Overview

The inquiry involved teachers in learning about neuroscience, social and emotional competence and play-based learning and about connections between their curriculum documents and how the curriculum was enacted in their three settings. Close observation was used to understand and plan for individual children, including a structured observation tool called the Boxall Profile. Teachers in the schools became more practised in play-based learning and, in all settings, teachers looked for how early literacy and numeracy might be fostered through utilising opportunities that arose naturally out of children’s interests. Reporting became more focused upon values and dispositions. Parents and whānau were invited to consider delaying transition, where appropriate, until their children were developmentally ready. Other changes included transition visits, to and from kindergarten.

We had previously seen an increase in the number of children becoming switched off to learning, when we wanted the children to see themselves as successful learners and be excited about coming to school. There has been a huge shift over the last year, where our students that were once disengaged, have become confident and more willing to take risks. They are losing the fear of getting it wrong and now understand that learning is about giving it a go and, if you don’t get it right, that is okay. We have many parents and grandparents giving us feedback, saying how excited their children are to come to school and many are wanting to come to school even on the weekends.

Sandspit Road new entrant teachers

The team found commonalities between their curricula. When children’s individual development is more deeply understood, both Te Whāriki and The New Zealand Curriculum provide a platform for developing holistic curricula that attend to social and emotional development alongside other learning priorities. As teachers grow in their own professional knowledge, parents and whānau can feel greater trust in recommendations about when their children are ready to transition and how they can be supported. Smoothing the transition in these ways results in happier, more settled children who are ready to learn.

The inquiry story

This inquiry involved four teachers at Waiuku Kindergarten and three teachers at View Road School and two teachers at Sandspit Road School. The three learning settings all belong to the same Kāhui Ako. The target children were those aged four years old on 1 August 2019. Of these, seven transitioned into View Road School during the project, and two into Sandspit School.

What was the focus?

In recent years, teachers at View Road and Sandspit Road School have noticed that an increasing percentage of their new entrants are not socially or emotionally ready for the transition. Some had difficulty in self-regulating and in expressing their emotions in appropriate ways. They did not have the social skills necessary to recognise social cues, work collaboratively, or follow instructions. They still needed to learn skills such as the ability to share resources and wait for their turn.

Learning stories from Waiuku Kindergarten demonstrated how social and emotional development was supported for 4–6-year-olds through play-based learning. Yet the kindergarten teachers were also noticing increasing numbers of children with challenging behaviour difficulties. The teachers in all three settings decided to inquire into how they could change their practice to provide greater continuity and support for children in their transition from early learning to primary school. They hypothesised that such support needed to be tailored, not to children’s chronological age, but to their developmental stage. It would require them to establish greater continuity in the curriculum experienced across sectors.

The team developed the following innovation statement:

We would like to know whether creating a local curriculum by improving teacher capability and developing a shared understanding of the principles and strands in Te Whāriki and the key competencies in the New Zealand Curriculum will have a positive impact on the social and emotional competencies of all of our 4–6-year-olds as they transition from ECE to Primary School.

What did the teachers try?

Teachers from the three settings explored links between the principles in Te Whāriki and the key competencies in the New Zealand Curriculum, focusing on social and emotional wellbeing. They then visited each other to observe what this looked like in practice.

The primary school and kindergarten teachers felt shocked at how little they knew of each other’s curricula. The primary school teachers were struck by the very homely and welcoming environment at Waiuku Kindergarten and the sense of manaakitanga. They could see how the open-ended activities and free choice encouraged children to explore different concepts and their own passions and interests. They observed how the kindergarten teachers encouraged children to develop their independence, look out for one another, and manage their own belongings. These teachers were in the early stages of setting up play-based learning at their schools and were encouraged to borrow ideas from the kindergarten. All the teachers attended workshops and conferences and read a great deal of professional literature about emotional regulation, play-based learning and neuroscience.

Observations were very important to the project. All children were closely observed and learning stories written about them. These proved very useful when the team introduced the Boxall Profile.

The Boxall Profile is a structured observation tool designed to assess and track children and young people's social, emotional, and behavioural development. It consists of a two-part checklist that generates scores that are then automatically compared to ‘competently functioning’ peers. It helps teachers understand the emotional challenges that can lie behind difficult behaviour and provides information that can be used to plan an intervention. For example, a child who has missed out on nurture may need those needs to be addressed before they can succeed at school. The Profile needs to be completed by people who have a strong relationship with the child and know how they react in a variety of different situations and learning activities.

