Plan For Opening School for Term 4

 Like a lot of people, I imagine, I've done some grieving about our Covid situation. However, since the movement from 4 to 3 and the further relaxing of the restrictions I've comforted myself with the view that even if we'd stayed in Level 4 or not relaxed the Level 3 conditions we'd still be in almost exactly the same position.

What I've been grieving about the most is the return to school. I felt we had done a good job on maintaining learning during lockdown. Our focus on wellbeing and connection first seemed to maintain a good enough level of engagement. I was truly feeling that with a return to school in Term 4, with exams delayed and Learning Recognition Credits, that we would be able to support our students to have qualification success.

Right now, I don't think schools should be fully opening up on October 18th because too many of our population, especially the most vulnerable, are not vaccinated. I fear schools will become super spreader environments.

So what can we do? We need a plan that supports graduating students to gain their qualification while maintaining a school environment that is safe for students and teachers.

I have a plan that I believe would work for our school, and with a little mindshift, it should work elsewhere. It requires a couple of starting points in the way we think about qualifications for 2021.

• we need to focus on only those students who are graduating this year
• we need to temporarily (if you must) suspend the acceptance of calendar year qualifications
• any student in Year 12 who is returning next year does not need to gain Level 2 in 2021. They will pick it up in 2022 as they begin their journey towards Level 3. If a school has NCEA Level 2 credits as a prerequisite for Level 3 they need to throw that out and have teacher judgement on a student's ability to cope with Level 3 as the only prerequisite.

School Opening Plan Term 4

Schools open on October 18th only for students who are graduating at the end of the year (all Year 13s and some Year 12s). We have already surveyed our students in Year 12 as to who will be or may be leaving (very small group).

Schools create a timetable for those students and the affected staff only.

• I suggest Monday Subject 1 all day, Tuesday Subject 2 all day etc. The advantages of such a timetable are:
• sustained time for students and teachers to identify where learners are at and to create next steps forward
• easier student/teacher bubble management to keep people safer. Teachers coming in for one or two full days, rather than chopping and changing blocks and periods throughout the week seems safer to me.

Classes for Years 9 -12 (we don't do NCEA Level 1) would continue on-line as they have been operating for most of Term 3.

Of course, all appropriate health and safety measures which are required for Alert Level 3 (apart from bubble size and composition) would be in place.

Keen to hear what you think.

Wellbeing is Learning!

More and more in my leadership growth journey I have come to realise the importance of wellbeing in learning. 

It began with delving into the principles of restorative practice and realising that all behavioural issues harm a relationship so the focus, when there has been misbehaviour, should be on repairing the harm to the relationship rather than on punishing the wrongdoing.

Then my involvement with the Te Kotahitanga programme exposed me to the thinking that for teachers to be effective, particularly for Maori but therefore all students then they need to demonstrate on a daily basis that they care for their students as culturally located individuals and that they have high expectations of the learning for all students. Such thinking placing the importance of relationships at the centre. And, of course, positive relationships depend on the wellbeing of all involved in the relationship to be nurtured.

The combination of exploring relationship-based behaviour management with the Te Kotahitanga inspired pedagogical approach got me thinking of what makes an effective relationship-based approach to curriculum and pedagogy.

I settled on a framework built around the concept of effective teachers being both warm and  demanding at the same time. By this I meant that students had to see very clearly that their teachers cared for them as learners and that those teachers not only had high expectations for them as learners but that they also had high expectations of themselves as teachers to support all students to learn. Such a construct requires a clear focus on the wellbeing of both student and teacher.

I have blogged before on Bishop's book, Teaching to the North East, which captures wonderfully that combination of warm and demanding. He talks of teachers and schools developing a family-like context for learning. And, of course, such a context requires a focus on wellbeing.

Belief in such principles have played a key role in the development of Hobsonville Point Secondary School. Structures and processes such as our Learning Hub structure and dispositional curriculum, as represented by our Hobsonville Habits, have relationships and wellbeing firmly at the core. This is one reason why when the pandemic struck we didn't have to pivot too far to ensure our approach around learning progress, student engagement and qualification preparation was based on focusing on the wellbeing of students and staff.

