Kia ora e te whānau

Kia kaha te reo Māori. Ngā mihi e te rangatira o Te Akatea, Bruce Jepsen, mo te awhina o te marautanga o te reo Māori. Kia ora o te wiki o te reo Māori.

We need a law change to recognise te reo Māori as a curriculum, the same as English | Stuff.co.nz

The following article is a sharp summation that captures the challenges we confront to grow te reo Māori. The issues are not insurmountable! We must treasure te reo Māori and afford it equal status to English. This is the only appropriate approach if we are to truly honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/pou-tiaki/126305106/te-reo-mori-teachers-in-game-of-tag-but-youre-always-it

So kia kaha te reo Māori; if you’re not prepared then get prepared because the opportunity to be a truly bilingual Aotearoa New Zealand presents.   

Education Review Office – Partnership Reviews
How is the new ERO review model progressing? Educators want to know. Principals want a model that genuinely adds value to teaching and leading schools. A report by Dr Delwyn Goodrick on an evaluation of 75 schools participating in the new model is now available.

The findings make for interesting and pleasing reading:

• There is strong support for the new approach from school leaders and the schooling sector
• Implementation of the initial rollout of the approach has been slower than anticipated
• Internal messaging about the new approach needs greater clarity
• The new approach requires a sophisticated range of evaluator skills including relational and responsive ways of working and valuing the legitimacy of Māori and Pacific cultural values, knowledge, and methodologies. This will take time to establish.
• Practical concerns about how the approach would work. Again, this will take time to resolve.
• The demands of multiple layers of change. This is big change and if a methodology is to be developed with integrity for schools, for ERO and for the system, it will take time.
• The demands on ERO leadership and managers have shifted. All leaders and managers will require coaching to equip them with the skills to support individuals and teams.
• System-level reporting reflects learning at the school level. Alignment between school level and system level reporting will be critical. Schools want an approach that is relevant to them, and reflected nationally.
• Leaders within ERO need to keep in touch with how things are working on the ground. This will ensure a genuine response and relevant review model.

I’m impressed, not least because ERO has already established recommendations that demonstrate they are holding themselves to account. In doing so they are ‘walking the talk’, demonstrating that improvement is a domain that applies to everyone.

I have been privy to the second report of Dr Goodrick’s. This is a focus on external stakeholder findings that captures Principals’ Perspectives. There is clear support for an honest assessment of the model, its strengths, and areas that require improvement. This second report will follow the first and be available shortly on the ERO website.

Feedback on the New Schools Operating Model | Education Review Office (ero.govt.nz)

I have taken my own soundings from principals and agree that the new review approach is a vast improvement on the former. ERO is to be congratulated for enacting change that is hard and requires a genuine shift in thinking and practice.

Perhaps the most obvious example of this is Dr Goodrick’s finding that system-level reporting needs to reflect learning at the school level, and that there needs to be a clear alignment between school level and system level reporting to ensure the relevance of the approach to the sector. In short, that ERO’s work in partnership with schools has significant relevance for practicing professionals and system-level reporting should reflect school level practice.

Now that is a brave statement, and we should recognise it as such.

For a school system that has formerly been subjugated to the inaccurate and inappropriate system level National Standards, it is refreshing to hear such thinking.

Chief Executive, Nick Pole, and Deputy Chief Executive Review and Improvement,
Jane Lee, deserve recognition. Jane, as the manager responsible for the implementation of the new model, has been an excellent leader. She shows commitment to addressing problems as implementation progresses and has a genuine drive for improvement. Her attitude has helped rebuild trust with the sector.

One significant issue, still to be resolved, is the increased investment of time the new partnership model will require. Principals will not welcome additional lengthy meetings to inject in their overloaded diaries. I am confident that together we will find a practical balanced solution for this.

We now have an ERO prepared to throw off the vestiges of the past. I say to ERO,

“Follow through! Implement Dr Goodrick’s internal and external report recommendations. Keep taking the temperature of the sector and look to improve.

Congratulations on the work so far and keep pushing; be brave; acknowledge that education is complex, young people diverse, and that change grows from respectful and trusting relationships.”  

Ngā manaakitanga

Perry Rush
perry@nzpf.ac.nz