Disruption, Creativity; Innovate 2 flourish

Future focussed progress is reliant on innovation.
To engage in deep innovation for success: Open your minds, listen with your hearts and
STRETCH your learning. What action will you take ? What deep innovation will you make ?

Active participation and deep reflection stimulated by the Edward's and Martin Delivering Innovation Conference (June, 2018) led to the creation of a video. The personal challenge was to succinctly capture two full days of powerful learning in a three minute animated video to share with others.

                                              

Here is the way the video evolved:

1. Reading through my own notes, the slides from the conference and collaborative notes shared  from colleagues, led to the scribbling of key words, ideas and images in the pages of a large sketch book.

A sample of the collation of ideas for the video

2. Three strong links to my 2014 sabbatical report and 2014 sabbatical video became apparent. Themes of trust, using the expertise within the group and moving out of our comfort zones, were mental models that were revisited in the new video. The images were adapted and refined to reflect my new learning in relation to innovation.

Images from the 2014 video were revisited and refined for the innovation video

3. I proceeded to replicate and refine the text I developed for some of the original video images such as the heart, the world globe and the ripple waves. I also included new images such as those from the presentation and others to carefully align with the innovation theme.

Adjusting & playing with images on the videoscribe

4. I began writing a script for the narration. The script was refined several times to ensure it succinctly captured the essence of key learning within the three minute time frame. Iteration after iteration was made to carefully match with the images and the online creation of the sketches in real time.

Iteration after iteration of script to capture the key messages

5. The voiceover took several attempts and although not perfect, there comes a time where one runs out of time and simply has to finish !

Here is the final narration script for the video to engage in deep innovation for success:

To engage others in deep learning we must move out of our comfort zones and personally experience the passion, energy, excitement and creativity of learning (Hawkins, 2014. This is an outcome of the research I carried out,  during my principal sabbatical. You can read the full report here).

You can access the original video at this link

How do we engage in deep innovation for success ?

Kim and Mauborne (2015) refer to non - disruptive creation. This is as important as disruption for successful outcomes. Such disruption motivated and inspired the creation of this new video. 

It is an outcome of actively participating in the Edward's and Martin Delivering Innovation Conference (2018).

The focus of the conference was the powerful Innovation Model designed by Edwards and Witten-Hannah. This model has a proven record of delivering significant results in business, sporting and educational institutions.

Edwards and Witten-Hannah Innovation Model

Refining three key mental models for engagement in learning (Hawkins 2014), has led to a deeper understanding of the Model of Innovation.
A culture that genuinely fosters trust is vital. Relatedness connects the hearts and minds of the group and drives purpose and shared ownership.
Ownership is strengthened when the skills and expertise of the group are valued and celebrated. This leads to long - term gains and sustainable outcomes.
Thirdly, the Dreyfus model of skill acquisition (1980) progresses from novice to expert. The competence level often becomes the comfort zone. Stretching and challenging learning to the proficient and expert level is necessary to truly engage in deep innovation for success.
How can success be sustained ?
The Edwards and Martin Schools That Deliver Network (2016) is authentic innovation in action.

This book published in 2016, is based on years of research in practise

Every voice contributes to a contextual vision and core values.
Research teams spend months in the action learning phase, gathering specific data and reflecting on ongoing iterations to bring the vision to life.

Innovating means operating at the high performance level.
This can happen when we:
Shift from talking to active listening.
Hold weekly cadence sessions.
Encourage peers to strongly challenge thinking and openly share progress.
One to one interviews are more valuable than surveys.
Embrace the learning pit. It is the only place to stretch learning.
Allow quality time to practise, research and refine ideas.

Future focussed progress is reliant on innovation.
To engage in deep innovation for success:

What action will I take ?

Create a video. Share this video. Spread the message.

Listen with my heart to others. In particular listen to our learners, staff and parents. 

Use one to one conversations to gather feedback instead of written and online surveys. 

What deep innovation will I make ?

It is evolving. 

It will be collaborative in relation to our vision moving forward. 

It will move us from competent to highly proficient to recognised experts 

within our community and beyond.

What about you ? 

