Who's going to join us? We've got a group of lone nuts and first followers who would like you to join in.

Rhetoric and Reality

I almost didn't go to the launch of David Hood's book, The Rhetoric and The Reality: New Zealand schools and schooling in the 21st century, last Wednesday night. It would mean a late afternoon drive to Hamilton to attend the function and then not getting home until 11.00pmish. I'd been feeling a bit flat all week and quite fatigued and nearly talked myself out of it.

I am so pleased I made the effort (and even managed to fit in a roadside-in-Huntly radio interview on the way down. This was supposed to be on an academic's claim that pen and paper should be banned from school but the article was in fact on the need for schools to align, quickly, with the needs of learners and their lives).

For 4-5 years I had been part of a network of principals, Coalition of 21st Century Schools, facilitated expertly by David Hood. It was here that I was introduced to the concept of the Paradigm of One and the much needed Paradigm of Many. It was here, under David's mentorship, that I explored what schooling might look like if we put students at the centre and met their needs and then developed the confidence to put some different things in place.

He exposed us to hard copy readings back then that now flow daily across my consciousness through Twitter. He took us on a study tour to Australia to explore Rich Tasks. It was powerful stuff (the power of which I did not appreciate at the time).

His gentle support (though I always sensed a level of impatience within him - after all he wrote his first book Our Secondary Schools Don't Work Anymore 17 years ago) encouraged me to introduce 3 Day Wananga, 100 Minute Learning Periods, small group Learning Advisories and High Impact Projects at Opotiki College in 2011/2012.

Since that time I have been at HPSS attempting to lead a school that allows a secondary school to work for our students by being relevant for them. The hope has also been that we may influence work in other schools. The Paradigm of One and The Paradigm of Many has become part of my mantra and I had forgotten that it had emerged from the work with David.

The launch was, appropriately at Tai Wananga, a school in Ruakura, Hamilton, that David had assisted in establishing. This is a school that not only allows Maori to achieve as Maori but also puts in place a model of secondary schooling that we at HPSS also aspire to.

In David's brief address to the gathering he spoke of the need for schools to place the needs, passions, lives and futures of their students at the centre of curriculum design, pedagogy and decision-making. It was a true tears in my eyes moment and reminded me of the influence he has had.

I was invited to stay and share a meal with him before heading home. Arrival at home was looking further away but I jumped at the opportunity. Over dinner we committed to maintaining our connection with David already booking in to visit us with me committing to taking staff to visit Tai Wananga. It was over dinner that his frustration and impatience with the rate of change in thinking about and practice in secondary schools was occurring.

It was a late arrival home but that short time with David had been invaluable.

You can view a review of his book (as well as a review of Sir Ken Robinson's new book) here.

It's Not Only The Kids Who Learn Here!

Danger! Super Heroes at Work!

I have grown to love the elegance of timetabling! Not timetabling as I once knew it when the concentration was on creating an administratively efficient machine that looked remarkably like last year's and contained the same type of 'acceptable restrictions' as in previous years and which required a shoe horn to force every one of our learners into! Such a timetable always resulted in comments such as , "I'd really like to do that but the timetable wont let me!" I'm embarrassed to say that I've uttered that tragic line in the past to either quell my own crazy ideas or to dismiss the crazy innovative thoughts of others.

The timetabling I've grown to love is that once subjugates the timetable to its role of representing the vision and values of the school and bringing life to the curriculum design principles that emerge from the vision and values - a timetable that is flexible and responsive with the needs of thelearner firmly at the centre.

As I said in my previous post we're onto our 3rd timetable structure. While our planned timetable for next semester is not different to the naked eye many of the principles behind its structure have changed. You may remember that I was excited about it being created over the summer on a piece of rolled out brown paper. We've now matured to the point we we have created our next one on a bare wall in The Tardis - our/my nickname for our visible planning space.

This was our first year with both Years 9 and 10 and despite the fact that Big Projects, Learning Hubs, SPIN Modules and MyTime were all delivered in multi age levels we decided to differentiate our Small Modules and deliver them as separate Year 9 and 10 Modules. Our reasons were valid but I must admit I would lie awake at night haunted by my dismissals of the Paradigm of One (traditional secondary schooling) which grouped kids together based entirely on the fact they were the same age. I lived in fear I would be reminded of that and be challenged as to why we were following suit. As well, I had aspirations that our Years 9 and 10 in the future would be differentiated as the Foundation Years of our school and would be able to access the appropriate programmes without us rationing them out based on their age.

