Activity Two: Issues in my professional context.

I work at Rotorua Girls’ High School and have done so since 2009.  We currently have approximately 530 students’ with 75% Maori students.  The majority of these students come from low income households with many social issues, which has a huge impact on the educational journeys of the students at school.  Since the start of my teaching journey at the school I have watched the steady decline in the student roll with the percentage of Maori increasing.  This has meant that the communities perception of the school has changed with many thinking that we are a Maori high school and that we have a rough reputation.  Since the appointment of the new principal three years ago, we see an increasing roll and a strong sense of identity for both staff and students.  

I have, since starting at the school, belonged to many of the schools committees, such as enrolment; Ka eke panuku; e-learning; and PB4L to name a few.  It is through involvement in initiatives like these that can see the growth and development of the school community.  The school has been developing and promoting the school wide academic tracking and whanau/student goal setting that allows for driving the importance of relationships.   Since the new principal started in 2014, there has been a deliberate drive to bettering the educational experience of the students.  The staff and wider communities involvement in developing the School Charter, which underpins the culture created at RGHS.  This is vital so that it focuses and drives all teaching and learning.  This has enabled me as a HOF to develop and implement the individual learning programmes that allowed for student centred learning, which integral to bring the Culturally Responsive and Relational Pedagogy, which is an important aspect of RGHS learning.   

With these changes in pedagogy and approaches, we have seen at RGHS further developments with the implementation of a future focused learning class, which can be seen as a pilot scheme that we would hope to implement school wide.  This is a process that needs to be stepped out so that the parties involved have buy in and are driven to get on the waka.  This has been influenced heavily by Nga Pumanawa e waru  and their future focused learning framework (NPeW, 2016), which fosters particular competencies and capabilities which are vital for a 21st century learner. These include creative lifelong learners, problem solving mentality, being adaptive so can learning in a range of contexts, and developing entrepreneurial thinking and innovation.  All of these enable us to move forward and progress and develop the learning for students.

Future Focused Learning. Nga Pumanawa e Waru. (2016).