Pasifika Community

A fia vave oo lou va’a, alo na o ‘oe, ae a fia tuli mamao

le taunu’uga tatou ‘alo’alo faatasi.

If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.

Samoan proverb

Mai na matua, mo ki tatou, kn na fanau

Learning from yesterday, living today and hope for tomorrow

If you talk to a child in a language they understand, that goes to their head.

If you speak to a child in their language that goes to their heart.

Nelson Mandela

Pacific People in NZ

New Zealand’s Pacific peoples are a diverse and dynamic group with the fastest growing young population. A little under half (46.1%) are less than 20 years old, compared with 27.4% for the total population.

By 2026 it is projected that Pacific Peoples will be 10% of the population, compared to 7.4% in 2013.

Almost two thirds (65.9% or 194,958 people) identified with at least one Pacific ethnicity lived in the Auckland region.

50% of the seven largest Pacific ethnic groups can speak their language

Achievement Data 2016:

Initial Big Picture Points to Note:

We are a top performing/achieving school in our Community of Learning Cluster.

Compared with the rest of Auckland and New Zealand as a whole - Well Below and Below:

• in Reading, Writing and Maths, we have a lower than usual percentage of children at Well Below - less than half the average for Auckland and for New Zealand.

• in Reading we have 3% more children in the Below column - that is the 3% that are not in the Well Below column

• in Writing as well as having 4% less in Well Below, we have 6.5% less in Below

• in Mathematics as well as having 4% less in Well Below, we have 12% less in Below

Compared with the rest of Auckland and New Zealand as a whole - At and Above:

• in Reading we have 12% less at At, but that 12% is sitting in Above - where we are 12% above the Above

• in Writing we have 4% more in the At column, and 12% more in Above

• in Maths we have 4% less in At, but 20% more in Above

Compared with the rest of Auckland and New Zealand as a whole - Collectively Reading:

• we have the same total percentage of children Well Below or Below

• we therefore have the same total percentage At and Above standard - but with more weighting at Above (12%)

Compared with the rest of Auckland and New Zealand as a whole - Collectively Writing:

• we have 11% less children at Well Below or Below

• we have 12% more children at At and Above

Compared with the rest of Auckland and New Zealand as a whole - Collectively Maths:

• we have 16% less children at Well Below or Below

• we have 17% more children at At and Above

Year One Data Analysis - after 40 Weeks At School:

This is the area of greatest concern, and has the greatest impact on our school-wide data.

This negative data is most notable in Reading in particular, where we have 47% of our year one children at Well Below or Below.

If we removed Year One data -

• One year out of six years should generate 16.5% of the data

• Year One Reading generates 42% of the Well Below data

• Year One Reading generates 43% of the Below data

• Year One Writing generates 30% of the Well Below data

• Year One Writing generates 24% of the Below data

• Year One Maths has a positive impact on Well Below data

• Year One Maths has a neutral impact on Below data

Pasifika Students By Ethnic Group:

• Samoan 41

• Cook Island Maori 10

• Fijian 9

• Tongan 6

• Other Pasifika 4

• Filipino 12

Pasifika Student Achievement Summary

1. Year One Impact - 12 levels in their first 12 months is unrealistic in Reading

2. Language Readiness for 5 year olds an issue - cf Scandinavia

3. Reduction in Well Below and Below over time is most noticeable

Building Relationships - Whanaungatanga from each child's perspective

1. Greet me personally each day

Wish me good morning, and send me off with a “see you tomorrow.”

2. Smile

When you look at me, let me see happiness in your eyes.

3. Give me your attention

Sit and talk with me privately; even if only for a little while.

4. Imagine with me

Help me dream of things I might be able to do; not just the things I need to do now.

5. Give me challenging content and assignments

Show me how to handle it. Teach me what to do.

6. Ask about me

Inquire about my weekend, the game I played, the places I go. It shows you care about my life.

7. Let me have time

Time to let things sink in. Time to think. Time to reflect, process, and play.

8. Expect a lot of of me

Hold me accountable to high standards. Don’t let me get away with less if you know I am capable of doing better.

9. Notice Me

A comment to me, on my work or on my Seesaw post. Just a quick note that says you notice something special about me or my efforts.