I was also uncomfortable that we had moved away from teams of teachers working together to combine Learning Areas in the way they saw best fit the contexts of learning our students were suggesting to teachers and Learning Areas being combined without their input. While such enabling constraints did force some innovative thinking and it was important to experience this I still thought that perhaps administrative efficiency was having too much influence.

So what now then?

I was exhilarated and proud to be present when our Leaders of Learning overwhelmingly agreed that our Semester 2 Modules should be available to all learners and that we would seriously grapple with the generally ungrappled-with issue of true differentiation of learning.

By making this shift we found some of the previous enabling constraints were now less constraining and more enabling. Teams of teachers would now be free to collaboratively determine the Learning Area and teacher pairings. But we needed some rigour around how these pairings would develop based on our previous experience. Spurred on by Mark Osborne we decided to develop some 'Pairing Principles' to guide this process and here they are below.

The whole process has been enhanced by the determination to be transparent and visible. On the wall in the Tardis is everyone's allocated hours for next semester and my suggestion for their use. Staff can see how not only their own allocation is arrived at but also of every other staff member
As well, when every component was put up on the wall I photographed it and emailed to all staff with the invite to come and discuss what was being created. I also kept a running record on a whiteboard of emerging issues and questions to think about.

At tonight's LOL meeting in the Tardis and beneath the timetable wall above I shared the last remaining issue and within 5 minutes it was resolved collaboratively.

Tonight over a glass of red I've been thinking about another challenging but satisfying day. Kay Hawk spent the day guiding us through part of a robust process for SLT appraisal where she spoke of the need to "decrease feelings of lonely responsibility", the importance of being "explicit about the intent of different stages of consultation" and the vital importance of "an explicit school pedagogy."

Tonight's LOL meeting which dealt with the timetable and also included a robust discussion, ostensibly about developing a process to deal with student requests to move from one module to another but which was really about the importance of keeping the needs of our learners at the centre of all decision-making, somehow, in ways I still haven't clarified, resonated with those key messages I heard from Kay.

And then I remembered a snatched corridor conversation with Danielle at the end of last week when I was expressing my normal state of awe in which I held staff and their commitment to our kaupapa. Walking off she stated simply, "It's not only the kids who learn here, Maurie!"

Student Council at work in Tardis under gaze of Timetable!

Magic!

Life in the Pit Lane

It's tough work moving through the establishment of a new school, especially when driven by the desire to lead the way in reshaping what secondary schooling needs to be like to retain its relevancy.

We started this year with our 3rd timetable structure and after one term (actually 7 weeks of operation) we are now beginning the process of what our timetable will be like in Term 3. Obviously we need to make decisions soon so that we can plan to implement it. And then we have to move quickly during Term 3 to determine what our timetable will need to be like in our 3rd year of operation with a Year 9-11 cohort (and with a small group of Year 12s who snuck in while we looked the other way). Because whatever we decide we will need lead-in time to prepare.

Feels a bit like this

It seems like a never-ending cycle of review and redesign. And of course it is and it's the way it has to be if we wish to remain responsive to what's best for our students.

I'm really pleased with where we have progressed our thinking about how NCEA will fit within our Vision and Principles and best support our learners. Further detail can be found in my previous post and also in one from Claire.

We repeated our parent workshop with our students during the first week of term and as part of the workshop we asked our students to give us feedback on what they liked about what they heard and what concerns they still had:

What Do We Like?

• more time to focus on quality
• quality not quantity
• get to focus deeply on a few credits rather than heaps of credits on the surface
• more time to achieve higher goals
• doing less better
• less stress
• I feel more calm
• helping us to be less anxious
• time to do other learning
• time for life (out of school)
• enjoy learning
• become more confident
• concentrate on passions and interests
• achieve Level 1 when get Level 2
• only need 20 credits in Year 11
• no useless credits
• it is a different way
• internationally recognised
• carry over credits from year to year
• understand NCEA much more
• not based on age but based on skill level
• seems pretty nifty thankyou
• the use of solo rubrics
• simplicity
• focus on Merit and Excellence
• we get to enjoy school more
• still get to keep combined subjects

It was cool to get this sort of feedback from our students as it showed that many of them really understand what is driving us at our school.

