*Conquering the Mountain

Schools from Central Taranaki

Rawhitiroa Primary SchoolEltham Primary SchoolAvon Primary SchoolSt Joespehs Primary SchoolPembroke Primary SchoolMidhirst Primary School

*Why Conquering the Mountain?

*Often the paper work, the new challenges and the changes are thrust upon us so rapidly and before we have time to draw our breath that it can feel like an insurmountable mountain in front of us.

*But at the end it is worth it because as the view from the mountain is breath-taking and the sense of accomplishment a reward in itself so it is with the challenges we are set in education.

* November 2011 and the idea is born, to re-establish the NLC and apply to Massey for funding.

* The paper work was completed and the application was approved.

* The journey begun.

* 2011 and a trip to Massey more paperwork and the goals are formed.

* The beginning

*Conquering the Mountain

Goal Focus of the Work

Evidencing the Impact

Monitoring the Shifts

Sector Leaders

To form relationships within the group that will lead to collaborative sharing and professional critical reflective questioning of each other.  

Attendance at NLC meetings.A move from general discussion to topic focused professional inquiry.Other leaders will take responsibility for different aspects of the cluster meetings.

The tool used to monitor this shift will be a meeting self evaluation template.Meeting minutes used to also show follow through on goal.

Guide to

Mountain

Climbing

*My role has been:

* one of organisation

* Co-ordinating the meetings

* Ensuring we spend time on all the goals

* Keeping a record of what we have done.

* The group role has been:

* One of shared responsibility

* Sharing of knowledge and roads they have already travelled.

* Participating to discussion.*Goal 1 – LeadershipEvidencing the impact, have we met our goal?

* How do we know we achieved our goal?

* Our meeting minutes reflect the high quality discussion that took place.

* The flow of documentation between people by e-mail and photocopied document show the information was shared and absorbed and used.

*Goal 1 Leadership:Monitoring the shifts

*Conquering the Mountain

Goal Focus of the Work

Evidencing the Impact

Monitoring the Shifts

Maori Success  

There is a clear shared understanding among school leaders, educators, staff parents and Whanau about what it means to have Maori learners enjoying education success as Maori.

Increased community/family understanding of National standards, what they are and what they mean.Students and their families seeing themselves as successful learners.  

Attendance and participation data for Maori Students.Measurable Gains Framework 3.2 (individual school leadership)National Standards data for Maori Students

Guide to

Mountain

Climbing

*We have not as yet achieved this goal as it is the one we are currently working on.

*We have had a meeting to discuss what is being done in our individual schools and our next full day session will be facilitated by one of our Principals who had this for a goal last year.

* Our full day was to have been earlier in the term but was postponed due to this illness by a Principal. This in turn speaks to the fact that we are meeting as a Professional group not a coffee morning.

*Goal 2 Maori Success: Have we met our goal

Providing the building blocks for

* Conquering the Mountain

Goal Focus of the Work Evidencing the Impact Monitoring the Shifts

NZC Linking the National Standards and the NZC within our curriculum plans and ensuring it in practice.

Shift in level of development or refinement of school curriculum plans and these show links between the two documents.Evidence of shift in classroom practice. 

Teacher voice that curriculum plans are used and accepted. Principals are able to critically reflect to the cluster how they have linked the National Standards and NZC within their plan.Cluster Minutes

Guide to

Mountain

Climbing

* The first step we took with this goal was to look at where we were all up to and where we individually needed to go within our schools

* Next was the great sharing of progress. This day was facilitated by one of our experienced principals who’s school had undertaken PD in this in 2010 as part of her Professional Goals.

* From here we looked at how we were going to ensure this in practice b y the teachers. To enable this 4 meetings of teachers have been planned to be hosted at different schools for different class levels to enable them to get PD and to ensure that all our staff are involved.

*Goal 3 – NZCEvidencing the impact

* The final evidence of how successful this goal has or has not been and looking to the shift will be analysed next term by each school as a school and then by the Principals as a group to look at the overall success of what we have set out to achieve.

* As a team we are confident that there has been a shift in practice. Why do we say this? By the confident way our staff are talking about the NZC and National Standards and the questions they are asking.

*Goal 3Monitoring the Shift