Interruption & Hope ; Purposefully wading into deeper waters

                                                                                                        "Do not be afraid" Mt. 14:27

A personal reflective response to THCT605 Enhancing Catholic School Identity (ECSI): Introducing the Leuven Project
This is my early understanding in relation to the Leuven Project. It is a personal interpretation, a way for me to recontextualise my learning so that it will be meaningful for the local school community. In sharing this reflection, I welcome interruption to my thoughts through dialogue as we purposefully wade into deeper waters together.

 Jesus Walking On Water by Gloria Ssali Fine Art America

1. Interruption
How can a school leader abandon their school for five days after an emergency closure due to water damage ? This was the question I grappled with when an unexpected event, interrupted and displaced some of our school community from their regular teaching and learning spaces in the days leading up to this course.

2. Hope
Three valid reasons enabled the interruption to provide a space for new learning and formation:
a) I implicitly trust the capabilities of our very able staff. Emails and phone calls are reassuring. b) Prior enrolment in the Australian Catholic University (ACU) paper generously sponsored by Catholic Education Melbourne (CEM) meant that I was committed. c) A duty as a school leader to fully understand the ECSI Project in light of our school report and a personal challenge to further support and enhance Catholic school identity in the hope that it will flourish.

3. Interruption

Professor Didier Polleyfet and Jan Bouwens presenting the ECSI Project to Catholic school leaders, August 2017

After our first full day of learning, my head was spinning with theological terms, words and phrases associated with the ECSI Project. Like all learning, we have to be brave enough to fall into the pit (Butler & Edwards, 1994 cited in Nottingham, 2003) before we can truly rise to the challenge of new learning.
On my second morning, after alighting from a tram full of commuters staring at their mobile phone screens, my eyes were immediately drawn to the sun glistening on a large bronze crucifix outside the headquarters of CEM, James Goold House. This symbol was an interruption to the norm, an immovable presence amidst the hurrying passersby.

Image from Taiwan Today

4. Hope
Passersby appeared oblivious to the bronze crucifix, a striking symbol of Christianity. Yet, it was on the morning of our fifth and final day, when I finally believed my new learning was making sense, that my perception of the insignificance of the symbol to passersby changed. I noticed a single, white lily had been placed at the foot of the crucifix. Immediately, this simple gesture, had transformed a traditional symbol of Catholic identity into the present space where dialogue, personal encounter and hope could connect and flourish.

5. Interruption

The latest publication from Pollefeyt and Bouwens

As leaders and teachers in Catholic schools, we are called to enable space and place for personal encounters within the rich tapestry of Catholic symbols, prayer, scripture and tradition. Research from the Leuven Project (Pollefeyt & Bouwens, 2014), grounded in data from our Australian schools, suggests that Religious Education primarily based on Christian Values is not enough within the context of our secularising society. We have to challenge ourselves to dig more deeply, in order to purposefully connect the mystery and tradition of our Catholic faith, with the contemporary lives of our learners today.
To help explain this, I have likened this challenging interruption to an iceberg analogy.

Personal iceberg analogy to explain a way to enhance Catholic Identity in our schools today.

6. Hope
We can help our learners to engage in a sacred space, to enable a personal encounter with our loving God. Research from Pollefeyt and Bouwens (2014), indicates that the two main areas where we can make an impact are:
a) The creative use of scripture and
b) Engaging learners in prayer.

Let's support our learners to connect with and make sense of their personal life experiences in the contemporary world of today, by purposefully wading into deeper waters together.  "Do not be afraid" Mt. 14:27.

Through intentional interruption and by drawing deeply from Catholic sacraments, traditions, symbols and stories (Sharkey, 2015), we can enable a vibrant, living, contemporary Catholicity to flourish.

Footnote
This reflection is an attempt to recognise the following theological interpretations:
Interruption - Boeve (2016) argues that a productive tension between theology and religious studies interrupting each other is mutually beneficial.
Hope -  Sharkey (2017) challenges us to reflect on and celebrate the seeds of hope we can identify in our current practise.