In between the 2 Auckland lockdowns I received a copy of Michael Fullan's The right drivers for whole school system success (CSE, Feb 2021). In this he talks about 4 "right drivers" to replace 4 "wrong drivers". The right drivers (with the corresponding wrong driver in brackets) are:

• Wellbeing and Learning (Academics Obsession)
• Social Intelligence (Machine Intelligence)
• Equality Investments (Austerity)
• Systemness (Fragmentation)

So far, I have only read the section on Wellbeing and Learning vs Academic Obsession. It has really resonated with me as I reflect on the first 3 days of our new Alert Level 3 and realise everything I have done since the Saturday night announcement has been focused on ensuring the wellbeing of students (delivering and issuing laptops and other resources) and staff (clear and, hopefully, compassionate communication re doing our best). Here is my summary of the main points:

Academic Obsession

He begins by arguing that the focus entirely on academic grades and degrees is damaging for learning and learners. He argues this focus results in narrow learning "that severely distorts what people learn and need in the 21st century." He says that despite the privileged students who succeed to gain the high grades there are no winners. He labels these students as 'wounded winners' and quotes research which concludes:

"In spite of their economic and social advantages, they experience among the highest rates of depression, substance abuse, anxiety disorder, somatic complaints, and unhappiness of any group of children in this country."

He then moves onto his case for arguing why Wellbeing and Learning is a more appropriate driver and starts with:

"In our ever-complex and contentious world we can no longer afford to separate wellbeing and learning. For one thing wellbeing is learning. As complexity in the world has evolved, Wellbeing and Learning represent an integrated concept. You cannot be successful in one without the other."

He also shares a definition of wellbeing:

"People become good at life when they feel safe, valued and have a sense of purpose and meaning. There is a need to be engaged in meaningful activities that contribute to the wellbeing of others. In the face of adversity, being able to navigate to the resources that you need to get out of the situation - known as resilience - is an essential component. To get there one needs to identify values, goals and needs as well as personal strengths. The competencies you need to achieve this, I think are the 6 Cs [Character, Citizenship, Collaboration, Communication, Creativity and Critical Thinking] as long as compassion and empathy are emphasised."

In exploring this driver he concludes that there is a huge gap between how schools are organised and how young people learn so fall well short of ensuring the wellbeing of these young people.

He proposes a Learning Design Model which combines 4 elements that lead to deep learning and incorporates Wellbeing and Learning as an integrated concept.

This model builds on what is known about the neuroscience of learning such as:

• student as inquirer and knowledge builder
• learning connects meaningfully to student interest and voice
• connects students to the world with authentic problem solving
• making mistakes and learning from them strengthens learning
• collaboration and other forms of connecting with other people and ideas

More detail on how this model operates, particularly in relation to the global competencies, in a way that a model focusing on Academic Obsession cannot is included on pages 17 - 19 of the publication.

Note: no one is arguing that there is no focus at all on academic success. If the main driver is Wellbeing and Learning then academic success which supports young people to thrive in a complex world is more likely to occur.

I'm looking forward to reading and blogging on Social Intelligence vs Machine Intelligence.

Kia kaha. Kia ora.

2021: How to Thrive: Whanaungatanga and Wellbeing @ HPSS

 Like all kura we learned a great deal from the heavily COVID affected 2020, and like all kura we're determined to embed that learning as we prepare for a "who knows what 2021 will have in store for us" year.

While many staff and students struggled at different times during 2020 we are able to begin this year reflecting, with pride, on how well we did. We concentrated on maintaining strong connections and communicating, looking out for each other, and we focussed on wellbeing. We were, though, very fortunate that our Learning Hub Model which has been central to our school since we began is all about connections, communicating, whanaungatanga, manaakitanga and wellbeing.