The project team chose to use the Boxall Profile as part of their shift to a ‘stage not age’ philosophy. They completed Boxall Profiles for all children. The initial data was anonymised and used to get a picture of strengths and needs across all children. Shared areas of weakness were in “accommodates to others” and “self-negating”, both of which had over 50% of children falling well outside of the norm. Beyond that, there were differences in the picture for each setting, and so they tracked data separately. The children who moved from Waiuku Kindergarten to the two schools were also closely monitored.

What happened as a result of this innovation?

The teachers at both primary schools changed their programmes, moving away from traditional reading, writing, and maths lessons to giving their students authentic play-based experiences to develop social skills. Their understanding of what play-based learning looks like is developing and evolving, but in both settings, there is an emphasis on setting up provocations around themes that have arisen from student interest. Teachers are explicitly teaching children learning dispositions, such as the value of taking risks, and they are putting in place the emotional support children need.

Teachers at both schools also changed their reporting format, focusing more on the key competencies and less on reading, writing, and mathematics. They are including more student voices, and at View Road School, Seesaw is being used to provide real-time information and feedback to whānau.

The kindergarten teachers have developed more tailored responses to individual children’s needs. Each child has an individual learning plan that includes a focus on social or emotional development and are developed in consultation with parents as much as possible. The teachers write learning stories with a social-emotional lens that attends to pro-social traits, emotional development, and dispositional learning. They use what they observe, and the knowledge gained from professional learning, to work closely with parents and suggest guidance and strategies that will help them and their child at home. They reviewed their positive guidance policy, identified established practices that promote social and emotional competence, and included specific strategies to support heightened emotions, coach social competence, and nurture emotional well-being.

Teachers across the three settings are developing a shared language, both in relationship to the curriculum and in the phrases used to foster social-emotional learning (such as “using kind hands and kind words”).

Parents and whānau are being encouraged to consider delaying the transition to school until their children are socially and emotionally ready. For the most part, they take teachers’ advice. Parents and whānau know about the TLIF inquiry and that the teachers have been collaborating across settings and in their learning about neuroscience, and they understand that the teachers know their children well and want the best for them. This seems to have created more trusting relationships.

Visits from kindergarten to school and by new entrants back to kindergarten were used to prepare four-year-olds for the new environment and maintain whanaungatanga relationships. These were suspended during the lockdowns. However, the lockdowns also proved an opportunity for teachers at both schools to share with parents and whānau the value of play-based learning and to notice the natural learning opportunities that can arise from play.

Close observation and whānau feedback indicate positive outcomes in all three settings. For example, children are increasingly able to verbalise and manage their feelings. Some kindergarten children use deep breathing exercises to calm themselves when conflicts arise or if they get anxious or upset. Children are transitioning much more smoothly, with far fewer social and emotional issues. Of the nine children who were closely tracked in their transition to school, only one dropped their Boxall scores significantly after a month at school. This had been expected, as this child was extremely shy. With the right support in place, her score soon recovered. The other eight children all improved, making steady progress in both developmental and diagnostic scores.

What did they learn?

The initial idea of developing a local curriculum that made explicit links between Te Whāriki and the New Zealand Curriculum did not seem so important when schoolteachers turned the spotlight more powerfully on the curriculum’s principles, values, and competencies and how these can be developed through play-based learning. The two curricula and their visions do align, and both are already designed to support holistic development. However, assessment needs to include a deliberate focus on social and emotional development and wellbeing. The schools and kindergarten are now increasingly interested in designing a local curriculum in collaboration with the local iwi.

Inquiry team

This project was led by Amy Charles (View Road School). The other members of the inquiry team were Kara Foster and Deb Rei (View Road School); Julie Steele and Kelly Wisnewski (Sandspit Road School); and Lindy Ashurst, Leanne Hastings, Tessa Albyt, and Elaine Smith (Waiuku Kindergarten).

Jeanette Clarkin-Phillips (University of Waikato) was the project’s critical friend.

Additional support was accessed from another expert, Nathan Wallis (neuroscience educator)

For further information

If you would like to learn more about this project, please contact the project leader, Amy Charles, at acharles@viewroad.school.nz

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