camera – Mahima Hanukkah culture cash
for a warm and wonderful greeting to
each and every one of you when I tell
people I’m a principal I normally make
it meet by one of three reactions they
either suddenly sit up straight and
rigid like their own assembly eyes glaze
over as you can see that instant onset
of boredom or you can see them
frantically looking for the nearest exit
to escape through but when I tell people
I’m a disrupter of educational norms I
normally get the opposite reaction
people lean and they’re interested in
focused so I am a disrupter of
educational norms which basically means
on a principle but much cooler in fact I
like to liken what we do to the
television series a Deadliest Catch you
see they have schools of fish and we
have schools of children they true like
us can have calm one minute and suddenly
a raging storm out of Noah the next the
biggest point of differences however if
they get it wrong they are potentially
putting themselves at risk but if we get
it wrong we are potentially putting a
large number of future lives at risk I
come from a long line of educators even
though only two people in my family
formally trained as teachers my mother
who started off as the cleaner of the
school which she eventually became the
principal and my father who was a second
generation freezing worker but after the
closure of our local works retrained to
become a secondary teacher they both
taught me
they both taught me the value of
education but it wasn’t until I was
working and the New Zealand prison
system alongside young 16 to 20 year old
Mian who were not devious bastards there
were just young people who had not been
given the same cultural and educational
capital that I’d been given that I found
my real passion the education I believe
that New Zealand has the potential to
have a world-class
education system we have this creative
and clever New Zealand curriculum
document we have responsive and caring
professionals and we have this
international reputation for our number
8 wire innovative can-do attitude but I
am concerned I am concerned that while
we are on the cusp of the most
exponential change unlike anything we
have ever experienced before when we
most need to be leaning and in focused
and energized we are at risk of being
rigid of our eyes been glazed over and
looking for our newest exit I am
concerned there in our environment where
we hold all the power where our
perceptions and our bias can effectively
make or break there any an ability to
not respond speedily and smartly may
well and violently be creating that here
and now equivalence of the nineteen
hundred’s stripping of young children
for speaking via own language and our
education system and it really doesn’t
have to be that dramatic or daunting all
it takes is a change of mindset just
over three years ago
I walked into my once-in-a-lifetime I
walked into the principalship of a
school that was under statutory
management had amongst the lowest
achievement rates in our country and
incredibly high suspension rates as
declining roll rose staff morale and a
decreasing connection was the community
that it served in fact I remember the
first time that I walked in there and I
remember saying gang insignia that had
been burned into the ceiling and I
remember feeling both shocked and deeply
saddened when I realized that these were
not decommissioned learning spaces but
these young people with hopes and dreams
in passion had to walk through this and
and beside this an exodus day in and day
out what a powerful message of how we
viewed and valued them but as is the
case with the initiative challenges is
also an amazing set of opportunities we
just have to be open to seeing them and
so here was a school full of amazingly
talented young people at canny appearing
and connected staff but also a community
a community that is representative of
the epitome of strength and agility a
community leader is also representative
of the lowest socio-economic bracket in
our country with an average household
income of $17,000 per annum and I have
to tell you they weren’t surviving but
they were thriving and they were full of
love and hopes and dreams for the young
people and so we had to set about
creating an innovative response and we
had two other major areas that helped to
bring this together you see because we
were the largest employer in our
Township and we were potentially facing
closure that gave us this very strong
sense of urgency and – as I like to put
it we’re in this unique in privileged
situation and that it didn’t matter what
we did we couldn’t go any lower than
where we were which mean that we had
this amazing blank canvas and which to
innovate and create an educational
response the single most significant
thing that we did that helped us on our
journey as we changed our mindset to a
relentless commitment is educators to
innovate and when I say innovate I mean
innovation and its totality innovation
around systems and structures innovation
around curriculum around assessment
around pedagogical practice
and another of response that puts every
child at the Singler and the community
at the heart of everything readers and
so even though we have buildings that
are around 60 years of age here is
nothing about us that looks or sounds or
feels like a general stream state school
even though that is exactly what we are
we have flexible hours of operation we
have a flexible timetable we have a
flexible curriculum we have no bells in
fact we close the school every second
Friday and the community at large
