Wellbeing – Key Competencies – Community Engagement
Kia ora Pupuke Kāhui Ako whānau. Below, is our first Principal’s Update for 2020. Given the unprecedented period we find ourselves all living through, we invite you to share it with your leadership team, staff and community, to the extent that you feel is appropriate at this time. |
During this time we have been thinking about our roles as Pupuke Kāhui Ako leaders and what we can still do to add value, but, at the same time, not clutter up people’s daily lives with just another email for them to consider, particularly given that there are so many organisations or colleagues or students already competing for their attention. Many groups have the benefit of being able to access a wonderful range of resources through their subject associations and cluster groups providing rich learning opportunities to share. Our Within and Across School Leads will continue to be available remotely, to assist all staff in accessing and utilising relevant and meaningful online applications, resources and ideas. The situation we have all been plunged into prompted me to think of the wicked problems that are often referred to in the literature around the Key Competencies, as seen below:
The recent ERO review on the Key Competencies published in December 2019: The KCs – Realising the Potential resonates very strongly here. Here is the link to this document, which is well worth reading given the current moment, but also in light of the ever-increasing need to prepare our students for unknown and unanticipated challenges. Clearly, we are in the middle of one of these wicked problems now; a challenge which has no simple or clear-cut solutions. This is self-evident in the various experts and commentators, across multiple fields, who are currently clamouring to proffer solutions; whether it be to follow what Australia is doing, or Sweden, or whatever else it might be that they have recently latched onto. Every discipline can draw on examples that our students can relate to now, whether they be with regard to ethical or moral dilemmas often debated in the humanities, or containing rich scientific learning, or, indeed, opportunities for statistical analysis and real-life sampling, the relevance of Mathematical and Economic modelling, exponential growth and logarithmic scales. It will be fascinating to observe how the creative worlds of Art, Design, Music, Media and Literature reflect and reveal this new reality in the coming weeks, months and years. And, it will be vital for educators of all subjects, and at all levels, to capitalise on some of these richly teachable and learnable moments. As you would expect, some of our plans for Pupuke Kāhui Ako events have had to change for this year. Please see further information on this below. Julie Saikkonen – Lead Principal |
Postponement of COLAB and the Musical Extravaganza |
Regretfully, we have had to postpone two of our key community events planned for 2020. These were COLAB, our Pupuke-wide teachers-only professional development day, and the Musical Gala, our bi-annual musical extravaganza. These postponements, of course, are due to the ongoing global health pandemic with COVID-19 and the enforced need for continued social distancing measures across New Zealand. In terms of the postponement of these events, our plan is for COLAB to take place next year, in 2021, while we remain hopeful that the Musical Gala may still be able to run later in 2020. Obviously, any decisions made about the rescheduling of these events will be in direct response to the fluid and ongoing crisis that we all face. We would like to thank all those who offered to run workshops for COLAB in 2020. We hope that you will be able to do so, at a similar time, in 2021. WSL Meeting: Julie, ASLs and WSLs met on March 12 at Takapuna Primary. We had a brief update on progress made so far and goals set for this year. The WSLs were reminded of their roles and invited to collaborate on their inquiries, while having the opportunity to network and connect. |
ASL News: |
Creativity Resilience Critical Thinking Communication Mindfulness Growth Mindset Meta-cognition Ethics Leadership Courage Curiosity Collaboration
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What is coming up for our Kāhui Ako: |
Growth Coaching with The Education Group – the course due to start on April 28 has been postponed. The new dates are tentatively 27, 31 August and 14 September. |
Wellbeing |
Denise Quinlan and her team have posted several short videos and podcasts on their NZIWR website as have a number of organisations. I am not sure whether teachers and parents may be able to pay attention to these at the moment given so many other demands on time but here’s a link to a short video that may be of use: https://nziwr.co.nz/real-time-resilience-9-schools-back-online-how-to-avoid-the-overwhelm-2/ Greenlight Foundation website: www.greenlightfoundation.co.nz Webinar by Dr Natalie Flynn on wellbeing: |
Resources and links |
Pupuke Kahui Ako – Distance Learning Corwin Press are scheduling some great conversations, including a recording of the one with John Hattie, found here. Webinar by Harry Fletcher-Wood: Supporting Student motivation and engagement when learning online |