References

Boeve, L. (2016). Theology at the crossroads of university, church and society: Dialogue, difference and Catholic identity. London, United Kingdom: Bloombsbury.

Nottingham, J. (2003). The Learning Challenge. Retrieved from http://www.jamesnottingham.co.uk/learning-pit/

Pollefeyt, D. & Bouwens, J. (2014). Identity in Dialogue. Assessing and enhancing Catholic school identity. Munster, Germany: Lit Verlag.

Sharkey, P. (2015). Educator's guide to Catholic identity. Victoria, Australia: Vaughan Publishing.

3 out of 4 learning terms completed ; gathering feedback to go forward

A recent article in eSchool News captures the potential of learning spaces that enable holistic development for all learners. "We have a responsibility to foster each student’s inherent genius and draw out his or her natural brilliance while maximising emotional growth."

Our Engaging Learning Spaces (ELS) for 2015  are a move away from traditional classrooms to more fully address our learning goal : To engage every learner in deep learning for success. 

We are about to finish our third term with ELS. As a staff, we are teaching inside an authentic, living inquiry. We are continually reflecting, discussing and implementing small changes and improvements along the way. As we prepare for Term 4 and for 2016, we remain open to further feedback from students and parents to ensure we maintain a balanced approach to our ELS's. 

We have already received feedback from over one hundred educators visiting our ELS's this year. The most recent group of principals from Otago Southland shared their thoughts via "post it" notes. 

Students
This week, I will be gathering feedback from students. I will be involving the voice of our learners. What is it like to be a learner in this hub ? What's going well to engage you in learning and what could be improved ?

Parents
Parents are invited to email their responses to the following questions directly to jjackson@stjoseph.school.nz

1. What has worked well to engage your child in their learning this year ?

2. What's not going well ? Keep in mind the benefits of being solution focused. If you believe something is not going well, support your feedback with a suggested solution for improvement.

3. Any further comments

Staff have already begun to complete a similar document with their own feedback. We will be supporting this with achievement data.

All feedback, will be collated, shared and contribute to our next steps going forward.

An earlier blog entitled :
Are you willing to create disturbance and be disturbed yourself ? shared a message from a visiting professor. "We can all benefit from the ability to challenge and be challenged. We need to be willing to disturb and be disturbed - to make people stop and think aloud, talk and innovate at all levels. We can use difference to challenge and stimulate reflection that can grow practice for all learners."

Peace of mind with an external review around the corner - 5 easy steps

External reviews can cause undue worry and stress for a school community no matter how well prepared they may be. How can we as leaders, create a supportive climate and ensure peace of mind for our staff ?

In a Catholic school, we have two external reviews every three to four years. One is the mandated government education review that enables school trustees, leaders and teachers to identify the strengths and weaknesses of current performance. We had our last one of these in 2013 and will be next reviewed in 2017-2018. The other important review is the External Review of Catholic Special Character and Development. We have these every three years and we are due for one next week. You can read an earlier post on the Catholic review process by going to this link.

Challenge and be challenged
As leaders, I believe that we should always be looking at ways to challenge ourselves, have a growth mindset and "move out of our comfort zones". External reviews are an ideal opportunity to ensure that we haven't remained doing the "same old, same old" as we were doing during the previous review. However, waiting until the external review happens isn't good enough. Our system of continual internal self-reviews ensures that we remain at the "top of our game" and don't ever sit back and believe that we are "the best that we can be". Active leaders know that we can always keep growing and learning and must be authentic role models for our colleagues.

Importance of having a national Catholic voice
It is thanks to an enthusiastic and supportive team of staff, in particular our Assistant and Deputy Principals who step up when I am away, that I can accept new and challenging learning opportunities. Most recently, I was able to participate in the New Zealand Catholic Primary Principal's  Executive Meeting in Wellington. The Executive Committee is made up of two representatives from each of the six Catholic dioceses: Auckland, Hamilton, Palmerston North, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin. 

