How Might We Lead: Trying To Form New Habits

 

You might not connect with the following metaphor but it works for me.

I've been running 'competitively' for 50+ years. I don't think a lot about the 'how' of running; I reckon I know how to do it and I just get out and run. If someone asked me to describe how to run I'd have to stop and think because, for me, I just put one foot in front of the other and lean forward. The way I run is habitual and just happens.

I've recently discovered, though, that how I run has become not fit-for-purpose. As I've aged, my non-running muscles have weakened and I've discovered I've developed, unconsciously, a bent over shuffle type gait. Up until now it hasn't been too much of a problem as I shuffle along the roads and trails and accept the increasing and more-early-arriving pain is just part of the game.

However, I now want to run a 100 miler which brings a whole different purpose to why I'm running. This means I need to adopt a different 'how' as I won't make the 100 miles doing what I'm currently doing. The pain will be too much.

So, I've done some research and have adopted a different gait - one that has me running taller and making use of my glutes rather than focusing on my quads and hamstrings. Because this style has not yet become habitual I have to concentrate on my gait almost every single step to prevent myself falling back to old habits.

The new gait brings different issues. Pain and discomfort is emerging in new areas as I transition to a new way of running. I fully expect that things will get better with this. Also, to maintain the gait and the efficiency I expect, I need to do strength and flexibility exercises, especially to my core and in my hip area. I don't have a high level of motivation for this so it is something I need to really commit to and hold myself accountable.

While I'm confident that if I stick to my plans I will gain huge benefit I fully expect there to be problems on the way. I'll develop new niggles and new pains and I'll fall back into bad or previous habits. I have developed strategies to support me to stick to the new path.

I've realised the body was getting a bit creaky. This, along with my new 'why' (100  miler) has meant I need to develop a new 'how' with a new set of principles/guidelines (include strength and flexibility work in my training, be open to changing life-long habits etc), which will result in a different set of practices (the 'what') which I need to work on to become habitual (yoga at home, attend a gym, adopt a particular running technique).

I think sometimes schools are a bit like that. The institution has become a bit creaky while we persist with our habitual practices. This can lead to pain and niggles in the system. In my view, the 'why' of schooling has also changed as our world is changing dramatically with a range of global existential crises such as climate, pandemics, biodiversity reduction, increasing inequity, mis- and dis-information and conflict and issues in relation to AI etc.

We need to engage with these issues and understand our new 'why' and think about how we are going to respond and reposition schools and from there adopt new ways of doing 'schooling'.

The work to reposition schools can seem so daunting that we are tempted to stay with our habitual practices. While it is tough and demanding work it is certainly doable.

I am more and more convinced that how we do this work is to really focus on what it is that we know that creates the conditions for the best teaching and learning that is required today. We need to start with understanding and agreeing on how students learn best. From there we need to develop a set of core beliefs for which we are ready to "die in the ditch" and design our schools based on those core beliefs.

As part of my own professional learning I'm drilling into the work carried out by organisations such as Modern Learners, Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (OECD), Michael Fullan and Chris Leadbetter and their work with the Centre for Strategic Education, Valerie Hannon and her work with the Innovation Unit and Russell Bishop's Teaching/Leading to the North-east.

For the sake of my own country-boy mind I want to hone in on what they are all saying and see if I can make sense of the essence of it all. The aim is to settle on a set of core beliefs that could determine some guiding principles that could drive some different and more appropriate practices which we could try to make habitual.

I hope the outcome could support us when we ponder the questions about how might we lead in our schools. I'll most probably post what I come across.

How Might We Lead: What Might Be Possible

 

2 posts ago I wrote about the importance of making sure your big hairy goals are put out there for others to see. I think this gives some accountability and impetus when things start to drag or halt. I used the example of my goal to run 100 miles (160k) at the Tarawera Ultramarathon in February. I noted that I had been given advice to really establish my 'why' for doing such a crazy thing.

