Transcript
Narration
The question for those schools and teachers who have undertaken sustained professional development is: Has it improved learning outcomes for Māori students?
Tony Renshaw – Teacher Rotorua Lakes High School
The classroom’s become a lot nicer place to be. The kids seem a lot happier and I hope that their achievement levels will go up. So there's a lot more job satisfaction.
Brian Hinchco – Principal Mokoia Intermediate School
There seems to be a change. Our PAT results and reading show good reading development occurring. Our maths results show significant improvement in Māori student achievement.
Vee Singh – Principal Pakaraka School
I see fantastic... fantastic learning culture with the children. I see extremely dedicated and passionate teachers, and I think... you marry those two together and you've got a great recipe for a successful school.
Trisha Turner – Teacher Rotorua Lakes High School
One of the things that I've really enjoyed is that you’re not alone in the classroom anymore. And I think that was a major problem – we shut our doors and that was it, you were on your own with 30 plus students. But now you are not – you’re with 30 other teachers who are learners as well.
John Eis - Principal Rotorua Lakes High School
It’s really just the start of a journey I suppose, and the journey will never end for sure, because people are always changing inside this institution. There will always be that need to retrain new people who come into the school. There will also be new students coming into the school, there will be new parents that we have to communicate with.
Russell Bishop – School of Education, Waikato University
The heart of it though, of course, is the thinking of teachers. It’s where do they position themselves vis-a-vis Māori children? If they see Māori children as having more problems than solutions, not being able to make it in mainstream schools nowadays – then that in itself creates a self-fulfilling prophecy. That is not to say that we are then turning around and blaming teachers. Because the vast majority of teachers really want to make a difference for Māori children. And we know that. All the teachers that we have worked with who have repositioned themselves can make a difference. We end up with some very happy teachers, some very happy parents, and some very happy kids
Students
The kind of teachers that I think are going to help me in the future are the ones that help me as an individual and help me to reach my goal.
And they kind of just ask what you want, for the future and oh yep, I want it now.