The meeting took place at the New Zealand Principal Federation (NZPF) offices over two and a half days. During that time, guest speakers included Denise Torrey (NZPF president), Sir Br Pat Lynch (CEO Catholic Education Office), Chris Duthie-Jung (The Catholic Institute) and Lorraine Kerr (NZSTA school trustees association president). The opportunity enabled me to reflect on the important role we play as leaders of Catholic schools, especially in ensuring there is a Catholic voice at all levels of the country. It is quite clear that greater consistency of practice in Catholic schools across New Zealand is a must - national Catholic review indicators are an excellent starting point.

Flip the process and write our own report
Keeping that in mind, our external Catholic review is an optimal time to share, showcase and review our excellent practice. We want the experience to be a valuable and positive one for all concerned and we want to be open to new learning, next steps and recommendations. We don't want to finish the review and then say, "I forgot to mention or share this..with the review team." 
Recent reflections have led me to the potential of writing our own review report. That way we can take ownership of the process and therefore experience a reassuring "peace of mind". We can write our own report and present it to the review team either before they arrive or when they arrive. (I am open to suggestions and advice - before or when they arrive ?)

5 easy steps to follow
1. Prepare a template for the final report based on the review format from a past review. It could look something like this.
2. Gather feedback from staff, board, students and parishioners. This can be done collaboratively on a google document or on large sheets of paper. 
3. Agree on recommendations as a result of this collaborative process. Be open, honest and challenging. Present your version of the report to the external review team and encourage them to refer to it during the review.
4. At the formal welcome for the review team, give the students and staff a chance to share and celebrate their roles in relation to the report. 
5. Ensure that the board of trustees share their reflections utilising the different 
dimensions of the report as a planned presentation. 

We have taken ownership of the process and believe that we are as prepared as we can be. 

The outcome is peace of mind for all concerned .

Schools and Communities Creating a Better Future; 5 global trends to action

Schools and Communities Creating a Better Future was the title of the recent learning session held here at St Joseph's school. This was facilitated by the inspiring duo - Mary Wootton and Brian Annan (links to early blogs that include them).  

Our staff sang a welcome waiata led by Paul Cartlidge and Leanne Brookes and fifty staff from the North Otago education sector (primary, secondary, RTLB & RTLit)  joined in. Special thanks to the North Otago Primary Principal's Association for sponsoring a scrumptious and well received afternoon tea. Thanks to the St Joe's Year 7 and 8 students who helped to set up for this event.

St Joe's staff lead the waiata to welcome Mary and Brian

This is an the overview of the session:

Infinity - where the learning never ends (learn more by going to the link).

Future focused learning, Learning Maps, Identifying school change priorities, Identifying student change priorities to grow agency,Engaging family/whanau in learning relationships.

Here are a few highlights of the session:

Future focused learning: Brian asked us to discuss this at our tables and to agree on one "big ticket item" of what future focused learning could look like for our learners.

He shared visuals that captured the shift away from adult controlled learning - past focused learning to student-adult negotiated learning.

Why can't 17 year olds assess themselves against a rubric of self-created standards ?

Five global trends : We need schools to shift their thinking around these global trends. Have conversations around these with learners and families and plan how we will shift into the future. We can either be forward thinking and action this ourselves or wait for it to happen. We need to step into the future with confidence. 
1. Schools to ecologies (not just classroom equals school but learning outside the boundaries of the school walls) 
2. Individuals to connected (connectedness to the outside world) 
3.Competition to collaboration (we learn and achieve more by working with each other) 
4.Passive to interactive (this has moved from active to interactive, then you are also collaborative) 
5.Needy to appreciative ( pld in the past was needs analysis, we need to take responsibility and appreciate learners and their families capabilities).

Passive to interactive - We had to place ourselves on a human continuum and share why we were in that place. We need to move towards the right end of the continuum. Brian suggested this would also be an engaging and thought provoking activity to do with students and parents.

 Continuum - passive, active, interactive teaching & learning environments

Brian explores the continuum in relation to future focussed learning and learner agency

Activate, collaborate, innovate : We discussed a visual that was divided into four quadrants with aspirations to be in the top left quadrant "innovate to improve". The greatest challenge is to become interactive around learning with families, community and the environment and change something in terms of industry and business. 
Brian and Mary's Infinity business offers support services for schools to work towards success in all four quadrants.