10. Let me ask the questions

Even if my questions are off topic, let me ask them. It will show that I am thinking about new perspectives, curious, and willing to learn more. Let me have the chance to show what I am wondering about, not just what I know.

11. Engage me

I came to you in love with learning. Keep me excited, keep me wanting more.

12. Trust me

Believe that I can do it. Allow me the chance. I promise to show you I can.

What Works For Pasifika Students -

Strategies that are effective for Pasifika students will be effective for all students. They are in essence effective teaching strategies - if we want to move Pasifika students forward with their learning they are essential. For Pasifika students to experience success, schools need to ensure that they have a quality, culturally responsive environment including:

• • Highly effective consistent teaching across the school, with strong teacher as inquiry systems that enable teachers to reflect on student achievement, their own teaching and strategies that will improve achievement.

  • Teachers use strong formative assessment strategies and give specific effective feedback.

  • Teachers use strong classroom management techniques.

  • Teachers get to know their Pasifika students as people and learners and that they gain a greater understanding of the distinct Pasifika identities, values, culture and language.

  • Teachers take the time to find out about the families of their Pasifika students.

  • Create a positive and supportive school wide environment that has strong consistent behavioral expectations that are non-confrontational and use restorative practices.

• Teacher student relationships are positive and that there is a culture of care.

• Teachers are happy and friendly in interactions with all students.

• Use differentiated learning within classes and across the school.

• Make connections for Pasifika students across the curriculum.

• Utilise Pasifika language and ensure correct pronunciation of Pasifika names.

• Actively encourage Pasifika language within classrooms across the school and promote the use of first language by parents when helping children.

• Forge positive and effective relationships with Pasifika parents

• Make use of the distinct Pasifika culture, language and dance wherever possible within formal and informal school wide settings.

• Actively up-skill through professional development Boards of Trustees and school staff about Pasifika culture so that they get a greater and more in-depth understanding of their Pasifika students.

• Ensure that Pasifika student achievement targets are a priority and that progress is reviewed and monitored regularly over time.

• Engage with Pasifika students and parents to ensure that their voice is heard at all levels of school organisation.

• Teachers and leaders within school need to gain an understanding of, and demonstrate a commitment to Pasifika values including the importance of

  • • Respect

    • Love

    • Service

    • Family

    • Reciprocity

    • Spirituality.

• Pasifika students need to see that their teacher cares for them, understands them, their identity, language and culture.

Having respectful positive teacher student relationships with Pasifika students is essential for Pasifika success. Across a lot of research it becomes apparent that Pasifika students respond well to teachers who they sense care about their success, believe in them, have high expectations and are well organised.

This relationship is developed in part by taking the time to get to know the student both as a person and as a learner. Students are more likely to enjoy the subject and put in more effort for teachers of whom they had a more positive relationship.

Effective home school partnerships make a difference at home. For example the Reading Together Programme is a positive example of a research based successful home school initiative that is achieving positive results.

Innovative and successful strategies that work:

• Consistent teaching practice across the school in numeracy and literacy with a focus on small groups with an explicit vocabulary focus.

• School wide topics that focus on the cultures and families of the school and that provide opportunities to share their culture.

• School wide activities that promoted families to come into the school.

• Parent education sessions like reading together that focus on changing and improving home/school links to improve academic performance.

• A focus on high quality ESOL strategies across the curriculum that focus on the academic vocabulary while promoting the home language of our Pasifika students.

• A deliberate teaching as inquiry process across the school that focuses on a shared ownership of student achievement (these are our students) and improvement of teaching practice based on the needs of our students.

What Works For Pasifika Students - Research Says:

“Teachers support learning best when they seek to understand where learners come from and build on their experiences to make learning meaningful (Bishop et al., 2003).

ERO (2012) “Highly effective schools had systems in place that made inquiry a part of classroom practice, created a culture where there was an alignment of practice focused on improved student achievement.”

