Keeping Up with Mrs Faalili

Reading Practice Intensive Day 1 (Teacher hat on)  Today has been a great way to reflect on my own understanding of the kaupapa and pedagogy of the Manaiakalani Reading Programme. The benefits of having a common practice reading model is that it creates a space for consistency to grow and happen, but also to identify areas of development and support that may possibly be needed for teachers within our school. So, how can we build a common practice reading model that is consistent across our school so that it serves our readers and creates a community of tauira who love to read? R - Recognise A - Amplify T - Turbo charge Recognise - Data shows that there is a consistent pattern around the teaching of reading and that the needs of our children aren't being met or amplified. The great thing is we identify and recognise this as an area that needs our attention and therefore now, can focus and inquire into the teaching and learning of reading and build a community of readers.  Ampl...

  Meeting Type Meeting to visit another ASCoL and talk transition programmes Motivation My inquiry this year for ASCoL is looking into establishing a transition program into high school. Not having one established previously, I am exploring and looking into schools that have successful transitition programmes to help me create and establish one for our learners. So What? I am WAAAYYYY behind in terms of my inquiry. Key Takeaways • Don't limit myself to just working with Tamaki College. Look into other feeder schools and identify what knowledge, habits, awareness do our students need to know to help them start off the Year 9 year with a BANG! • Relationships relationships relationships. Start building relationships with these schools. Get in there and get to know staff, students and Year 12 students that could potentially be mentors for next lot of year 9 students • One stop shop HUB for our staff (and possibly other schools) that will help inform and support teachers of Year 8s. • ...

Transitioning to high school involves more additions and changes to curriculum and the structure of learning. This journey of learning has higher stakes - the impact of academic and assessment achievement on future plans. There are a number of studies conducted in New Zealand that highlight the importance of transitions in supporting student achievement and success.  While reading the following pieces, the biggest reflection I've come realise that I'd been putting this huge focus and emphasis on support our students and whānau in getting our learners prepared for high school but our schools play an important part as well. Transitions shouldn't be seen as just enrolling into high school or a one off event where students spend part of the day at a high school. No. Our transition programme should be weaved throughout and is a process that takes time. As a school we have a responsibility in setting up our Year 8s for a successful start to high school. Student-teacher relationsh...

Stock take   As a part of my data collection - I have put out a google form (as mentioned in a previous post) and wanted to get an idea of where parents are sending their children next year. This survey was pushed out last month and didn't get much traction and therefore decided to leave it open and remind again through our school app.  Currently 19 responses which is a big jump from when I first pushed out google form. - From this collection of information, Glendowie College has the highest percentage. Of our current year 8s, only 2 families are in-zone for this school.  -Observational data at local high school. Here, I observed and followed Year 9 students around their classes. I wanted to look at some baseline data of movements between classes to see if there were any barriers. Also collected some student voice to get their insights on how the year had started with them.  Three measures that I can use pre and post to compare the success of this transition support...

It's always been an interesting thing to me - the idea of transitioning into another space and the time and effort or lack thereof that we put into these things to set us up for success. Transitioning into spaces is an ongoing thing in life and through this inquiry and process, I aim to identify and address some of these barriers for our learners, whānau, and school in supporting them to transition into high school and explore ways of setting them up for success.  Findings  - It's currently May and although we are only the fifth month into the year, I've started talking about high school options for 2023 and the responses I've had from our students is that 'high school is ages away Miss. Too early to start talking about it'.  - After sending out a google form to our Year 8 whānau and students, only 7 parents out of the 31 responded. Because of the low intake, I also sent this out to our students and 11 of these students completed this. What I wanted to find out...

My preliminary findings as of May 2022  • At Glen Taylor School, we have 31 Year 8 students.  • 13 of these students have a connection to Tamaki College by way of a sibling or family tie (parent/aunt/uncle/nana/papa work at Tamaki college). • 5 of our students are currently living out of the Tamaki College Enrolment Zone which means 26 of our students are guaranteed a spot at Tamaki College (see image below for zone)  • 6 of our students who live within the Tamaki College zone have a connection to either Selwyn or Glendowie by way of a sibling currently or previously attending the school. • Tamaki College doesn't seem to be the first choice for many of our students or families. Of the 25 students I asked, 20 were in zone for Tamaki College but only 3 were able to confidently say that they are definitely going to Tamaki College. The other 20 students weren't sure where they were going but they were able to say that Tamaki College isn't their first choice. Schools like Glen...

We're now sitting in the end of May and thinking back on the past month here is the break down of what I've done so far .... - Asking people that I know if they have transition programmes currently operating in their schools.  - Setting up school visits. The firs one we had set up was with a school in the North Shore. They are a primary (Y0-6) and although they aren't Year 8, I wanted to explore the principles that they have. What has worked. How they've made changes to fit their school and whanau. I'm more interested in what hasn't worked either.  - Setting up school visit with Tamaki College to understand what Year 9 teachers want our students to head into high school with (behaviours, learning). I'm also keen to get in and observe behaviours of year 9s, how they transition, patterns etc to help build a picture of what is currently happening. This is set up to happen in the next couple weeks.  - I'm currently exploring the best ways to communicate and ...