Te Whakangārahu Ngātahi | Planning Together for Ākonga Success

As part of the Kahui Ako - Palmerston North East Cluster, we contracted Waikato University to assist us in conducting a cultural audit of Ashhurst School through the lens of Rongohia te hau.  This happened at the end of the 2023 academic year. Rongohia te Hau co-constructs the process for understanding classroom practice across a school. The gathered evidence tells schools how they can change their pedagogy to make more of a difference for their Māori students. It offers a snapshot - a slice in time - that provides a representative sample across the school that gives a picture of what the pedagogy could look like on any given day. 

As part of the process, voice (via a survey) was gathered from the following groups.

• Staff

• Ākonga

• Whānau

The survey was conducted with 13 multiple-choice questions and an opportunity for comments to be made.  Feedback was provided by 207 whānau members (70 Maori), 28 staff members and 320 pupils.

Information was broken into different ethnicities, and data was overlayed, with trends and patterns being identified.  Additionally, observations were conducted on all staff on an agreed matrix.   

Trends from the Data

Overall there was not great separation from what the beliefs of all the groups were.  Most data overlayed close to each other.  

• Minor areas of separation were

  1. Māori - Staff

     • Teachers in my class respect me and I respect them

     • In my school students like me are achieving

     • In my school I have opportunities to do all the things I want to do

  2. Māori students/Māori Whānau

     • In my school students like me are achieving

     • In my school I have opportunities to do all the things I want to do

     • In my school it feels good to be Māori

     • Teachers in my class know how to make learning fun

  3. No areas of separation between Māori and Non-Māori whānau

  4. Non Māori students/Non Māori Whānau

     • In my school it feels good to be Non-Maori

     • In my school Māori students are achieving

     • In my school I have opportunities to do all the things I want to do

Key Themes from Comments

1. Generally, most comments are positive from students 

2. Some students identified issues with bullying and racism

3. Children mostly viewed sports as something that they look forward to 

4. Children liked the teaching staff at the school

5. Parents have raised student behaviour

6. Providing children with a voice in learning and dealing with situations

7. What opportunities  can be provided outside of sport

8. Parents feel learning programmes are to a high standard.