Professional Community

Stakeholders
School community
The school is a large urban Auckland primary school (New Entrants to Year 6) with a culturally diverse mix of students. It consists of 750+ students and more than 65 staff members. It has 2 campuses, Junior and Senior. The sites are separated by a native gully, stream and amphitheatre which are utilised in Science and Environmental Studies.

The school’s mission statement is “to think, to learn, to achieve and to consider others” and has a strong emphasis on academic achievement and preparing students for the future. The school is committed to empowering teachers to deliver a stimulating, inspiring and well-rounded education that encompasses all areas of the New Zealand curriculum as well as establishing strong partnerships with parents.

This year a major school focus has been to develop Whanaungatanga, building relationships with whanau and family to support student learning. The staff of the school have been undergoing a school development inquiry to establish positive relationships with the children and their whanau. The desired outcome is for teachers to know their students on a more personal level, to understand what engages them as a learner and how to support their learning style best. By nurturing the interests and strengths of the learner it is hoped the National Standards achievement rate for boys in literacy will be lifted.

Teachers: The junior campus (Year 0-2) consists of 15 teachers who have different skill levels in ICT. Classroom sizes range from 20 - 24 students per teacher. Each year level has the support of a teacher aide for approximately 30 minutes per day. An extremely experienced teacher runs extra support classes three mornings a week (booster groups) for Year 2 children currently not meeting or not tracking to meet National Standards in Reading and Maths and will soon begin classes for those at risk of not meeting the Writing National Standard. Specialist teachers are also available for Mandarin, Music, Reading Recovery with support in Sports.


Students: There are approximately 280 students in year 0-2. The school consists of a mixed ethnicity with a majority of students being New Zealand European. Other current ethnicities are Pasifika, Māori, Chinese, Indian, and other European. All classes are of mixed ability and teachers try to differentiate based on levels. Based on the current ERO report, students feel a great sense of ownership and belonging towards the school.


Parents: The school is a Decile 10 school on the outer edge of Remuera. The majority of parents are from a higher socio economic background and many work full time. Parents are supportive and there is regular communication between teachers and parents, including face to face contact and emails. Community feedback from parents and caregivers indicates that they encourage the integration of devices to support learning but are opposed to a 1-1 BYOD programme. A number of parents have expressed their concerns about learning and technology, highlighting the need for further community engagement on how technology in schools is used.

Board of Trustees: The BOT is made up from 6 members of the parent community, the principal and a teacher who are the voice of the wider community. They are responsible for governing the school, making the final decisions on curriculum, expenditure and strategic planning through the information provided by the principal and senior management team.

Current Issues in our Community

With an increase in the use of digital technologies there has been both a positive and negative impact on teachers, students and parents. The school ICT strategic plan sees all classrooms having between 5-7 desktop computers, a Smartboard and 4 ipads. The use of Chrome books is also being trialled in 5 classrooms from Year 3-6 with the use of GAFE.

Teachers: The expectation that these devices are utilised effectively has resulted in teachers requiring additional training and support on how to use these to 'create' rather than to 'consume'. Research and training on the SAMR model has been required and teachers have had to find time to explore and experiment with apps and how these can be used within the classroom. With the pressures of daily teaching already high some teachers have found this shift in pedagogy difficult to manage while others have embraced the opportunity to support students creative and collaborative work. For those who have made the shift in pedagogy quickly teachers have noticed and commented on the positive impact the resources have had on their students thinking and learning. Many find the children are more engaged in their learning and are able to collaborate with others, leading to greater levels of communication and thinking. Student agency has increased as they are able to control how they present their work, who they collaborate with and how they research. One teacher commented "it has been great for the children to collaborate on their learning and receive feedback and comments as they work, making changes and deepening their thinking, while use GAFE". To ensure any issues faced by teachers are addressed ICT lead teachers have run a number of whole school staff meetings and have fully explained the ICT strategic plan. They are also working with teachers on a one-to-one basis, modelling how to use apps and programmes with students and supporting teachers to effectively plan for these across the curriculum.

Students: With digital technologies now being at least 1 device per 3 children access to devices to support their learning across the curriculum. Students are highly engaged when using devices and are keen to further their skills. Collaboration has increased and students are able to work with others in a more productive manner, although this skill does need to be explicitly taught in the younger years. Students can now choose how to present their work and take ownership over their learning. When talking to my class many commented on how they prefer to use technology to present as they can do it in a variety of ways and that they can work with others.

Parents: As with the teachers, there is mixed feeling over the use of digital devices within the classroom. Some parents are keen for their children to access these devices and recognise the benefits of using these tools. They see the use of digital devices as an opportunity for their children to develop their collaboration skills, access information previously unavailable to them and to create while others see these devices in a less favourable light. Some are concerned about the effects screen time has on behaviour and see the devices as a way to consume and 'keep busy', they are also concerned with issues over cyber safety. In order to address these issues parent workshops need to be held, detailing when and how these devices are used and the positive impact they have on student outcomes. Cyber safety needs to be explicitly taught each year and parents need to be involved.

Specialist Area


As a leader of Literacy, I am responsible for supporting students to develop their Reading, Writing and Oral Language skills. Having researched into the use of digital technologies to improve engagement towards learning it is evident that students display greater levels of motivation and focus when learning is coupled with digital technology in some way. As Walsh (2011) suggested "combining print-based literacy and digital communication has the potential to increase student engagement". With current research in mind I have been able to combine the teaching of Literacy with ICT and support teachers to explore new methods of teaching Reading, Writing and Oral Language with the use of digital devices. As explored in previous assignments I believe my leadership style is that of a 'transformational leader' where I work with my team to develop a shared understanding of why ICT could be used to support Literacy. I ensure that I model effective practice and support others to adapt and change original teaching styles.

Challenges


The biggest challenges faced as a leader of Literacy combining ICT are:

Engaging reluctant adopters

Understanding and effectively using the SAMR model

Educating the parent community

Creating connections and relationships with other schools locally and worldwide

Changes

The schools ICT strategic plan looks at introducing modern learning environments and any new school buildings will force these practises to occur. Currently our school has only single cell classrooms which presents a problem for implementing modern learning environments.

The question is; How will teachers manage this change?

I order for teachers to make this pedagogical shift training and research will need to occur for teachers to have a strong understanding of what is meant by a 'modern learning environment'. Teachers will need to grasp the concept of collaboration, student agency and agile practices. For this change to be effective the school will need to invest heavily in professional development opportunities that display the research behind the shift in teaching and learning and how to run a modern learning environment. With limited classrooms which could be part of a modern learning trial there would need to be careful consideration into which year levels adopt this approach and which teachers are involved. Relationships will be a key issue and would need to be carefully addressed to ensure all parties involved are equally valued and are open to adopting and reflecting on new teaching approaches.

References
Walsh, M. (2011) Multimodal Literacy: What does it mean for classroom practice? Australian Journal of Language and Literacy. Retrieved from: http://web.a.ebscohost.com.libproxy.unitec.ac.nz/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=4&sid=00ea9002-9851-4bc3-a6c4-b49dfbed16e5%40sessionmgr4003&hid=4104