In recognition of the tough and demanding year we had experienced, with the knowledge that there was little certainty as to how 'normal' the year ahead would be and aware that 14 staff were either joining us for the first time or returning from leave we decided to hold a 2 day noho for all staff (teaching and non-teaching) at a local marae,  Te Piringatanga o Te Maungaarongo, with a total focus on whanaungatanga. We experienced a very warm pōwhiri in Te Hau Moana followed by 85 staff standing to introduce themselves by way of pepeha as we sat in a circle. All staff were involved in preparing meals and serving their colleagues over the 2 days and all activities that explored aspects of our curriculum or pedagogy involved staff connecting with and sharing with others, adding to the experience of whanaungatanga. In the evening there was a poi-making workshop and others sat in front of Te Hau Moana singing waiata. One of the highlights was beginning the second day shortly after sunrise with a collaborative physical activity involving breathing and movement led by Jack Gray of Atamira.

In the short session I led exploring the whakapapa of our kura I finished with the 5 key beliefs that I believe staff needed to thrive in our school in these uncertain times which may be of interest to other educators.

Relationships: the belief that strong and positive relationships between all involved is essential. But it has to be a particular type of relationship: Russell Bishop describes it as teaching in the North-east (see an earlier post) and at HPSS we refer to it as warm and demanding:

Restorative: the belief that hurtful actions or words, or any wrongdoing, harms a relationship so whenever such harm occurs the focus must be on repairing the relationship. Teenagers (and adults) will do wrong and school has to be a safe place to get it wrong, admit harm and then put things right. Young people will need help with this time and time again (hopefully adults less often!):

Culturally Sustainable Practice and Pedagogy: the belief that we have a Tiriti obligation to make sure that we meet the aspirations of Maori in our school. We have to get past the mantra that what is good for Maori is good for everyone and deliver what is good for Maori even if it is not good for anyone else.

Growth Mindset: the belief that it is important to give things a go, try your best, learn from getting it wrong and shining the light on the success of others.

Open to Learning:  the belief that whatever we believe to be the case, whatever we believe are the motivations of others, whatever we believe to be the best course of action we might be wrong.

So how will we cope and, hopefully thrive, in 2021?

• being warm and demanding on self and others
• focusing on maintaining and being willing to repair relationships
• making it our mission to truly honour our Tiriti obligation
• learning from our mistakes and celebrating the success of others
• accepting we might be wrong; and above all
• looking out for each other

How to Manage NCEA in Covid-affected 2020

A Rider
I want to start by saying that I have no ulterior motive for putting forward the following suggested strategy. My focus is entirely on the well-being of students and staff and strongly believe the positive outcomes would easily outweigh any perceived negative outcomes. As well, I can't help but draw on our experience at Hobsonville Point Secondary School over the last 7 years where I have witnessed a deep engagement with learning and high quality qualification achievement by our learners, But, also, I cannot help but draw on my previous 20 years experience as a school leader in a decile 1 school (where, by the way, I would be implementing a strategy similar to that described here).

Covid-affected 2020
At some point we will return to our physical schools. At this stage we are not sure whether our students would have missed out on 3, 4 or more weeks of on-site, physical school. It is very important to remember that whatever that time of off-site is, the actual lost time to that important on-site face-to-face learning will be much longer.

Here's why:
Our students (and staff) will return to our sites affected by a number of issues:

• some will be grieving
• many whānau will be affected by health issues
• many students' whānau will be facing employment uncertainty
• most whānau will be faced with financial hardship
• all students will be spread across the full range on the continuum of what learning progress they made while off-site. Some may have flourished and soared, many may have managed to just keep up, and many more will have struggled

Areas we will need to focus on

• Whakawhanaunga - welcoming our staff and students back into the physical space and re-inducting into how we now work in our kura

• Accommodating the full range of well-being situations all will be in

• Establishing the full range of learning progressions and differentiating so that we can accelerate those who have struggled while maintaining the momentum of all

• Progress towards qualifications

As far as 2020 qualifications are concerned we must have the time and energy to focus on those students who are graduating this year, while ensuring we keep building the foundations for quality qualifications for those students not graduating this year.

In devising our strategies for how we navigate our way through the reality of what impact Covid 19 has had on our schools and learners, and will continue to do so, and which allow us to have the focus described above we may need to be reminded of the following points made in the latest NZQA Update which included a slide show (unfortunately these important points were buried as bullet point 4 on slide 8 under the heading NZQA advises you consider):

• using the flexibility of the qualification. 
• Students don't need to complete a lower level qualification before moving to the next level. If students don't manage to achieve sufficient credits, those they subsequently achieve from a higher level can fill any gaps in achievement at a lower level.
  