becomes our classroom
so our young people can take part and
experience short and authentic learning
opportunities like surf and turf or boat
making or environmental fitness a fusion
of passion of students staff in the
community some of our other innovative
responses include the fixable hours of
operation so our young people can start
school at 7:30 you see we were losing a
large number of our senior students to
part-time work and remembering our
response see we put the students at the
center the community at the heart we
felt we had no right to tell those young
people to forfeit the railings and come
and well needed and come flexible hours
of operation I mean they could start
school at 7:30 finish truck to have a
four out of a five day week just like
University students they could have
full-time education part-time work or a
part-time education
full-time work we also had major issues
with reading writing and math in fact
these groups of students in our country
that do and have for far too long but we
believe if you look at the problem for
too long you run the risk of sameness
sameness and what you see the problem
bein before sameness in your solution
and stainless in your outcomes so we
decided to tackle issues around reading
writing and mess by not concentrating on
reading writing or me
we have literacy and numeracy across the
school but it’s in all of its context so
a young person particularly passionate
about media is able to pursue their
literacy progressions through media
equally a young person who’s on the path
rate of building can give me numeracy
credits by contextualized or things like
building opportunities of measurements
and angles in doing we also have
integrated steam science technology
engineering the arts a mess and inquiry
based learning so every term we have a
whole school topic based around a local
or global show and our young people are
able to personalize the e-learning as
well as an evoke and create their own
responses to challenges sort of had
young people that worked with local
scientists we’re now it got science
credits they wrote a report about this
got English credits they’ve been
presented this report to select
Parliament in gangs speech credits the
one rule that we have with our student
learning is make it big in make it bold
we want it to impact change we want it
to make a difference and we absolutely
do not want it to be closed up at the
book at the end of each term and let me
tell you about some of the big in bold
others just wow
we have had young people that have
travelled to Stanford University and
presented their app designs at Silicon
Valley equally we’ve had young people
that traveled to fiji silver and did
literacy and numeracy programs and
orphanages over there they’ve planted
100 family fruit trees for future
generations
connecting past students with present
students feeding future students they
have started the first-ever talon our
key intergenerational sustainable cafe
they held a feast or famine banquet
where they invited 250 shakers movers
and innovators and doers from our
country who had by luck of the draw
given a bowl of
or feast at the same time they she’d be
responses to challenges of local and
global issues including worldwide hunger
they started a quest for address where
they put out the request for pre-loved
for dresses and suits so that they could
attend their first school ball in close
to 25 years this has now become a roving
babu TKE for other young people in our
country to benefit from in just a couple
of weeks ago the surf and turf course
collected seafood locally that they
souped up on a pedestal acting prime
minister in his team as well as sharing
their viewpoints and the thoughts and
ideas on environmental fitness and
wellness for our community these young
people have always they have always been
amazing but just three years ago they
were being bhisma we failed by our
education system and now they are
challenging every perception of who they
are and who they’re going to become they
are achieving above national averages at
all in CA levels they have seen the
school roll double and they were the
recipients of a national UNESCO award
for education global citizenship but
what’s more they are igniting many other
frames of innovation I have to tell you
when it comes to innovative responses in
education I’ve heard well I’ve heard of
dealt with it
I have argued but anything you could
possibly imagine
I hear it’s good for new bold schools or
underperforming schools or high decile
schools or low decile schools or only
that school down the road would get
their act together or you know what as
such as and the appearance editor blame
not education but I want you to know an
event of responses and education is
absolutely not about a SID
of buildings it is not about
socioeconomic status and it is not about
any other predetermined set of
demographics and it is most definitely
not about us resting on our laurels it’s
about young people it’s about learning
communities it’s about us all having a
set of lens on so firmly that no matter
who the child what their context where
they’re from what they bring we work
together to give them the seal of stalls
and tools that they need to not only
succeed but to lead and whatever the
future may be just before I came here I
meet with a group of students and I said
I’m going to be speaking to a roomful of
very important people what would you
like me to share on your behalf to
inspire Veeam to be big and bold they
told me to tell you I am NOT one in a million I am once in a lifetime