Microsoft Word - Improving engagement and achievement for Pasifika learners in diverse primary school settings final copy2.docx

In a study of the views of Pacific Island students and their families and communities, Fletcher et al. (2008, 2009) concluded that a number of practices are conducive to the learning of Pasifika students:

1. Culturally responsive and culturally inclusive,such as students expressed the desire for resources that reflected their own culture, eg. authentic Pacific perspectives and celebrating the life of Pacific Island communities

2. Pacific Island students writing their own cultural experiences within their lives (such as using Prior Knowledge)

3. Regular, quality feedback and feed-forward which was specific and transparent (in that students saw the purpose in needing to know about what and why they were learning and teaching certain concepts and ideas)

4. The importance of employing a Pasifika Liaison person to bridge the language barriers, someone who could speak the home islands language”. (Sila Senibulu)

Ferguson et al (2008) states “that Pasifika students need to be able to see their language and identity reflected through the curriculum.”

"Pacific parents believed it was important that school staff, particularly teachers, had some understanding about working with Pacific families. Where teachers had an understanding of the different Pacific ethnicities and values it was easier for Pacific parents to develop relationships with the school." Source: Partners in Learning: Parents' Voices (September 2008)

“A focus on cultural diversity alone will not make a difference to students learning unless it is accompanied with recognition of a focus on linguistic diversity” (Walqui, 2000).

Excellent Web Resource:

• http://inclusive.tki.org.nz/guides/supporting-pasifika-students/

Pasifika dual language books

The Pasifika dual language resources are designed to support the early language and literacy learning of Pasifika new entrant students in English-medium classrooms. Teacher and parent support material accompanies these resources. Many of the dual language books are available as PDFs and all the books are available as MP3 audio files.

Print copies of the texts are available from Down the Back of the Chair.

What We Are Doing - Big Picture:

Language Readiness for 5 year olds an issue - cf Scandinavia - so we are employing the Walker Learning Approach to provide language rich experiences and material for imagination, inquiry and play. Walker Learning Approach is a mix and balance of explicit teaching of literacy and numeracy drawing upon children's own interests and lives to make literacy and numeracy meaningful and relevant to the child and their culture.

This approach provides authentic personalised learning that is effective across all cultural, economical, geographical, religious and social spectrums. It aims to bring deeper levels of engagement to children in meaningful and relevant strategies that enhance academic skills alongside the development of skills for life particularly in areas of social and emotional development, resilience, self esteem and independence.

The Walker Learning Approach specifically involves

Dramatic Play - Sensory Stimulation - Literacy - Numeracy - Science - Reading Corner - Construction - Tinkering - Developing Fine Motor Skills

Seesaw Electronic Learning Journals

• Sharing

• Celebrating

• Reflecting

• Extending

• Growth Mindset approach

Establishing our Cornerstones

Whanaungatanga -

• The culture of familiness - being a family.

• Caring, sharing, having empathy, contributing - these are shown in

• Being a Bucket-Filler

• Pay It Forward

Turangawaewae

• The place where we feel at home, where you feel you belong, where you feel special, loved, valued, respected.

• Our standing place or your stand-tall place.

• Our home number two.

Matauranga

• Learning is Life. Another word for it is Ako.

• We talk about the learning pit - where we are faced with a learning challenge and where we use our skills, tools, attitudes and dispositions to come out of the pit with new knowledge and new strengths.

Manaakitanga

• It’s the sharing part of Caring and Sharing.

• It is all those things we do to put our Love into action.

• It’s being a blessing to others - it’s Pay It Forward.

• And this will Lead into our Theme for this year - Being a ZeroHero and Paying It Forward for our Planet.

and Our Pou

• Aroha - Love

• Ako - Learn

• Arataki - Lead

Preparing All Children for 21st Century Success:

• Our approach is to focus on some core values - Love to Learn to Lead; The Seven Cs - Caring, Curious, Creative, Critical, Confident, Connecting, Contributing; Pay It Forward.

• These core values help us achieve our broader New Zealand Curriculum goal of ..."young people who will be confident, connected, actively involved, and lifelong learners."

• We are progressing children from day one to become increasingly confident, competent and independent. We talk about "self managing, self motivating, self moderating, leaders of our own learning."

• Our learning environments move towards an increasing focus on SOLE - Self Organising Learning Environments. In these environments children work in flexible, fluid groups. They discuss, debate, research and reflect in order to solve increasingly complex problems via the Cycle of Inquiry. This happens with contexts that are relevant to our children's lives, prior learning, needs, interests. We endeavour to build opportunities for cultural connections within our inquiries.