I've run more than 30 marathons, entered countless multi-sport races and full-day adventure races, run a 50k ultra, a 70k ultra and two 100k ultras. Every one was tough and after every one I swore, usually briefly, that that would be my last!

So why 100 miles? I have thought a lot about this and I think it's because I want to really test my limits, to test what I might be truly capable of. The risk of failure is very high (more than 50/50 I'd say): I might get injured by the intensity of the training, I might arrive at the start line carrying some niggles and not be able to finish, I might arrive at the start line feeling 100% and might not be able to finish OR I might arrive at the start line and complete it. All of those are possibilities. 

One thing is certain, between now and then and during the event, I'll be called upon to solve problems that emerge, many expected, some unexpected. And, of course, when you set out to really test what might be possible, it takes time. This will end up being a year-long project. It began with research and planning, some implementation, then some revisiting of the plan as problems emerged, and this will continue. All the time, there will be no guarantee of success. Even failure, though, will have me in a better place than I am today. I would have learned so much about myself which will be useful as I live out my life.

This is always the case when we think about what might be possible and we set out to find out.

I think this is how I have approached school leadership.

At Opotiki College after 10 years of being DP in charge of discipline in which I oversaw 50 suspensions a year (that's 500 over those ten years) and up to 10 exclusions per year (that's 100) I began to wonder what else might be possible. On appointment as principal I stopped all suspensions as we set out on a journey to explore if the principles of restorative practice might offer us a different way.

Like with the 100 miler, it involved research, planning, implementation and revisiting, overcoming hurdles and solving problems. As it was we were hugely successful with only 1 suspension in the next 10 years. The best outcomes were a creation of a culture of mutual respect, a change in pedagogy to one based on relationships and a massive lift in student achievement (Decile 1 school with achievement levels at NCEA Levels 1 -3 equal to the average of Decile 8-10 schools).

Instead of being curious about what might be possible we could have not taken the risks and stayed with the status quo. Instead in the following 10 years 500 kids weren't suspended and 100 kids weren't excluded, teaching improved and student engagement and achievement went through the roof. It was worth it.

At Hobsonville Point Secondary School we wondered what might be possible if we set out to design a schooling experience based on what evidence stated was more appropriate for what young people needed to thrive in an ever-changing world. Like with the 100 miler and the work at Opotiki, it involved research, planning, implementation and revisiting, overcoming hurdles and solving problems. All of these also required courage.

All of this work has led me to this model of leadership based on having a moral purpose that requires you to wonder about what might be possible, to have the courage to set out to explore and implement what might be possible, while always being open to the idea that you might be wrong and will need to amend.

This has formed the basis of all of the work I am now doing with HMWLead. Whether it has been working with governance facilitators, boards to support principal development, SLTs to investigate curriculum and pedagogy review or to think about new ways of schooling, or with individual principals to consider what might be possible in relation to how they lead it has always focused on clarifying core beliefs and values that drive us, which in turn gives us the courage to take action and lead.

When schools start thinking about what might be possible, rather than focusing on what they are doing now, that's when we see the beginnings of transformation.

In the wake of the election result all school leaders are going to have to be very clear about their moral purpose and what they are going to die in the ditch for so that they lead in the ways best for their school community.

What might be possible? Sing out if you think I can help in this space.

Working with How Might We Lead (HMWLead)

The HMWLead Website is now live. I invite you to go and check it out and give me any feedback.

The 'What We Offer' Page on the website gives a good description in general terms on how HMWLead can work with schools on their journey of transformation. This brief post gives a summary of the work we are currently doing with schools to give you an idea of the variety of ways we can work together.

School 1 (Secondary School in South Island)
Working with Senior Leadership Team to establish the principles to shape a curriculum review for Year 11 in 2024 before moving to a wider curriculum review for Years 9 and 10. We explored what makes for effective 21st Learning and thought about how these could be brought to life in their context.

School 2 (Secondary School in South Island)
About to begin working with the Senior Leadership Team as they embark on an exciting journey of transforming quite traditional learning and structures into an innovative model from Years 7 to 13.

