Workshop: Connecting with Rāpaki

Kōia te Mātauraka is an education facilitation entity owned by seven rūnaka. We facilitate a relationship with mana whenua and the curriculum, access to local resources and taonga, and work alongside kura to grow and encourage the capability of the team. Kōia te Mātauraka is contracted by the Ministry of Education. This workshop will look at how Kōia te Mātauraka can support you in connecting with Ngāti Wheke.

Liz is the Kaihautū/General Manager of Kōia te Mātauraka, a jointly owned rūnanga company delivering on Te Rautaki Mātauranga - the Ngāi Tahu Education Strategy - and working with schools and leadership teams to build relevant resources to support developments in the Aotearoa New Zealand Histories Curriculum. These resources include a structured literacy and numeracy lens. Liz and the team at Kōia te Mātauraka have over eighty years of collective education and teaching experience across ECE, primary and secondary school learning.

Workshop: Preparing the next generation with real world financial skills

Banqer Primary is an online tool that makes financial education and classroom management easy (and free!) for primary/intermediate schools. Join this workshop to learn how to set-up your own simulated classroom economy and engage students in real world financial lessons. You'll leave with curriculum aligned resources, an inbuilt class incentive system, and a supportive community to get you up and running!

Madeleine is the Banqer Primary Teacher Success Manager. As a former primary school teacher Madeleine  loves meeting with and supporting educators on a daily basis. A big part of her role at Banqer is making sure the financial education platform is as quick and easy for teachers to pick-up/implement as possible.

Workshop: The Science of Learning

The science of learning draws on evidence from neuroscience, cognitive psychology, and education. But what exactly is it and how can we use it to create good conditions for learning? This workshop will introduce the core concepts in the science of learning, make connections with your current teaching, and highlight practices that support the whole learner.

Melanie is a Curriculum Lead with the Ministry of Education. Curriculum leads support kaiako, teachers, and leaders to design quality learning experiences for children and young people that engage learners, promote progress, and foster wellbeing.

Workshop: Kōwhiti Whakapae- Strengthening progress through practice

Kōwhiti Whakapae is a new curriculum resource designed to help early learning kaiako strengthen teaching practice and formative assessment. Kōwhiti Whakapae builds on the pedagogical approaches and foundational learning as a key part of the government’s priority on literacy.  You are invited to an interactive session to learn about the new framework, explore the tools and begin to unpack the different phases of progress in the social and emotional learning area.  “Ko te ahurei o te tamaiti arahia ā tātou mahi.” - Let the uniqueness of the child guide our work.

Kathryn O’Connell-Sutherland is a Senior Curriculum Lead/Kaihautū Marautanga. An early Learning Champion with 30 plus years’ experience, Kathryn has a background and passion for early learning, relational pedagogy, culturally sustaining leadership and intentional curriculum decision making.  Bee Williamson (nō Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri/Hokotehi Moriori) is a Curriculum Lead/Kaihautū Marautanga. She is an experienced kaiako, curriculum leader & researcher. Having worked with ākonga from refugee and migrant backgrounds has added deep richness to her pedagogy.

Workshop: A Ngāi Tahu Perspective on Te Tiriti o Waitangi

This workshop will look at the content of a new resource that has been developed by the Ngāi Tahu Archive, detailing Ngāi Tahu experiences around Te Tiriti o Waitangi, from the lead-up to the signing through to Te Kēreme/ the Ngāi Tahu Claim. Kaiako will have an opportunity to see how they could use this important and accessible volume in their classrooms.

Helen Brown (Ngāi Tahu) is a Manager in the Ngāi Tahu Archive at Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu. She works with Ngāi Tahu communities on history and memory projects including oral histories, exhibitions, interpretation, and publications. She leads the Ngāi Tahu Archive publishing programme which includes the award-winning Tāngata Ngāi Tahu series which explores tribal history through the lens of biography. She also works on content for the Ngāi Tahu digital atlas Kā Huru Manu and the Ngāi Tahu Archive database Kareao. She is the author of a forthcoming book Ko Kāi Tahu me Te Tiriti which introduces the Ngāi Tahu story of Te Tiriti to secondary school students as part of the Aotearoa NZ histories curriculum. Māori medium and English versions of the book will be published later this year by Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu and the Ministry of Education.