Infinity Learning Maps : These are a perfect place to start with our students, staff and families. They allow for open and jargon free conversations and can be used as an evaluative tool to learner agency. You can read more about a learning map workshop at the National Networking Hui on this blog.
Mary explained that learning maps offer a child's perception on their learning. Learning maps can be looked at within a certain school context for authentic purposes. They can be used to understand the current learning situation and then revisited again in a few months time. The learner can take a photo of their map and make a two minute video clip explaining it. This gives an informative picture over time around the learners and their thinking around learning. Research around learning maps by Jean Annan has proven that student, teacher, leader and parent practice make huge shifts. 
Brian and Mary are able to offer support in the form of workshops and seminars for teachers, leaders, students and families in the learning map process and in relation to addressing global trends and future focused learning.

Mary shares the power of  learning maps

Are you actioning these 5 global trends? If so, how ?

Catholic Character review from the inside looking out

Being invited to participate in a Catholic education review is an excellent learning experience. I would encourage every leader in a Catholic school to grab such an opportunity. Spending time in the presence of lead reviewer Paul Ferris,QSM and his experienced team, Rosemary Burke and Fr Wayne Healey was a privilege. Special thanks to the principal of St Patrick's Invercargill, Callan Goodall and his enthusiastic staff and children who made us all feel very welcome. Thanks to the Dunedin Diocese for their willingness to open up the review process. I came away from the review feeling humbled by this rich learning experience and motivated to share my learning with our school community.

The following information was taken from my own notes during the review.

Left to right: Fr Wayne Healey, Rosemary Burke & Paul Ferris

As you walk into the school, it is clear that it is "unabashedly Catholic".

Brother Sir Patrick Lynch shared his thoughts around this at the Catholic Convention

These photos give you an idea of the visual impact the school's Catholic identity makes as you enter the main office, school hall and playground.

Top row - Entrance to St Patrick's School, bottom row -new prayer garden.

One of the eye catching murals displayed in the playground that emanate the rich Catholicity of the school.

More of the murals out in the playground and in the school hall that link to the gospel values and the rich culture and tradition of the school community.

Board of Trustees 
As part of the review, it is necessary to meet with the board. This is an opportunity for the board to share their passion for the Catholic school that they govern. Here are some examples of the questions that were put to the board:
What does the school do really well in keeping with its Catholic ethos ?
What has changed and improved since the last review ?
What has the board done around the formation of its teachers ?
Who holds the tagged positions and do their job descriptions reflect their commitment ?
Do the board know what papers that the teachers have studied ?
What do the board know about the Catholic special character budget ?
How is the board assured the appraisal system focuses on growth in special character and quality teaching ?
How does the special character attestation get completed ?
How often do you have a whole school mass ?
How can the board be assured that the school provides an authentic encounter with Jesus ?

Principal
This meeting commenced with a reflection on the progress since the recommendations made in the last report. I wasn't present for the whole meeting as I went and observed some teachers in action:
What evidence do you have to show the changes made in response to the last review ?
What would we see when we come back again in three years time ?
Where does your Catholic special character goal fit within your charter ?
Do you utilise the open and preference place data to guide your targets ?
Have you got links on your website and facebook page to special character resources that support parents (eg. with the sacraments) ?
Share your staff formation plan.
Does the principal and DRS have a thorough understanding of the RE teaching happening throughout the school ? Does the principal challenge the quality of feedback to ensure healthy professional growth ?
Does your data around RE support adjustments to teaching practice ?

Teaching Observations
Is there connection, engagement and participation ?
Where does the lesson and the planning fit within the strand ?
Are the children excited to learn and does the teacher demonstrate enthusiasm and passion for RE and their faith ?

Director of Religious Education (DRS)
What has developed since the last review ?
How do you know that there is quality RE teaching happening around the school ?
How do we adapt teaching practice to ensure that the children are encountering Christ in the classrooms (NZCB The Catholic Education of School-Age Children "puts the encounter with Jesus at the centre of Catholic education" page 2 ).

