Week 6 Term 1: Totara House: Reflecting on 2024 and Looking forward to 2025 (March 03 - March 07)

Totara House 2024

Since the reintroduction of the House system in 2021, our school whanau has created four spaces for our students and staff to connect and create a sense of belonging, family and community. Over the last four years Totara House has and continues to create and establish a strong sense of identity through our focus on our core values. Values that the all students in Totara House decide on and values that the Totara House Leadership use in their service to their whanau group. Every year the Totara House Leadership team meets all the students in the House (from Year 9 to Year 13) and asks them what they want Totara House to represent? They collect the feedback and then come together as a leadership team to find the common themes and values that have echoed throughout the feedback from the students. From here they identify THREE values (inspired and influenced from the feedback) as the core values for Totara House for the year. In 2024 the Totara House values were Commitment, Passion and Confidence.

Commitment: the state or quality of being dedicated to a cause, activity, etc.

Totara House Student Leaders @ Senior Prizegiving 2024

‘Finishing what you start’ was a common theme throughout the student feedback. The House Leadership team decided that the value that best represented this was ‘commitment’. Throughout the year the House Leaders spoke about ‘commitment’ at our House assemblies, they also encouraged the students to commit to our House by getting involved in the House events throughout the year. In Term 2, the messaging around commitment was heavily focussed on and centered around the commitment to academic excellence where the leaders encouraged our NCEA Level 1, 2 and 3 students to commit and to stay the course with their NCEA journey. This messaging continued throughout Term 3 as well.

Passion: having, showing, or caused by strong feelings or beliefs.

Totara House @ Athletics Day 2024

Totara House has established a certain standard when it comes to performance. During the course of 2024 there were a number of occasions where the students came together to perform for specific House events in particular the celebration assemblies for Samoan Language Week and Te Wiki o Te Reo Maori Language Week. We encouraged all students to get involved and we were so pleased to have a strong reputation from the house for both performances. The students understand the standard we want to maintain and immediately understand the passion and commitment required whenever Totara House comes together.

Confidence: the feeling or belief that one can have faith in or rely on someone or something.

Totara House 10TKr 2024

‘Belief in myself’ was another common theme from the student feedback. The House Leaders wanted to capitalize on this and decided that ‘confidence’ was the best way to create a strong concept and value that resonated with the students. Specifically with our junior students, the leadership team spent time with the Year 9 and Year 10 students during the House events, helped with the new students to the house and even spent time with students who were in trouble - in an effort to help build confidence. If students knew that they had a good support system (in the leadership team) to look to and lean in on, their confidence at school would grow.

I would like to acknowledge the Totara House Mentorship team of 2024 - Ms Ferguson (9TFn), Mrs Rani (9TRn), Mr Krishna (10TKr), Mrs Nguyen (11TNg), Mr Niko (11TNi), Ms Kolo (12TKl), Mr Koch (13TKh) and Ms Tuitupou (13TTt) and the Totara House Leadership Team (Stephney, Daliz, Anaysha, Feao and Troy). Without the team, these values and the spirit of Totara House would not thrive. I thank you all and celebrate you all for your love, service, commitment and passion that you poured into Totara House 2024. Thank you to Mr Koch and Ms Tuitupou for the 5 years that you dedicated to 13TKh and 13TTt.

Looking forward to 2025

As we enter 2025, I want to acknowledge and celebrate the team who will be carrying Totara House this year.

Ms Tuitupou - 9TTt

Ms Ferguson - 10TFn

Mrs Rani - 10TRn

Mr Krishna - 11TKr

Mrs Ahokovi - 12TAo

Mr Niko - 12TNi

Ms Kolo - 13TKl 

Some of the Totara House Leaders for 2025

As well as our support staff: Mr Koch and Mrs Nyguen. I am also excited about our Totara House Leadership team for 2025 - Aaliyah, Louvina, Mamarei, Viliami, Raymond, Etuate, Tupou and Paula. I am excited to work alongside our awesome staff and student team this year.