School 3 (Secondary School in Upper North Island)
Providing mentoring of a new Principal as they begin their leadership in an innovative school.

School 4 (Secondary School in Lower North Island)
Supporting a new Principal with a new SLT to redesign their curriculum and institutional structures to better reflect the needs of their students and community and which is based on a clearly defined set of core beliefs and values (see previous post).

School 5 (Secondary School in Central North Island)
About to begin a refresh of the Years 9 - 10 curriculum so that it better meets the needs and interests of their students and community.

Governance Support Organisation
About to present a series of workshops on the why, what and how of leading schools in a way that is focused on a clear set of core beliefs and values.

Other Areas Being Explored​

• supporting a primary school with the principal appointment process
• supporting an Intermediate school to revisit its core beliefs and values to establish more clarity and coherence

These partnerships have a strong focus on curriculum, but all of them involve leaders and teams exploring their core values and beliefs so that there is real coherence and clarity for their practices. Each partnership also provides opportunities to look at different ways of leading so that we grow how we lead and how we can grow others to lead.

​Sing out if you think there'd be value in us working together. Use the website or email me directly on maurie@hmwlead.co.nz.

How Might We Lead - Why, Why, Why

 "Why, why, why?!" is a common response from my friend and inspirational guru on all things to do with positive relationships and restorative practice, Marg Thorsborne, when she comments on any of my many posts on the crazy training and/or racing adventures I get up to. Her response does make me pause and think "why?" and this is a good thing.

I've decided to enter in the Tarawera Ultra Trail Run 100 miler to be held next February. It's what I'd call one of those big, hairy audacious goals which has a reasonably high chance of failure. As is often the case, these sorts of goals need to be made public in some way to increase the level of accountability. If I kept it to myself it could be easier to quietly give up on it when the going gets tough, as it inevitably will.

That's the nature of big, hairy audacious goals - the going will get tough, and to prepare for that inevitability you need some counters - one of which is putting it out there publicly. My apologies, therefore, to those who follow me on Facebook or Instagram as I will hold myself to account through posting on those platforms!

When I was thinking of entering I contacted Eugene from Dirt Church Radio (Trail running podcast). I'd got to know him through the podcast as well as him being a parent of an ex-student - he also paced me to a sub 4 hour Rotorua Marathon! I asked him because I know he had completed the 100 miler at Tarawera and I reckon he has a good understanding of my ability. His reply really made me sit up and think, "But the question is ... do you want to? It's a race where you really need to have your why nailed down."

Of course, I should have known all this. Like all education leaders I was familiar with Simon Sinek's work on the importance of starting with the 'why', and in the very early years of the development of Hobsonville Point Secondary School we were supported by Julia Aitken to explore our core values and beliefs before developing a set of principles to guide the 'what' (our practices) using the following model (which she explores in From Values and Beliefs about Learning to Principles and Practice.)

Now it's time to practise what I preach, break out a template of the circles and start in the centre and drill down into my 'why' so that that can sustain me when it gets tough. I'll most probably post on that!

One thing I do know after 20 years of principalship in 2 very different schools is that having a deeply thought-out and clearly identified set of core values and beliefs as an individual teacher leader (moral purpose) and as a school (vision/mission/values) is the only way you have a chance of making sense of the education world and solving the many complex problems that come your way.

But of course you have to be conscientious about making sure that the core values and beliefs determine your principles for action and the resulting practices you will put in place. That's the challenging work! As is looking at your current practices (the way we do things around here) and putting them back through the filter, starting at the central circle. What do you do when something you have always done doesn't align with your core values and beliefs?

I've been doing a lot of thinking about my personal leadership model that I have developed over the last 2 decades:

I have found it relatively easy to work in the 'Moral Purpose' circle, developing my own set of values and my own 'why', working with others to do the same for a school and also working with individuals to develop their own.

