Ever since the Prime Minister announced the Government’s depicting every child who has ever made a representative team Investing for Educational Success (IES) policy, collaboration has in the history of the school, which dates back to the 1950s. become the buzz word. It’s been talked about such a lot that you ‘It’s not unusual for community members to visit our school might mistakenly think it was a brand new idea. just to check out the sports photos,’ says Kim. ‘It’s well known Not so. Collaboration has been common practice in the around the district that we keep an archive of our high achieving New Zealand teaching context for as long as we have had sports stars,’ she said. schools. There are many models in use and schools collaborate The eight schools combine for athletics at Toko School, for a variety of purposes because Toko has the depending on their biggest sports field, and issues, their needs and a juniors’ play day is held the environment in which at Midhirst School. All they operate. The Prime the schools travel into Minister’s model of having Stratford for combined one principal paid extra to swimming competitions assume special status in a and to Rawhitiroa School cluster is a new concept for the cross country, and rather different from which takes place in collaboration as it is a neighbouring farm typically practiced by the paddock. Midhirst School profession. is again host for the end Common definitions of year tabloid sports. of collaboration include O t her comp et it ions bottom up initiatives and for which the schools partnerships of equals who collaborate include the have chosen to network year seven and eight The Key Competencies are aligned to the Learning Stars together for a common debating competition purpose. The participants and the Jones Cup, an each add value by correspondingly contributing their ideas historic rugby and netball competition for year three to eight towards achieving agreed goals. Collaborative practice is based children. on the maxim that ‘none of us is as good as all of us.’ ‘The collaboration works really well,’ says Kim, ‘and gives our Toko School has long worked in collaboration with other children the opportunity to meet other children from the district schools in rural Stratford. ‘We participate in two different and to compete.’ clusters,’ says principal, Kim Waite, ‘which serve very different Separately, Toko School invites the three sole charge schools purposes.’ to join them in other activities such as the ‘Maths Road Show’, a ‘One involves eight schools and is for the purpose of giving all hands-on maths day, ‘World of Music Art and Dance’ (WOMAD) of the children the opportunity to enjoy good healthy sports and and the cycle safety programme. ‘The sole charge schools are too debating competitions. The other is a professional development small to run programmes like these,’ says Kim, ‘but by joining us cluster for principals and teachers and involves four schools,’ at Toko, their children don’t have to miss out,’ she said. she said. The second cluster of four schools has been operating for many Toko School, with a role of 114 children, is surrounded by years and has a focus on professional development. It involves other small rural schools. ‘There are three sole charge schools in Ngaere, Inglewood, Toko and Stratford schools, affectionately our cluster and another small school east of Eltham,’ says Kim. called the NITS cluster! ‘There are also three other small schools around Stratford so it ‘The cluster was originally set up as a three year professional makes sense for us to combine for competitions and share our development programme in Information, Communications facilities,’ she said. and Technology (ICT) and was funded by the Ministry,’ said Sports competitions are a highly valued feature of Taranaki’s Kim. ‘When that programme came to an end, some of us agreed history. Toko School’s main corridor is a sporting ‘hall of fame’, to retain the cluster for professional development in other
The children at Toko School are bright and engaging
areas. The first of these was identified as the NZ Curriculum implementation.’ ‘We agreed to engage an expert (Lester Flockton), in curriculum development to help us work through the establishment of key competencies in our schools,’ said Kim. ‘That is how we developed the ‘Toko Learning Stars’ which align with the key competencies,’ she said. ‘They include a challenging curriculum, personal best, learning to learn, connected and well- being.’ ‘We then moved on to national standards and as a cluster we shared our information and interrogated the data to see what it was telling us. We found that across all our schools we needed more professional development for our teachers in written language skills. We all contributed to contracting two experts in written language skills who has been working with our teachers for some years,’ said Kim. ‘It is so useful for our teachers to be working with other teachers at their own level,’ she said.