The priority for Term 1 is:

Sharing our data: Our weekly Attendance/Uniform/Pastoral Notes spreadsheet that will be updated and shared every Thursday. I ask that we continue to share our notes here and update it accordingly. This will be shared at our first Dean and Mentor meeting this term (day/date and time to be confirmed).
Connecting with our Attendance Officers: We will continue to work with our Attendance Officers who will work with our students with low and concerning attendance percentages.
Identifying students who have not shown to school: We will identify the students who have not shown up to school in the first 20 consecutive days of school and refer them immediately to the Attendance Officers (please update the spreadsheet when we start identifying the students).
Connecting with the parents and families: Contact home via phone call, letter, text or email to introduce yourself as the mentor teacher to the students so we can build and reconnect with our families. This relationship is important so that we can wrap around our akonga.
Totara House Values 2025: Find our House Values this term with the Student Leadership Team coming to meet with your mentor classes to discuss what they want Totara House to represent this year.

I look forward to journeying with you all this year. I am grateful for what we have built together with Totara House and I am excited to see a year where we continue to strive for excellence in and out of the classroom, togetherness and creating a safe and welcoming space for our students in Totara House.

Week 5 Term 1: English Department: Structured Literacy Part 3 (Feb 24 - Feb 28)

In my earlier posts, I have focused on the Structured Literacy approach that the English Department are undertaking in Term 1. I have outline what our focus is and the strategies that we have learnt through our catch up to code sessions with Dr Jannie and the Science and Social Science Departments. Please see my reflection here:

Alby's Blog Post Entry - 17/02/25

Alby's Blog Post Entry - 10/02/25

Dr Jannie leading our 3rd session for Structured Literacy

This week we had our third session and we went through two structured literacy tasks that we could do with our junior classes. In this post I am going to reflect on the tasks  (3 tasks) and my take away from it. The focus for the third session was WORD MEANINGS and CONTEXT USE. Both WORD MEANINGS and CONTEXT USE are a powerhouse for vocabulary knowledge and comprehension. 

WORD MEANING

The three learning outcomes when focusing on WORD MEANINGS are: 

• Say ready (can I say it?)
• Read ready (Can I read it?)
• Write ready (Can I write it?)

Vocabulary fluency is the foundation to comprehension. If we cannot pronounce the word, we cannot say them and we cannot find out what they mean. We grow vocabulary when we expose students to more print. The task for WORD MEANING helps to expose students to words via print and enables them to say it, read it and write it. 

TASK 1: WORD MEANING 1

In this task, the teacher will provide a list of words (ideally sample words from the primary text studied in class). The students will go through the list of words and they will see if they can: 

• Identify the syllables in the word
• Learn how to pronounce the word
• Explain what the word means in their own words (before looking it up in the dictionary)

Structured Literacy PLD

In our PLD, we gave the task a go and we looked at three words (Heterogeneous, Brigade and Aspiration). We learnt that our role as teachers in this task is that we have to scaffold the discussion when doing feedback with the students making sure that they know: 

What is a Clear meaning for the word 

What is a Precise meaning for the word

What is a Concise meaning for the word

My take away from TASK 1 was: 

• It is a great opportunity for students to look at the words in different ways - writing/reading/speaking
• It is a great opportunity for students and teachers to look at contexts that we understand the word in our own knowledge. When you’re working on your own then partnering up - you are involved in the process
• Not looking the word up first helps the students to understand the word meaning better.
• Here is a word, see what you know and see if you can explain it to yourself and your partner.
• We as teachers can affirm student’s findings and then ask them to look at dictionary meanings to confirm their findings.

TASK 2: WORD MEANING 2

Task 3

• In this task the students will work in groups of 4 or 5. 
• They are given an envelope with a short text and x4 words (cut out from the text). The objective is to read the text, learn the word (pronunciation) assigned to them and teach others in the group. 
• They will read the text then give out the assigned words after the reading. 
• Once they get their assigned word they need to - Identify the syllable/pronunciation stress and explanation
• What are the four words, can you now remember the explanation?
• Everyone shares the word (teaching the syllable), how to pronounce it and then explain what they think it is. 

