Mālō e lelei, Talofa lava, Taloha ni, Kia orana, Fakaalofa lahi atu, Namaste, Ni sa bula and warm Pacific greetings,
As Term 3 2023 comes to a close we celebrate the work of our Across School Leaders. They have worked tirelessly to facilitate and plan a variety of interactive activities and celebrations for staff and students.
This term we held our second Kāhui ako Māori Mass at Christ the King Church led by Pā Tipene. It was a wonderful celebration of Te Ao Māori and a fantastic way for ākonga and whānau to come together in unity, for prayer. ‘Waiho I te toipoto, kaua I te toirua.’
The ongoing Art and Speech competitions have been a huge success with more entries every time.
Work continues across our schools in the areas of Aotearoa NZ Histories Curriculum, Critical Literacy, Numeracy and Assessment.
Term 3 has been a term that has brought different challenges, especially around staff and student health and the difficulties that come along with this. Our teachers have worked tirelessly and as Catholic educators, we are constantly reminded of the need to continue to support each other and our own personal well-being.
We acknowledge all staff in Catholic schools who have stepped up and supported their colleagues. Each and every one of you deserves a restful, refreshing holiday break.
Stay safe, travel well and enjoy whānau time.
Nga manaakitanga katoa a te Atua
All God's Blessings
Carolynn Phillips and Michael Mullin
Lead Principals
Auckland Central Catholic Kāhui Ako
Integrated Social Science themes & Curriculum Mapping
Tracey Pacheco from Blend Learning has been working with 9 of our schools this year developing teacher capacity and capability within the Aotearoa NZ Histories curriculum. Schools have progressed their understanding of what a more integrated approach to curriculum could look like as they blended science and history or technology and social sciences throughout student inquiries. This integrated approach will continue to serve schools well as we transition from old curriculums to refreshed over the coming years.
In Term 4, schools engaging with Blend Learning will focus on curriculum mapping for 2024 using a local integrated curriculum approach. If your school is currently not working with Tracey and interested in curriculum mapping or delving into an integrated rich curriculum you can book a workshop with Blend Learning.
SLT at Marist Mt Albert engaging with integrated curriculum mapping
Kāhui Ako Transition Visits
This term included visitations to many of our Kāhui Ako primary schools. It was great to have our current Year 7 students be the guest speakers at their previous school where possible. The delightful welcome from both their former teachers and peers was well received. They shared their experiences in a college setting and spoke on these main areas -
Academics - subjects and options, homework,
School systems - whānau group, home-room set-up, timetable, Deans
Behaviour and expectations
Extra-curricular on offer
School events - athletics, special mass events, AIMS, socials, camps
It is fantastic to see how well the current Year 7 students have been able to settle into their new environment. They even shared some of their personal self-help tips that has worked for them such as -
Don’t be scared to ask questions.
Take two of your subject equipment if you have back-to-back lessons. Saves you time and it doesn’t disrupt another class using your home-room.
Give things a go!
If you lose your timetable, go to the school portal.
Pack your things the night before
We wish our Year 6 students all the best for the remainder of the year. Kia kaha!
ACCKA SAMOA MALAGA TAUTUA 2023
From 3rd – 11th July, 20 delegates across our Kāhui Ako set off on a very important mission of service. We spent our precious time with a chosen organisation SVSG - SAMOA VICTIM SUPPORT GROUP, alongside some wonderfully and beautifully made children, staff and volunteers. It was a time of deep reflection, making connections and life-long memories with one another. During our time there, we -
were given a tour of the place.
ran activities for the children - colouring in, sewing, playing board games, outdoor games, singing, talking and just ‘being’ with them.
took them on a beach excursion - which they absolutely loved!!
sang and performed to each other at the fiafia night - beautiful singing and dancing from the children
participated in cultural activities such as learning the art of ‘umu-making’
visited the main office and spent time with the staff understanding how the organisation works - bless them!
delivered and unpacked our donated resources to SVSG and to three other Primary schools across Samoa.
presented them our donation at the final dinner with the CEO and management team - thankyou to all our kāhui schools, sponsors and team families and friend who supported us.