And what questions they were still asking!:

• Still want to get a high grade in NCEA L1
• Can we aim for more credits than 20 in L1?
• What do I do if I fail L3 in my last year?
• Are we doing enough learning now for NCEA?
• Will there be support groups for people who are struggling?
• How certain are you that we will get NCEA L2?
• Do all L1 credits have to be in English and Maths?
• Is it the more credits you get the better?
• Will what I study for NCEA get me a job?
• How will I know which credits to go for?
• Will I be able to match my career choice with what I want to study?
• What is the difference between internals and externals?
• Will we be able to do scholarship?
• Why not Cambridge?
• Not doing L1 might mean we fail L2. We might be under more pressure at L2.
• What about students who enjoy tests and exams?
• Do we need literacy and numeracy at L2?

As well, ongoing feedback from parents has been great. We were part of a Hobsonville Point wider community open day this weekend and we opened up the school. When one set of parents came in to deliver food for their son who was part of the 48 hour Film Challenge that was going on they talked about their relief with our approach as their older son was experiencing quite high levels of stress with NCEA at L3 in the school that he attended.

I am very careful not to criticise individual schools at any time. I sincerely believe that the issue of stress and assessment anxiety around qualifications in particular (but not excluding junior school test anxiety) is a systemic issue. It is going to require some courageous schools to thumb their noses at league tables, reject the ethos of competition, accept the challenge of bringing parents along with them and placing the needs of students right at the centre.

Another process that is maturing at our school is our tracking and reporting. See Heemi's blog post on the detail. Last Friday our students accessed their mid module formative report as described in Heemi's post through the student portal and followed a process of analysing the comments, curriculum levels and SOLO indications with each student having a one-on-one conversation with their Coach.

Students analysing formative reports with Learning Coach conferencing with individual

At the end of the day parents were given access to the same through the parent portal. Because of what we did during Learning Hub at the end of the day we feel our students were well-placed to lead the discussion at home with their parents.

While we might like to slow the pace to the more gentle pace shown here by our wonderful Arohanui school mates paddling their waka in our school as they embrace our current theme/concept of Cultural Diversity I can't help but think it's going to be more like the pit-lane pace shown at the beginning.

Now....what next? That's right tomorrow's Mondays with Maurie is going to focus on the issue of homework. Wonder how that will pan out?

Behaviour Management and Leading with Shared Responsibility

I'm finding the above matrix to be very useful when thinking about a range of scenarios as we continue to establish our school. I used it to kick off this morning's 'Mondays with Maurie' Kitchen Table with staff which focused on managing student behaviour. I chose to focus on this as I was picking up messages from staff that some were finding their way with the management of student behaviour in a way that fitted with our kaupapa of restorative practices. Some conversations I had had with staff made me believe we weren't always getting the warm and demanding balance right.

I started off by reminding that while our kaupapa was one of shared responsibility for developing and operating our school there are times when we as teachers take a lead in that shared responsibility. Managing student behaviour is definitely one of the times when teachers need to lead while sharing the responsibility.

Being Warm and Demanding means that you not only care for the students as learners and young people but, just as importantly, you have high expectations of them and their behaviour (in this particular context). Being Warm and Demanding also means that you are firm, fair and consistent about insisting that your high expectations are being met.

Because we have some understanding of the teenager and their brain we apply the Warm and Demanding approach in full knowledge that teenagers will push against the boundaries and that most of them will need several reminders of the high expectations and some will need assertive correction.

I then reminded staff of the Pyramid of Restorative Practices which we had been exposed to before. The Pyramid sits firmly within the Warm and Demanding quadrant. While specific training and on-going practice is needed for the Mini Chat and above layers, the base of the pyramid is the age-old strategies effective teachers have used in classrooms around the world.

Relaxed Vigilance is a term, I think, I borrowed from Bill Rogers and lightly Less relaxed Vigilance is a term I introduced during my time at Opotiki College.

Relaxed Vigilance are strategies that are delivered low key and go virtually unnoticed by other students. They are brief, subtle reminders of expectations and many of the most effective are non-verbal. They include making eye contact, moving near, appropriate facial expressions, hand gestures and naming the student. When these strategies, rather than overt calling out of a student, are used most low-level behaviours are dealt with without interrupting the flow of learning and without a low-level behaviour escalating to a higher level and then definitely interrupting the flow of learning.

