Enabling children as writers
Introduction/Whakataki
20 June 2023
This best evidence in action exemplar provides a window into the transformative work of poet, Dr Selina Tusitala Marsh, working collaboratively with former principal, Liz Horgan, and staff and students at St Joseph’s School, Otahuhu.
In this video, senior staff explain the collaboration between the writing expert and the school staff:
“Teachers don’t often get a lot of opportunities to see something modelled in intensity with their own class. That’s a luxury. So, to see somebody who’s an expert writer working with children, and particularly in a genre such as poetry; that is enormous professional development for the teachers who are involved in the process.”
Principal Liz Horgan
“Often people have it in their heads that a writer is someone quite separate from their daily reality, so when I turn up in my red boots and my red tights, suddenly they’re like ‘aahh!…this is surprising and maybe this is something to do with me’.”
Dr Selina Tusitala Marsh