Are the DRS reports to the board more than a diary of events ? Do they assure the board that there is an ability within the school to make a difference ? 
Where is the voice of the child as learner ? Do you find out what is working well and not working well for the children ?
Formation of teachers - Have you got a record of the accreditation hours for the teachers ? Have you analysed it and developed targets to go forward based on this information ?
Have you shared this with the board?
How do you know that prayer takes place every morning and how is this developed ?
Parish School Relationship - What level of input does the school get into the liturgy ?
Are the teachers aware of the different criteria for preference of enrolment and are they teaching to this ?

Learn how staff and board prepared for our own recent Catholic review here. 

This review experience has emphasised the importance of our Catholic schools sharing resources and working together (another post with this same message). 
We need to continually nudge each other to move out of our comfort zones and ensure that our Catholic schools can proclaim the joy of the Gospel uniquely and powerfully with Jesus Christ at the centre of all that we do. We need to inject our passion and energy for our Catholic faith into our schools so that our children and families truly encounter the living God.

“School can and must be a catalyst, it must be a place of encounter and convergence of the entire educating community, with the sole objective of training and helping to develop mature people who are simple, competent and honest, who know how to live with fidelity, who can live life as a response to God’s call, and their future profession as a service to society ” (Pope Francis, 2013). 

Pope Francis. (n.d.). To Students of Jesuit Schools of Italy and Albania (7 June 2013). 

Awe-inspiring #growthmindset staff & students @stjoesoamaru

This is a mid year reflective post to publicly acknowledge our staff. This year, between all of us we are studying the following whilst teaching full time:

• Masters Educational Leadership papers through The Catholic Institute (TCI) and Australian Catholic University (ACU)
• Religious Education diploma and post grad papers through TCI
• Primary Maths papers through Open Polytechnic
• Applied practice (digital & collaborative) post grad papers through Unitec MindLab
• Middle Leadership through Centre of Educational Leadership and Administration

This year, during the school holidays our staff have been working on their assignments, preparing for the new term and attending extra courses and workshops at:

• Numeracy Symposium
• Sir Paul Callaghan Science Academy
• National Networking Hui (learning from here shared on this blogpost)
• Dominican Education Convention

Our staff have an enthusiastic approach to personal learning that can only benefit all learners at our school. They are passionate about their own learning. It is this passion that will motivate and engage our students to achieve in their learning.

Image from blogpost about motivational drivers for learning

To top this off , I received an email from some of our Year 8 students in the holidays. They had been collaborating together on a task that I set at the end of the term based around our school values and wanted to share it with me. 

This is an example of self-motivated senior student learners at work, taking the initiative to drive their own learning just like our staff.

We are all looking forward to starting a new term as we continue to apply a growth mindset to our relationships and our learning as we reach for the stars as life long learners in the Catholic faith.

Are you willing to create disturbance and be disturbed? Reflections via @MelAinscow

Are you willing to create disturbance and be disturbed yourself ? This challenge to educators by Professor Mel Ainscow, turns those gentle ripples alluded to in my sabbatical video into waves. Ainscow calls it the "trickle effect".

Message from sabbatical video. You can access the 4 minute video here.

What captured my attention and drew me to register for a seminar at the University of Otago, entitled Moving Knowledge Around: A strategy for fostering equity in education by Professor Mel Ainscow CBE, University of Manchester, UK ?

On reflection it was the promotional material about Ainscow's latest book that ignited my curiosity. Renowned educators Hargraves and Fullan were both quoted as recommending this "..extraordinarily powerful book'' (Hargraves) "..that captures with great clarity how to lead change.." (Fullan).

Towards self-improving school systems presents a strategic framework that can help to foster new, more fruitful working relationships: between national and local government; within and between schools; and between schools and their local communities. What is distinctive in the approach is that this is mainly led from within schools, with senior staff having a central role as system leaders.

Two points that truly resonated with me were:

1. Self - improving school systems - this is a particular passion of mine. How can we keep our finger on the pulse and continually improve and offer a high quality of education ?

2. Led from within schools, with senior staff having a central role as system leaders - what can we learn from the success of the Greater Manchester Challenge ( an initiative to improve educational outcomes 2007-2011) ?

