Te Kauhua

Three schools in the Te Kauhua initiative – Hillmorton, Lincoln, and Hornby High Schools - opted to cluster together for purposes of their research inquiry. They worked from a common research question, but tailored their inquiries to their individual school contexts. The cluster schools met regularly over the duration of the project, sharing findings and challenging one another’s practice and thinking. The following case study highlights the approaches and findings of Hillmorton High School. 

Lincoln High School investigates how, as part of a cluster arrangement, a school can foster the development of an effective professional learning community that is focused on teaching as inquiry and premised on three underpinning principles: ako (reciprocal learning), culture counts, and productive partnerships.

This story relays how Chisnallwood staff and students worked together, as part of their school review, to implement the New Zealand Curriculum, so that it would make a difference for Māori students and help them to succeed.

Responding to “demanding constituents” has been the catalyst for changes in teaching practice at Henderson Intermediate - changes achieved through a process of reflecting upon the evidence available and responding to student need.

As part of distributing the leadership and developing capability across the school, a programme of in-house mentoring was developed at Henderson Intermediate.

The action research approach that was adopted at Henderson Intermediate ensured adoption of the outcomes by staff and built confidence in their ability to find their own solutions for issues.

Evidence of successful approaches motivated a change in practices across the whole school.

Providing opportunities for student voice informed and encouraged changes in teacher practice.

Henderson Intemediate responded to whānau requests for reporting in a form that met their needs.

An idea from whānau became the basis of a successful intervention to tackle attendance issues.