Slightly Less Relaxed Vigilance strategies are used when the above are unsuccessful. They are delivered in a calm, matter-of-fact tone, delivered as privately as possible and keep the focus on the primary behaviour without being drawn into side arguments. Strategies include beginning with an I statement (I want you to.....), language and tone of expectation ('thanks' which implies compliance, rather than 'please' which indicates a request), broken record (restating expectation in face of attempts to side track or not comply - use a maximum of 3 times), tune in (show you have heard the side issue response but restate the expectation), rule reminder (remind of our rule about ... put as a statement not as a question), limited choice (phone in your bag or on my desk), direct question (you are ......, what should you be doing), chosen consequences (if you choose to continue..... you will be [facing this consequence]).

In the brief time we had left we brainstormed what the common classroom behavioural issues were and began exploring successful strategies.

This is quite hard to read because it is my hand writing but was great to receive the bottom right response: clearly outline expectations from the start and accept need to go over again [and again].

We'll continue to do work on how we can lead with this shared responsibility.

Straight after this session I had a start-of-term Kitchen Table with our students (others may call it an Assembly) and the focus with them was the shared responsibility we all had to make sure our school evolved into the school we want it to be. I have asked them to ponder that question and then once they had decided to work actively on achieving that type of school. Because it's all very well that we as the staff have a view of what sort of school we want to have the reality is that we will have a school that our students want.

 I then set them the challenge of climbing these stairs every day, celebrating the Hobsonville Habits they were displaying strongly and identifying another to focus on for that day. Visible Habits.

How Might We Align NCEA With Our Vision

This question has not necessarily vexed us for a couple of years during our establishment phase and during out initial implementation phases but it has certainly been lying in wait for us. We've often been told that what you are doing with curriculum and pedagogy at your school is well and good for 'juniors' but wait until the restrictions and demands of NCEA start impacting on you.

To tell the truth, I haven't been too worried and I've made no secret of my simple strategy/solution which was to not offer NCEA Level 1 at all and just move into L2 in Year 12. I know announcing this position caused some disquiet amongst my colleagues but I think this made me more determined to keep announcing it to stretch what the possibilities might be. NCEA is an awesome qualification with huge flexibility and potential. I believe it is ripe for an innovative approach.

A few planets began to line up that helped to solidify my own thinking. The first was the release of the ERO National Report on Student Well-Being in Secondary Schools. See my post on its damning findings. This report solidified my own resolve to not lead a school that contributed to this situation. I then moved on to finding the courage to stick with this moral purpose. Of course, as a leader you need to take people with you and the courage to pursue a moral purpose is of no use if this doesn't happen.

Around about the same time while in deep, vigorous discussion within our SLT forum as were were debating what NCEA position we would be finalising and presenting to our staff, students and parents I felt my resolve strengthening and proclaimed that I didn't want to lead a school which rolled out NCEA like every other school was doing simply because not all of our staff would agree with anything other than that and that it would be a hard sell to our parents. We'd signed up for the hard and challenging work to bring life to our vision (I told myself).

Then I had to prepare a spotlight address at the National Aspiring Principal Programme on Leading for the future with a moral purpose (see previous post). The preparation for and delivery of this address not only focused myself on the responsibility I had to be courageous but it also influenced other key people who are necessary for us to be successful.
In introducing the topic to staff I reminded them that we were on a journey to redesign the secondary school experience in NZ. I reminded them that we had dismantled the NZC to discover its essence and then created our own curriculum and pedagogical models to realise its full potential. This is still on-going work. But I reminded them that our work was not done and that the qualification process was our next target.

As usual we started with what we wanted to end up with.

I then outlined to staff what the'principles' were that had been behind us coming to our position.

Staff were then shown a learning years framework which I had shared last year which showed how NCEA and our view on it could easily align with it.

And as we are finding ourselves doing more recently I presented an Elevator Statement that summarises our position.

 So how are we going to incorporate NCEA in a way that that aligned with the above principles and matched our learning years framework?

Let me show you a whiteboard I prepared earlier (and which featured prominently at our parents meeting)!

The intention of this masterpiece was to clarify the mix of numbers that can confuse: Year Levels, Curriculum Levels and NCEA Levels. I pointed out there was a strong link between the curriculum levels and NCEA levels but just a loose link with Year Levels.

I then explained why NCEA Level 1 was a qualification of little value; it leads to no employment or further training. Despite this all schools expose their 14 and 15 year olds to a full year of six subjects offering anywhere between 18 and 24 credits (both internal and external) meaning to get the 80 required (for a meaningless qualification) students were being exposed to 120-140 credits. It's like being hit by a tidal wave! All of a sudden their focus moves away from the joy of discovery and learning to credit chasing and teachers take their eye off the NZC and 'teach to the tests' - all for a qualification that has little value! Stress levels rise for everyone - students, teachers and parents.

