Locally-led learning initiative Round 1, 2021 FINAL REPORT Written by Mark Searle Describe your initiative What were the aims of (what was it? when and where did it take the initiative? place? what was the format? Who the intended audience was? what was the content?) Increase teacher capability and knowledge of Traditional Maori Traditional Māori games festival for Year games and give them the 5 to 8 students. confidence to deliver these games within their own kura The event was split into two divisions. Provide leadership opportunity Year 5 & 6 and Year 7 & 8. Each division for Year 9 & 10 students to coach had 8 schools attending. Some schools Primary and Intermediate aged were full primarys and were involved in pupils both. All students were placed in mixed Provide opportunity for teachers school teams to promote to network and engage with whanaungatanga and cross school teachers from across the region relationships. In total there were just Support well being of tamariki under 200 students from 12 schools on and develop Whanaungatanga the day. through provision of mixed school teams Build links between Year 9 & 10 students from Hato Pāora primary, intermediate, colleges, college were trained up in the games and community organisations. prior to the day. Games included Horo Hopu, Tī Uru, Tapu Ae, Matau Maui, Whano whano, Matimati, Were the initiative objectives & Ki O Rahi. They acted as student achieved? (ie did you achieve what coaches on the day working in groups of you set out to?) 2 or 3 with two teams at a time. Yes On Tuesday the 11th of May the event was held at Whakarongo School. Following the opening and welcome the morning session involved teams rotating How long did the initiative run for? around learning all the games with the (from start of the planning to now - exception of Ki O Rahi. In the afternoon the report writing) the Hato Pāora students did a demonstration of Ki O Rahi before teams 3rd February 2021 through to May got to have a go themselves. Lunch was 15th 2021 provided to all participants and volunteers on the day. Thanks to the funding provided by PENZ. Provide summary of your initiative's outcomes Increase teacher capability and knowledge Provide leadership opportunity for Year 9 & 10 students to coach primary and intermediate aged pupils. Stacey Lambert (HOD PE at Hato Pāora) commented that it has been an extremely valuable opportunity for his students. Their growth on the day was evident and their confidence and ability grew. He would now incorporate the games into his Health and PE program at the college so that they will be well known to all students so that training isn’t required again next year. The new Year 9’s coming in next year will be able to help with the event alongside this year's Year 9’s. This will make the initiative sustainable. Provide opportunity for teachers to network and engage with teachers from across the region, Teachers loved having the opportunity to float between games to observe and engage with other teachers during the event. Support well being of tamariki and develop Whanaungatanga through provision of mixed school teams. Teachers' responses towards this concept were extremely supportive as it removed the competitive element of school vs school. All students were engaged and enjoying the day. “Lastly, the mixing up of our schools. This creates banter, new relationships, Whanaungatanga and a safe space for some of our more anxious students to open up and see it was all ok” Build links between primary, intermediate, colleges, and community organisations Schools involved were from Palmerston North, Feilding, Shannon and Dannevirke. All that responded enjoyed getting to know each other and indicated they would be interested in further events based around Māori games. The relationship built with Hato Pāora college will help make this sustainable as an annual event. Including members of Rangitāne Iwi who provided equipment on the day was positive. They also have the capacity to provided support to schools who would like further support or staff development in schools. Describe the highlights Describe any during the initiative difficulties you had The positive responses from all involved, and how you managed Teachers, Students, & Whanau. Everyone them. who we spoke to was very supportive and looking forward to returning to their Kura to pass on their learning to other We had one behaviour incident on students. The interaction between the the day of the event, but this was Hato Pāora students and the participants. dealt with quickly by the teachers of It was awesome to seem them all the schools involved. The biggest smiling, having fun, joining in with the risk to the event was weather. Which games and being great role models to is always hard to predict in the the younger students. middle terms. Fortunately we had a beautiful day. What your major take What would you do away points or differently next time? discoveries in doing this work? The rotations were 30 minutes long for each session. This was probably a bit too long but was hard to judge There is significant interest in inter ahead of the event with this being school events that do not have a the first time it was held. Next time competitive focus. Allowing students we would trim them down to 20 or to take part who may not normally 25 minutes. attend inter school events. The mixed teams created a safe space for Other feedback was to have a coffee more anxious students to open up cart onsite for parents as well. and see it was ok. Our tamariki came back buzzing about the day. The day was a huge success and our learners They thoroughly enjoyed themselves thoroughly enjoyed themselves! and can't wait to share what they have learned with others. The day provided a fantastic opportunity to celebrate Māori culture as well as providing an Our tamariki mentioned the values of unity, opportunity to improve whanaungatanga and confidence and courage used during activities. collaboration between schools. (LE-E) (SM) Number of volunteers 180 involved in planning and students from Years 5 to 8 running this initiative 20 Year 9 & 10 students acting as student coaches 2 representatives from Rangitāne 20 2 parents from Whakarongo school Year 9 & 10 students from who ran the BBQ Hato Pāora 16 teachers from schools involved 120 volunteer hours Number of workshops or (5 hours per person on the presentation sessions offered day of the initiative0 in this initiative 40 sessions across the day providing students and teachers the opportunity to learn all the games as part of the Total cost $964 rotation. of survey respondents* agreed that the the event has given them the confidence and knowledge to teach the games in 100% their own kura. (* 9 of the 13 participating schools) Initiative organiser Mark Searle [email protected].