Group work for Task 2

My take away from TASK 2 was:

• We will need to model this task to the students so that they can understand the process and their role in it.
• The text we provide needs to be texts that we have already spent time unpacking with the students so that they understand the context of the words that they are coming across during the reading.
• Why is this uptake potential? There is a lot of sharing, everyone is responsible for their word

TASK 3: WORD MEANING 3 + CONTEXT USE

Task 2

Word meanings and explanations

• Read the words in the list - pronouncing each correctly
• Read the meanings below (list of words)
• Match each meaning with the word it explains
• Use each word in a sample sentence or context
• Students will read out the definition first then match the definition with a word from the word list. They can work on this in groups or in pairs then feedback to the class. 

My take away from TASK 3 was:

• If students identify it is much more powerful
• It is important that we help students with Step 1: Work out the meaning together - they are much more involved in the process and they are not just looking for definitions in the dictionary. It is involved and interactive. 
• It is important that we help students with Step 2: Record and recall to consolidate uptake and learning
• It is important that we help students with Step 3: Identify and learn word families

Week 4 Term 1: English Department: Structured Literacy Part 2 (Feb 17 - Feb 21)

 In Week 3 Term 1 I posted about how we are starting our Structured Literacy journey with the English, Social Science and Science Department. Led by our Literacy expert, Dr Jannie, we were introduced to a session on catching up on the structured literacy code and understanding what syllabification is. You can read my previous here - Alby's Blog Post Entry (10/02/25). 

We had some reflection questions to recap on our previous PLD session. 

What is a syllable? 

The sound of the word. Vowel and consonant sounds that make up the sound of the word. It gives the beat in the word.

Group of letters

Representing a beat of sound

Containing at least ONE vowel

What is a multisyllabic word? 

More than one syllable - vowels and consonants. Words that have multiple syllables.

Why give multisyllabic word(s) attention? 

Most words are multisyllabic, this helps to increase fluency for students. If our learners have a big mental repertoire and capability with vocabulary it will help enrich their literacy.

Cross curricular team work @ Structured Literacy PLD

In Week 2 Term 1, we spent time going through an activity that we could do with our Year 9 and Year 10 classes. The activity aligns with our Structured Literacy approach and in Week 2 Term 1, the teachers across the English, Social Science and Science Departments had the opportunity to give it a go with Dr Jannie. 

In the activity we had to: 

• Write down words that the were read out. We had to write down what we hear (the words read out were made up words) 
• The teacher then shared the words in a work sheet and we had to see if our words matched the words on the work sheet 
• From here we had to work out the syllables and use/to indicate where we think the syllable is.
• Label each syllable - S = stressed U = Unstressed

Activity for Structured Literacy

Pros of the Do Now

• Get the students to know that ONE sound can be written in various ways - look at the different patterns in words but the same sound is important. One syllable can have different spelling but it is still one syllable and one sound.
• Look up syllables to refresh your memory
• Look for VOWEL sound and consonant as well.
• When helping students to syllabify words - they will look for vowels and consonant sounds.
• Stress helps students to sound out and know the word(s).
• Don’t make assumptions that students can read and unpack words accordingly so doing activities like this is important. 
• Context matters - words in isolation may not be a good idea. Reading words in the full text

I am looking forward to trying this one of my senior classes this term. 

Week 3 Term 1: English Department: Structured Literacy Part 1 (Feb 10 - Feb 14)

 For the English Department, one of the school goals that we are focused on this year is: 

Goal 3 Literacy and Numeracy

By the end of Year 10, 80% of students will be reading at or above the expected level

By the end of Year 10, 70% of students are writing at or above the expected Curriculum Level.

By the end of Year 10, 70% of students are achieving in Mathematics at or above the expected Curriculum Level.

That 90% of Year 11 students will achieve NCEA Literacy. 

That 90% of Year 11 students will achieve NCEA Numeracy.

Specifically focusing on Literacy. One of the ways that we would like to support this school goal is prioritizing Structured Literacy in our Year 9 and Year 10 English classes. As a cross curricular collaboration with the Social Science and Science Departments, we are undertaking a specific Structured Literacy strategy with across all of the English, Social Science and Science Year 9 and Year 10 classes. Led by our Literacy expert, Dr Jannie Van Hees, we will be looking at a structured literacy strategy and implementing it in our junior classes. The focus for this term is syllabification. 