Our plan is that our Year 11 students will achieve around 20 quality Level 1 or 2 credits that emerge from their co-constructed learning programmes. Most of these will be from their areas of interest and passion though if we identify that a learner will struggle to receive literacy and numeracy credits at Level 6 or 7 then we will direct them to the literacy and numeracy Unit Standards.

Our learners will take their 20 quality credits with them to Year 12. Their focus in Year 12 will be on 60 quality Level 2 or higher credits. When these are matched with the 20 they have brought with them they are awarded NCEA L1 and 2. They will have done this after having attempted around 100 credits over their 2 years rather than the 220-280 they may have had to attempt elsewhere.

Of course, it was important to explain to parents that while the learners weren't being exposed to a huge number of NCEA assessments they were still covering all of the Achievement Objectives from the NZC (in relevant Learning Areas) and would be assessed by the school and reported on them.

Claire then took over and described how we were meeting the needs of the small group of Year 11 students we had this year. In Week 1 of this year, after hearing student voice, teachers prepared module programmes for our learners with Learning Objectives from NZC.  few weekslater Claire asked teachers to investigate whether if they had any students achieving at CL6 could they see any internally assessed NCEA L1 Achievement Standards they could offer. This resulted in a long menu from all modules of possible Achievement Standards. Our Year 11 students were invited to negotiate with their teachers which ones they could attempt in their journey of collecting 20 credits.

This process is so powerful at many levels. Firstly, the NCEA Achievement Standards fell out of the programmes RATHER THAN BEING THE PRIME DRIVERS OF THE PROGRAMMES! Secondly, the students were empowered to lead the process and to negotiate their individual pathway. Thirdly, our staff can feel proud about walking the talk of personalising learning and assessment.

Our night was a huge success. We got a great endorsement from the NZQA representative present who championed our emphasis on quality rather than quantity and congratulated our moves to reduce assessment anxiety and reject the assessment driven curriculum. Throughout the evening our parents asked challenging questions in their attempt to understand. I congratulated them for helping create a school where they felt really comfortable challenging the Principal and SLT.

It was agreat way to start the final week of Term 1. And what a great way to end........

International Onesie Day!

Mad Hatters Tea Party!

See you next term at our weird and wonderful school!

Aligning Practice with Vision

While our school has been in operation for 5 school terms we've been on the establishment journey for 10 terms. Over that period we spent a lot of time on establishing our vision, values and principles. The intent of the New Zealand Curriculum has been central in driving this establishment. Most of our time during the roll out phase, especially last year, has been spent on prototyping how we might bring life to to our vision, values and principles.

As a consequence of this prototyping we're onto our 3rd Specialised Learning Module structure and accompanying timetable, we've firmed up our Learning Hub and Learning Community curriculum, we've developed a rigorous Big Project planning and process model linked to our values and we've developed rigour around the planning and delivery of MyTime which links it firmly to our Hobsonville Habits.

We're constantly breaking new ground and, in fact, all of these are and will remain in prototype stage as we keep refining and being responsive.

The fact that we're constantly checking our plans against our vision, values and principles has meant that things seem to be fitting quite well. I suspect this is what experts are talking about when they speak of alignment. And it is this sense of alignment which gives me the confidence to work with our team to break new ground when we roll out our approach to NCEA.

At HPSS we are determined to provide our students with a high quality NCEA qualification which aligns strongly with our vision, values and principles and which breaks the cycle of credit chasing by students, 'teaching to the test' by teachers and the inordinate level of stress and assessment anxiety which disengages students from learning.

Last week Claire and I hosted the 13 Year 11 students and their parents and laid out our plans on how they would be prepared to achieve NCEA L2, as a minimum qualification, without devoting their Year 11 Year to the pointless pursuit of dozens of credits which only serves to take their focus off deep learning and understanding.

While we were questioned closely we were able to get our vision and message across and parents left with a great understanding. In one sense I was surprised how well our ideas were received, but on reflection I shouldn't have been. Our vision, values and principles are strong and well thought-out and because our qualifications plans are so strongly linked to them it all just felt right; this thing called alignment again.