• Students can catch up and be awarded their certificate in 2021 if they are returning to school.

These points are a reminder that

• students do not need to achieve Level 1 to gain Level 2 or Level 3 and, in fact, don't need L2 to get L3. 
• on the way to achieving their final qualification students do not need to complete each lower level in a calendar year

HPSS example of the above in practice

• on average, students at the end of Year 11 have 20 Level 1 credits and 10 at Level 2
• during their Year 12 year, after picking up a further 50 credits (usually at Level 2), they are awarded Level 1 and are close to achieving Level 2
• at the end of Year 12 many students may well not have met the requirements for Level 2 (though we ensure those graduating at the end of Year 12 achieve Level 1 or 2 - whatever is appropriate for them). This is not a concern for us because on their return the following year as a Year 13 student they meet the requirements of Level 2 (usually early in the year) and most go on to achieve Level 3.

All such an approach takes is an acceptance of the NZQA advice above, a mindset that rejects calendar year achievement of each qualification level and a lack of concern for league tables. At our school, we believe the most important measure is the quality of qualifications of leavers, not the steps along the way.

Positive outcomes are the reduction in teacher workload (setting, marking, moderating, resubmitting), the creation of more time to focus on learning, a reduction (though not complete elimination) of student stress and anxiety in relation to assessment and qualifications, the uncoupling of the assessment 'tail' waving the learning 'dog', and an increase in the quality of qualifications achieved.

What about those who only achieve Level 1?

Once again I can only call on my last 7 years at HPSS and the 20 years in my previous decile 1 school.

The latest statistics I can find are as follows:

• 10% of students leave school without at least Level 1
• 10% leave school with Level 1 as their highest qualification

At least we know that by doing things differently we can't have a more negative impact on the first group than we are already having. (I do believe, however, that with a much less focus on NCEA in Year 11 eg not exposing struggling learners to a year of 100-120 credits, then we have more chance in engaging them in school and learning and increasing the possibility they might return for a 4th year and have more chance of gaining their Level 1. That is certainly my current experience). However, in the meantime let's accept at least we won't be making their situation worse.

Quite rightly, the focus is on the second group and the actual percentage will differ across schools. I encourage schools to examine the pathways of those students who have left to determine whether Level 1 was necessary for them to be on that pathway. We have students who leave our school with Level 1 as their highest qualification, most of them on appropriate pathways, but none of them actually needed Level 1 to get onto that pathway, so they would not have been disadvantaged without achieving Level 1. As well, it is my experience that many of the students who currently leave with just Level 1, if they are on a slower assessment journey, largely focused on their intended pathway, actually end up achieving Level 2 after the end of 4 years at school.

A Strategy Worth Considering? - Slow it down and go more deeply

I shudder to think what the reduced 2020 school year will look like for our Year 11 learners if they are still faced with programmes based on assessing them against 120 credits. So I suggest the following as worthy of consideration:

1. Depending on a school's particular context it considers suspending NCEA Level 1 as a full qualification for its Year 11 learners for 2020.

But what would their year, and the year of the teacher look like?

• Teachers would not have to amend their programmes. They would still teach the full important concepts, skills and knowledge of their specialist subject, laying strong foundations for success in the following year at Level 2
• The large amount of time usually dedicated to the assessment of NCEA standards would be freed up for more learning
• Schools could decide that each subject can offer a maximum of 2 standards per subject so that students are still progressing the qualification ladder (or whatever maximum suits them best in consultation with each Learning Area).
• Because of more time allowing for deeper learning, schools may find that they can offer some of their Year 11 students assessment pitched at Level 2.
• Feedback and reporting to students and parents could be as it currently is for Years 9 and 10 - against Level 6 of the NZC

2. Ease up on the credit chase for Level 2 for students in Year 12 who you know will be returning in 2021 as they will gain Level 2 during their Year 13 year.

