Powerful Partnerships - Hononga Kaha

Last Wednesday we were privileged to launch New Zealand's first Secondary School Maori Cultural Kit, Te Pātaka. This is an App which allows users to develop their understanding of Tikanga and Te Reo by swiping to hear correct pronunciation, recording their own voice and using templates to construct their own mihi. It also includes information on the history and tikanga of our mana whenua, Te Kawerau ā Maki.

Powerful Partnerships is a key principle we have followed in the design of our school and this project, from the beginning, has been powerful partnerships in action.

The first partnership was between our school and Steven Renata, CEO of Kiwa Digital.

With Steven Renata Promoting the Launch

The chance nature of our initial meeting which kicked off the project is described briefly in this newspaper article.

But the creation of such an App required further partnerships and the most important one was with mana whenua, Te Kawerau ā Maki. Both Steven and HPSS were determined to use this project as an opportunity to begin the development of a meaningful and sustainable relationship between kura and mana whenua.

We had a wonderful night on Wednesday with a powhiri for Te Kawerau ā Maki and a launch of the App.

Waiata

Welcoming Te Kawerau ā Maki

Presentation of App by Steven Renata

We've only just begun our journey of forging a strong and sustainable relationship with Te Kawerau ā Maki but it certainly feels as if strong foundations have been laid.

Check out the App on the Apple or Play Store. You might be able to use it for any personal gals you may have set during Te Wiki o Te Reo Maori: Kia Kaha Te Reo Maori.

Well-being - How Dirt Church Radio Came to My Rescue

I've been really struggling - nothing major but a combination of worrying about resourcing (current staffing formulas don't support the innovative pedagogy required to maximise the potential of Innovative Learning Spaces and a student-centred curriculum), working through the process of replacing of our Foundation DP, Claire Amos (who has moved onto principalship at Albany Senior High School - well done, Sally Hart for winning our position), having other staff move on (promotion - well done, Cindy Wynn, moving cities - boo hoo, and 5 going on maternity leave!), reshuffling middle leadership positions for the new year, seeking staff in hard to staff areas in the middle of a crisis in quality teacher supply, being involved in the NCEA Review, and then getting quite sick on day 1 this term with a massive head cold which morphed into full on flu and if I have the horribly named 100 day cough I'm only 42 days in!

My energy levels have been low (falling asleep at about 9pm, struggling to get up in the morning) and really not feeling on top of things at school. Fortunately, I'm surrounded by an awesome team at school who have just got on with things and kept me in the loop (thanks Lea Vellenoweth, Sally Hart, Jill MacDonald - my SLT Team - and Maliina - PA - and Jill Gatcum - Business Manager - and our awesome front desk team).

This all seems a bit gloomy and I know I have no monopoly on getting run down etc, but I'm blogging (after 4 months absence) because I feel as if I've turned a corner, and the impetus for that came from quite a surprising area and reminded me that proclaiming that you put well-being at the centre in your school means that, while the main focus of this is for students and your staff, you're no good if you don't think about your own well-being.

I'm fortunate to have an outstanding BOT which, earlier in the year, built into my performance management a requirement that I try to take a 1/2 day off site each week to be able to focus on some of the bigger stuff without interruption (managed it most weeks last term but failing on that this term), one full day off each weekend (doing my best) and a full week off each term break.

What I had noticed, as I was feeling sorry for myself,  was that for various reasons I had not got involved in as many adventure races this year (only 2) and as a result through the winter I had drifted away from regular exercise. At 60 years old you can only keep fit on memory for a short period and it's harder to convince yourself that you're fit when you're not!

Just by chance I stumbled across a couple of crazy buggers (one of whom is a parent [Eugene Bingham] of one of our students) who have set up this thing called Dirt Church Radio. I listened to their first podcast while flying to Wellington and then the 2nd on the way home a couple of days later (I'd gone to Wellington to attend a conference and then go onto Beervana - tickets paid by my extended whanau - only to spend 3 of the 5 days in bed and missing Beervana!). So Eugene and his mate Matt Rayment have inspired me in a couple of ways.

The first is that they've got me out running again (running might be a stretch - have built up from 3k shuffles to 5k shuffles) and they introduced me to the trails at Riverhead where I went yesterday with my wife and we mudlarked our way around for 12k. After a fortnight of 4 runs and a trek per week I'm thinking a 10k run might be possible next weekend.

Saturday's Trek

But secondly, and more importantly, they have inspired me by the way they have used the context of trail and ultra running, and the medium of kōrero with interesting people to explore the human condition. These podcasts have reminded me that mindset is everything and that most crazy things are possible.

So my goals are:

1. 4 runs of increasing distance and 1 trek per week
2. Look for some races
3. Be mindful of own mindset (keep those podcasts coming Dirt Church Radio!)
4. Try my best to do what BOT has told me to do
5. Get blogging
6. Have more days like today - it's Fathers Day so went with my son to Real Groovy and we bought some cool vinyl to "share" (he's not a father so they are mainly mine!) and going out to dinner tonight to catch up with daughter to celebrate her birthday (haven't seen her for about 3 weeks) and have the stereo up loud (as it is now!).