Schools Don’t Change Unless the Principal Does - Mike Lander, Principal South Thames School, Sabbatical report

Māori and Pasifika largely make up the left hand hemisphere of the bell curve despite all our efforts and ministry focus. In this sabbatical report Mike Lander, Principal South Thames School, discusses his response to the following questions.
 
Is that the way it needs to always be?
 
Do Māori and Pasifika deserve to occupy these bottom rungs of the ladder? Some say that someone has to but others would say that our system appears to do it deliberately otherwise our statistics would, by now, look a lot different.
 
What can schools really do to have, especially Māori, feature properly on both sides of this infamous curve of academic distribution?
 

Mike Lander spent his sabbatical year looking at what other schools have been doing and hearing what Māori in the system believe is the answer.

Mike’s report includes his questionnaire that specifically targeted Māori Educationalists i.e. Māori Teachers and Resource Teachers Māori, to gauge their view on what they thought was the best scenario for Māori.

Questions/Things to think about

In his report Mike challenges Principals to reflect on the questions he has posed and seeks action to change the statistics.

1. Where you stand in this debate?
2. Is it fair that Māori and Pasifika largely make up the left hand hemisphere of the bell curve?
3. Should it always to be like this?
4. What are you doing about it?