Ka kitea a Matariki, ka rere te korokoro.

When Matariki is seen, the korokoro migrates.

The korokoro is an eel-like fish.  It starts life in fresh water streams.  After four years the korkoro travel to the sea where they live for another three or four years.  They then migrate back to the fresh water streams, often at night, to breed, making long and sometimes arduous journeys in the time of Matariki.

Reflecting and refocusing  

As we contemplate our first ever Matariki holiday, let’s reflect and refocus, wonder, wish,  ponder and plan what we can achieve next term. Like the korokoro, we too are on an arduous journey. We are trying to stay the course, support teaching and learning, and keep our students, staff and whānau safe. 

Last week we set out on the ‘NZPF-MOE Curriculum Road Show’ in Tamaki Makaurau and Whangarei.  This week we have been in the Central North Island.  It has been a pleasure to meet up with principals, curriculum leaders and some of the MOE Curriculum Leads. It has been a special treat to put on our ‘curriculum leadership hats’, listening and learning; being energized and inspired by Rob Proffit-White to plan and lead a refreshed mathematics Curriculum.

‘Why a Curriculum Refresh and why now?’

In 2017, National Standards were abandoned.  School leaders were left to make local decisions about how to lead curriculum delivery, assessment, pedagogy and professional development.  For some, very little changed by way of curriculum planning, delivery or assessment.  For others it was an opportunity to develop a local curriculum, alongside the national core curriculum, and there were others who went  ‘swimming in all directions’.

The ‘Curriculum Refresh’ is designed to support schools to review and strengthen curriculum delivery and improve student progress.  It feels like we are joining the korokoro, heading back to the fresh water streams to find clarity about what to teach and how to teach it, what to assess and how to assess it. 

So what would help us do this? 

In the May Budget, the government prioritized the curriculum with funding for curriculum lead support, professional development and resources.  It is our job to apply some creative thinking to use this funding well. To do this, we need relief from COVID and ZOOM fatigue. We need a boost in energy and some free time to think.  

Two ‘Curriculum Teacher-only Days’ each term for the next two years would be a great first step. That is something NZPF will advocate for.   If PLD funding for the ‘Curriculum Refresh’ has been allocated by the government perhaps additional PLD funding could come to schools through the Operations Grant.  This would make access to PLD equitable, rather than contestable.


And what could be done with ‘Kahui Ako’ funding?

The current ‘Kahui Ako’ model was designed as a ‘Performance Pay’ model, where a hierarchy of expert leaders would be paid to oversee the development of achievement challenges.  The ideological goal was to create a ‘systems lever’ to apply downward pressure on schools to get teachers ‘performing’ so student achievement improved. 

Eight years later, there is no discernable improvement in student achievement, in fact the opposite is the case.

Some ‘Kahui Ako’ clusters of schools have collaborated effectively, benefitting participants, and others have not. 

We need this government to do what it did with ‘National Standards’.  Call a halt to the ‘Kahui Ako’ model in its current form. 

The unions, who helped create this model, have not been able to change it.  For three years, the promise of a better system coming out of the Accord has not been realised. Inequities have become entrenched and those benefitting the most, have become the loudest voices of support.

If the resource going into ‘Kahui Ako’ schools was redistributed evenly across all schools, some schools leaders would choose to continue to collaborate as they do now.   Other schools might choose to collaborate with different schools in different networks.  Some schools might use this resource for specific projects that would support their most vulnerable students post-pandemic.  Schools that currently get no ‘Kahui Ako’ funds would finally have equity of access and ALL students would be supported – not just some.

Making that long, hard journey

Nothing that is worth doing is easy.  As we navigate the way forward, the constant distraction of COVID logistics is our reality, but not our end goal.  The end goal is to support each and every learner in our schools to emulate the korokoro’s journey - to battle hard, to make progress and achieve success in learning.  To do that, we need to get to the fresh water, where there is clarity in purpose, in process and where the currents of time and resource flow with us.  Matakriki could be our ‘new beginning’ – at school level and systems level.  Now, that would be something worth celebrating.