A special mention to the travelling group for their participation from start to end. We certainly built a strong whanaungatanga with one another. We continue to do so through the ongoing fundraising for this organisation.
Mālō le galue. Mālō le limalima. Mālō le ‘a’ao solo.
Makerita Tagomoa-Papali’i (Trip Organiser).
ART and SPEECH LANGUAGE WEEK COMPETITIONS
COOK ISLANDS LANGUAGE WEEK (Sunday 30 July – Saturday 5 August)
This year’s theme for ‘Epetoma o te reo Māori Kūki ‘Āirani – Cook Islands Language Week is 'Ātuitui’ia au ki te au peu o tōku kāinga Ipukarea, which means, "connect me to the traditions & culture of my homeland".
Winner of the Years 5 and 6 category: Ayrestyn Leger (Good Shepherd School)
Judge’s comment: A lovely art piece full of colour that reflects the colourful and vibrant culture of the Cook Islands. The art piece looks exactly like an actual Tivaevae Blanket and represents a piece of actualism. A beautiful piece of art!
FILIPINO LANGUAGE DAY (Friday, 19 August)
Bilang filipino ay kailangan na gamitin ang sariling wika, para hindi makalimutan ang malalim na kultura at pinagmulan ng isang tao.
Ang wika ay mahalaga sa tao sapagkat ito ay parte ng ating buhay sa araw-araw.
Ginagamit natin ito para tayo ay magkaintindihan.
Ang iyong lenguwahe ay ang iyong katauhan na dapat mong ipagmalaki sa mundo at hindi ikahiya.
Ang iyong lenguwahe ang nagsasabi kung anong lahi ka nagmula.
Hindi sa lenguwahe ang batayan ng talino kundi puso at isip ng isang tao.
As a Filipino, it is necessary to use one's own language, so as not to forget one's deep culture and origins.
Language is important to humans because it is part of our daily life.
We use it to understand each other.
Your language is part of your identity that you show to the world and should be proud of, not ashamed.
Your language tells others where you come from.
Language is not the basis of intelligence but is in the heart and mind of a person.
Winner of the Years 3 and 4 category: Ashlene Agustin (St Dominic’s Primary)
Judge’s comment: This depicts the culture- banners stands for fiesta celebration and floral parades where different organisations will be joining. The Philippine flag showing, cross and the dove which depict religiosity and peace. The raft with the colours could depict the other Filipinos in the Mindanao religion. The shirt worn could be the 'kamisa de chino with a scarf' and the 'salakot' for the head for Filipino costumes. Overall, a beautiful representation of the celebration of Filipino culture.
Winner of the Years 5 and 6 category: Alessandra Agustin (St Dominic’s Primary)
Judge’s comment: This is a beautiful depiction of Filipino Identity, language and culture. As I look at it, the carrying of the nipa hut by people is called the 'bayanihan', which helps a family transfer a house to another location. We do this in the Philippines especially in the rural areas. We have the flag and a big drawing of the sun which has the 8 rays that represents the 8 provinces who revolted. The Rice terraces drawn is a " man made" ricefield where the Igorots (people from the Mr. province) plant rice. These rice terraces could be very very high. The guy wearing a hat or we call that 'salakot' and wearing a 'Barong Tagalog', The woman is wearing a" filipiniana dress " These are the traditional national costumes for men and women in the Philippines. The notes for me signifies their singing talent, that's why "Karaoke" is very popular in the Philippines. And the hands with the cross signifies that the Phil. Is Catholic. The notes for me could signify that the song being sung by the lady is the national anthem "Pambansang Awit ng Pilipinas." Overall the picture illustrates beautifully the culture and traditions of the Philippines.