The collaboration doesn’t stop there. Alongside internal moderation of assessment data, the cluster has moderated the collective data from all four schools to get a broader picture. ‘This was a useful exercise for us, particularly as we are a smaller school,’ says Kim. ‘It gives us a sense of where our children sit in relation to the wider group.’ Many projects have emerged as a result of this collaborative practice including developing the deputy principals’ leadership capabilities and running teacher only days in self-regulated learning, which encourages children to take ownership of their own learning and become self–managers. For this year’s teacher only day, thirteen staff from each year group visited two schools in the province to observe the teachers in their classes. Each year group visited two different schools and later shared what they had observed in a feed-back forum. ‘Exposing our teachers to others’ practice proved to be a hugely valuable experience,’ said Kim. This year a Massey University expert will be running
Principal Kim Waite takes a break under the shade tree overlooking the sports field
The school gardens flourish at Toko School
and frequently exceeds the budgets of the smaller schools. ‘We have to apply to the Taranaki Electricity Trust each year to fund our professional development programmes,’ says Kim, ‘and who knows how long that will last.’ One can’t help but think a few thousand dollars of the Prime Minister’s $359 million tagged for IES would go a long way to helping out the Stratford cluster and no one there is asking for $40,000 extra in their pay packet. In this cluster, the principals have agreed that the Stratford principal will take care of administering the funds and Kim will lead the cluster. It’s not a big deal and any of them would be capable of taking on the extra responsibilities. Back in Toko, I get to stroll through Kim Waite, Principal, offers a warm welcome the park like school grounds, as a programme on e-learning and the use of iPads in all four the children have their morning play time. It is a beautifully schools to record children’s writing process, make movies and presented school and well maintained. Much of this is thanks record videos. to the efforts of an outstanding community. ‘We don’t have a The cluster works exceptionally well, identifying common caretaker here,’ says Kim, ‘but we do have wonderful parents and needs and responding with high quality, timely and appropriate grandparents who willingly volunteer their services,’ she says, as professional development programmes. This, in turn, provides a grandparent emerges from the ceiling of the sick bay! ‘That’s greater learning and achievement opportunities for the children. sorted half the insulation,’ he smiles jovially. Quality professional development does however come at a cost ‘It is the school parents who maintain the gardens, spray the
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The sports photographic gallery at Toko School dates back to the 1950s
grounds, mow the lawns and the fields, clean the swimming pool, erect the rugby goal posts every year, and eradicate the wasp nests,’ says Kim proudly. ‘Even our school bus ‘turn around’ area was completely funded by our community,’ she said. ‘This sheltered waiting space was created so that our kids would be protected from the main highway where vehicles travel at 100kph,’ she said. School fundraising also takes on a different flavour in heartland Taranaki. In the paddock adjacent to the school grounds two heifers graze unobtrusively. ‘They are our fundraising,’ smiles Kim, ‘donated by one of the parents.’ ‘We use the paddock to fatten them up then they are butchered. We sell the meat and the funds come back to the school!’ The children at Toko are confident, polite and engaging. Some of them are third generation Toko School kids. I am fortunate to visit a year four class during ‘news time’. I learn of eight year old Liam’s visit to a garage sale where he bought a cowboy hat for a dollar, which he proudly showed his class. He confidently explained that the hat had a mark on it but you could hardly tell. When asked who had owned the hat, he answered, ‘the people who gave it away!’ These are country kids who live close to the land and have a strong interest in their environment. This year the school has chosen sustainability as their learning theme. Already the school is registered as an enviro school and is proud of its bronze status award and of the Taranaki Regional Council award in recognition of their environmental programme. ‘It all began with the establishment of an orchard,’ said Kim. ‘Every class is responsible for two or three trees. The responsibility is shared around so that in the end every child
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Collaboration and sharing ideas is normal at Toko School
has looked after every tree.’ The most recent addition is a feijoa hedge. It is intended to sell the feijoas and spend the money on new enviro projects. The enviro programme is led by a group of year five and six students who are only too willing to explain how they nurture the trees. They describe how they encourage the bees through companion planting, and plant comfrey to help the trees grow. When the comfrey gets too big the leaves are cut back and soaked in water to make comfrey tea which is then poured back on the gardens. Recycled waste is stored in bins and reused as compost. All of the children are taught to use the recycling bins for their organic rubbish. They also learn about the importance of worms, how to farm them and how to feed them. ‘For many, these activities are an extension of their own home life,’ says Kim, ‘and if not, we encourage the children to integrate these practices into their daily lives at home,’ she says. ‘The next stage is learning how to graft trees for future planting and for selling,’ explains Kim. In the end, it’s all about teaching the children how to make
their environment sustainable, keep it alive and through their actions, help keep the world alive. It is no surprise that even parents who work in town choose to keep their children at the local Toko School. There is a strong sense of extended family, of reaching out to others and of inclusiveness. Children are well supported by their teachers and their peers. Academic standards are high and, the children are stretched to take on new challenges. School is a safe, comfortable and colourful environment where everyone has value. The children engage easily with their teachers and with their peers. Collaboration is not just for the teachers here at Toko. It is embedded in the culture of the school and is the natural way that the children work, play and learn from each other. Such a culture does not create itself. It requires a vision and for the leader to bring the staff, the parents and the children on board. Kim Waite is one principal who has taken the maxim ‘none of us is as good as all of us’ and applied it not just at every level within her school but beyond its walls in the wider community of schools.
Companion planting with comfrey in the orchard
The feijoas are a new addition for the orchard