Interventions: Part 2

Introducing multilingual visuals, cultural practices, and inclusive resources is only the first step in the implementation their impact is just as important. In our school, we do this through a combination of classroom observations, participation tracking, and teacher feedback. Observations from team leaders help us see how students engage with visuals, Te Reo Māori, and New Zealand Sign Language, while tracking participation shows who is involved and who might need a little extra support and if they are valuable to learning.

Teacher feedback plays a key role too. Our staff are encouraged share what strategies are working well and highlight any challenges they notice, giving us a clear picture of what’s effective in real classroom settings. This will be more present and the end of the year when another survey is sent out. 

To keep everything fresh and meaningful, I have tried to review our resources and routines, ensuring materials remain accessible and engaging for learners. Reflective meetings and brief reports help us celebrate successes, address any gaps, and plan next steps. This ongoing process ensures that our focus on cultural capabilities isn’t just a one-off initiative or tokenistic, it's a sustainable, evolving part of school life. 

We will see how this goes and I will make adjustments if needed as the year progresses.

Interventions: Part 1

From the information gathered and my existing knowledge, I decided to make the intervention slow and gradual throughout the whole year to best support both teachers and learners. We already had resources and activities in place to support teachers during various language weeks, and these were expanded each year. While this created a sense of confidence during those weeks, it did not provide enough support throughout the rest of the year. So what could we do about this.....

Firstly, myself along with Speech and langauge therapists supplied teachers and classes with multilingual visuals that included English, Te Reo Māori, and New Zealand Sign Language, using the same symbols as our coreboards. This provided a clear and consistent starting point for teachers and learners. It helped create a cohesive environment where, even if you were not confident in Te Reo or sign language, you could refer to the visuals as guidance. This was particularly valuable for new teachers at Sommerville.

Secondly, we re-established a school Kapa Haka group for learners to join. There were no specific requirements to participate, and we have seen how much the learners enjoy it. It has also provided teachers with exposure to different cultures and encouraged collaboration between classes. This year marks the first combined special school cultural festival, in which the kapa haka group will perform. This supports cultural capabilites along with collaboration. In line with this, the learning languages team, which I led this year, created a school karakia. We collaborated with Ngāti Paoa to ensure an accurate translation in Te Reo Māori that reflected our school. The karakia was shared with teachers alongside a waiata, this was put to music so that the whole school could begin learning it together.

Lastly, we hold a whole school cultural festival each year. While this is not a new initiative, it remains an important way of celebrating all cultures in our school and fostering an inclusive environment.

All resources provided to staff have been stored in the shared drive for easy access and ongoing support. These resources will continue to grow as new materials are developed. Having a central bank of resources is particularly helpful for our teachers, allowing them to revisit materials whenever they need additional support.

Causal Chain

 

My causal chain focus on the thought process behind creating my inquiry focus and what my interventions are going to be.  

What is the literature saying. ….

During my research I focused on the book “Teaching to the North East” by Russell Bishop. This book was mesmerising. It completely changed my viewpoint on education and made me have so many questions. Why is it that there are still toxic environments in education where students face marginalisation every day? Even though we are getting better there is still a huge gap in education. 

In Teaching to the North-East, Russell Bishop challenges educators to move away from deficit thinking that views the languages, cultural perspectives, and prior knowledge of marginalised students as barriers to learning. Instead, he argues these should be celebrated and utilised as powerful assets in the classroom. Central to his approach is relational pedagogy, which emphasises that strong, caring relationships between teachers and students are not optional extras, but the very foundation of effective teaching. Bishop describes the “north-east quadrant” as the optimal space where teachers achieve both high relational engagement and high quality interactive pedagogy, resulting in meaningful and fair learning experiences for all. He encourages teachers to create classrooms that operate like extended families, where power is shared, students’ voices are legitimised, and learning is co-constructed around their lived experiences. Importantly, Bishop highlights the need for teachers to continually monitor the impact of their relationships and teaching practices, making responsive adjustments to ensure every student thrives (Bishop, R. (2019). Teaching to the North- East. NZCER Press).  

Without this we face segregation, students who do not want to come to school and whanau are disengaged. “All students have a cultural fund of knowledge” (2022, The Education Hub) in classrooms this is what should be used and celebrated. In a classroom there is no room for cultural assumptions. 

With this all in mind I have thought deeply about what intervention would be useful to our school and how to support not only teachers in the classroom but creating a sense of belonging for cultures at Sommerville.