for a warm and wonderful greeting to
each and every one of you when I tell
people I’m a principal I normally make
it meet by one of three reactions they
either suddenly sit up straight and
rigid like their own assembly eyes glaze
over as you can see that instant onset
of boredom or you can see them
frantically looking for the nearest exit
to escape through but when I tell people
I’m a disrupter of educational norms I
normally get the opposite reaction
people lean and they’re interested in
focused so I am a disrupter of
educational norms which basically means
on a principle but much cooler in fact I
like to liken what we do to the
television series a Deadliest Catch you
see they have schools of fish and we
have schools of children they true like
us can have calm one minute and suddenly
a raging storm out of Noah the next the
biggest point of differences however if
they get it wrong they are potentially
putting themselves at risk but if we get
it wrong we are potentially putting a
large number of future lives at risk I
come from a long line of educators even
though only two people in my family
formally trained as teachers my mother
who started off as the cleaner of the
school which she eventually became the
principal and my father who was a second
generation freezing worker but after the
closure of our local works retrained to
become a secondary teacher they both
taught me
they both taught me the value of
education but it wasn’t until I was
working and the New Zealand prison
system alongside young 16 to 20 year old
Mian who were not devious bastards there
were just young people who had not been
given the same cultural and educational
capital that I’d been given that I found
my real passion the education I believe
that New Zealand has the potential to
have a world-class
education system we have this creative
and clever New Zealand curriculum
document we have responsive and caring
professionals and we have this
international reputation for our number
8 wire innovative can-do attitude but I
am concerned I am concerned that while
we are on the cusp of the most
exponential change unlike anything we
have ever experienced before when we
most need to be leaning and in focused
and energized we are at risk of being
rigid of our eyes been glazed over and
looking for our newest exit I am
concerned there in our environment where
we hold all the power where our
perceptions and our bias can effectively
make or break there any an ability to
not respond speedily and smartly may
well and violently be creating that here
and now equivalence of the nineteen
hundred’s stripping of young children
for speaking via own language and our
education system and it really doesn’t
have to be that dramatic or daunting all
it takes is a change of mindset just
over three years ago
I walked into my once-in-a-lifetime I
walked into the principalship of a
school that was under statutory
management had amongst the lowest
achievement rates in our country and
incredibly high suspension rates as
declining roll rose staff morale and a
decreasing connection was the community
that it served in fact I remember the
first time that I walked in there and I
remember saying gang insignia that had
been burned into the ceiling and I
remember feeling both shocked and deeply
saddened when I realized that these were
not decommissioned learning spaces but
these young people with hopes and dreams
in passion had to walk through this and
and beside this an exodus day in and day
out what a powerful message of how we
viewed and valued them but as is the
case with the initiative challenges is
also an amazing set of opportunities we
just have to be open to seeing them and
so here was a school full of amazingly
talented young people at canny appearing
and connected staff but also a community
a community that is representative of
the epitome of strength and agility a
community leader is also representative
of the lowest socio-economic bracket in
our country with an average household
income of $17,000 per annum and I have
to tell you they weren’t surviving but
they were thriving and they were full of
love and hopes and dreams for the young
people and so we had to set about
creating an innovative response and we
had two other major areas that helped to
bring this together you see because we
were the largest employer in our
Township and we were potentially facing
closure that gave us this very strong
sense of urgency and – as I like to put
it we’re in this unique in privileged
situation and that it didn’t matter what
we did we couldn’t go any lower than
where we were which mean that we had
this amazing blank canvas and which to
innovate and create an educational
response the single most significant
thing that we did that helped us on our
journey as we changed our mindset to a
relentless commitment is educators to
innovate and when I say innovate I mean
innovation and its totality innovation
around systems and structures innovation
around curriculum around assessment
around pedagogical practice
and another of response that puts every
child at the Singler and the community
at the heart of everything readers and
so even though we have buildings that
are around 60 years of age here is
nothing about us that looks or sounds or
feels like a general stream state school
even though that is exactly what we are
we have flexible hours of operation we
have a flexible timetable we have a
flexible curriculum we have no bells in
fact we close the school every second
Friday and the community at large
becomes our classroom
so our young people can take part and
