HIGH school is back in the King Country, and local principals have put on their thinking caps to inspire student engagement.
Te Kūiti High School principal Gareth Williams said he was relieved that Covid was no longer leading to the cancellation of events such as performances and trips outside the classroom, and that students could get back out into the community.
Now, he said his school, like others in New Zealand, needed to rekindle students’ interest in their learning after many disruptions, and a nationwide increase in absences and poor attendance.
Te Kūiti will start two new programmes in 2023.
“Enrich” has been designed to support literacy; another called “Hubs” will allow students to pursue exciting interest or passion-based projects.
Gareth said Hubs, especially, would inspire students to re-engage with learning. “They’re coming to school and doing things that they’re interested in,” he said.
“Some of these programmes could be things around coding or robotics in the computer sense.
“You might be looking at the sports academies [or] work-ready skills and life skills. It could be something around arts or engineering.”
He gave the example that students could build “a sleepout or a shed that that can accommodate one person and have solar panels that can charge phones and devices.”
Piopio College principal Rakesh Govid is also focused on innovation for 2023.
“Covid has taught us that we have to be quite flexible, so a lot of our planning right now is about building in flexibility with how we do things,” he told King Country News.
The nationwide challenges mentioned earlier were also affecting Piopio; the school was responding with new appointments, family engagement and a thematic focus in the junior curriculum.
One of the new staff members is Amai Tahu.
“He’s got a specialist Maōri performing arts background and he will also teach some junior te reo. We’re quite excited to have his special skill set on board with us,” Rakesh said.
Long-serving teacher and Piopio local Mandi Barnsdall will also support the Māori programme as a permanent staff member.
Another new appointment is Alan Ford from Te Kūiti, who returns to the district after teaching in Hamilton.
“He comes to us with a maths and science specialty but also with a strong outdoor ed and sports background as well including cricket, hockey and rugby.
“He’s got a real passion for bringing authentic learning experiences,” Rakesh said. Community engagement is also part of Piopio College’s plans for post-Covid recovery. In particular, Rakesh hopes for local families to have a closer relationship with the school and teaching staff.
[We will] reach out to whānau and iwi and to collaborate with them; to talk about their kids’ learning”.
He said this would allow school families to “hear from us from a more personal point of view,” and build a closer collaborative relationship.
Rakesh is also excited about changes to the curriculum.
“We’ve done a lot of mahi … to make it a lot more localised, to make it a lot more engaging, and to get a lot more student feedback into what they want and believe is important to them to learn and build a curriculum that is a lot more collaborative in nature.
This years’ theme would be oceans; teachers would build their courses with this topic in mind.
“We’re talking about the rivers, leading through to the ocean,” he said.
Each subject – maths, science, English, social studies and technology – would deal with the moana in some way.
“The idea being that when students move from one subject to another, they will be able to build stronger connections with what they’re learning,” he said.
“We’re only a short drive away from Mōkau.
“We’ve got rivers and streams and things all around us, and so we’re trying to make things relevant and authentic for our kids.”