The other 2 circles are a bit more challenging as they are a bit more to do with mindset/dispositions. While you can support people to access professional learning around Open to Learning Conversations how do you support leaders to be truly comfortable with the fact that they might be wrong! (More to come on that).

I have similarly struggled with the 'Courage' circle. Some people seem more naturally courageous than others, at first look. What does it take to be courageous as a leader? More and more, I'm of the belief that the foundation of courage comes from the centre of the three circles from Julia's model. It is when we are more certain about our/our organisation's core values and beliefs and the principles that emerge from them that we develop the confidence to be courageous, to stand for what we truly believe with a clear sense of our 'why'.

Maybe, the sweet spot where Moral Purpose and Courage overlaps comes from the centre circle of core values and beliefs.

My last post talked about the launching of HMWLead (How Might We Lead).  Thank you to those who have made contact and started working with me. So far, most of that work, while having a range of contexts and foci, requires looking at core values and beliefs as we look to solve problems and support leaders to lead with moral purpose and courage (while being open to learning!).

I'm really looking forward to developing and sharing my thinking about the need to think about different ways of leading. Sing out if you think I can help.

maurie@hmwlead.co.nz 

How Might We Lead

 At the beginning of July this year I finished up as Principal of Hobsonville Point Secondary School after being the Foundation Principal for 10 years. For the 10 years prior to that I was Principal of Opotiki College and its Deputy Principal for 10 years before that. That's a lot of time in senior school leadership in 2 quite different contexts.

On the last day of the term (my last day at work with students and staff) I experienced a whole school send-off like nothing I had experienced or been part of before. This short video clip captures the culmination of that event.

The school had never performed a whole-school haka before and I discovered that they had spent Term 2 secretly practising it!

I have not shared this in this post because I think I'm anything special and I know others in similar situations have experienced similar to this. What this event did for me, though, was to make me stop and think, at the end of my school leadership career, what was the impact I did have and how did that come about. These are quite complex questions and will take some time to process and come to some conclusions.

I have decided that I still have more to contribute in the area of school leadership and am going to see if I can find ways to work alongside school leaders and aspiring school leaders (in secondary and primary schools) to support them to be the very best transformational leaders that they can be. I will be looking to work with those who want to move beyond being great managers of the status quo to being transformational, to lead with student and staff wellbeing at the centre, to address inequity, and to empower staff and students to be active engagers in the teaching and learning process so that they thrive in a rapidly changing and disrupted world.

To support this aspiration I will be launching my company HMWLead (How Might We Lead) in a couple of weeks, including a website with information which may help leaders decide if it would be of value to work together. While we could co-construct support for any aspect of school leadership, a summary of the areas where we could work together is as follows:

Leadership - How might we develop a personal model of leadership that gives us the confidence to lead others on a journey of transformation?

Reflective Practice - How might we support leaders to explore and implement a critical

reflective culture within their school?

Growth - How might we support leaders to implement a powerful 'growth cycle' in their school?

Visioning and Strategic Action- How might we support leaders to support the why and how of designing a powerful learning

vision for their school?

Team Development - How might we support leaders to understand the thinking preferences of their staff/teams and

grow capacity so that distributed leadership can effectively support the drive for transformation?

Restorative Practice - How might we support leaders to support the implementation of behaviour

management processes that are driven by the principles of restorative practice?

Connected Curriculum - How might we help leaders to support the why and how of designing a connected curriculum

model for their school?

Dispositional Curriculum - How might we support leaders to explore the opportunities to develop a dispositional curriculum

and related graduate profile?

Any way, there'll be more to come. Reach out to me on maurie@hmwlead.co.nz

if you can't wait for the launch and want to start talking!

Dispositional Curriculum: Supporting Young People to Cope/Thrive in a Disrupted World.

 When myself and my 3 DPs first met up to begin work at the start of 2013 we were presented with the following vision from the Establishment Board:

We picked apart every word as we were determined to bring life to it. All of us quickly identified that the last half of the Vision was describing our aspiration for our graduates; that they want to and know how to make the very rapidly changing world better.

