2022 Inquiry - Tools/Measures/Approaches

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Describe the tools/measures/approaches you plan to use to get a more detailed and accurate profile. Justify why you chose these approaches and tools.

Currently, we do not have a transition program that supports our Year 8s transitioning into Tamaki College or any high school at that. In the past, our Year 8s have gone down to Tamaki College for one day in term 4 as a way of helping them prepare for when they are Year 9, the following year. 

At Glen Taylor School, in the past we have run 'High School Week' - an initiative that I introduced in 2015 to help support our learners, mainly our year 8s in preparing themselves for high school. The purpose of this is to help them get their head around the movement between classes, teachers, timetabling and being prepared for learning. Things like, knowing where your classes at, taking the right material (e.g. pencil, maths book) to the right class, establishing relationships with different teachers etc. Due to covid, we haven't run High School Week since 2020 so the goal this year is to have High school week which will include our Year 7s and Year 6s.  NSW Department of Education 'Strong and successful start' state that a successful transition occurs when schools 'recognise that a strong start inolves more than just an orientation programme' (2018 Strategic Plan). Dr Emma Cunningham (2019) shares some research stats on success rates in high school and also support this by saying that 'ill-prepared transitions can impact negatively on both student wellbeing and academic achievement. The likelihood of students staying in school can be heavily dependent on the success of their transition into secondary school.


Tools/Measures/Approaches
•  Google form - create surveys for whānau and tauira to complete. This will help me get a picture on what schools parents would like to send their children to and why as well as what high school students want to go to. 
• Meet with other Kahui Ako - explore what transition programmes they have in place. I'm not limiting myself to Y8-Y9 transition programmes, but will look at ECE to Primary and then High school to Tertiary education because rather than the programme itself, I am also interested in the principles behind the programme. 
• Observe - Our year 8s and their behaviours of moving within and between the three senior classrooms, Tamaki college Year 9 students and their behaviours in the classroom and movement between classes and around the school.
• Interview - Collect student voice on both ends, Year 8 and Year 9. What do they enjoy about school, what struggles do they have, when they started the year how did they feel, tips and advice for next year's Year 9 students. I aim to do this in a casual, non threatening approach with Year 9s this year in the hopes of collecting some information that will help me prepare our students so that they don't feel as anxious, as worried, as overwhelmed as it can be. 
• Look at ex-GTS students who have gone to Tamaki college (as a Year 9 or late entry) and the success rate of students graduating, pursuing higher education and/or other forms of employment . I aim to explore behaviours and routines that have supported these students to be successful. 

NSW Department of Education. (2019). Strong and successful start to school. https://education.nsw.gov.au/content/dam/main-education/teaching-and-learning/curriculum/early-learning/media/documents/what-does-a-strong-start-to-school-look-like.pdf

The Education Hub. (2019). The transition to secondary school.https://theeducationhub.org.nz/the-transition-to-secondary-school/


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