Last Thursday I spoke in Wellington at the National Aspiring Principals Programme workshop for secondary. My topic was leading for the future with moral purpose. When preparing for this event I was sometimes overwhelmed by the vastness of such a topic. It wasn't until a few minutes before I spoke that I simplified it in my head down to:

• have a clear vision and set of values and principles and have the courage to be determined to have them drive the practices and structures you implement and oversee in your school

The leading for the future part, of course, is making sure your vision, values and principles are appropriate for the future we are preparing our students for, but that's another post/story.

Leadership, Moral Purpose and Courage

Sometimes, I must admit, I used to often feel like the Leunig dude in the boat above. It fitted the perception of leadership being a solitary action and one in which you had little control or ability to set a particular direction.

I've got a 24 hour adventure race coming up in a fortnight so I have spent many long hours out trekking in the wonderful Waitakeres with only my own thoughts for company. I have found this valuable time to ruminate on a wide range of issues.

I use this time to think about what I will share with my staff on my weekly 15 minutes of "Mondays With Maurie". I use these weekly sessions to try to tie together our vision with the current issues we are grappling with.

My session this morning was an attempt to pull together common threads between our current 'next big thing' i.e. How Might We Align NCEA Pathways With Our Vision?, the troubling findings from the ERO National Report on Student Wellbeing in Secondary Schools (which, unfortunately, will end up having little impact on many schools and their practices) and what Leading For The Future With a Moral Purpose (the topic of a spotlight address I am making this week at the NAPP day in Wellington) actually means.

On reflecting on leadership I have experienced in schools in the past I realised most leadership was about managing the status quo (hardly an inspirational imperative for leadership). Then things changed a little so leaders had to now "manage change" as if it was an inconvenience that was disrupting the status quo. Change can't be managed, especially rapid change. Managing something means dealing with it when it's here and now so it is quite reactive. I came to the conclusion that leading for the future requires us to lead change.

However, we are not talking about change for change's sake. The change we lead has to have a moral purpose. What that moral purpose is will be different for every school and every leader, but it will define our contribution to the education sector in which we lead. At HPSS we believe that the current model of secondary schooling is not fit for purpose. It is, therefore, morally imperative that we lead a change so that it is fit for purpose.

How is this linked to the ERO Report and our thinking in relation to NCEA? I have always been concerned about something which is labelled by ERO as assessment anxiety. I have sat in staffrooms and at network meetings when teachers complain that the kids were refusing to do some learning activities because they didn't have credits attached to them or grizzled about Year 12 students who had their 60 credits by October and had "stopped learning" and I have seen kids struggling with the demands of internal and external assessment over their last 3 years at school.

ERO noted that in all 60+ secondary schools it looked at for its report that, "the key factor was that students in all schools were experiencing an assessment driven curriculum and assessment anxiety" and "In many schools the only people who understood the overall curriculum and the competing demands on them were the students."

These findings are intolerable and school leaders will respond not only according to their moral purpose but also according to their level of courage to be guided by it. That's what we are grappling with at the moment. Do we have the courage to set a different course with our wonderful NCEA qualification, a course that allows our students to retain their love of learning and joy of discovery and that addresses the growing incidence of assessment anxiety and mental unwellbeing?

I hope and think that we do have the courage to set a new course and I'm looking forward to sharing our planning.

Let The Moment Seize Us

While out trekking in the bush and in the rain this morning I was beginning to formulate what I was going to post this week. Thinking about the previous week I decided to theme and title it around "not letting history pass us quietly by" and then thought I would call it "Seize The Moment." However, after the trek I went to the cinema to see Boyhood (which, by the way is the best thing I've seen since Dark Horse) and was blown away by the last scene. Mason and his new friend commented that rather than seizing the moment it seemed it was more often the other way around and that "the moment seizes us".

Over the last 2 weeks I have found myself in hui at school, or simply part of conversations, and sitting back a little and observing, listening and reflecting on what was happening before me. Several times I was moved to comment that it was important to be consciously aware that something special was taking place which will contribute to a new way of looking at secondary schooling in our country.

At one of our first Learning Area Leaders (LALs) meeting while we were reflecting on a new timetable structure that appeared to have less freedoms in it our Science LAL, Andrea, asked if it would be OK since there were 2 Science modules on at the same time (both linked to 2 other learning areas) could they treat it as one large group and run a programme drawing on the strengths of the four teachers across both groups. It was a #tearsinmyeyes moment.