TONGAN LANGUAGE WEEK (Sunday, 3 – 9 September)
The theme for Uike Lea Faka-Tonga 2023 is 'E tu'uloa 'a e Lea faka-Tongá 'o ka lea'aki 'i 'api, siasí (lotú), mo e nofo-'a-kāingá, which means the Tongan Language will be sustainable if used at home, church and in the wider community.
SPEECH RESULTS – Judged by Sylvia Liava’a
Blurb about the judge - Sylvia Tafuna-Liava’a- Senior Education Advisor at the Ministry of Education. I come from the villages of Kolomotu’a, Fua’amotu, Nukunuku, Folaha and Niuatoputapu. My husband is from the villages of Ha’avakatolo and Faleloa, Ha’apai.
Being a NZ born Tongan, I believe in the importance of
1) Embracing my Tongan Culture is so important to me. This helped me to navigate my way between the multi-identities as a NZ born Tongan growing in in a fast-growing multi-cultural Auckland.
2) Embracing my Lea Faka-Tonga language. This is the language of my ancestors whose shoulders I stand on today because they paved a pathway for their future generations to succeed not just in Moana nui a kiwa but beyond the vastness of our Pacific ocean.
I also embrace my Tongan language so that my children will grow up speaking the language of their ancestors and for their identities to be strongly embedded in a culture that they feel confident in navigating. I want them to belong and to feel like they belong. Tonga will always be home for us.
Judge’s comment: Malo e lelei Rosanne (Liu). I enjoyed watching you attempt to speak in Lea Faka-Tonga. I learned that you are of Tongan and Samoan decent-beautiful. I admired you tenacity to keep going … You spoke clearly and you had good camera/audience skills … Well done.
Judge’s comment: Malo 'etau lava kihe 'aho ni Melenaite. Malo 'aupito e lea lelei mo lea faka'ofo'ofa foki. It was a pleasure to listening and watch your speech. I loved that you were able to use 100% Lea Faka-Tonga. Malo 'aupito and all the very best.
ART RESULTS – Judged by Mele Manu
Winner of the Years 3 and 4 category: Lenber Sio Go (Monte Cecilia School)
Judge’s comment: your colours and use of patterns to create this picture are purposeful and wonderfully linked to the Tongan culture. We would definitely want this picture framed and hanging on our wall! Job well done :)
Winner of the Years 5 and 6 category: Angeline Yee (Good Shepherd School)
Judge’s comment: awesome work! It’s great to see our Tongan traditional patterns in your intricate artwork. You have put in a lot of effort into details and have focused on using very ‘Tongan’ colours from our flag which we like a lot :)
Winner of the Senior category: Sonja Erceg (Marist College)
Sonja’s synopsis about her piece of artwork – “I selected this photograph depicting my mother, our neighbour, and my grandpa after Church services. The reason for my choice is that my grandpa, Henele Fa'aave, played a role in constructing the Free Church of Tonga situated at Nofo i Maufanga Hala Sa Salote e Tonga which they are standing in front of. He volunteered his time and effort to help build this church for the community as this is where most people gather together, alongside our neighbour, who is not biologically related to us but still considered as family alongside her kids”.
Judge’s comment: your attention to detail is immaculate and you have captured the beauty of a day in the life of a Tongan family. We love this picture! We are especially drawn to your use of shadows around your figures because it reminds us of how sunny our motherland is. Amazing :)
TE WIKI O TE REO MĀORI (11-17 o HEPETEMA 2023)
… Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori, 51 years on from when the Māori Language Petition was presented to Parliament on 14 September 1972. As well as reflecting on our personal journeys with te reo Māori, this week is also a great chance to reflect on the journey of te reo Māori in Parliament. The petition played a significant role in the journey to revitalise te reo Māori by calling for government recognition of the language as a taonga in Aotearoa New Zealand.https://www.parliament.nz/en/get-involved/features/celebrate-te-wiki-o-te-reo-māori-2023/
ART RESULT
Winner of the Years 9 and 10 category: Nia Hiddleston (Marist College)
Nia’s description of her artwork – ‘This is my art work. On the dark side is the beginning of the culture and as time goes on it leads us onto the lighter side where you can see a Kapa haka group performing with a lot of people watching and supporting in diverse cultures holding the Māori flag. The reason why I did a girl singing a beautiful waiata to the little people is because in that time, the Māori only really performed to their village, but nowadays anyone at any time can perform in front of basically the whole of a country with a lot of support. This shows how the language has stayed strong for a very, very long time. As you can see the musical notes don't stop. it shows that we will keep forever holding our language strong and more and more people will be involved (as shown as the colours change. This also shows on how our Kapa haka groups have grown, through from just village performances to now huge competitions like Polyfest and Te Matatini. We've grown as a community”.
