OUR SCHOOL CULTURE

Our school is the only intermediate school in the region, because of this we have students from over 30 contributing schools. We are decile 5, but receive children from decile 3-10 primary schools. We have a mix of urban and rural students. This year we  have 216 females and 255 males, a combination 128 Year 7 students and 243 Year 8 students. The main two ethnic groups are 152- NZ Maori and 282- NZ European.

The culture that our school is striving for

Our school culture is based on strong relationships and involvement.  Staff are available to students in their classroom before school and in break times to foster positive relationships. We are encouraged to make contact with at least three families a week to pass on positive news about their students. This helps strengthen relationships between home and school. As Ed Dukelblau mentioned in 2015, it’s the staff that stays put, they are responsible for the culture of the school.

We offer a wide range of opportunities from cultural, sporting and arts for students to be involved in. Kapa Haka and choir are run during class time, so they are a valued part of the curriculum.

Six years ago we put in place PB4L and use A.D.M.I.R.E for our school word (Active Brain, Dependable, Managing Self, Interacting, Relationships and Excellence). Having A.D.M.I.R.E has given consistency to the values that our school has, students and staff are encouraged to use A.D.M.I.R.E throughout the school. This is unique to our school setting the tone for our culture.

The professional environment in our school

We have a positive collegiately amongst the twenty teaching staff who plan and work collaboratively within syndicate teams and curriculum teams. Eight teachers are also completing the MindLab course and share a common goal and give each other support. 

Stoll and Fink (1996) look at the norms of improving schools and as a staff we are addressing how we need to model A.D.M.I.R.E to one another as well as with students. This year, we spent two teacher only days unpacking how this should look.  Our staff changes yearly and it is essential that we are inclusive and supportive of new staff, striving to continuously improve.

Issues around the socioeconomic status of the community, the school culture and professional environments.

Some children come to school without breakfast due to lack of money or time in the morning.  A breakfast club has been introduced, so children can eat breakfast and start their school day with a full tummy.

After running an Education Outside the Classroom programme for years that offered no choice and was expensive we changed it to a user pays programme. The two days now can cost from $5 - $170 depending on the option the child and their family select. 

A Board concern was our large class numbers and a number of students not achieving at national standard, so they have decided to fund a teacher assistance fulltime between two classes to increase the adult child ratio.  

We run a technical craft programme and students all complete science, music, home economics and design technology.  This is at no cost to the student, so no child misses out due to their socio economic status.

References

Gargiulo, S. (2014). Principal sabbatical report. 

Stoll (1998). School Culture. School Improvement Network’s Bulletin 9. Institute of Education, University of London. 

The school culture is discussed and the importance of fostering a positive culture in the school is explained
Academy for SELinSchools. (2015, Apr 28).What is school culture and climate? [video file].Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-_NvhlcusQ

My Practice Within the Community

Activity 1: My Practice Within the Community

When reflecting on community of practice I realised as a teacher we have many, these often overlap. I am going to mention four different communities of practice I am part of.

My main community at school would have to be in my classroom of year 7 and 8 students we have the shared interest of learning together to follow ADMIRE (our school values) and to achieve at level 4. As a class we set success criteria and reflect on how lessons have gone. Setting goals and seeking feedback from peers and well as myself as a teacher.  Students share learning on google docs and can add feedback online as well. This also enables them to take their learning home and seek feedback from their whanau. In this community I am a leader, a facilitator and an active member. I am on a lifelong journey as a learner and think this is important to model to my students. They share their expertise with me and others in the class making them leaders at times as well. As I teacher I am constantly upskilling myself to become a 21^st Century educator and keep up with the rapid changes.  Undertaking professional development such as the Mindlab course also models to my students’ my lifelong learning journey.

Another community I am part of is being team leader for the Waingawa syndicate. My role is to lead the team and feedback from senior management meetings. We meet twice every seven day cycle. One meeting as a feedback from senior management and the other to unpack curriculum areas.  Within our team we have members of the maths, inquiry and literacy team.  Relationships and a sense of belonging are key to everyone felling valued in the team. There are only four of us, so we have time to share and learn from each other. Wegner (2000) discusses leadership as having a “community coordinator” who takes care of the day to day tasks, I see myself in that role, but then we distribute roles according to the passions and knowledge of the members. Our community is growing in strength as the year goes on as we were all new to the team this year.

As Literacy Leader at school I also lead a team of five staff. As a team we are passionate about literacy, sharing our ideas and taking back literacy knowledge to the rest of the staff.  Knox (2009) discusses developing individual’s capabilities and as the leader of the literacy team I grow the other members of the team to lead literacy within their syndicate. Later in the term, the members will lead Practise Analysis Conversations throughout the school. These will be learnt and practised within our community first, before going school wide. The knowledge they learn will be distributed throughout the school.

Lastly, for the last twenty four weeks I have been part of a new community of practice, the Mindlab Masterton July 2016 intake. We are a group of teachers from various schools, who met weekly for the first sixteen weeks and now a small group from our school still meet weekly. I see myself as an active member in this group. We have a shared interest in improving our practice and meet to discuss and share ideas. Online knowledge sharing and being part of the Facebook group, as well as the Google+ community enables us to share online also.

References

Knox, B. (2009, December 4).Cultivating Communities of Practice: Making Them Grow.[video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhMPRZnRFkk

Wenger, E.(2000).Communities of practice and social learning systems.Organization,7(2), 225-246  

My Mind Lab Journey - 2016/2017

The last 24 weeks has been enlightening, exhausting and exciting.  Learning is life long and I have enjoyed taking my new Mind Lab learning into my Year 7/8 classroom.