This set us off on the pathway of settling on two pathways to Excellence:

We knew that we wouldn't be achieving our vision if our students were 'only' excellent in the field of academics. This did not necessarily mean that these students would be able to thrive in a changing world with a determination to make it better. We needed to ensure we had a curriculum that allowed us to promote the growth of certain dispositions.

This resulted in us settling on a curriculum model that included both academic and dispositional elements:

While we aspire to have the dispositions, listed on the right side of this visual and known as Hobsonville Habits, present throughout all 3 elements of our curriculum model we do locate them, purposefully, within the Learning Hub element.

Each child belongs to a Learning Hub of 16-17 students of mixed year levels and are mentored by a teacher, known as their Learning Coach, to achieve to their potential in both the Academic and Personal Excellence areas. Apart from a daily 10 minute Kitchen Table session at the start of each day which connects and build relationships, Learning Hubs have two 80 minute blocks a week where there is a focus on building the dispositions.

While focusing on a different Strand each term (Whanaungatanga, Huarahi Ako, Manaakitanga, Rangatiratanga), Learning Coaches focus on particular Hobsonville Habits to support the growth of each of their Hublings in these important dispositions.

More recently, once a term all teachers give time for students to make a reflection on their learning from all classes (modules and SPINs, Projects and Hub) and to tag them to the Hobsonville Habits. In this way students are collating a portfolio of evidence of development in the Habits and are able to share this growth when hosting their parents at their Individual Education Meeting. In this way our learners can see that the dispositions are part of everything they do at school.

Right from the beginning of our school's journey we were determined that Personal Excellence be as important as Academic Excellence. As a result, at our prizegiving we only acknowledge our Habits and Values. I've blogged about this earlier.

One of the things that the last almost 3 years of disruption has shown us is that those students who are strong in important dispositions (resilient, creative, adventurous, compassionate etc) were best able to cope and keep progressing. This experience now makes us believe that Personal Excellence is more important than Academic Excellence.

With disruption almost certainly continuing with further pandemics and climate disruption I suggest it is vital that all schools explore ways to bring a focus on such dispositions closer to "what we do around here".

Connected Learning Supporting Specialist Knowledge

 Connected Learning

Promoting Specialist Knowledge

David Hood, in his book The Rhetoric and The Reality, which I touched on in a previous post, refers to the paradigm of one.

The Paradigm of One (the traditional secondary school structure)

Students are grouped into one class, based on one age, and for one hour go to one room where one teacher teaches one subject and students, largely, do one set of learning activities and work according to one timeline and at the one same time complete the one assessment activity.

Then the bell goes and they go down the corridor and for one hour go to one room where one teacher teaches one subject and students, largely, do one set of learning activities and work according to one timeline and at the one same time complete the one assessment activity.

Then the bell goes and etc, etc.

And what they learn in each of those one blocks is completely siloed and there are no connections between them.

I remain to be convinced that this is the best way to learn. I suppose it is OK if your definition of learning is limited to the reception and processing of knowledge in isolation from other knowledge, This is, no doubt, a vehicle for a level of learning.

I prefer a model of learning that, without downplaying the importance of specialist subject knowledge, raises the possibility of deeper learning. I believe this deeper learning can come about when we explore the connections between these specialist areas of knowledge.

Connected Learning in Action

While hosting a group of 35 Australian teachers at our school yesterday we spent a lot of time talking with students while they were engaged in learning (in the last block on the last day in the last week of term!). The majority of classes we visited were our Foundation classes (combined Years 9 and 10).