Issues

There are lots, but the biggest shift is a mindset shift from school leaders, who then lead the mindset shift for their staff, students and parents. Putting a well-being lens over such a strategy is hard to argue against.

As well, if you are considering such a strategy it's good to know you are not alone. Over the last 10 days I have hosted 2 Zui (Zoom Hui) with 30 secondary school leaders who are seriously exploring suspending NCEA Level 1 as a full qualification this year and I want to thank them for sharpening my thinking and giving more detail to this proposed strategy.

It seems to me that the Ministry and NZQA are reluctant to message that a valid strategy for schools to consider, depending on their context, the suspension of Level 1 as a full year qualification in 2020. The closest to that we can get is the NZQA message above.

If you want to explore this type of strategy further, make contact and I can link a few people together.

Leadership and Legacy: Part 3

#tearsinmyeyes moment during our Student Council meeting today which confirms many of our Q3 (Year 13 students) are thinking about their legacy in terms of their leadership. In my last 2 blog posts I described some examples  of how some students were doing this.

During General Business today one of the students shared his belief that as Student Councillors they needed to be more deliberate about being leaders throughout the school; that to be a Councillor they had to do more than merely attending meetings. It was good to see all those around the table nodding their heads.

This led to another student saying that, in her experience, making the small effort to notice a student by themselves at break time and going up and introducing yourself and sharing a little bit could be the one thing that gets the student to go home and talk about their neat day and who they met and talked with. She went on to encourage her colleagues to seek such connections with students of all 'types' as it contributed to your own understanding of the diversity around us. I was impressed with her insight.

At that point I talked with the students about how natural it is to want to stick with your own peer group and/or sub-group, especially in break times. I shared how uncomfortable I found it to mix widely in groups of people, especially when I didn't know them well. I also talked that this was one of the challenges of true leadership; to push aside your own uncertainties and social inhibitions and to show you can connect with a diverse group.

After the meeting one of the students remained to talk with me about how that day she had been talking with a new senior student and discovered that this student was struggling with our model of learning, particularly in one of her modules. This made the student who was talking with me realise that because she/we were familiar with the model and had, in fact, been with it throughout its development, not everyone understood it immediately. The new student talked about the confusion she was having with one module, so my senior asked who the teacher was and encouraged her to come with her to talk with the teacher. The new student needed some encouragement but it happened right there and then and the Student Council member moved on after having connected them.

By themselves, they may seem like small actions but collectively they are blowing me away and this type of student leadership will become the legacy of these foundation students.

Challenge of Biculturalism Lies With Pakeha

Disclaimer (if  that's the right term): I am a Pakeha and an atheist)

I've enjoyed revisiting this book several decades after I first read it. It was published  in 1992 and I bought it hot off the press. I had experienced my first 7 years as a teacher at Ngaruawahia High School in the heart of the Tainui Iwi and the Kingitanga movement.

While there I made my first foray into the Maori world. This included my first formal learning of Te Reo, experiencing powhiri, delivering whaikorero, participating in poukai and developing ways to support Maori aspirations in relation to education without charging in with the answers. I felt privileged to be made to feel at home at Turangawaewae and enjoyed many conversations with the late Maori Queen Dame Te Atairangikaahu. I had  a close relationship with her Private Secretary, Ngahia Gregory, who was on the teaching staff at Ngaruawahia High School. With her guidance and mentoring I was able to support the establishment of a "Bilingual Class" and was Chairman of the NHS Marae Committee that built the school Wharenui,Te Huingaongawai.

While these two (Bilingual Class and Wharenui) were physcically  visible outcomes the greatest outcome was the way in which, to make sure these projects came to fruition, Maori parents were supported to grow in confidence and move into key positions on the PTA and new-fangled BOTs.

None of these outcomes were my ideas. By listening to Maori students and their whanau their aspirations were clear, as were ideas on how to achieve them. I soon realised that where the support was needed was in navigating the Pakeha world and its institutions and ways of  operating. This is where I could help.

We had a great time - shooting geese on a farm and selling them at the Delta Hotel off the back of a trailer (fundraising), harvesting truckloads of ponga logs for the marae fence, and working alongside Rongo Wetere and his staff and students from Waipa Kokiri (soon to become Te Wananga o Aotearoa) to design and create our carvings for our whare and the wonderful murals for inside.