• Knowledge is no longer the desired end product. It is a means to understanding, and as such, it must be verified, validated and referenced.

• The teaching of discernment via the skills and practices of questioning and Higher Order Thinking tools is a vital component of learning.

• Our research indicates that discreet knowledge is of increasingly limited value.

• Students' ability to think critically has always been a key concern of business organisations and the general public. When asked which skills new college graduates needed to improve most, more than half of the respondents to the question on The Wall Street Journal's survey of 479 college recruiters named some combination of

  • • critical thinking

    • problem solving skills

    • the ability to think independently (WSJ Sept. 13, 2010).

Susan Traiman, the Roundtable's director of public policy, states that the skills companies felt were most lacking are

• • • work ethic

    • communication skills

    • analytic skills (Taylor, Marisa, Nov. 2, 2013).

A National Survey of Business and Nonprofit Leaders indicated that more than 75 percent of those surveyed say they want more emphasis on five key areas including:

• • • critical thinking

    • complex problem solving

    • written and oral communication

    • applied knowledge in real-world settings.

    • The survey further indicated that employers are more interested in critical thinking and problem solving than the college major (aacu.org, 2013, accessed on Nov.12, 2013).

Culturally Responsive Education:

Cultural Competence is the ability to understand, interact and communicate effectively and with sensitivity, with people from different cultural backgrounds. Cultural competence is a personal capability that is not necessarily innate but develops over time. A precondition is a deep awareness of one’s own identity since it involves examining one’s own biases and prejudices. A culturally competent person is able to empathise with how people from other cultures might perceive, think, interact, behave, and make judgements about their world. Consequently it has four elements: awareness, attitude, knowledge and skills. (Martin & Vaughn, 2007, Cross et al, 1989)

Weaver (1997) explains that the three components of cultural competence (knowledge, skills and values) are interactive and none is sufficient in and of itself to bring about appropriate practice. In addition, she unpacks these three components as follows:

Knowledge:

• Of diversity within a cultural group

• Of history of groups including laws, policies, loss experienced on all levels and pain resulting

• Cultural knowledge (communication patterns, world views, belief systems, values (e.g. importance of family, respect for elders)

• Contemporary realities

Skills:

• General skills (e.g. problem solving: defining the problem and arriving at a solution from an Indigenous²⁷ perspective)

• Containment skills (e.g. patience, ability to tolerate silence, listening skills, resisting the impulse to talk to keep the conversation going)

Values:

• Self-awareness

• Humility and willingness to learn

• Respect , non-judgmental attitude

• Social justice

Culturally responsive educators:

• • Consistently communicate high expectations to students

  • Understand the communicative function of the students’ behaviours (these may need to be ascertained through the students’ family or community)

  • Demonstrate professionalism, civility and respect in interactions with students

  • Communicate in non-judgmental ways to students

  • Recognise that some students’ behaviour may be a result of inappropriate code-switching for different contexts (Gay, 2002; Richards et al, 2007)

Connection to Curriculum:

Teachers need to connect the intended curriculum to the cultures and backgrounds of students. This must be done by integrating it rather than ‘adding it on’. Teachers should be careful not to stereotype this as this strategy might serve to further alienate or marginalise students. We should also take care to embed/permeate cultural content across the year rather than for a particular week or month

A culturally-responsive curriculum:

• • Reinforces the integrity of the cultural knowledge that students bring with them

  • Recognises cultural knowledge as part of a living and constantly adapting system that is grounded in the past, but continues to grow through the present and into the future

  • Uses the local language and cultural knowledge as a foundation for the rest of the curriculum (in particular, utilises the local language as a base from which to learn the deeper meanings of the local cultural knowledge, values, beliefs and practices)

  • Fosters a complementary relationship across knowledge derived from diverse knowledge systems

  • Situates local knowledge and actions in a global context.

Culturally Inclusive Pedagogies:

Trouw (1999) identified fourteen ‘culturally inclusive pedagogies’ as follows

• • The environment of the school reflects the community and students - books, media and displays used for teaching, and cultural backgrounds of staff in proportion to students.

