NZAIMS LEADERS CONFERENCE PROGRAMME
Breakthrough Leaders: Excellence in the Middle Years of Schooling
9-11 JUNE 2021 Grand Millennium, Auckland
Melinda Bennett ( Murrays Bay Intermediate)
Leading major pedagogical shifts when coming in as a new principal
After developing an aspirational kaupapa statement we had 6 inquiry groups that spent a year researching, problem solving and developing recommendations for our school moving forward – this has became our 5 year strategic plan and in 2020 we will be up to year 2!
During this problem solving work – I undertook masters research about a leaders’ ability to problem solve in groups. I’m happy to share the learnings of that research as it’s incredibly relevant to collaborative teaching as inquiry. ICSEI enjoyed it! I hope other leaders would too!
Iain Taylor (Manurewa Intermediate)
Having won a major Educational Award, how do you maintain the momentum after being recognised?
Jonathan Hughes (Pasadena Intermediate)
Driving teaching and learning after taking on a school that had a major drop in roll.
Luke Sumich (Leader of Learning, Ormiston Junior College)
We have prioritised the delivery of the essence of the NZC. Established a set of skills and knowledge that is essential to exhibit as well as learn. We developed this into a peer, teacher and self assessment with students. We have a set of digital badges which come from the NZC, each with criteria. Children are asked to provide evidence they can and have met this criteria. The badges reflect the social, emotional and academic spheres as well as key competencies. It’s all tied up in a neat bundle. Spoiler alert, it’s always in development and likely to change (batteries not included).
TRANSFORMING A LIFE OF CRIME INTO A LIFE OF PROMISE
Founded in 2014 by fashion designer and entrepreneur Annah Stretton, RAW was set up to help break New Zealand’s ever-growing cycle of intergenerational offending, educational underachievement, persistent poverty and violence for a group of disadvantaged women. Through inclusion, community and opportunity, RAW is building hope, purpose and prosperity one woman at a time. We are creating mana wahine.
Creating a Thriving Collaborative Culture in Your School
The success of any forward momentum in a school is dependant on the combined effort of those involved. Creating a culture where educators work together to create progress is full of challenges and also opportunities. It moves us up beyond simply cooperating together to collaborating authentically to strengthen and transform teaching and learning.
Collaborative professionalism and collective efficacy as approaches, are built from a strong evidence base. Yet it is not easy to create a culture of deep collegiate learning and co-creation, where all educators see themselves as collective change agents. Complacency, pockets of discontent and disconnection, mistrust and ‘emotional baggage’ can derail our efforts.
Focussing on the human factor of the school is the key to creating a deep learning culture. Systems and strategic approaches are also vital, yet without the beliefs and behaviours of those in influence creating an environment of psychological safety for practice to shift, we will always be fighting to get people to come out of their comfort zones to learn new ways of working.
This keynote will draw from the latest findings in the neuroscience of trust and leadership and her experience in this space of over a decade. Tracey’s keynotes will look at the pivotal role of trust and connectedness in enabling deep learning cultures. It will focus on key pillar of mindset, environment and dialogue, and ways that leaders can help build this culture through their conversations and actions.
Melanie uses a narrative approach drawing from her experiences as a student, mother and twenty plus years as an educator to highlight examples of practice that promote Māori student engagement and achievement.
Dr Melanie Riwai-Couch is the Kaihautū Māori (Senior Māori Manager) and an education consultant for Evaluation Associates Ltd. She is also a lecturer in the Indigenous Education Masters programme for Blue Quills University in Alberta Canada.
Melanie has a significant profile in the education sector. She has presented at regional, national and international conferences about education, Māori education and improving outcomes for Māori learners. Melanie is an appointed member of the Ngārimu VC 28th Māori Battalion Scholarship Board and a member of the Competence Authority of the New Zealand Teaching Council | Matatū Aotearoa.
Breakthrough Leaders are Cultural Advocates
This presentation will propose that building from success in the past is an influential factor of strong leadership in the present.
Theorists argue that culturally-responsive educational leaders need to acquire specific skills to work across communities and agencies, and contribute to a system that can transform the lives of Māori learners, and breakthrough to the realisation of Māori aspirations.
This presentation will begin by introducing four pillars of learning while critiquing a selection of noted leadership theories. It will progress to converting leadership theory into leadership practice in contemporary, challenging environments. Successful leadership requires craft and know-how, guile and grace. The challenge is to determine what these qualities look like and how they are manifested as school leaders prepare learners for an uncertain, globally-connected world.
Dr Angus Hikairo Macfarlane
Angus Macfarlane, Ngāti Whakaue, is Professor of Māori Research at the University of Canterbury. He has a prolific publication portfolio and has received national awards for his extensive academic achievements and contributions to Māori education. His research explores cultural concepts and strategies that influence professional practice.
FEROCIOUS WARMTH – Connecting Heads and Hearts to Transform Education
The balance of the high performing school leader is a daily tight rope walk. Tracey has been studying high performing leaders over the last 15 years in her work. Her latest research and observation has been focussed on leaders who are able to display both a ferocious commitment to students, learning, growth and outcomes while balancing that with the compassion and nurturing that bring people with them on the journey. These leaders build strong trust and psychological safety, as well as creating cultures with high expectations of learning and achievement.
This keynote will explore the challenges of the balancing act between people and purpose and how to integrate them together to effect transformation and change.
- Explicit, yet empowering
- Strategic, yet people focussed
- Challenging, yet providing psychological safety
- Clear direction, yet open to co-creation
- Compassionate, yet with high expectations
- Courageous, yet vulnerable
- Open to influence, yet with purposeful intent
- Focussed, yet open to ambiguity and flexibility
As technological developments and globalisation have increased, so has the degree of connectedness between our systems. While this provides many benefits, it has also served to amplify the complexity of the environments in which we all operate.
The challenges that exist in 2020 cannot be addressed through the action of uncoordinated individuals. Furthermore, we desperately need our citizens to develop the capacity to move beyond co-operation and towards deep collaboration. This will require them to be comfortable exploring diverse perspectives as well as debating and arguing rather than prematurely reaching consensus or becoming increasingly polarised. Examples of such challenges include climate change, inequality and more recently Covid-19.
In this talk, Chris will provide examples of ways he is working with school leaders, teachers and students (as well as groups outside of the education sector). These examples will demonstrate approaches to pedagogy and collaboration that can help any team (leaders, teachers or kids) develop capabilities that will help them to maximise the potential of diversity as they build collective intelligence and make better decisions together. This will include some consideration of the metaphors that underpin our approaches. Is the best way to focus on catering to the needs of “individual clients” or act in ways that support a prospering ecosystem?
Chris has spent his entire career helping teams maximise their collective potential to create and test new ideas. In 2015 he founded Education Unleashed to support organisations to be more inclusive as they seek to innovate and look to the future.
His work in education involved pioneering new approaches to support large online groups as they shared insights to build knowledge collaboratively. This work was recognised in 2011 when Chris was named International Innovative Educator of the year by Microsoft, ahead of over 200,000 other nominees.