Judge comment: I love the whole concept of how you have used your art to retell ngā purakau from traditional times in a pā. The idea of continuing to carry on Māori traditions in modern times is challenging, and when we embrace and accept this as part of everyday Aotearoa we are winning. Kia kaha Te Reo Māori.
Tautua programme at St Peters College
At the completion of the Tautua programme at St Peters College in Auckland, the 2023 Tautua Cohort” participating in the Tautua initiative, have been learning about the significance of the ‘ava ceremony in relation to who they are as tama Samoa, and so have taken on the responsibility and preparation of hosting this auspicious occasion. This was be the first ‘ava ceremony ever held at St. Peter’s College. The 2023 Tautua cohort included Year 9,10,11 and 12 students at the college.
This year at Saint Marys College we have had a wonderful new initiative which has been started by one of our Within School Lead Teachers ; Epifania Malifa. The PILOT programme stands for Pacific Islanders Leaders of Tomorrow. It is a weekly after school gathering for our Pacific young woman looking for support in their NCEA studies and a place to thrive as Pacific leaners. Teachers across the school come to sessions and share with the girls their time and subject expertise. There are also guest speakers and guidance about future pathways. Ms Malifa works alongside the girls to monitor their academic progress. It has been a hugely successful initiative as you can see from the student voice below. We will continue to support the programme next year and look to broaden it to include younger Pacific students.
Student Voice :
I have thoroughly enjoyed having a safe and familiar space to learn and study this term. P.I.L.O.T is such a fun and relaxing space (with yummy food and good music), and I feel relaxed enough to complete my tasks or get subject-specific help outside of class. -Supina Y13
P.I.L.O.T. has helped me gain a more efficient study ethic both at home and at school! Studying and connecting with the girls who also attend P.I.L.O.T. has also been very special part of this program. I really like how our voices and feelings are heard and that it's such a safe space for the girls to attend. As a Year 13, I wish P.I.L.O.T. was founded sooner! But, I have no doubt that the girls will have a fun, productive time in P.I.L..O.T for years to come. - Miracle Pule Y13
P.I.L.O.T has helped my learning immensely by providing me the space so feel supported by peers and teachers to strive for better. Seeing that our teachers care so much about our learning and the effort that they put in, motivates me to study well and put their hard work behind the scenes too good use.
In general it's been incredibly beneficial to have the sense of acceptance for who i am through my cultural identity by being pushed to see my Island ancestory as a root of strength rather than another statistic. It has made me proud in who I am and allowed me to help and connect with fellow islanders sisters. - Marian Y13
St Mary's Avondale Happenings
Trip to St Mary's
As part of this term’s learning our tamariki have been learning about the history of Avondale, the Mercy Sisters in Aotearoa and our school. To support this learning our Maher and St Bride’s teams visited the Sisters of Mercy and St Mary’s College in the city. Sister Mary Neven, who was a past pupil of St Mary’s and ex-principal of St Mary’s College, talked with the children about Catherine McAuley, the foundress of the Mercy Order, and Cecilia Maher who travelled from Ireland with Bishop Pompallier to Aotearoa New Zealand and established the congregation of the Sisters of Mercy in Auckland.
