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Professional learning and development (PLD) is a critical part of practice for all educators. But how do they ensure their ongoing learning has the best impact for ākonga? These personal stories showcase some outstanding PLD experiences that benefit students, educators and whole communities.
In interviews with practitioners Ako asks how kaiako can prepare for difficult conversations in the classroom that might arise when teaching Aotearoa New Zealand’s histories.
NZEI Te Riu Roa member Kylie Parry, a teacher aide and librarian at St Mary’s School in Carterton, reminisces about her time at Rangiwahia School, a rural school in Manawatū that opened in 1895 and closed for good in 2013.
AKO chats with Linda Jordan, a teacher aide and team leader at James Cook High School in Manurewa, about the challenges of lockdown and technology and the profound importance of being supportive and understanding.
A mother-daughter pair of NZEI Te Riu Roa members talk about what it’s been like in lockdown – with one of them being an essential worker and the other high-risk.
The landscape of Deaf education in New Zealand has changed a lot over the last 20 years. We look at the options now available to deaf children who are starting primary school.
School librarians talk about how they serve the varied needs of their communities.
Michelle Simms, the librarian at Te Totara Primary School, talks about some of the ways she supports literacy at the school.
For nearly a decade, Kapanui School in Waikanae has been using kapa haka as a way of building community in and around the school – and the benefits have been extraordinary for both Māori and non-Māori students.
The importance of whānau and community doesn’t lessen just because a child starts school, but it can be hard for educators to maintain these strong connections once a child leaves early childhood education. Jane Blaikie and Jane Arthur talk to educators across the country about the challenges they face when trying to build bridges between the child and their community.
One of the most important things for children with additional needs to be able to access the curricula and to thrive at school is having huge support behind them. That includes from the school and whānau communities and from school leaders, support staff, teachers and itinerant staff.
Across the country, teachers report that there are more children with high learning needs and the resources and funding to help these children are over-stretched. Education professionals talk here about how they deliver the curriculum to children with learning needs.
Janice Jones, deputy principal at Karori West Normal School, says the most important thing about being a truly inclusive school, in which every child thrives, is that the whole school is in the waka together.