  • Students’ previous experiences are incorporated into the classroom; (Ernst (1994) stated that teachers need to “create opportunities for students to perceive the significance of what they have and know with what the language and culture of school offers them.” (p. 321)

  • Students need to be empowered by their education i.e. pedagogies themselves need to be empowering, not just the materials and resources used. Strategies need to be both respectful and challenging. [Bartolme (1994) maintains that teachers and students should interact and negotiate meaning as equals, since this will result in students empowering themselves to succeed rather than waiting for and expecting teachers to ‘drip-feed’ knowledge in an effort to maintain control and authority.] Such pedagogies include negotiating the curriculum and assessment mode, and those that promote communication and collaboration among students. Teachers should model behaviours and thinking processes out aloud, giving hints, providing feedback and redirecting when needed. Activities and reflection should enable students to set their own goals, self regulate, and self assess.

  • Teaching must be explicit

  • Teachers and students need to build up a pool of shared experiences; the process of schooling can be a mystery to many students because the goals and purpose are not revealed.

  • Learning process should be responsive to a variety of learning styles; teachers should not rely on techniques that are supposed to be appropriate for a particular minority group due to the wide range of home experiences that often exist within the group. Personal and individual stories are needed. A wide variety of teaching styles is needed for a wide variety of students. This does not mean each child has a different approach – rather that by using a variety of styles continually will maximise the opportunity for each student’s preferred style to be used more often.

  • Heterogeneous grouping; this will ensure that children learn from each other, broadening the base of shared knowledge and culture rather than grouping disadvantaged or advantaged children together, minimising their experiences and outreach.

  • Students need to learn the culture of Western Schooling; Edwards & Mercer (1987) believe that ritual learning, where understanding is embedded in the learning activity without any knowledge of what is the intended learning of the activity, is a result of inadequate teaching. Fundamentally, inadequate teaching occurs when teachers do not draw out the learning through prompting self-reflection and higher-order thinking (such as inference and evaluation) about the activity.

  • Students need to develop higher-order thinking skills; these include critical thinking, meta-cognition, and inquiry skills. Jackson (1993/4) claims that a cultural mismatch may occur which could disadvantage some children who are not taught meta-cognitive skills in the home, and that teachers need to explicitly teach these skills.

  • Teacher/Pupil interaction; Edwards & Mercer (1987) point out the classroom interaction is determined by the significance of persons, place and time, and cultural knowledge. Teachers tend to dominate classroom talk, often by asking a question and then following up with another question when an answer is given (Cullican, n.d.). Teachers use this process to continually check whether there is shared understanding as the basis for continuing the discourse. This can render students as passive learners rather than active. Edwards and Mercer, cited above, recommend that students should interact before, during and after lessons through activities that enable them to personalise knowledge, for example by paraphrasing, explaining, and valuing through creative means.

  • Quality feedback should also be given during these interactions and activities. The feedback must however, relate to quality of learning rather than physical attributes such as artefacts produced and neatness.

  • Emotional needs of students must be addressed; Teachers need to build a sense of trust with their students since this builds confidence and hence self-efficacy, and a belief that what they are doing in class is worthwhile (Jackson, 1993/4). Tepper (1992) believes that teachers need to create what she calls a ‘classroom family’; a loving relationship based on respect, support and trust which students can count on to take risks. She also believes that teacher discipline should not violate this trust.

  • High expectations; teachers need to believe that their students can achieve what is expected (i.e. for their same age cohort) and to show this by their behaviours, including the tasks they set students to achieve desired goals. Rutter, et al (1979) found that, “Schools that foster high self-esteem and that promote social and scholastic success reduce the likelihood of emotional and behavioural disturbance”. (p.83)

  • Parents should be encouraged to participate in decision-making processes of education; (Jackson, 1993/4; Burke, 1993)

Learner-centred and ‘strengths-based’ pedagogies and teaching styles

The successful enactment of the curriculum – or the act of teaching – requires that teachers are learner-centred. This means that they

• • understand the intended learning,

  • can identify when a student has been successful in attaining those intentions

  • understand what the student understands on coming to the task

  • know enough about the content to provide meaningful and challenging experiences in some sort of sequential development (Hattie, 2009, p.23).