Structured literacy in New Zealand focuses systematic instruction of reading and writing, focusing on:

Phonemic awareness
Phonics
Vocabulary fluency
Comprehension
Teachers use a multi-sensory, direct approach, breaking down language components into manageable units.
Structured literacy supports a solid foundation for literacy development, aiming to ensure all students achieve proficiency and confidence in reading and writing across all educational levels.

English, Social Science and Science Department - Structured Literacy PLD

At Tamaki College, the Structured Literacy strategy will be centered around the learning areas driving two parts that essentially work well together. 

Letter knowledge + Word/s and Phonemes (the sound of words) - English Department

Sentence + Text Fluency. Graphemes (sound as they are written) - Social Science and Science Department. 

Collectively we cover - 

• Syllabification - syllabification and multi-syllable words
• Fluent - word group reading
• Vocabulary meanings - explain ready
• Word + Word Group - Sentence, fluence - flow and rhythm
• Phonology - sounds of the language, the sound of words
• Orthography - the look of words
• Morphology - the meaning of words

The next steps from here is that we are having two sessions with Dr Jannie to get ourselves on the same page with the strategy and understanding how we can implement the do now activity in our lessons. We have currently completed one out of two sessions. I look forward to reflecting on what I learnt from this PLD. 

Week 2 Term 1: English Department: Focus and Goals for 2025 (Feb 03 - Feb 07)

English Department @ Careers Expo 2024

It is important for any team and organization to review where they are at and where they want to go. I hope to use the school goals for 2025 as a focus point for our department going into the new year. I know that from here, our own department goals will spill out from here. Two goals that we did set on achieving in 2024 was developing a new curriculum for our NCEA Level 1 English program (to align with Te Mataiaho: The New Curriculum Refresh) which we have done and also developing our English Department publication of student work ‘Our Voices’ which we were also able to tick off. We hope to continue to work through these two new initiatives and give it the space, support and time it needs to flourish and grow.

Going into 2025 I would like the Department to focus on TWO on the School Goals. 

Goal 1 Māori Achievement

To raise Māori student achievement and cultural visibility.

That 85% of Māori students will achieve NCEA Level 2.

English Department @ Year 8 College Experience Day 2024

We will focus on tracking our Māori student achievement data for NCEA Level 2 English. We will look at both achievement and non achievement and identify what the key drivers are for achievement/non achievement. I hope that we can work closely with the Māori students in NCEA Level 2 English to see what is working and what we can do to better support them. 

Goal 3 Literacy and Numeracy

By the end of Year 10, 80% of students will be reading at or above the expected level

By the end of Year 10, 70% of students are writing at or above the expected Curriculum Level.

By the end of Year 10, 70% of students are achieving in Mathematics at or above the expected Curriculum Level.

That 90% of Year 11 students will achieve NCEA Literacy.

That 90% of Year 11 students will achieve NCEA Numeracy.

Structured Literacy PLD with Dr Jannie

We will focus specifically on Literacy. Our priority will be focusing on the Structured Literacy program that we working on with our Literacy Expert (Dr Jannie) in conjunction with the Social Science and Science Department. We will also look at literacy and reading skill strategies and implementing this in our curriculum throughout Term 1, 2 and 3 with the support of our Literacy Coordinator (Mr Milford). The hope is that this will support and strengthen the literacy across our Year 9 and Year 10 English cohort. 

We will also continue to evolve and design our curriculum that fits our students. As mentioned in my earlier post from Term 4 2024 - "WHO we teach determines WHAT we teach" (Claudia Rozas - UoA). We want to ensure that our curriculum not only reflects the curriculum refresh but also the society, community and students that we work with. We are constantly growing and redesigning our curriculum to cater and serve our akonga, Te Mataiaho and our school's vision. Please see our Department landing site page for our curriculum for 2025 and our teacher sites here - Tamaki College English Department Sites. 

Week 1 Term 1: English Department: Review 2024 (Jan 27 - Jan 31)

Tamaki College English Department 2024

Firstly I want to give all thanks, glory and praise to our GOD for his covering, provision, protection and blessings over the English Department in 2024. 2024 was a year of new opportunities, growth, reconnection and affirmation. ‘New opportunities’ in our journey with the new curriculum refresh (Te Mataiaho) with our NCEA Level 1 English course, ‘growth’ in our journey through structured literacy with the online app StepsWeb and the new literacy co-requisite. ‘Reconnection’ with reconnecting with AATEL (Auckland Association of Teachers of English Literature) and ‘affirmation’ in the work that we have been given the privilege of doing with our young and gifted writers through our department’s second publication of ‘Our Voices.’ As a team we have worked together in making sure that we have provided a service and learning program that keeps our students from Year 9 to Year 13 - engaged, encouraged, enlightened and empowered through English literature.