At our first Leaders of Learning (LOL) meeting Danielle, who has been leading the operation of MyTime (see Claire's post describing our curriculum elements), came in to present her plans for MyTime in 2015. She had shared her plans with SLT and I loved them because they built a strong structure and rigour around an important aspect of our curriculum model which could easily have become a bit fluffy. But I was a little nervous as MyTime and its structure had caused a lot of angst within our staff as a result of differeing views on its purpose. Because Danielle placed her proposals firmly within the values of our school with tight links to our Hobsonville Habits her proposal met with total support and approval. #tearsinmyeyes again!

Assessment processes had caused a lot of issues for us last year as we made a few decisions on the hoof in our attempts to include what we valued. It was an important place to be and has resulted in what I believe to be a rigorous process of collecting student and staff narratives for each learner which can be used to have meaningful conversations with learners and also to report to parents. In order to meet some of the concerns from parents we have agreed to report on the curriculum levels that students are working in, but in order to make it more meaningful, especially for our students, I have been determined to show differentiation within the levels by use of a thinking taxonomy. While we have some experts on our staff we also have some who are not.

At our next LAL meeting, our SCT and a bit of a guru with Solo, Cindy, presented on how SOLO could be used in a number of ways to achieve the differentiation, as well as being an outstanding tool for showing progressions for small sections of learning. Her introduction of Big and Little
Rubrics was another #tearsinmyeyes moment.

At one of our regular SLT Hui there were at least 3 more #tearsinmyeyes moments. We had a rigorous discussion around processes that supported our important IEMs (Individual Education Meetings) and we started off with some differences of opinion that soon found an equilibrium. We were able to live out our aspiration of being a team that had robust discussion followed by solid commitment to our agreed position.

At that same hui Lea, DP responsible for our Learning Hub programme, took us through the newly developed Learning Hub Handbook with its outline of a Learning Hub curriculum structure underpinned by a philosophy of responsiveness to the need at the time. The coup de grace, which produced this #tearsinmyeye moment was the rubric that had been developed to track, with links to evidence based on SOLO, each learners progress through the Hobsonville Habits. We are committed to pursuing Personal Excellence for each of our learners but I had been worried as I had not ever seen a way of evidencing progress within a dispositional curriculum. We're on our way to cracking this!

And then Claire presented to us on the plan to align NCEA processes with our vision and values. This is a whole new post, or series of posts.

We have had to be courageous in setting out to establish our school with our set of vision, values and principles. There have been many stressful times, but all have been outweighed by the many tearsinmyeyes moments.

There is no doubt that our plans for NCEA will require a high level of courage as we again do things differently so that we ensure that in the area of national qualifications we do not default to the norm but stay true to the vision, values and principles of our school.

A summary of what is affecting our thinking is:

• NCEA L1 is a qualification that does not provide access to careers or tertiary study.
• There is a growing concern of the impact of assessment driven curriculum on student well-being and we wish to alleviate the high levels of anxiety too many learners experience.

The recent ERO Report on student wellbeing in secondary schools makes a couple of damning conclusions:

• "Very few schools were responding to this overload by reviewing and changing their curriculum and assessment practices"
• "In many secondary the only people who understood the school curriculum and the competing demands on them, were the students"

I have been traumatised by this last statement since I read it last Thursday. At HPSS we are determined to show the courage necessary to not be a school that this can be said about.

The moment to have the opportunity to establish a different climate within a school concerning qualifications is about to seize us.

Kia kaha!

Infectious Dispositions and Powerful Partnerships

When reading Charlie's latest post I was reminded of something I used to say quite often at my last school to keep myself on track in developing my own mindset or to encourage others to develop their own mindset.

Both optimism and pessimism are infectious. Which one do you want to catch? Which one do you want to infect others with?

When I was first dabbling in school leadership I received some advice which directed me to spend time in all parts of the staffroom making sure I sat and talked with all staff and all groups. I followed this advice for several years consigning myself to some miserable and motivation-sapping experiences. While torturing myself on one particular occasion I kept having my attention drawn to a noisy, laughing crew across the staffroom. I soon recognised them as the movers and shakers in the school and they seemed to be feeding off each other's energy. As well, around them were other staff members with smiles on their faces being quietly infected by this raucous crew. Around me was doom and despair!

From that moment I decided to reject the earlier advice and make sure that whenever possible I was in the company of positive, optimistic, excited and energetic people. It's proven to be a great tactic. I think I had come across something which now falls into my understanding of growth mindset.

Google search for Warm and Demanding came up with this. Go Steve!