experience short and authentic learning
opportunities like surf and turf or boat
making or environmental fitness a fusion
of passion of students staff in the
community some of our other innovative
responses include the fixable hours of
operation so our young people can start
school at 7:30 you see we were losing a
large number of our senior students to
part-time work and remembering our
response see we put the students at the
center the community at the heart we
felt we had no right to tell those young
people to forfeit the railings and come
and well needed and come flexible hours
of operation I mean they could start
school at 7:30 finish truck to have a
four out of a five day week just like
University students they could have
full-time education part-time work or a
part-time education
full-time work we also had major issues
with reading writing and math in fact
these groups of students in our country
that do and have for far too long but we
believe if you look at the problem for
too long you run the risk of sameness
sameness and what you see the problem
bein before sameness in your solution
and stainless in your outcomes so we
decided to tackle issues around reading
writing and mess by not concentrating on
reading writing or me
we have literacy and numeracy across the
school but it’s in all of its context so
a young person particularly passionate
about media is able to pursue their
literacy progressions through media
equally a young person who’s on the path
rate of building can give me numeracy
credits by contextualized or things like
building opportunities of measurements
and angles in doing we also have
integrated steam science technology
engineering the arts a mess and inquiry
based learning so every term we have a
whole school topic based around a local
or global show and our young people are
able to personalize the e-learning as
well as an evoke and create their own
responses to challenges sort of had
young people that worked with local
scientists we’re now it got science
credits they wrote a report about this
got English credits they’ve been
presented this report to select
Parliament in gangs speech credits the
one rule that we have with our student
learning is make it big in make it bold
we want it to impact change we want it
to make a difference and we absolutely
do not want it to be closed up at the
book at the end of each term and let me
tell you about some of the big in bold
others just wow
we have had young people that have
travelled to Stanford University and
presented their app designs at Silicon
Valley equally we’ve had young people
that traveled to fiji silver and did
literacy and numeracy programs and
orphanages over there they’ve planted
100 family fruit trees for future
generations
connecting past students with present
students feeding future students they
have started the first-ever talon our
key intergenerational sustainable cafe
they held a feast or famine banquet
where they invited 250 shakers movers
and innovators and doers from our
country who had by luck of the draw
given a bowl of
or feast at the same time they she’d be
responses to challenges of local and
global issues including worldwide hunger
they started a quest for address where
they put out the request for pre-loved
for dresses and suits so that they could
attend their first school ball in close
to 25 years this has now become a roving
babu TKE for other young people in our
country to benefit from in just a couple
of weeks ago the surf and turf course
collected seafood locally that they
souped up on a pedestal acting prime
minister in his team as well as sharing
their viewpoints and the thoughts and
ideas on environmental fitness and
wellness for our community these young
people have always they have always been
amazing but just three years ago they
were being bhisma we failed by our
education system and now they are
challenging every perception of who they
are and who they’re going to become they
are achieving above national averages at
all in CA levels they have seen the
school roll double and they were the
recipients of a national UNESCO award
for education global citizenship but
what’s more they are igniting many other
frames of innovation I have to tell you
when it comes to innovative responses in
education I’ve heard well I’ve heard of
dealt with it
I have argued but anything you could
possibly imagine
I hear it’s good for new bold schools or
underperforming schools or high decile
schools or low decile schools or only
that school down the road would get
their act together or you know what as
such as and the appearance editor blame
not education but I want you to know an
event of responses and education is
absolutely not about a SID
of buildings it is not about
socioeconomic status and it is not about
any other predetermined set of
demographics and it is most definitely
not about us resting on our laurels it’s
about young people it’s about learning
communities it’s about us all having a
set of lens on so firmly that no matter
who the child what their context where
they’re from what they bring we work
together to give them the seal of stalls
and tools that they need to not only
succeed but to lead and whatever the
future may be just before I came here I
meet with a group of students and I said
I’m going to be speaking to a roomful of
very important people what would you
like me to share on your behalf to
inspire Veeam to be big and bold they
told me to tell you I am NOT one in a million I am once in a lifetime
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