Tamaki College English Department 2024

I am grateful, humbled and proud of the curriculum that we have built together, the achievement in our NCEA Level 1, 2 and 3 English internal assessments and the space that we have created for our young readers and writers. The opportunities, growth, reconnection and affirmation that we have experienced as a collective has been a blessing and one that I hope we can continue to journey together in

I want to honor, acknowledge and celebrate the English Department. I want to thank the staff, the family, for the love and excellence that they bring to the department. To Ms Anahina Latu, Mrrs Christine Williams, Mr Jeremy Spruyt, Ms Francis Kolo, Mr Faiyaz Hoosein, Mrs Pravina Harde and Mrs Vivienne Jenson-Jones - thank you for your dedication, commitment, love, support, service and friendship to our department and to our students. It is an honor and privilege to journey through 2024 with you all. I am grateful for everything that you have poured into our department. I thank you, I am grateful for and I celebrate you. I am excited for what 2025 has in store for us and our department.

I would like to acknowledge Mrs Christine Williams and Mrs Vivienne Jenson-Jones who have finished at Tamaki College - thank you both for the life, love and joy that you have poured into your department and students. We will miss you dearly! We will now take a look at our self-review of our School Goals, Junior and Senior English program for 2024.

JUNIOR ENGLISH (Year 9 and Year 10) REVIEW 2024

Year 9 and Year 10 English @ Tamaki College 2024

The Junior English program and curriculum continues to evolve and grow each year. This year was no different where our curriculum and program went through a few changes. Our goal with the Year 9 and Year 10 Junior English program was to study relevant and rich texts, complete a Common Assessment Task each term and implement the literacy strategies and practices to support our student’s literacy journey. Our program for our Junior English program for 2024 was:

Term 1: Extended Text Study + Formal Writing (CAT)

Term 2: Short Text Study + Creative Writing (CAT) + Mid Year Examination

Term 3: Visual Text Study + Close Viewing (CAT)

Term 4: Speech (CAT) + Final Year Examination

We are excited to introduce new texts by some of Aotearoa’s Maori and Pacific writers such as Tim Tipene (Kura Toa) and Tusiata Avia in our Junior English curriculum. We also gave some of our Year 10 English students the opportunity to sit the Literacy Co-Requisite assessment in the September intake (Term 3). We selected students who are at curriculum Level 5 for PAT reading comprehension. The students used a period during their double period (during the Week A schedule) to go through the practice assessment using the previous Literacy Co-Requisite papers with their English teacher. In Term 4, a new curriculum for our Year 9 and Year 10 Junior English program was released. The new curriculum has been in the works for over 11 months and aligns itself with Te Mataiaho (the curriculum refresh). We are excited to roll this new program out in 2025. Some of the key features of the new course includes a reduced Common Assessment Task schedule, prioritized structured literacy activities throughout the year, a whole term dedicated to literacy intensives (term 1) and scheduling library periods for all of our Year 9 and Year 10 students focusing on reading for pleasure.

SENIOR ENGLISH (NCEA Level 1, 2 and 3 English) REVIEW 2024:

NCEA Level 1 English students @ Tamaki College 2024

Our NCEA Level 1, 2 and 3 English results for 2024 were positive. Initially the credit shift was slow to start off across our NCEA Level 1, 2 and 3 English classes. In Term 1 many of our senior students were starting assessments and it was not until half way of Term 2 did we start to see a positive shift with our NCEA achievement data. Specifically with our NCEA Level 1 cohort, our students were working through a new curriculum refresh and we knew that we had to be patient and trust our curriculum. At the beginning of Term 3 we had 96 students on 0 credits in our NCEA Level 1 English cohort. In Week 5 of Term 4 we had 14 students with 0 credits and 71% of our NCEA Level 1 English students with 5+ English credits. Our NCEA Level 2 and NCEA Level 3 English students gained the majority of their credits in Term 3. By the end of Week 3 Term 4 we had 19 students with 0 credits in our NCEA Level 2 English cohort and 14 students with 0 credits in our NCEA Level 3 English cohort. Our internal assessment schedule (although busy) kept to the deadline where we closed all internal assessments for our NCEA Level 1, 2 and 3 English students at the end of Week 1 Term 4. We are pleased with our internal assessment results for 2024 and we are excited to improve, grow and strive for excellence with senior students in 2025.

