ITS ALL ABOUT LEARNING - FROM NORTHLAND TO AUCKLAND

In recent years, the design of new and remodelled school in New Zealand  has evolved dramatically from teacher-led, front facing, private, single celled classrooms to student-focused, flexible shared teaching and learning spaces. The opportunity for schools to remodel or rebuild is a catalyst for school leaders and communities to explore school values  and beliefs about effective teaching and learning. The design process is a catalyst to reflect on thinking of the changing nature of learning. The process itself can influence changes in the ways that teachers teach and engage learners in meeting their current and future learning needs. Visits to schools that have been through this process is an opportunity to explore recent trends and thinking about learning and design, the deep thinking behind decisions made and what  the learning  looks like in practice. T The building design can be a driver to develop shared culture around learning that is open, sharing, flexible and collaborative. It reflects the thinking of learning design - the learning philosophy, culture and partnerships around learning.

Te Kura O Pukemiro (click on the link to see slide show)

Te Kura O Pukemiro is in Kaitaia, Northland, New Zealand. This school is a Kura Kaupapa Maori School where the students are delivered their curriculum in through the context of Maori culture, values and the language of Te Reo Maori.  The Kura (school) caters for students from Year 1 to Year 13. 

The connection to tikanga, (Maori cultural values) are explicit in learning and also explicit in the building design. The central courtyard draws visitors into the atea (formal entry) which  leads to the Wharenui (hall). 

The  school  buildings are grouped around the courtyard. Each building is named after a significant ancestor of the whanau (families) of the local area. The open teaching spaces each have an Awhina (break out) space and shared wet areas. The Kura is Kaitiaki  (Guardian) of the adjacent wet lands and bush regeneration, conservation areas care of which is supported by the local community and kura. Conservation and guardianship are common themes in the curriculum. The Kura was built to a Green Star rating.

Hingaia Peninsula School

The vision of this school is for learning to  be collaborative, creative and agile. The building design enables this learning philosophy to take shape through three learning studios. Each learning studio has a large central  learning space and with a break-out spaces which act as 'caves' and 'campfires', The students have access to working individually, in groups or creatively through these break out spaces that are colour coded to their function. Students also have access to a digital production space, including green screen.

Year 1-2, Year 3 -4, Year 5-6 students grouped in the three studios, shared by three teachers.   Each student is assigned to a Whanau (family) leader, who is their learning coach and is the person for the learning partnership between the students family. This teacher supports the students pastoral, and learning needs. The students explain how they learn at Hingaia Peninsula School in this Campbell Live News TV Clip.

The teachers and students are able to combine groups and classes according to student learning needs and interest - in a personalised learning environment.

CEFPI EVENT AT HOBSONVILLE POINT SECONDARY SCHOOL

This week I attended an Auckland CEFPI event at Hobsonville Point Secondary School. 

CEFPI stands for Council of Education Facilities Planners International. It brings together architects, educators and planners with a passion for education design and thinking. 

CEFPI  is quite new in New Zealand. It is a valuable forum  for  sharing ideas about the connections between design and thinking about teaching and learning.

Hobsonville Point Secondary School (HPSS) had only been open for 27 days. Principal Mauri Abraham, DP, Claire Amos and an enthusiastic and passionate team of teachers explained their thinking about the school design and thinking about teaching and learning.

The building design is based on a series of learning hubs. In these open learning areas, the students work on an integrated curriculum called "Big Modules"  with three teachers at a time. The learning theme is focused around a theme, currently, "Identity' which is delivered in a co-teaching style through the lens of the relevant curriculum.

Teachers all have a role as 'learning coaches'.  Each learning coach currently has up to 10 students assigned to them. The learning coach stays with the student through their secondary schooling years and supports the student and family with their learning action plan. They meet regularly to coach and mentor students, supporting them to achieve the best they can. This is a way of developing true partnerships around learning and really brings latest educational research to practice in an innovative way.

Students also have passion projects, called 'Big Projects". These include subjects of students choice, including; Dance, Dance , Robotics, Design, Enviro studies (utilising the school wonderful wetland environment), drama, music and a range of other rich curriculum areas.

They also have individual projects called "My Time". These are workshop style and students can sign up for them during the week or work on them in their own time. As we walked through the building we could see notices for workshops that included E-learning, Music, Gaming and a range of other topics.