  • Foundational to this enactment, is teacher understanding of what the student understands on coming to the task (or brings with them to the learning situation). For a culturally responsive teacher this means understanding

    • • the skills and strengths of the student as they approach the task (some of these will be cultural and linguistic)

• • • the values and perspectives of the intended learning that the student may have on the content presented, and the consequent impact on their understanding and desire to learn, and

    • a sense of where the content to be learned ‘sits’ on a continuum from the starting point of what the student knows to that of the new content, (this is so that the content can be broken down into ‘achievable chunks’ towards the desired learning goal).

Vygotsky (1978) argues that the most effective teaching is that which occurs within the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), that is, when the challenge presented by the task is just ahead of the learner’s actual or current development (Hammond & Gibbons, 2005).

• • In order to determine what learning experience to offer students, a culturally responsive teacher would need to have not only knowledge of the students’ cultural and linguistic backgrounds, but also knowledge of the students’ interests and home life/environment. In addition to this, an authentic and trusting relationship with the student is necessary so that students will engage with the task.

  • This Culturally Responsive Pedagogy (CRP) facilitates and supports the achievement of all students, not just those from culturally diverse backgrounds (Richards, Brown, & Forde, 2007).

  • Proponents of CRP argue that recognition of cultural diversity, although necessary for all students, is imperative to meeting the educational needs of ethnically diverse students (Gay, 1995) and to situate the intended learning in meaningful and relevant tasks. This recognition includes understanding the cultural characteristics and contributions of different ethnic groups (Gay, 2002).

Perso (2008) suggests that teachers need to know as much about their students as possible;

• • Who are they?

  • What is in their ‘virtual school bag’?

  • What do they already know?

  • How do they learn?

She suggests that this information be gathered about every student in the class by

• • talking with parents, families, community members, previous teachers of the students, current school staff, Indigenous Teacher Aides and Assistant Teachers

  • talking to the students themselves

  • analysing student acquisition of Standard English, and

  • analysing individual student achievement data, especially regarding literacy and numeracy achievement.

Summaries offered regarding effective pedagogy and teacher strategies include those by Cleary & Peacock (1998), Swisher and Deyhle (1989), and Perso (2003), and include the following:

• • making personal connections with students and building strong relationships, including with families and community

  • establishing cultural relevance and meaning in the curriculum

  • using highly engaging activity-based learning and cooperative learning some of the time

  • being flexible, fair and consistent

  • providing real audience and purpose for student work

  • providing immediate feedback and give praise when it is due

  • allowing for students to ‘save face’ so they are not shamed by having to perform or singling them out in front of their peers

  • using humour and laughing at yourself when you make a mistake; showing students it’s OK to make a mistake or get it wrong

Other Key Understandings:

• The role of education is to provide experiences for children that are as close to their area of development as possible because if the experiences are too distant from the child’s cultural orientation then the child will fail to make the necessary connections and will not develop as fast as expected. Learning new tasks that are culturally related and recognisable will allow for controlled risk taking, experimentation and relaxed learning

• The role of the teacher should involve increased knowledge and understanding of the child and their family, the positions of the individuals in the family and the extended family network.

• Students develop the ability, confidence and motivation to succeed academically when they participate competently as a result of having developed a secure sense of identity and knowledge that their voice will be heard and respected within their learning environment. They must feel a sense of ownership for the learning that goes on in their learning community.

• Ensure that you are totally prepared before venturing on this journey but be aware that you will not be travelling alone. Preparation will involve seeking knowledge about the Pasifika students in your classroom including their family, their place in the family, the roles of the family members, community elders or leaders, church elders or leaders, and their expectations of you with this very elevated position as the teacher of their child.

• Leading change in schools requires resilience, perseverance and flexibility (Fullan, 2005a).

• Despite challenges and impediments to change, sustainable leadership requires that leaders always have the long–term goal in mind (Hargreaves, 2007). Fullan (2005a) argues that the main plan is sustainability, dependent upon a combination of a moral purpose and capacity building. Leaders should expect — and work with — periods of perceived activity and inactivity.

• A significant barrier to change is the ‘culture’ of the school and the approach taken to school improvement and student learning (Dinham, 2005). Professional learning communities in schools are a significant ‘driver’ of change. Established around principles of collective responsibility for change, collaboration, and shared values and vision, professional learning communities have been identified as key to sustaining successful education practice in schools (see Gilbert, 2011).

