Partnership actions: What to use
This section discusses four resources that you may find helpful for building educationally powerful partnerships in your school context.
Reading Together
Reading Together is a joint home–school intervention targeted at raising literacy.
The authors of the Family and Community Influences BES (Biddulph et al., 2003) developed this programme. which has proved effective in raising children’s reading achievement while supporting greater collaboration between home and school. It involves four workshops for parents that are delivered by teachers.
In 2010, the Ministry of Education began co-ordinating a scale up of the programme across decile 1–3 schools.
Reading Together is discussed on pages 162–164 of the School Leadership and Student Outcomes BES (Robinson, Hohepa, and Lloyd, 2009).
The authors report that the workshop leaders’ handbook is “a smart tool for leaders who want to forge cost-effective, school–home connections that will support children’s literacy development” (page 163).
Te Mana Kōrero is a series of professional development packages.
Te Mana Kōrero draws on the evidence that show what is working for Māori students, from programmes such as Te Kotahitanga and Te Kauhua
Three key learnings from Te Mana Kōrero are:
- Teachers making a difference
- Strengthening professional practice
- Relationships for learning.
Te Aho Arataki Marau mō te Ako i Te Reo Māori - Kura Auraki
Te Reo Māori in the New Zealand Curriculum – Curriculum Guidelines for Teaching and Learning Te Reo Māori in English-medium Schools: Years 1-13
Emphasises the importance of schools developing their te reo Māori programmes in partnership with Māori whānau, iwi, and communities (pages 29, 30) and offers clear, practical steps are suggested for how this could be done.
A personal vision for education – Graduate teacher trainee Turei Thompson’s thoughts about the education that is accessible to all.
Turei notes approaches to learning that have strong values and build on relationships with whānau, family, and community are key.
The clip could be used as a prompt for initiating discussion on your school community’s vision for student learning.
Questions might include:
- What are the values we want our children to be learning?
- Where does learning happen in our children’s lives?
- What kinds of contribution can communities make to children’s learning at school?
- How well do our school’s structures and processes support learning?