He Kākano Communique 9 - Friday 20 May 2011
In this communiqué we cover:
 Learnings from the wānanga
 Case Study Naenae College – Setting the Attendance Goal
 More te reo Māori lessons
‘The outstanding leaders, we find, are people who first listen, and get other people to
say what they think and what they know, and then put that all together for a higher
order integration – that’s real leadership’ (Daniel Goleman PhD – best known for his
books on social intelligence and EQ)
LEARNINGS FROM THE WĀNANGA
In the next series of communiqués we want to provide you with some of the key
findings from the series of wānanga a rohe (regional wānanga) that have taken place
in the last term and from some of the schools from the different regions. We will also
be wanting to feed these findings through the private spaces to be made available on
the web site – and also through the Manutaki.
We get a strong sense that schools now want to see what other schools are doing,
not only to tackle different specific issues like goal setting, but how to ‘drive’ their
learning down into the middle management area, so that they in turn can address
teacher development in this area. However, what we have learned from the wānanga
is that although all schools theoretically have been to the same wānanga, their state
of ‘readiness’ to implement goals is very different. With that in mind, we ask your
indulgence if we sometimes go over things that you may well be past looking at.
So, to start with, we will be looking at the way different schools have handled the
different elements of their goals and planning to date. Among other things, we will
feed these findings to you every communiqué for you to critically reflect on.
CASE STUDY ONE – NAENAE COLLEGE - LOOKING AT ATTENDANCE
Note that Naenae College Principal John Russell agreed to us referring directly to his
documentation. We thank him for that. We will always ask schools beforehand for
agreement to use school material in this way. Schools will have decided on their own
way to handle AREA goal setting. The focus on attendance for this communiqué was
our decision. The following information came from Naenae College’s documentation,
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and our discussions with them through the wānanga and Manutaki visits about how
they address their AREA goals.
Naenae College - Decile 2 school. 2011 roll of 685 as at 14 March 2011. (Māori
student population is 29% - cf. NZ European 27%, Pasifika 24%, Asian 12%, Other
8%, other European 1%)
Naenae College have developed a philosophy – Te Whānau Tahi – One Family that drives the school and the way that teachers and students interact. The
philosophy is underpinned by expected core values and behaviours that are clearly
explained in their strategic planning documents. Their key planning document shows
how their desired practices align with the Ministry’s Ka Hikitia strategy, integrate with
other school programmes (such as He Kākano, Ako Panuku, and their cluster
literacy project which they call ‘The Naenae Way’) and the college’s Charter and
Annual Plan.
Below we would like to show an extract from their planning booklet (titled Naenae
College – He Kākano Contract and Te Whānau Tahi Programme Strategic Plan
2011-2012) that reflects how they are dealing with Attendance. (Note that they have
the same format for Retention, Engagement and Achievement as well, but space
prevents us from including all of those). The full booklet has now been shared and
discussed with all staff and the Board, and the full Whānau Tahi booklet is being
discussed with both a Pasifika and a Māori whānau group.
The planning booklet includes an Attendance Table for February through to October
of 2010, which breaks down attendance data for each year level (9-13) as well as by
ethnicity.
Beside the table is a brief analysis of the attendance data. The leadership team was
able to conclude that the attendance rate for Māori students was below that for all
other groups. That difference was most noticeable with the critical NCEA Level 1
Year 11 group. They also noted that ‘those remaining for Y13 still miss more than
20% of learning time through full days lost’.
Below the Attendance Table is a graph that shows the direct co-relation between
absences and achievement levels by ethnicity – in this case, the average number of
half days absent are tracked on the horizontal axis and the average number of
credits gained on the vertical axis. They were able to see that attendance rates for
Y11 students sitting NCEA L1 in 2010 were the worst for Māori students.
Below that graph is another scatter plot graph that focuses only on the Y11 Māori
students, and shows, student by student, the relationship between total credits
gained and absences. What is notable about this graph is that it does not include
single period absences or school based activities such as when some students were
away for a week at Kapa Haka Nationals or for four days at Manu Kōrero finals. In
sum, the data is compelling.
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WHAT DATA TO COLLECT?
In order to set a goal around attendance, the leadership team posed four critical
questions for staff to address. Different questions were posed for retention,
engagement and achievement. These were:
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How does the daily attendance of Māori students compare with other ethnic groups in
the college? What factors are contributing to this (parents, teacher and student
components)?
How does the punctuality of Māori students compare with other ethnic groups in the
college?
How does the period by period attendance of Māori students who get to school for at
least part of the day compare with other ethnic groups in the college?
The quantitative data they decided to gather for analysis included:
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Half day attendance rates by ethnic groups over recent years – to establish if there
were any obvious patterns
2010 data by year levels
2010 data for justified and unjustified absences
Whānau composition
2010 comparative data on latecomers
2010 comparative data on period by period attendance
The data collected was critical for helping them develop specific goals around
attendance.
SO HOW ARE THEY TACKLING ATTENDANCE IN 2011?
The attendance data analysis led Naenae to set the following Attendance Goals:
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Increase attendance by 7%, so it moves (on average) from 83% to 90%
Reduce period absences to less than three per week (average)
Reduce lateness
The strategies they are using for 2011-2012 include:
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Write to all Māori parents setting out the current situation and goals.
Monitor progress on a monthly basis
Analyse specific reasons (for absence)
Provide ongoing feedback to stakeholders
Send letters of commendation/rewards to those maintaining 90% attendance
(Hold) Restorative Justice meetings with whānau to address attendance for those
below 80%
(Make) effective use of the truancy service and auto text notification
(Develop) Māori student (and Pacific student) teams
Identify roles and responsibilities for different leadership and staff members
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ACCESS TO HE KĀKANO RESOURCES
1. Remember, if you want any materials from the wānanga, just contact Soli Weiss
or Paul Woller. (Incidentally, many of Soli’s whānau were from Kaikoura, so it
was good seeing her being able to meet whānau there, and it was also good for
the leadership teams to put a face to her name).
Email addresses are:
[email protected] and [email protected]
TE REO MĀORI LEARNING
Have you practised how to say He Kākano properly yet?
We are still hearing He Kah-kah-noh rather than Hair Kaaahhh – kah – naw
and Whānau being pronounced far - now instead of far – noh
COMMON BIRDS’ NAMES
Using the pronunciation guidelines in previous communiqués, how would you say
each of the following?
The birds
Albatross
Bellbird
Blackbird
Duck
Falcon
Fantail
Godwit
Gull
Morepork
Muttonbird
Robin
Swamp Hen
Thrush
Ngā Manu
Toroa
Korimako
Manu Pango
Rakiraki
Kārearea
Piwaiwaka/Tiwaiwaka
Kuaka
Tara
Ruru
Tītī
Toutouwai
Pūkeko
Koropio/Piopio
Mauri ora,
Paora Howe (Professional Operations Manager) and Hine Waitere (Professional
Development Director) on behalf of Professor Russell Bishop (Project Director)
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