Workshop: Effective language teaching practice for the classroom: Narratives

This session covers how teachers can teach oral language skills directly to 4-7 year old children using narratives or stories. Narrative teaching aims to improve children's comprehension of stories, retelling of stories and generation of their own stories. There is high quality research to suggest direct narrative teaching can boost oral language skills in children, and that this may result in improvements in their written language also. Come and learn key principles from this research on how to teach narrative language skills effectively in your classroom. 

Dr Jayne Newbury is an experienced speech language therapist and academic at the University of Canterbury. Her areas of interest include cognition, interaction, child language assessment and teaching, with a focus on children with language and literacy needs.

Workshop: Inclusive Physical Education

This workshop looks at fostering an inclusive environment for all students, particularly in the realm of physical education, as not just a goal but a responsibility. We believe that every school, club and organisation has the potential to create an inclusive, diverse, and physically active space for everyone, regardless of their abilities. This will be an introduction to inclusion within the school space.

Mitchell is a Halberg Foundation Adviser within Canterbury. 4 Years working within the community to increase the opportunity for young people with disabilities to be active.

Workshop: Improving Attendance and Engagement For Our Ākonga From the Pacific

This presentation focuses on Pacific engagement & building components of strong relationships to help improve attendance & engagement.

You may know Jason as a former All Blacks 7s rugby player, but he has now turned his expertise to the education sector, running Pasifika-focused events such as Polyfest and more recently working as Lead Advisor for Pacific engagement at the Ministry of Education.

Workshop: Practical Strategies to Support a Structured Approach to Literacy

This presentation focuses on supporting kaimahi in the beginning of their structured literacy journey to practically apply strategies to support evidence based approaches. They will share a brief overview of literacy research and the practical application of activities to support ākonga in the classroom. 

Elesha and Megan are Resource Teachers of Learning and Behaviour (RTLB) who are part of Te Paeroa, Cluster 34. Te Paeroa supports schools within the South/East of Ōtautahi and Rēkohu (Chatham Islands).

Workshop: Anxiety and Resilience

This presentation is based around reducing anxiety and building resilience with a specific focus on practical strategies which kaiako and kaiawhina can utilise. Within this presentation we will touch on; ‘Red Brain, Green Brain’, the need for interoceptive awareness, and developing academic resilience and growth mindset through executive function. 

Nick and Nick (yes, two Nicks!) are Resource Teachers of Learning and Behaviour who are working at Te Paeroa, Cluster 34. Their cluster supports schools within the North/East of Ōtautahi and Rēkohu (Chatham Islands). They posses a strong understanding of learning and behaviour principles and frameworks and enjoy sharing this with, and learning from others.

Workshop: Multiple and Dual Exceptionalities:  Giftedness and SLDs.

Giftedness is not a bed of roses.  It brings its own unique set of challenges.  This can be impacted by a specific learning disability, ASD and ADHD.  A gifted child with more than one exceptionality presents with their own unique set of characteristics and quirks that mean they do not fit into the expected boxes of being gifted or having a specific learning disability. 

Barbara taught at primary school and secondary schools for 30 years.  She left teaching to set up a private learning centre in the early 2000's.  Following this, she became a SENCO at a Christchurch secondary school.  For the last 12 years, Barbara has been practising as a registered educational psychologist, specialising in the assessment of children with specific learning disabilities, giftedness, Autism and ADHD.

Workshop: Teaching Sentence Structure and Sentence Combining

We all know full stops don't go at the end of every line or just at the end of 2 pages of continuous writing. We know 'and then' makes for a very boring story, but how do we teach children to write correct and interesting sentences? This workshop is a quick introduction to sentence combining based on Helen Walls' and Christine Braid's work and The Writing Revolution. It will boost your own knowledge and you'll participate in some hands-on activities to take back to class.

Caroline is a Resource Teacher of Literacy who works with many schools in our Kahui Ako. Caroline works with teachers to develop teacher knowledge and skill for Tier 1 and Tier 2 instruction and with referred students who need individualised interventions at Tier 3. She is also a BSLA facilitator.

Workshop: Place-Based Education - Starting Where Our Feet Are

This is a workshop where you can get up and move. You will be taken on a hīkoi to significant places around the Te iringa o Kahukura school grounds to learn about the stories of the whenua and how these link to learning about the past, present and future.

An educational consultant with an interest in the kōrero o te whenua, Tahu has been an early childhood educator for almost 20 years. He lives  locally and enjoys hearing what the whenua has to tell him.