I also got to thinking about the concept of Warm and Demanding which has been gaining some currency. I recalled a conversation I had with a Social Studies teacher about 20 years ago who was performing below what I expected from a teacher. When he dismissed my concerns and expressed what I saw as low expectations for his students and the low expectations he had for himself I said firmly to him that these kids would only ever be in Form 4 Social Studies once in their whole life and they deserved to be given the best teaching we could give them.

I ended up having little impact on that particular teacher who very shortly after moved away from teaching in NZ. I think that was one of the first times I began to explore what initially became 'warm and strict' and has now emerged as 'warm and demanding'.

Both of these thoughts have made me realise that it takes a long time for thoughts to percolate in a meaningful way and that 'philosophies of leadership' develop through experience over time.

I can't let this post go by without celebrating the awesome living out of our principle of powerful partnerships that occurred as a result of our Waitangi Whanau celebration last Thursday.

We all know that relationships are at the heart of learning, but how successfully do schools really play that out? I am so rapt that we have stuck to our guns and committed our first 2 weeks of school to 'induction' (= getting to know each other as learners). And how many schools take the opportunity to cement relationships from the start of the year with their parents and wider community?

We had a stunning evening at HPPS sharing time with our families and many affirming conversations were held. I was moved to tweet 2 of the conversations when I got home.

One of the highlights for me was seeing a Dad, his daughter and Pete, our teacher, performing music together to the crowd.

I encourage you to check out both Sally's and Steve's blogs on the evening as they describe so well the link to our principles of learning.

I was blown away by last year's Waitangi Whanau event and wondered how this would compare. I think this year's was another step up. There seemed to be a real sense of pride from our parents about their schools. I kept hearing parents talking about high levels of engagement by their kids, their keenness to get back to school and how much they felt part of the schools.

I can't help but think that both students and parents are chomping at the bit to be fully engaged in schooling. Let's make sure we don't get in their way.

Enabling Constraints

Enabling constraints - this is a term that has been appearing in conversations I've been having over the last few months. When others have used it I've nodded wisely and tried to contribute to the conversation. Like with a number of concepts, such as growth mindset or warm and demanding, it's not until you are within a situation that brings these concepts to the fore that you truly understand them.

At the end of last year, after prototyping 2 timetables, we decided on a timetable structure for our new context ( 2 and a bit year levels, expanding staff, closer to NCEA). I needed convincing that we had settled on the correct model but was won around and set about building a structure that would deliver it and allow us to function at the start of the next year.

One of the things I loved that despite being this modern school with lots of technology the best way to do it was with brown paper and stickies. I viewed it as a retro masterpiece. It also proved to be an effective tool for collaborating as well. Anyone who wanted to come and contribute had to come into the room and do it rather than from their space in an on-line format. This meant misconceptions could be talked through in front of this beautiful structure. As well it was easy to see the whole picture at once and to move things around. I did worry that leaving it at school over the holidays without any useable copy of it was a bit risky (a cleaner could have rolled it up and/or the stickies could have fallen off!)

Despite revelling in it's beauty all holidays I still had disquiet about some of it's features. Apart from my own disuiet I did worry how some of our pioneering staff would view it, though most took the opportunity to help build it.

When I shared my disquiet with my Leadership Team, DP, Di Cavallo, agreed, but also talked about the power of enabling constraints to foster creativity and innovation. That's when I understood it!

With a mich higher level of confidence I rolled the brown paper out at our TOD and spoke about the enabling constraints (without using those terms). Shortly after that we met with our LALs (Learning Area Leaders) and Di nailed the power of enabling constraints and set the LALs the challenge of achieving innovation and creativity within that framework.

The brown paper reveal!

Doesn't look too bad in digital form either

How have staff responded? I encourage you to read recent posts from two of our leaders Ros MacEachern and Steve Mouldey. We were warned by a Principal who had been involved in creating a new school that often it was the staff who were appointed first who resisted any changes to what was initially created because of a sense of pride and/or ownership. These two posts show that this does not seem to be the case in our environment. We've done a lot of work on growth mindset and I think that has shown its value.

I was blown away in the LAL meeting when Andrea (Science) immediately saw the potential of testing the boundaries of the constraints and checked if her creative proposal was a flyer. I sat back and relished the moment.

And to see staff in action taking the time made available to collaboratively plan and to determinedly find connections in areas they wouldn't have naturally expected has me in even more awe of them.