The learning principles of - being  Open, Visible, Connecting and Flexible have driven the design ensuring that this is an exciting, future focused learning and environment. It is a place where students are truly empowered as learners.

I could see many links to the thinking of our curriculum design at Freemans Bay Primary School - our curriculum design is around enriching, engaging and empowering students. The HPSS, Big Module, integrated curriculum around a  relates to our "learning pathways' integrated, action learning curriculum. The 'Big Idea' - passion projects - aligns with our Funky Fridays - where teachers and students choose learning workshop around student interest and teacher / parent passion.   We are developing a more personalised curriculum - where our students take more responsibility for their timetables and managing their learning. For example our Yr 5 and Yr 6 students can sign up for workshops that supports their learning goals and action learning. 

The staff at HPSS school explained that many of the staff are studying or have completed study at Masters level. At FBS our Board of Trustees supports our teachers to continue post grad study. This means we bring a educational research focused lens to our practice. I love the idea of every child having a learning coach, and wonder how we could resource that in a primary school. Could it be expanded to the community - local business people or high school students? This is something we could certainly think about.

 I note the commitment to being a cashless school as well - and this is something we are working on at Freemans Bay School. Our parents are notified of how to pay accounts on line and now our lunch system will be paid only through the YQ app available on smartphones or through the web. (Not related to curriculum - but a huge savings of time and very convenient).This approach has improved payments for school donations and activity fees from the beginning of the year so it is a win win!

I think it is much easier to integrate curriculum at the  primary school level. HPSS has made a  committment to a more holistic and deeper  approach to learning - rather than a traditional secondary school timetable and silo approach to curriculum.  The learning environment at this school certainly supports the statement on their webpage - " A school where learners enjoy innovative personalised learning, engage through powerful partnerships and are inspired through deep challenge and inquiry to achieve academic and personal excellence." An inspirational visit!

CONNECTIONS BETWEEN THINKING ABOUT LEARNING AND DESIGN OF NEW SCHOOLS

CONNECTIONS BETWEEN THINKING ABOUT LEARNING AND DESIGN OF NEW SCHOOLS

In 2010 we demolished a large subsiding classroom block at Freemans Bay School and built new learning hubs in a two story building. This building design was scoped to develop flexible spaces to enable teachers to teach and students to learn in a variety of ways.  

The remaining school buildings since have been identified as either leaky or past their use by date. We are now in the Ministry of Education’s new schools building project.

 

The challenge of totally rebuilding Freemans Bay School sparked my interest in thinking deeper about how spaces are designed and used to engage learners.

Visits to schools, universities, libraries and co-corporate organisations in New Zealand and Australis  have  played a significant role in shaping my thinking around design and pedagogy. I have had many rich conversations with; educational, Ministry of Education, architects and business leaders with a passion for exploring change and innovation in their own contexts. 

I am fortunate to be a recipient for the Auckland Primary Principal Association and ASB Bank Travel Fellowship for one school term in 2014.  This is an opportunity to visit schools in UK and Scandinavia to explore school design.

I am interested in how the physical design can drive thinking around teaching and learning.  

Specifically the following key questions are what I am looking at.

Pedagogical

·     What are the beliefs and thinking about learning evident in new schools visited across different countries?

o      the schools key beliefs about learning

o      why they believe it and what does it look like in practice

What does teaching and learning look like in these new design classrooms?

o      role of teachers

o      role of students

o      role of e-learning

How have the new designs enabled new teaching and learning practices to emerge?

o    the processes and preparation for teachers that was required to transition to the new spaces

o     the innovative pedagogies that have emerged due to  new design

o     the types of practices that have emerged in the new spaces (e.g. collaboration, groups, team teaching, social interactions, flexible learning, personalised learning) and how these have changed over time

o     the culture,  leadership and the organisation that facilitate (or impede) innovation pedagogies in design

o     changes of job functions of staff that have emerged to match thinking about pedagogy  within the design

Physical Design

·         How are the school beliefs about learning reflected in space design?

o      ways the learning spaces support the schools thinking about learning

o      the relationships between and significance for learning in particular spaces

o      the relationships between indoor and outdoor spaces and flows and their role in learning

o      changes the school would like to make and why

·         What impact has new school designs had on?

o      students perception  

o      teachers

o      school community

E-learning

·         How has the new physical design supported e-learning?

o    the ways that personalised learning through technologies is supported by the design

o    the types of e-learning practices that have emerged in the new spaces

o    relationships between virtual and built environments

·         What changes have been made to embrace new technologies?

o    how design facilitates  e-learning

o    ways the learning space has enabled evolving forms of pedagogy

 I am very excited to be doing this research and will use this blog to share my findings as I go.