Our children got to hear lots of stories about the Mercy Sisters, see what the Sisters used to wear, see Bishop Pompallier’s chair, visit the cemetery where Cecilia Maher and many other Mercy Sisters are buried, visit the Pompallier Centre across the road, have a tour around St Mary’s College and sing Mercy songs with the St Mary’s College prefects. We were reminded that we are all part of the Mercy Whānau.
Celebrating Aotearoa School Library Week at St Mary's
Last week we celebrated Aotearoa School Library Week in our St Mary's library, with bookmark making, library-themed colouring, book reviews, funny photos, scavenger hunts and a guessing competition to find out which are our teachers' favourite children's books. It was wonderful to have the library humming with activity each lunchtime and to see some class visits engaging with sharing the love of our school library. There were more than 60 entries in the Guess Who competition and a handful of students matched all 14 staff members to their favourite books.
Read NZ Writers in Schools programme
This week we were lucky to have Tony Williams visit as a part of the Read NZ Writers in Schools programme. Tony has published over 40 books and visited over 700 New Zealand schools talking about the success that can come in our lives through engaging with reading. He spoke to each of our three syndicates with passion, enthusiasm and humour, and definitely gave us all something to think about.
A Case Study of Success: Walking towards Culture, Language and Identity AND success in learning.
Tu’utu’u le upega ile loloto; Casting the net into deeper waters.
In a small catholic school on the border of central west Auckland, behind closed doors, something magical has been happening…
The whispers are… teachers are teaching teachers, siloed classrooms have busted open…Pacific boys love writing…but not only writing, maths and reading as well...Pacific families are beaming with pride…teachers are seeing successes where they haven’t previously…they are feeling agentic, positive, enabled and empowered.
This success story started a long time ago when analysis of literacy data kept showing a stubborn but not uncommon pattern: Pacific boys underachieving in writing. Frustrated, the principal, Daniel Pepper, was determined to find some solutions. On their Teacher Only Day in January 2022, the slides state:
“The concern for our Pasifika students is again writing. We did make small gains in 2020 but again we need to focus on writing. We are going to explore culturally sustaining practices in writing to support our young Pacific boys to enjoy writing and write well.”
Alongside PLD facilitator Alana Madgwick, across-school leads Laureen Leituala and Jerremy Williams started a strategic and focused PLD journey with the staff. Regular meetings with the principal ensure we all work together on the common goal. The Samoan proverb: To’utu’u le upega ile loloto; Casting the net into deeper waters, represents our desire to move beyond a superficial targeting of Pacific learners to a deeper pedagogical understanding for teachers to listen to the voices and respond with research-based practices.
Here is our three-year journey:
Student voices from the Pacific boys were collected in a narrative form to capture themes of their strengths and their learning struggles with writing, and their cultural identity.“I don’t enjoy writing.” was a quote that we used to focus our PLD on.
Teachers were invited to co-construct solutions. A critical component of this was agentic positioning and professional discussions focused on challenging deficit theorising and owning our new solutions.
Our PLD recipe for success was interweaving Murray Gadd’s research on effective teaching of writing and our Kāhui Ako teaching principles: whanaungatanga, mana motuhake, activating prior knowledge, ako, power sharing and quality feedback and feedforward.
Teachers' professional growth cycle goals were used as a vehicle for learning.
Walkthroughs of classrooms evolved into teachers observing teachers against clear goals and success criteria; risk taking was celebrated as teachers pushed outside their comfort zones.
Leaders met with Alana to evaluate their growth against the Kāhui Ako sustainability rubric to ensure all leaders had a common language and agreed to a goal moving forward: student voice was an agreed area of focus.
Fono happened regularly, led by Laureen and supported by leadership. Pacific parents were desperate for strategies to support their boys at home. Ideas were shared.
So where are we now?
The data speaks for itself.
The journey doesn’t end here, but it is time to pause and enjoy the successes. Determined leadership, agentic teachers, time to put research into practice, de-privatising practice so that we all learn together and keeping the voices at the heart of our professional learning are our keys to success. Fa’afetai lava, ngā mihi nui to the principal, across-school leads and hard-working teachers at St Dominic’s Primary School: you make a difference every day.
