Māpua School Relationship Building

 Feedback from the voice collection from students at Mapua School in 2020 was analysed by the staff in Term 4, 2020. It came to light that the main area which will make learning more beneficial for students revolves around relationships. They thought that relationships between students, and relationships between students and teachers was very important. This falls squarely in line with the relationships based learning approach we have been undertaking through our Community of Learning (Kahui Ako) with our associate schools. 

Last year the staff brainstormed how we could improve relationships through the school and the wider community. This was revisited at our Teacher Only Day and we have made some changes as a result:

1. We have set up buddy classes, so that teachers can buddy up and children from across different levels can meet the younger/older students and share their learning. This will be changed each term, so that a wide variety of levels and students can build positive relationships. 
2. Teachers will read to a different class each week for 15 mins, so that students can meet the teachers at the school, not only to break down any barriers or misconceptions which might have formed, but to impart a friendly face to all.
3. We have also changed where teachers carry out lunchtime duties, so that junior children can see and interact with intermediate teachers and vice-versa. 
4. He Waka aka noa is starting in Week 2. This is a programme where house groups work together in a tuakana/teina situation to create a shared piece of dance/drama/storytelling/art for Matariki. This will be an opportunity for mixing of students and teachers, which in turn should build positive relationships. 
5. An effort to be made to share work with children of other syndicates - with rich discussion about the learning.
6. Children surveyed also wanted a consistent approach to behaviour management throughout the school, something the staff will be discussing (after talking with their classes) at the next staff meeting.

This will be the start of our relationship building and will be reviewed termly, as it is our overarching goal for the year.

Staff have also read ‘Teaching to the North-East’ by Russel Bishop -particularly the chapters ‘Caring and Nurturing for the learner’ (p.g. 63); ‘Voicing and demonstrating high expectations’ (p.g.66); and ‘Ensuring that all learners can learn in a well-managed environment that promotes learning’ (p.g. 70). Discussions around the bullet-points in particular were a good way of staff thinking about setting up their classrooms, for the best relationship start to the year.

Alongside the relationships with the students, staff have been challenged to really consider the needs of other staff and how we interact with each other. There already have been incredibly positive impacts within teams after this was brought to light.

Our goal is to have children happy, kind, thoughtful, compassionate, self-directed learners.  We really hope our focus on relationships this year will go a long way to help producing outstanding citizens. 

Simon Clearwater

WST

Mapua School.