I am also interested in any research on the topic - so if you have any to share please let me know via the comments on the blog.

Professional Learning Design 2014

I often get asked what does our professional learning at Freemans Bay School look like?

I thought it would be useful to map out what we do for our professional learning and our thinking about why we do what we do.

To support our vision  to "Engage, Enrich, Empower our learners we need to have a professional learning programme that mirrors how learning happens in the classroom. The focus of our learning is based on the inquiry process, future focused learning and strengthening personalising learning for teachers. We are always tweaking what we do - but this is the current outline:

• Cycle of Inquiry and Target Groups 

At risk students, including Maori and Pasifika students are identified each year. Teachers develop an action plan to meet the these learners needs. They are our most at risk students and as teachers, we have an obligation to do our best to accelerated their progress so they can be the best they can be.

Each whanau (teacher team)  creates a data wall with photographs eg Padlet.

At risk student progress / action plans are discussed regularly at whanau meetings.

Reflections on this work is recorded on the teacher action plans and forms part of regular team and across school discussions.

The Black Boxes of teacher and student learning frame our professional discussions as we are interested in what changes have been made in teacher practice as part of the cycle of inquiry and what difference this has made to student learning. As for things to change - teachers have to try new things to hook - especially disengaged students - into learning.

This diagram is taken from "Teacher Professional Learning and Development, Best Evidence Synthesis" Timperley, Wilson, Barrar, Fung, 2007  www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/series/2515/15341

• Professional Learning Groups: 

The professional learning groups are based on future focused / blended / e-learning   to improve student engagement and learning outcomes in a pedagogy that  The PLGs are small groups of teachers from across whanau. (teams) 

This year  GAFE is being introduced to explore how these can support learning and working in our school. This work also ensures that the pedagogy is appropriate for meeting the needs of students in their ever changing world.

The teacher goals and action plans for the PLGs are recorded online on KnowledgeNET our LMS and are reviewed annually..

•  Leadership Development

The Board of Trustees supports teachers extending their university qualifications through Post Graduate studies. This ensures that our leadership team is bringing up to date theory to practice to encourage changes in teacher practice and improved student outcomes. This includes sharing of best practice, collaboration, observations, mentoring and coaching. The leadership team teachers are released regularly for observations and coaching. They encourage their teams to participate in teacher talk to encourage best practice in teaching and learning. The focus on continuing university study is part of our philosophy of being a community of learners and ensuring that our decisions around what we do are based on the latest research around learning.

Ultimately we would like all teachers to have the opportunity to observe and have 'Teacher Talk" converstions with peers. However in a primary school context it is difficult to resource this - unless the teachers themselves can find ways to do this eg CRT time, team sharing students etc.

• Learning Walks

Myself as principal and Deputy Principalscomplete learning walks across the school as well, usually once or twice a term.The purpose of these is to ensure teaching and learning reflects the school vision. To protect and drive the school vision. The leadership team have all completed post grad papers and other professional development around coaching/ mentoring / learning conversations. This work gives our leadership team the opportunity to grow their leadership around teaching and learning.

• E-Learning PD workshops 

The e-learning team has regular staff workshops to support teachers tin the use of a range of technologies used in the school. These workshops are skills based and are about introducing ict skills, practising and developing new ways of personalising learning for students.

• Teacher Reflections

All  staff to complete their on line reflections in KnowledgeNET. This includes reflecting and sharing their learning goals and action plans, reflections on their learning experiences, professional readings as well as providing evidence for RTC attestation.

Students also share their learning goals and reflections on KnowledgeNET. Both processes mirror each other. We want our teachers to be learning the same way our students are learning and visa versa.

Action Learning:

This year we have a focus on Action Learning Inquiry learning. This is driven by a desire to have our learning more personalised and intergrated. Each term teams review  their action programme and plan collaboratively the next terms action learning unit. There are workshops to review and share practice.