What You Can Do

Attendance - Lateness and Regular Absence data correlates to Well Below and Below data - so making every effort to have children here and on time helps

Reading -

• encouraging

• modelling

• supporting (alternate pages etc), talking about their story

• Pause, Prompt, Praise model

Maths - Writing - Reading

National Standards Parent Guides have lots of suggestions

Previous Feedback from Informal Consultation and Surveys

• Get to know the children as individuals, find out about our families, language and culture

• Be careful not to stereotype our children based on beliefs about their culture, some of them are quiet and shy, others are boisterous and extraverts

• Use some of our language as part of the teaching - our children are a resource

• Regularly feedback to us about what we can do to help

• Help us understand what we can do to help our children

• Utilise some of the repetition and things we do in our culture within the teaching

• Help us with home learning to understand what we need to do to help at home

• Utilise some of our language in teaching and music

• Have the children write about their culture

• Know our children as people and learners

• Use the language when you are learning about topics

• Understand more about our culture

• Pronounce names correctly and utilise the language when possible

• Have events that celebrate our culture

Pasifika Community Goals and Aspirations:

• For all teachers to have the highest expectations for Pasifika students.

• Our community do not want At Standard to be the goal or to be considered as a mark of success. The goal must be to achieve Above Standard.

• To celebrate each Pasifika Language week.

  • Samoa - Sunday 28 May – Saturday 3 June

  • Cook Islands - Sunday 30 July – Saturday 5 August

  • Tonga - Sunday 3 September – Saturday 9 September

  • Tuvalu - Sunday 1 October – Saturday 7 October

  • Fiji - Sunday 8 October – Sunday 14 October

  • Niue - Sunday 15 October – Saturday 21 October

  • Tokelau - Sunday 29 October – Saturday 4 November

• Teachers to be really proactive in promoting each language week.

• School to invite parent get-togethers in the lead up to Language Weeks.

  • Give plenty of warning

  • Involve food - a Pot Luck Dinner would work well

  • Ensure parent plans coming out of this are managed and manageable.

  • Ensure it doesn't become a competition between cultures to do the most in the week.

  • Ensure smaller cultures are equally valued and not overwhelmed.

  • Matua Aaron to act as school liaison person for these pre Language Week gatherings.

• Teachers to include art work and language representative of each Pasifika culture in their classroom at times throughout the year.

• Teachers to encourage children to contribute and respond publicly in simple ways in their own language - so that classmates are exposed to language and children take pride and ownership of their language and culture.

• Either in each Language week or at other times, have a focus on each of the Pasifika Islands - for example via a theme as the island as a travel destination. Build language, maths, social studies, science, art, drama all into the study. Engage children - and community - as experts.

• Through the above method and others, ensure children have a core understanding of Pasifika culture and a core knowledge of Pasifika in general - where the islands are in relation to the rest of Oceania, currencies, capitals etc

• Move from speeches to stories - children to share personal, cultural and/or mythical stories and legends from their culture and their past as an alternative to formal speech competitions.

• Teachers to provide lots of opportunities for children to work in groups. Groups are where Pasifika children feel safe to contribute, participate and engage. It is their safe base for learning.

• Teachers to provide lots of Hands-On learning opportunities for children. It is how Pasifika children are engaged and stay engaged.

• Teachers to rotate their teaching style. Take an approach and apply it for 20 minutes then change. Pasifika children do not like to sit for an hour with no change, activity etc.

• Teachers to include opportunities to move and learn and to sing and learn. Pasifika children enjoy learning through song and singing.

• School to make real effort to employ or engage Pasifika people as

  • Parent Helpers

  • Reading Tutors

  • ESOL Support

  • Teacher Aides

  • Teaching Staff - if they are the best person for the position

A number of parents expressed strong support for the Walker Learning Approach and expressed their hope it will support Oracy and Oral Language opportunities for their children.

This was because they felt concern that their pre-school and junior school children were not communicative in either English or their first language. They identified the struggle to get their children to talk as an issue they would appreciate support with.

Questions - Ideas - Suggestions:

• Bring in Pasifika Mentors to talk to, interact with, inspire and encourage our Pasifika students.

  • University Doctors such as those who attended Alesana's Graduation from Samoan Language Nest

  • Successful parents such as Sala Senibulu and Eroni Clark