All through those 7 years this Pakeha atheist was finding ways to operate in a world rich with tikanga. At no stage was I asked or required to relinquish any important aspects of my Pakeha world. I truly hope I operated in a way that did not ask or require the same of the Maori I was working with.

The true winner out of these experiences was me. I began my journey of learning the reo and I came  to understand the concepts of whanaungatanga, manaakitanga, aroha, wairua, and mana motuhake.

I think I was beginning to develop an understanding of bi-culturalism: we all brought something to the table (our values, our principles, our world view, our practices ie our tikanga) and no one had to compromise on these important elements of  their tikanga.

When I  read James Ritchie's introduction in 1992 it resonated with me:

"There are two predominant cultures here, not one. Pakeha culture is dominant by power, history and majority. Maori culture is dominant by a longer history, by legacy and by its strength of survival and the passionate commitment of its people."  (p 6)

Without this understanding many view Pakeha culture as dominant and take this view to the concept of biculturalism. Such a position can lead to people exhibiting practices of ''biculturalism" in which the dominant culture requires the less dominant culture to have some important aspects of its tikanga pushed aside.

A case in point is the important tikanga element of wairua and its associated practices such as karakia. When I have participated in aspects of wairua within the Maori world such as karakia or himene, being an atheist, I have wondered how I can reconcile this. (Well, to tell the truth, I have rarely wondered about this and have felt little discomfort).

Reading James Ritche (a Pakeha atheist as well who's work was situated increasingly within the Maori world) has helped when I have felt I may have needed to reconcile (or more commonly justify the validity of wairua to Pakeha - even those who aspire to biculturalism):

"Spiritual concerns apply to all things. They are never obliterated and must be given full status and recognition. Pakeha are not expected to share such beliefs but are expected to respect them. Matters of the wairua are deeply and personally cultural; do not intrude upon them." (p 53)

In most cases in situations where there is a strong presence of wairua and spirituality such as karakia I simply close my eyes and think of things and people important to me. I do the same when at a Pakeha funeral and there are Christian prayers for the departed and their famiiliies. Sometimes I will not sing himene, but I must admit  I did belt out a strong Whakaria Mai at a recent funeral for a friend. No reconciling was necessary. I am proud of the fact that none of my responses show disrespect or require Maori to abandon what is important to them.

Too often in our institutions if Pakeha feel uncomfortable with aspects of wairua being incorporated in the institution's practices then such endeavours are abandoned. Once again the dominant culture requires the other to compromise and again the members of the less dominat culture continue to experience the levels of discomfort as a result to which Pakeha will not subject themselves.

In my view, it is too easy to play the "schools are secular" card to avoid Pakeha discomfort (while exacerbating discomfort of Maori). This is where the rubber hits the road and determines our true commitment to biculturalism. If we allow the "schools are secular" position to win the day we should, morally, remove our aspiration for biculturalism and reject the presence of Hauora (including) wairua from our Health and Dispositional Curricula.

I recently discussed these issues with a colleague who works within a major tertiary institution. He shared with me a reply he used to a Pakeha colleague who was opposed to karakia being used to start hui:

For me, inviting a Maori colleague to open a meeting is about giving more prominence and visibility to tikanga.  If for that person karakia is an important element of that opening then I am fine about that.

Most non-religious Pakeha would still attend religious-based funerals, with prayers and hymns, and find ways to respectfully be present. I assume they do this for the same reason I do: respect for others and their beliefs.

There is no doubt that much of what is seen as Maori spirituality has, since the mid 1800s, taken on a Christian belief system, but spirituality within the Maori world existed long before then. James Ritchie gives an interesting perspective:

"But to inflict my non-religious attitudes on Maori commits the same error as the early Christian missionaries did when they denied the validity of Maori belief." (p 54)

In schools, as Pakeha (who occupy most leadership and decision-making positions) we cannot dismiss these aspects of bi-culturalism because of levels of discomfort. For decades our Maori colleagues have had to endure high  levels of discomfort because the dominant culture has not acknowledged the important wairua aspects of their culture.