Kiwi Sport

As part of our commitment to kiwi sport, we have some kiwi sport skills professional development. These are a lot of fun and good for team building across the whole staff.

Mathematics:

In term three we will commence whole school Pasifika Maths. This PD is informed by  (Quality Teaching for Diverse (All) Learners in Schooling: Best Evidence Synthesis 2003).  This will challenge our thinking in terms of culturally appropriate  pedagogy and give teachers new ideas to trial with their teaching. 

Our professional learning for teachers is aligned with our beliefs about teaching and learning to give traction to our vision of "Empower, Enrich and Engage" all learners in our school.

Swedish school uses innovative design for learning

I am fortunate to be the recipient of the Auckland Principal Association / ASB Principal Travel Fellowship, 2014.
My travel to Europe and Scandinavia will enable me  to explore how modern school designs reflect; the changing nature of learning, influence changes in the ways that teachers teach, engage diverse learners and meet current and future educational needs. My travel fellowship will enable me to explore recent trends in thinking about learning and design in new schools and what this looks like in practice. 

I plan to be in Scandinavia in June this year where I will be looking at the relationship between school design and pedagogy. 
I hope that I will be able to visit  this Vittra  school in Stockholm, Sweden. These students learn in a open learning environment with latest computer technology.

I am very lucky to have some great contacts to put me in contact with innovative schools in Scandinavia (Lene Jensby Lange, Autens, Denmark) and UK (Terry White, CEFPI, London)

 I wonder how the learning happens in the new environments  that I will view.

-How does the physical design support e-learning 
-What ways is personalising learning through e-learning supported by the physical design
-What are the types of teaching and learning have emerged in the new spaces
-What are the relationships between the virtual and built environments.

I hope that my learning from the travel fellowship will influence our future building design at Freemans Bay School. 

·         

Metacognitive Strategies

I was interested in this slide which found on @visiblelearning site on Twitter. This Twitter feed relates to  John Hattie's seminars on Visible Learning and his recent research on the same.

We believe that metacognitve strategies are central to student learning. At Freemans Bay School metacognitive strategies are specifically taught through Habits of Mind and  Assessment for Learning pedagogy.

At this stage of the year, students, supported by their teachers post explicit goals on KnowledgeNET (Learning Management System). The goals are broken down with success criteria. Students know what they need to learn, their next steps to achieve that learning and strategies for getting there.

As the learning progresses they can reflect on progress on the success criteria and post this up to share  and interact with parents and peers.

Metacognition is an explicit component of our teaching and learning process.

Getting on the same page February 2014

Our two day workshops at the beginning of this year had an interesting twist for me. Our school leaders stated at the end of last year that I could have 1 hour to do the 'vision stuff' as the rest of the two days they would be busy collaborating with our teachers on developing plans for personalised and project based learning.

I reflected on how far our distributed leadership in the school had come - and was excited by our leadership team's motivation and passion.

On the first day I had my precious hour of presenting the vision. This session explored the relationship between pedagogy and spaces for learning. Teachers were encouraged to reflect on their classroom environments and to have many different spaces for personalising learning in their classrooms. As we are  moving into a design stage for our school rebuild it is  important to consider  new ways of thinking about spaces for personalising learning.

The rest of the first day was spent exploring what we mean by personalising learning pedagogy - so that we have a common language and vision around our school philosophy. The leadership team presented a a series of tools that could be used for planning inquiry teaching, with a focus on personalised and project based learning. This included a matrix that linked "Blooms Taxonomy" and the key stages of inquiry and project based learning. This process was to get teachers to think about student autonomy over their learning and developing the skills for that to happen.

On the second day the teachers collaborated in their teams to develop the detail of their unit planning. They were able to utilise their new learning, build on their previous teaching experiences and develop their class learning projects with enthusiasm and passion.

This form of learning design for teachers and students is grounded in beliefs around:

• Commitment to  personalised learning: 
• Positive teacher-student-parent partnerships around learning
• Feed-forward and Reflection

Our first  teacher workshops in 2014  were designed to empower teachers to get on the same page and to design next steps in planning.  "Enrich, Empower and Engage" our students in their learning in 2014.