• In one class (combined Visual Arts and English) students spoke confidently about how their exploration and research, involving close reading, comprehension and analysis of visual media (English) of graffitti and research on the topic of the difference between vandalism and art enabled them to produce thoughtful and high quality pieces of graffitti art (Visual Arts) with annotations linking their words and images to what they had learnt from their English.
• Another class (combined Visual Arts and Science) had students who had engaged in microscope use skills to analyse the individual features of a plant so that they could recognise, name and explain their purpose (Science) and were now free-hand sketching the plants to such a level that they would not be out-of-place in a professional botannical sketch publication.
• In another class (Maths and HPE) we came across students who had done some lessons previously on how statistics could be analysed, presented in grapic form, and explained in text. From there they had gone to the gymnasium where they had learned the skills involved in volleyball. At some point they collected data by video and written observation sheets and were now in class using the data to present their findings in graphic form. This class of 40 students were the most engaged I had seen in any Maths lesson

The above are only 3 examples of the numerous connected learning modules our students experience. None of them lack the important content, concepts or skills of any of the individual specialist subjects, but their learning and understanding is deepened when they explore the connections between the disciplines.

The Structure of Connected Learning

There is a bit of a view amongst some academics and commentators that when a school focuses on connected learning, or anything that looks like project based learning, and any model that incorporates student voice and co-construction that students are missing out on that all-important subject specialist knowledge. I do get frustrated by the limited lens that such commentators have with their belief that specialist subject knowledge must always be delivered by subject specialsists through a silo model with little co-construction with students.

At our school we absolutely believe in the importance of subject specialist knowledge delivered by absolutely specialist subject teachers ( we have at least one PHD in their subject area with the vast majority of staff with degrees, mainly at Masters level, in their subject area). We just believe that their are better, more engaging ways to deliver this important knowledge in a way that deepens learning.

When we started our school our specialist subject leads unpacked their curriculum area and backward mapped from a quality NCEA Level 2 what were the key foundational knowledge, concepts and skills students need to be strong in by the end of Year 10 to be successful in qualifications.

We then asked those specialist leads to group this key foundational learning into 8 episodes (1 per term over 2 years) and to identify in which term this learning would occur for our Foundation Learners. We did this so that it didn't matter whether a Science student was studying Science with Visual Art, or with Maths, or with Social Science they were all covering the same foundational learning. This is the case for all Learning Areas and it means students are not left with gaps in this key foundational knowledge.

To give even more coherence to their learning we settled on a big school-wide concept for each of the 8 terms which is addressed that term by each Learning Area.

 

This means that in the semester that is focusing on Identity  and Space and Place Social Science students might be focusing on Community/Migration, Science students might be focusing on DNA/Outer Space, English on how cultures and societies express themselves in and through Creative Writing etc, etc., while Maths students will be developing key mathematical competencies using the related learnig area as the context in which to apply their learning and develop their understanding.

Our approach certainly does not downplay the importance of specialist knowledge, in fact it increases its importance as we discover important connections with other specialist knowledge. It has the added bonus of having interesting contexts for learning that seem to engage our learners.

Get in touch if you'd like to explore how a focus on connected learning can happen in your school without any other changes to a school's way of structuring learning.

Time to Calm The Farm - Schools are not in chaos

These are challenging times as we deal with a very tricky global pandemic and school leaders are being called upon to lead when the conditions and the criteria are changing quite rapidly. I want to paint a different picture than what has been presented in some media headlines over the last few days and which has also been presented in some education-focused Facebook groups.

I am writing this on Thursday morning, so just short of 3 days since the announcement of testing and vaccination mandates. Facebook groups have included a clamour of agitation, anger and panic from a very small group of teachers and leaders about the lack of detail to support us in our work. The group is small but their clamour has occupied these spaces and can give a distorted view of our profession.

I'll kick off by saying that I have received the exact same Bulletins from the MOE and I have found them clear and timely. By Monday night I knew that my school in Auckland would not be opening as normal on the following Monday. I knew that before any of my staff could return to school to teach students (whenever that may be) that we would all need to produce a clear Covid test and I knew as a Principal that I would need to operate a confidential register for that. I knew that all staff would need to be fully immunised (2 jabs plus 2 weeks) by January 1 2022 and have first jab by November 15 and that I needed to keep a confidential register of that. I also knew that all staff, after return, would need to provide a clear Covid test weekly until they reached full immunisation status.