NCEA English Examinations Term 4 2024

Our external assessment results highlight a range of concerns. Many of our students achieve NCEA through internal assessments and the priority around external assessments has wavered. When you partner this with ongoing absences, it is inevitable that the external results will hinder. Although the results for our external assessments were not the best in 2024, we are hopeful to create an opportunity for our students to feel confident and comfortable to do the external assessments, to see the importance in doing external assessments and prioritizing them as they are an integral part of one’s learning journey in secondary school. 

Week 8 Term 4: English Department: AATEL Big Day Out PLD: My takeaway (December 02 - December 06)

AATEL

In Week 5 Term 4, the English Department attended the AATEL Big Day Out held at Ormiston College. This was an opportunity for our team to attend workshops, see what other English teachers are doing with their junior and senior English literature students and share what we learnt. The workshops that I signed up for were: 

• Approaches to Scholarship English
• The Science of Learning from a Skeptic’s Point of View

I enjoyed the workshops that I registered for but I my main highlight was from the keynote speaker that we had the privilege of listening during our welcome and powhiri. 

Claudia Rozas @ AATEL Big Day Out November 15

Claudia Rozas (University of Auckland) was the keynote speaker and the title of her keynote was Wrestling with the Angel Empire English. In her keynote, she outlined the journey we have all been a part of with the changing curriculum and where our English literature curriculum has positioned itself now. Here are some notes I took from her presentation that resonated with me. The English curriculum focused on two key turns which originated in 2007 when the first curriculum refresh occured. 

The Competency Turn

• Current curriculum that sit broadly with trans-national union
• Outcome driven type of curriculum
• Assessment driven
• Self managing students
• Knowledge economy and society
• Curriculum choice and flexibility largely unchallenged.
• High degrees of curriculum variability
• Skills competencies
• Assessment framework that has choice and flexibility built into it.

The Knowledge Turn

• Look up Michael Young (2008)
• Potential for knowledge to be ‘emptied’ out of the curriculum
• Postmodernism and constructivism notions had potential for relativism
• Who we teach determines What we teach
• Knowledge ‘rich’ curriculum
• Capturing knowledge and curriculum in a particularly way
• The Knowledge turn is global. New Zealand is late to have a knowledge led curriculum.

Now the curriculum has evolved into one where identity, political, social and cultural sensitivity and awareness is more centralized. The 'turns' that define this are: 

The Activist Turn (Connected to the Identity Turn)

• #MeToo Movement
• Social Justice Studies + Masters of Social Justice introduced at tertiary studies in Aoteaora New Zealand
• Black Lives Matter Movement
• Hikoi
• Protests
• We are living in an activist moment
• Curriculum that supports activism
• All of these moments and ‘turns’ have created a curriculum collision.

2023 Te Mataiaho 1.0

• Addresses content and knowledge gaps and gives effect to Te Tiriti.
• Mana o rite matauranga Maori
• Shapes English in a particular way
• Establishes a relationship between knowledge and identity
• Focuses on ‘values’ (a ‘call’ to action)
• We cannot understand knowledge led curriculum in Aoteaora New Zealand if we do not understand matauranga Maori.
• The primary focus of English at Secondary school level in connection to Te Mataiaho is to AFFIRM IDENTITY
• It looks at culture, gender and sexuality in connection to Identity but does not focus on class (social class) - is this needed?
• The Understand/Do/Know is connected to WHO WE ARE (identity turn)
• Curriculum is always going to be a product of historical moments.

I was inspired by what was shared during Roza's presentation. She explained that WHO WE TEACH DETERMINES WHAT WE TEACH, that curriculum is shaped in particular ways and what does belong to us is to engage in conversations. Curriculum as an invitation to participate in an enduring conversation.