Current Issues In My Professional Context

This week I am feeling really positive about sharing information and ideas about the school culture and professional environments related to my practice here at Corinna School. We have distributed leadership at our school and my area of responsibility is school climate. I applied to work at Corinna School 29 years ago and have stayed because of the great organisational culture and the way the school community has supported and challenged me to be a better teacher and learner.

Corinna School is a decile 1a school for Year 1 - 8 students in Porirua. The roll is about 240 students.There is an approximately 30% turnover of students each year but many of the new students are re-enrolling. The ethnicities of students in the school include about 48% Samoan, 24% Maori, 12% Cook Island, 9% Tokelauan.

What these statistics don’t show is that the school community is much more diverse than this. Many of the students have 2 or more ethnicities. Some are N.Z born Pasifika who may speak their first language or not. Some are immigrants who do speak a language other than English. Some are refugees whose parents were professionals and had to leave their countries, and others were refugees who had only ever lived in refugee camps. Some have family members who have come to Corinna in the past. There have different religions and belief systems.

I believe strongly that whatever the socio-ecomonic status of our school community it is never O.K to make assumptions about the effects this will have on student learning. This can lead to stereotypes and deficit thinking that is hugely disabling and damaging when it comes to impacting student opportunities and possibilities for their future learning. Instead I have learned that being responsive to the strengths and talents of people in our school community is really important. Some examples of the positive socio-economic factors of our community that influence and affect Corinna School are:

• Extended family support eg there is shared parenting of children
• Older siblings often support and care for younger siblings
• Rich cultural practices that are shared
• A wide range of languages that are spoken and shared
• Cultural celebrations happen
• Families with hard-working members and shift workers
• Families who really want their children to be the best they can be

The way we try and operate as an extended ‘school family’ is that the school is organised into 2 whanau, Ngati Aroha and Ngati Awhina. When children are enrolled they join the whanau where they have some connection. Eg their siblings or their parents are or have been in the whanau. Teachers and students stay in this whanau for their whole time at Corinna School. For me this is a hugely important way to feel like I really belong.

There is mixed ability grouping within and between all classes which enables students of different ages to support and challenge each other in their learning. This tuakana/teina way of learning enhances learning experiences for all students as they can be both teachers and learners so ‘ako’ happening.

The contexts for learning at our school, include the rich cultural practices of the school community. This happens in all learning areas but most especially in maths. It allows for the children to be experts in the context and most importantly see relevance to themselves in the learning. We also have awesome school celebrations run by whanau/aiga. For example we have fiafia nights where we eat, dance and have fun together. We visit Maraeroa Marae every 2 years and the community is involved in the powhiri, helping out in the kitchen and also with the workshops.

Languages spoken in our school are valued, shared and learned. There are 4 language teachers in the school who teach Samoan, Maori, Tokelauan and Cook Island Maori. We celebrate and honour these languages during language weeks and whenever we hear them being spoken. Students are encouraged to speak and write in their first languages to communicate their ideas and needs.

To enable the working parents/caregivers to attend events and meetings, we will be flexible with timing. For example they can come at any time during the day or up to 7pm at night when we have 3-way conferences.

We know that we need have really high expectations about the achievement of our students to support them to shine and achieve to their potential. For example we challenge them with the level of difficulty of the problems they solve collaboratively. We have high expectations around appropriate behaviours for learning and use Choice Realty Theory to enable students to reflect on their behaviours and modify them.

I think it is hugely importantly we understand the need to develop relationships for learning with students that involve mutual respect for each other as members of our school community. Forming positive relationships with whanau/aiga are equally important. Within the Corinna School Community I feel valued, supported, challenged and cared for. This is why I’ve been here for 29 years and am still learning heaps