By the end of Tuesday I fine-tuned my current staff register on vaccination status - this was one I created a couple of months ago when I requested my staff share their vaccination status with me and keep me updated as they progressed through the vaccination process. I told them I respected their right not to supply that information. The good news was that all but 2 of my 91 were happy to do so knowing it was confidential to me. Very quickly I modified it to include Covid testing results and a confirmation of vaccination status.

By the end of Wednesday I was able to confirm all of this with my staff and immediately began to receive the updates and evidence I require from them. That is continuing this morning.

I am not waiting to hear from MOE about how I have conversations with any staff who are currently not vaccinated. This is because I know how to have these conversations. They have no choice but to be fully vaccinated by 2022 and my conversations with them will be all about supporting them to make the decision that will work for them - all of the time respecting their decision. I'm not panicing about that because I have until November 15th to do my best to support them to become vaccinated.

This morning I received a very clear outline from my union describing my obligations which supported the steps I had already taken.

But this is what I'm annoyed about:

School board chairman resigns abruptly after Covid vaccine made mandatory for teachers

Did everybody who saw this headline read this sentence in it?:

When asked if the decision related to the Covid-19 vaccine, he said “no, not directly”.

And I read this this morning:

Northland educators slam Covid-19 vaccine mandate for teaching workforce

The article quoted 2 primary principals who had some opposition to the mandate and 1 secondary principal who supported it. Such a headline is an insult to 'Northland educators".

Then I read:

Education sector in chaos after COVID-19 vaccine mandate

The article produced no evidence to indicate chaos. One primary principal was quoted saying she didn't know how to talk with teachers who were going to resign and a sector leader who stated some principals were concerned but many were very supportive.

Thankfully I came across these 2 tweets from a respected ex school leader:

NZ schools not in chaos over government decision to mandate vaccination. In an emergency, leaders flourish and managers wither. Schools will soon find out if their principal is a leader - builds strong relationships & who is knowledgeable, calm, inclusive, humble and articulate.

What BS! It’s in times of emergency that leaders flourish and managers wither. Schools will soon be finding out whether or not their principal is a leader possessing strong relational skills, knowledgeable, calm, inclusive, humble and articulate.

It's times like this that the true nature of our leadership is revealed. We can't control the spin the media puts on things because they see some loose canons spouting on Facebook, but we can definitely control how we lead in this space. We can oppose decisions or express concerns but, as a leader, we have an obligation to spread calm, hope and optimism.

I'll finish with this from Peter Garelja's tweet above:

Schools will soon be finding out whether or not their principal is a leader possessing strong relational skills, knowledgeable, calm, inclusive, humble and articulate.

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.

Time to Question Calendar Year Qualifications - relieve stress and workload and deepen learning

Last year I published a post entitled How to Manage NCEA in a Covid Affected 2020. At that time (April 2020) there was a lot of uncertainty, but by year's end NZQA had responded with a delayed start to examinations, Recognition of Learning Credits and an amended UE requirement. Also, some universities were open to allowing Principal recommendation for UE. As a result, I know that for our school, achievement levels were strong and that students were not disadvantaged. This is not to say, however, that it wasn't a big struggle for teachers and many students.

A lightbulb moment for many of my Year 12 students was when I gathered them all together on return from the first long lockdown and asked them to raise their hand if they were returning in 2021. As expected, in excess of 90% raised their hands. That's when I told them that since they were returning they had no need to be anxious about NCEA L2 because they only needed to focus on their graduation qualification and that they had a further year to gain that. I pointed out that if, as a result of their year being affected by Covid, that after doing their best they had achieved only 65 of their 80 credits by year's end, they would simply return the next year, undertake a Level 3 programme and that when they earned their first 15 credits they would be awarded their NCEA L2 and be 15 credits on their way to the 60 they needed for Level 3.

The advantages from them having this understanding included reducing their levels of anxiety and allowing us to focus on those students who were graduating at the end of 2020 (our Year 13s and a small number of Year 12s). This relieved a lot of workload and stress for my staff. Of course, it was also important to communicate this to our parents.