Junior Maths Program at St Peter's College
Last year we introduced our new Junior Maths Program which won the Kalman Maths Teacher Excellence award at the end of the year. I have developed a website where I have put all the key resources for our Junior Maths Program and I am happy to share it with our Kāhui Ako.
Brad Bridges | Mathematics, Computer Studies and Year 11 Academic Dean
It was a huge pleasure and privilege to be invited back to judge the annual Year 6 speech competition at St Francis Primary. Once again, the standard of speaking was excellent with the young students able to combine humour with in-depth understanding in their speeches.
This year the speeches were based on good katiakitanga ( guardianship ). The ākonga took this in various directions, all of which showed their genuine concern for being good guardians of our environment and our people in Aotearoa. It was a very successful evening with both proud whānau and kaiako in attendance. The judging was difficult with such a high standard.
The finalists were: Olivia H, Caitlin R, Olive M, Francesco T, Sienna P and Dean M . Jackson A was runner up and Isla R with an impressive speech on the importance of protecting the kakapo was the winner.
Congratulations to all the students and their teachers.
Bridget Hansen
ASL St Marys College.
RTLB-led ASD Workshop
The second of our RTLB-led workshops was held this term with Grace Harrison (RTLB) and Julie Plourde (SLT - MOE) leading the learning.
The session covered the challenges that ASD students face in the classroom and simple classroom strategies that could be used to support and engage students. We also looked at the Triangle of Interventions (tiered approach) to support these students.
Tuakana Teina at Monte Cecelia
Monte Cecilia Catholic School students teaching each other maths outside games. Tuakana teina in action!
Auckland Central Catholic Kāhui Ako Māori Mass
On the 13th of September, we held our second ACCKA Māori Mass at Christ The King Church led by Pā Tipene. With ākonga from our 15 kura involved, it was a kātuarehe event with waiata from St Mary's and Marist College kapa haka groups - ātaahua!
It was a wonderful celebration of Te Ao Māori and a fantastic way for ākonga and whānau to come together in unity - kotahitanga - for prayer.
Writing Moderation PLD
Improved outcomes are more likely to follow when moderation provides a springboard for conversations about the content of learning, teaching strategies to use and how best to address the specific needs of students (Healy & Bush, 2010)
The Kahui Ako facilitated a writing moderation session for teachers of Year 5-8 students to identify what forms of assessments schools are using and their process of moderation. It was an opportunity for Kaiako to reflect on what is going well with the writing moderation process and the challenges that Kaiako may encounter. Many of the Kaiako present found the rich discussion valuable and informative. Kaiako collectively moderated writing samples and discussed their reasoning behind their marks using their own marking tools. The outcome from the session was the variability of assessment tools used, more year 7 and 8 teachers to be present to give year 5-6 teachers a clear picture of writing in year 7/8 and gathering together again is a powerful and useful way to build teacher capability, support, collaboration.
As a Kahui Ako we strongly desire to create, Moderation takes place in a professional learning community where teachers come together to share ideas and support each other. Learning together as a community can support teachers to take part in processes of “deconstructing, reconstructing and co-constructing knowledge and skills” (Stoll & Bolam, 2005, p. 10, as cited in Millwood, 2007).
Upcoming Events
Kāhui Ako Conference - 2024
Kia ora e te whānau,
The form below is for staff within our Kāhui Ako to express interest in presenting a short workshop at our Kāhui Ako Conference in March, 2024.
Anyone in our Kāhui Ako can express interest - from leaders, and teachers, to support staff and RTLBs.
You could share a journey, run a workshop, or present some teaching and learning ideas.
We have some upcoming language week art and speech competitions - Mandarin, Tuvalu, Fiji, Niue, Tokelau and Hindi. Please promote these to the community.
Language Weeks | Due Dates
Chinese - Mandarin | 6th October Tuvalu | 6th October Fiji | 6th October Niue | 6th October
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