Workshop: Trauma-Informed Practice

Let’s talk about the neuroscience of trauma and attachment. What is trauma and how does it impact the tamariki in our classrooms and ECE centres? What strategies can we implement to deal with very challenging behaviour that we might see due to trauma?

Nathalie has been living in New Zealand for the last 18 years and is currently working as a teaching assistant at Beckenham Te Kura o Puroto and as an education facilitator for Te Whānau Tupu Ngātahi o Aotearoa/Playcentre.

Workshop: Niho Taniwha

Niho Taniwha is both a pedagogical model and a framework that enables educators to optimise the impact of their teaching for ākonga Māori, helping those (and all) ākonga to thrive and reach their potential as learners. You will be introduced to the basic principles of Niho Taniwha and be shown what they look like in practice.

Melanie has worked in the education sector for over 25 years. She has been a teacher, tumuaki, senior lecturer, iwi facilitator, senior advisor for the Ministry of Education, kaihautū Māori and education consultant for Evaluation Associates. Her iwi are Rangitāne o Wairau, Ngati Kuia and Ngāti Apa ki te Rā Tō.

Workshop: Transition to Secondary Schooling

The transition from full primary/intermediate education into the secondary schooling setting is a vital process for ākonga. This workshop will outline how Cashmere High School approaches this process and what our learnings have been over a number of years. It is hoped that this will allow attendees to take away how they can best prepare their students and staff to be part of this process. 

Tom Wilkinson is the Head of Faculty for Student Support at Cashmere High School. Tom has worked at Cashmere since 2010 in various pastoral roles, including 8 years in the Head of School (Dean) role where he has first hand experience of the support students need for success. Now working alongside learning support, counselling, health clinic and high and complex needs he continues to focus on student wellbeing for success.

Workshop: Early Years Science and Giftedness

IDENTIFICATION: Who are the children we are talking about? (Internationally recognised characteristics of giftedness and how they appear in the children we work with). PRACTICAL HANDS-ON ACTIVITIES to engage and challenge gifted learners (enthuse, extend, enrich, extend). The session will demonstrate simple hands-on enrichment and extension activities with handouts plus valuable ‘where to from here’ ideas.

Sue has been involved in gifted education for fifty years and brings a great deal of experience, enthusiasm and passion to the field of gifted education. A life member of the New Zealand Association for Gifted Children (NZAGC), Sue has presented at national conferences on numerous occasions. Sue has a special interest in science and creative writing and teaches Small Poppies classes for gifted young children 2-7 years old. She believes in holistic, inclusive education for gifted children; the provision of authentic classroom experiences presenting challenge; and modelling from skilled, passionate teachers.

Workshop: Habits of Mind

St Mark's School has embedded Habits Of Mind as a way for students to access the NZC key competencies. In this presentation you will have the Habits introduced and learn how they can improve the thoughtful problem solving skills of your students. 

Adrian is currently Acting Principal of Te Kura o Hāto Māka, St Mark's School. In a career spanning 34 years he has been a classroom teacher, senior teacher, deputy principal and principal in a range of kura. His work with Habits of Mind began over 20 years ago and has included building a culture within schools that values thoughtful problem solving, sharing that knowledge in conference settings and the publication of several teacher resource books.

Workshop: The Basics of Supporting Our Ākonga With Assistive Technology 

Come along to this workshop to learn how to apply for assistive technology, what might suit your students, and what strategies support using this tech in your classrooms. Answer any questions you may have about assistive technology!

Ashleigh Clark is the Canterbury assistive technology coordinator for the Ministry of Education. She is a qualified speech and language therapist with a mix of private therapy, school therapy and augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) backgrounds. Ashleigh's previous role was in the intensive wraparound service as a facilitator with ākonga with high behavioural needs. Ashleigh enjoys thinking outside of the box and helping our students use their unique strengths to access and achieve in our schools.

Workshop: Inclusive Drama

We will learn and experience dramatic activities that encourage creative thinking and innovation. These drama activities teach students confidence and public speaking skills. Students can be proud of who they are and what they can be.

Tom is a teacher at St Mark's School. He has a small drama business, Drama Elemental, that he runs after school and during holidays. He loves how drama can provide so many skills and opportunities for anyone and he is passionate about providing those opportunities.