We have always said at our school that we have no interest in calendar year qualifications, especially a structure that builds them in over a very stressful final 3 years of secondary school. Of course, there is always some sort of 'cost' for this. This year I have already had to wade in and defend our school from an ignorant Linkedin post from an academic who saw that we had close to 100% non-achievement at NCEA L1 which meant that our 'experiment' with a different pedagogical approach was an absolute failure and that myself and the Board needed to be held to account. A quick analysis of our leavers' qualifications and very high levels of Excellence and Merit Endorsed qualifications at Level 2 and 3 would have saved him his embarrassment.

It is our firm view that 3 years of calendar year qualifications do not lead to deep and engaged learning and do not contribute to positive student wellbeing. That is why we have never offered NCEA L1 as a Year 11 qualification. Rather our Year 11 students start out on their first year of a 2 to 3 year journey to get their quality graduation qualification. During 2020 it was a huge relief to not have to drive a whole cohort (Year 11) towards a meaningless qualification while trying to do our best for our graduating cohort. For our Year 11s we just stuck with our existing target of 20 quality credits towards their quality Level 2 qualification.

I encourage schools once again to revisit how they manage qualifications because our new and once again Covid-affected reality means we should look at things differently.

Up here in Auckland we don't know when we will be returning to on-site school. We do know that NZQA and MOE will create processes once again to allow for the interruptions to on-site learning such as a delayed start to NCEA, Recognition of Learning credits and amendments to UE requirements. That helps put us at ease. 

At some point we will return to our physical schools and 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 

Our approach in any year, Covid-affected or not, results in the following

• 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.
• very high levels of Excellence and Merit Endorsed qualifications

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.

More and more schools are moving towards not offering NCEA Level 1 as a full year Year 11 qualification and I know for many school leaders that they see this as a step too far for them as they worry about their staff and parent reaction. I'm happy to talk with any leader/teacher about these issues.

What I do encourage school leaders to consider is the focus on calendar year qualifications. Simply by moving your focus to graduate qualifications you free up the yoke of assessment overload for students, assessment overload for staff and the pressure of league tables as they are not relevant for schools who do not aim for calendar year qualifications.

Such a strategy slows the assessment journey down which allows for learning to go more deeply.

I'm always happy to be contacted to discuss how these ideas work in reality.

Old Thinking vs New Thinking: NCEA Frustrations and MIssed Opportunities and the Power of Language - a brief gripe

We've missed a huge opportunity with the opportunity to review NCEA. Many of the changes have cemented old thinking and old ways of structuring learning in schools when there is a desperate need for new thinking.

While it's awesome to have Achievement Standards that support Maori Performing Arts and that they qualify for UE why are we insisting on calling Te Ao Haka a new 'subject'? This is old thinking. New thinking acknowledges there is a suite of standards that can be grouped together to create a programme of learning for students and that these programmes are not subjects.

I'm not even sure why we have Course Endorsements which are, in reality, Subject endorsements. This old thinking reinforces subjects as the main structure for delivering learning programmes. New thinking has schools developing connected learning programmes which still deliver across them important subject specialist skills and knowledge.

Even if we accept Course Endorsements are a good idea the criteria for them reinforces that external assessment is vital in any learning programme. For some students, a programme almost entirely made up of internal assessments, with very few external assessments, is the best programme for them. But old thinking says that they cannot qualify for this thing called Course Endorsement.

Why are we still talking about 'subject lists' at each level? This is old thinking. New thinking would provide a suite of Achievement Standards grouped into Learning Areas which are used to assess the learning that emerges from the programmes for qualifications.

And this 50/50 split of internals and externals for each 'subject' is so arbitrary and old thinking. New thinking, incorporating the principles of UDL, allows for a broad range of methods of collating evidence of understanding.

I know cleverer people than me will have answers to these, but all of the answers I have seen definitely sit in the old thinking paradigm!

Gripe over (for now)!

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.