Powerful partnerships for learning

Heretaunga Ararau, Heretaunga Haūku nui, Heretaunga Haaro o Te Kaahu, Heretaunga Takoto Noa, Heretaunga Raorao Haumako.^[1]

Tim White explains how they developed a range and depth of relationships/partnerships with whanau, hapu and iwi to breathe life into their efforts to give effect to Tiriti o Waitangi. The school had a strong and committed Whānau Kāhui Māori group which was the basis for day-to-day direction and support.

For Frimley Primary School, the new connection to Houngarea Marae and the relationship with Charles Ropitini was a game changer, supporting the learning of kaiako and ākonga and shifting hearts and minds. A range of community supporters including the school’s Kaumātua (Hawira Hape) and Dr James Graeme, who advised on Ngāti Kahungunu tauparapara or whakatauki,^[2] had regular catchups at school and events.

The strategic partnership with Ngāti Kahungunu Iwi Incorporated was foundational. Ongoing advice from Tawehi Munro, Strategic Advisor, Māori, Hawkes Bay, to accelerate Māori educational achievement and promote Māori identity, language and culture informed each step of the way.

Wānanga and frequent local marae visits connected kaiako and ākonga to their community.

Transformative Māori leadership

Tim White afforded priority to appointing Māori leadership to bring expertise, co-lead and enable change.

Ngahina Transom, now Principal of Frimley Primary School, was appointed by Tim White as Tumuaki Tuarua, Deputy Principal in 2018. Ngahina brought early Iwi-centric tertiary teacher training through Rangakura to her leadership. She describes the Frimley journey as: ‘equity in action – whangaia ka tupu ka puāwai, poipoia te kākano kia puāwai – that which is nurtured blossoms and grows’.

‘Everything that we do is underpinned by our four values. Rangatiratanga being about your own self-efficacy. What does that look like for me as a learner?…everybody is a learner, so all teachers, all of us in the kura are learners: whānau, kaiako, tamariki – we're all equal. We're all learning together. We're all vulnerable. We share our successes.’

‘We share our highlights, and we share our challenges so that we can work together as a whānau, through Whanaungatanga, to support each other with the solutions for our learning.’

‘Kaitiakitanga being about making links to takoto noa, the imprint that I'm going to leave when I leave this place of learning. What is my legacy I'm going to leave behind? And we do this in a mana-enhancing way through Manaakitanga.’

Ngahina Transom explains the shift of Teacher Only Days to be held at a noho marae ‘so they come, live, breathe, see, hear and feel our Reo and Tikanga being upheld’.

Ngahina Transom also experienced the Poutama Pounamu Blended Learning as critical to enabling and nurturing the change underway:

‘It was nowhere the same as any other professional learning that I’ve ever been part of in a kura. To bring a big staff together to be able to unpack and really think about what does this mean for me as a learner? What does this mean for me as a whānau member? The impact…was way larger than being a teacher at Frimley School…’

Staff explain the leadership partnership between Deputy Principal Ngahina Transom and Principal Tim White.

‘Tim and Ngahina were a really solid leadership pair…Tim definitely had that strategic side of the school…the big picture and the long-term plan…and Hina had this beautiful mātauranga lens on everything…through the whānau, the community, and how that looked in the te Ao Māori world as well, so we were lucky to have both parts.’

Kath Winnie, Frimley Primary School, Learning Community Leader

‘They led by example. Tim led by feeling the fear and doing it anyway, giving it a go, always being the one who would step up and be pushing himself…Hina was always there to support us, is still (as Principal in 2023) there to support us in an ongoing way, and understands that we’re all on different paths in our journey, and we are all as teachers doing the best we can, but the support was there and the structure was there to help us, just a little bit by little bit.’

Tessa Arcus, Frimley Primary School, Learning Community Leader

Connection to community

In 2020, Principal Tim White reflected on the changes becoming evident through their Whānau Māori Hui. Whānau were inspired by the new learning and excitement of their tamariki.

Whānau were practising their own pepeha making connections to Kahungunu or their own maunga and awa. Teachers were learning from the knowledge that tamariki were sharing.

‘We’re starting to see the journey we were going on with teachers when it first began to ripple out to our students, ripple out to their whānau, then finally wider into the community.’

Growing identity through language: Te Reo Māori

The following video shares the reflections of Frimley Primary School staff about how their Te Reo Māori journey opened up Te Ao Māori. Staff reflect on the challenges, their blossoming connections, relationships, and reciprocity with tamariki, whānau and each other.

A shared strategic goal was the development of Te Reo Māori within the school to contribute to, in Ngahina Transom’s words:

‘That real high level transformation teachers were going through.’

Tim White explains:

‘If we don’t protect our teachers’ space and their time to focus on becoming more culturally responsive; if we don’t value Te Reo as really important, then we’re losing an opportunity.’

The teachers meet together once a week before school to develop their Te Reo Māori. Each teacher takes turns in leading parts of the sessions. The whole staff also join together at a morning tea break for local waiata. As their Te Reo Māori developed several teachers undertook local Ngāti Kahungunu Te Aho o Te Reo and other tertiary courses and qualifications in Te Reo Māori.

Setting up for success

Frimley Primary School staff gave priority to manaakitanga and whanaungatanga to ensure the wellbeing of ākonga and to set the younger children up for success. In this video, teacher Tania Henare, now Deputy Principal, explains her priority for the children’s mana, wellbeing and sense of belonging.

In 2019, Tania responded to need when she noticed that tamariki were coming to school hungry. She approached the local supermarket for sponsorship. She then set about making access to food a part of the curriculum in a way that supported the children’s language, wellbeing and their mana.

Tania explains how the pedagogy enables the children to live the school values.

Securing a place-based curriculum

‘A school can have a local curriculum but still not have a place-based curriculum that is grounded in the place you live and the people that came before.’

Tim White, Principal

A place-based curriculum has been developed by Frimley Primary School through consultation with Ngāti Kahungunu Iwi Incorporated.^[3] This place-based curriculum, connecting tamariki with their hapū and iwi, is generating success at Frimley Primary School, growing confident students whose achievements are grounded in cultural identity.

The school Pou -Te Wao Tapu Nui - forms a physical and spiritual link with mana whenua. Tim White explains:

‘My journey and our school’s journey are illustrated by the journey of that Pou becoming central to our kura.’

The places, the personalities and the stories of Ngāti Kahungunu are evident across the curriculum in the learning of children at Frimley Primary School. This video describes how this process is scaffolded for both teachers and learners.

Footnotes

1. The school learning community names draw from a Ngāti Kahungunu Tauparapara. Frimley School - Our learning communities and spaces.
2. Hastings District Council Action Plan provided opportunities ‘to celebrate te reo Māori me ōna tikanga Māori and support the revitalisation of the language’.
3. https://www.frimley.school.nz/LEARN-MORE-1/OUR-PLACE-BASED-CURRICULUM-1