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.

It's coolsome walking up the stairs to excellence

What a stunning week to follow on from the previous stunning week. The previous week began with world-leading guru Julia Atkin working with our new staff as they unpicked their preferred ways of operating according to the Hermann's Brain analysis. It ended with 3 days of world-leading guru, Margaret Thorsborne, working with us on understanding the principles of restorative practice. This week ended with world-leading guru, Pam Hook, working with half of the staff on SOLO Thinking Taxonomy and then with individuals, Megan, Di and Cindy, on applying it to our thinking around assessment. Whew!

But wait there's more! We were treated to what I consider to be world-leading thinking around learning design and curriculum structure by our own colleague.

It began on Monday with Di kicking off a session outlining the work her team had done on identifying the future-focused fluencies that had been distilled from the NZC. They have proposed the following as the areas we wish to move our learners from being functional to fluent:

• Literacy
• Numeracy
• Communication
• Technical
• Problem-solving

And of course they presented their work totally integrated into our existing model that is driving our learning.

Di and her team are driven by the non-negotiable of making learning explicit to the kids. As well, she modeled the openness to questions and comments by declaring she didn't want to be in love with the idea and blind to other views. Awesome!

Lisa then ran an outstanding session linking our learning design model to the fluencies and using the SOLO model to assess against them. It was truly coolsome!

The rest of the day was a real buzz as staff then got into their module planning teams and, with their new learnings of our model, began producing the outlines for some great learning programmes. Liz's latest blog post outlines the modules she is currently working on.

In her presentation Lisa picked up that there were some gaps in some people's understandings with SOLO so she presented a great workshop on Tuesday morning for those who needed more. This is where she spoke of helping students to walk up the stairs to excellence and how her use of SOL gave her a new way of thinking about her own teaching practice. Coolsome!

"This plus this plus this = thinking". Simple!

And Kylee ran a session firmly linking SOLO to elements of our Learning Design Model.

Amongst all of these great sessions I took Arohanui staff who will be running a satellite special needs class at our school through the site.

Our stunning auditorium

James, Arohanui Principal, doing a dance of glee under the purple light in the sensory room

But the great hits kept coming! On Wednesday Sarah and her team ran a full day on Big Projects and their place in our curriculum. You must check out both Sarah's blog and Liz's blog where there is a fuller exploration of the work they presented.

Sarah's passion was evident throughout her presentation and was summed up with her introductory words, "We not me!"

Her team made a powerful link between the Big Project Framework and our Learning Design Model and to the wider HPSS curriculum.

It didn't stop there! On Thursday night I had the privilege of seeing 2 staff make great presentations at Eduignite at Mindlab.

The Pink D - Danielle linking retail to teaching

Sally laying down the HPSS model

I was pretty knackered and was contemplating not going as I had had a late night on Tuesday with the Henderson Lions talking about the Runway Challenge and on Wednesday another late night with a BOT/Parent Governance workshop, but I am so pleased I went to see the team in action.

And then Friday rolled around and Pam Hook entered the building.

The moment of awe when Pam revealed the power of SOLO

I hope some of my colleagues blog about the work with Pam as I'm running out of steam. If not, I'll post some thoughts in the coming week.

Talking about the coming week: we have our Orientation Day tomorrow for our enrolled students. We'll have about 120 Year 8s with us for the day which will give us the opportunity to start to know our learners and to share with them our exciting plans. It was mid September 2012 when I last was in a school with students and I am super excited.

Lea has pulled together an exciting day for our learners and I'm looking forward to reflecting on how the day goes. That will come in a later post.

Staff have been very busy and have participated in much professional learning. This week at Kitchen Table we are still to get reports from Steve and Yasmin and their time at a Thinking Conference, Di and Jill have to report on their Financial Literacy workshop and Claire and the newer staff will have heaps to share about the SCIL 2 day conference they went to at ASHS on Thursday and Friday.

It's a relief we have navigation lights to guide us through the busy air space we are operating in as we prepare for landing!

Landing lights set in totara posts to demarcate the end of the Hobsonville Runway which is on our site.