Whakamana - Empowering Learners

Agency

Agency is when the ākonga has control over their learning where they are supported and scaffolded with pathways, choice of contexts and ways of learning, with an emphasis also on foundational skills and learning behaviours for successful, personalised learning. Students work at their own pace within an environment that ensures accountability and conversations about progress.

Authentic agency maximises teaching and learning time, and frees the student from the confines of the school day, the walls of the classroom, the sole expertise of the teacher and the pace of others in the class.

Active Learners

Active learners engage with relevant materials, on collaborative tasks and with real life problems in a way that goes beyond simply memorizing content. Intead it requires them to demonstrate their learning through: acting on and with what they learn, and engaging with the taiao (world) around them.

Ākonga participate in the learning process through metacognition activities: learner agency talk, working alongside learning partners with a growth mindset attitude and through explicit teaching of time and task management.

Collaboration

Collaboration is a proactive partnership between kaiako, ākonga and whanau which involves working alongside one another to ensure students are at the heart of the learning environment: including planning, decisions and discussions. It means incorporating the voices of all those involved in the child’s success at school. Collaboration provides opportunities for tuakana-teina relationships.

Collaboration also means that teams work closely together: co-teaching, co-planning, and co-assessing.

Communicators

Ākonga are actively encouraged to kōrero / communicate with their learning and with the world around them, through tasks requiring verbalising and demonstrating learning and through real life oral language opportunities.

Communicating involves more than simply talking but also means ākonga challenge, converse and contribute: with each other, with their kaiako and whanau, and with their community. This allows for deeper involvement in their learning and is a lifelong skill that will serve them beyond their schooling life.

21st Century Thinkers

21st Century Thinkers inquire into the world around them in a way that is open minded, incorporates diverse perspectives, is curious and responds to problems creatively. They sift through strategies and tools, being flexible in their thinking and problem solving.

Ākonga engage in higher order thinking and whakaaro / reflect on their learning: correcting, adjusting and responding as they inquire and collaborate. Importance is placed on the process and skill development, rather than simply the consumption of knowledge.

Coherence

Through coherent structures, planning and environments, ākonga consolidate and embed learning more successfully. Accountability procedures and safeguards ensure kaiako know the impact of their teaching and ākonga know what they are learning, how to best learn it and when they have mastered it.

Formative assessment, collation of student voice and regular snapshots allows for constant adjustment so that checks and balances are in place to ensure structures are having a positive impact on learning.

We use software to enable us to communicate our coherent pathways to students and whanau.

Guided Pathways

Guided pathways provide a road map to scaffold learning and allows ākonga to work at their own pace, with clear expectations, accountability and clarity of next steps. These progressions are school-wide to ensure seamless transitions throughout the years, allowing for support and extension.

They provide foundation for the learning to learn model and help to ensure self-regulation of the learner: the ability to focus, to be accountable, to follow a pathway, and to taute / reflect on progress.

Connections

Connections are the links we make with our local iwi, whanau, cultural and Catholic communities. We believe these connections are extremely important to create a sense of belonging and place for all our tamariki.

Māori identity, language and culture recognises, acknowledges and validates Māori ākonga as Māori. Students’ well-being is strongly influenced by a clear sense of identity, and access and exposure to their own language and culture.

Students' backgrounds, cultural identity and language are celebrated and included in school. Strong links are made and maintained with the parish. Tamariki feel confidently that Our Lady Help of Christians is their Church and that they are an important part of the parish.

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