In addition to this, having been a principal for almost eight years and now studying leadership at master's level, I find that I am continually exploring a wider, strategic view around ways to initiate positive educational change not only within but beyond our school system.

Here is my interpretation of some of the key points from Ainscow's succinct and thought provoking seminar :

• We need to be willing to disturb and be disturbed - to make people stop and think aloud, talk and innovate at all levels. Use difference to challenge and stimulate reflection that can grow practice for teachers and leaders.
• "Moving the knowledge around" within, between and beyond schools leads to equity of success for all involved. The "knowledge" refers to expertise of existing human resources. It's about making better use of "untapped potential".
• The key to the Manchester success story was the effective matching up of schools. When these partnerships worked, they were mutually beneficial. Sharing stimulated experimentation and new ways of working.

• 

  Slide attributed to Ainscow

• Humankind has much to gain from drawing on the immense cultural, religious and linguistic diversity within schools.
• Effective collaboration uses a range of data as a stimulus. Such evidence brings a critical dimension to the table that can be used to challenge expectations. "Numbers are dead and only come to life when you talk about them and ask questions. So what next?"
• We need to make space and allow time for family and community groups "beyond the school" to be involved. They are all invested in educational success.
• Sustainability. How do we stop things fading once the initiative and the funding finishes? An entity "by schools for schools" was set up and is internally driven by school leaders.
• A bottom up movement gained momentum and traction with local authorities enabling and facilitating rather than commanding and controlling.
• Children's zones based on the Harlem's Children's Zone  help improve the lives and education of children in disadvantaged areas.
• Allow time for teachers to observe one another and reflect and stimulate talk on their practice. The Lesson Study method from Japan is very powerful and pays off for the children. Build on the latent expertise in the staffroom.
• Involve the voice of learners. What is it like to be a learner in this class, in this school ?

So much is "technically simple but socially complex" - find the best people and get on with it. Ainscow concluded by stating, "The most important factor is the collaborative will to make it happen".

What have we achieved in North Otago in relation to some of the features of Ainscow's model ?

We have made elements of this happen through the Whitestone LCN (Learning and Change Network). You can learn more about the power of collaborative practice from this video about the nature and value of learning and change networks for engagement in deep learning for success.

We firmly believe that the LCN is the catalyst for the energising learning communities that abound in our Whitestone schools. We are living proof that school environments and communities, steeped in tradition can evolve into authentic student led entities that are open to embracing motivational forward thinking learning and change. This passion must exist to drive the network forward and sustain future growth and innovation. You can learn more by watching this prezi below.

Yet..there is still so much more that we can do.

I have ordered Ainscow's book and look forward to learning about how to contribute to fostering equity in education locally, nationally and globally.

I am willing to create disturbance and to be disturbed. Are you ?

What deep learning and change ripples can we make together?

As an active participant in a recent NZ Learning and Change (LCN) Reference Group session in Auckland, we were asked to reflect on the nature and value of the LCN Strategy. Here are my reflections. They accompany a short video. Click here for  the link to the video.

Screenshot from the video linking the LCN strategy to self-organizing living systems.

Have you ever been part of a vibrant, energetic group of learners who seem to embody an organic whole, pulsating with energy and creating something new and exciting, no single participant could create on their own (Widhalm 2011) ?

Learning experiences such as this are at the heart of the New Zealand Learning and Change Network Strategy. This is a strategy where whole communities actively connect and collaborate for the future success of priority students and their families. A strategy where the traditional supply driven, passive and hierarchical mode of professional learning is flipped into an active, ecological, lateral mode of learning.

Developing a growth mind set, believing that one’s learning abilities grow through deliberate practice, is essential for network members: students, teachers, family, school and community leaders. Believing that the expertise lies within and across the network, empowers members to actively articulate, partner and co-construct change priorities for future success for all learners.

Future success is evident through the immersion of learners in innovative, engaging deep learning environments that have the proven capacity to  increase cognitive ability and professional growth for the whole network. Forward thinking local networks transform into vibrant communities of practice. The lateral nature of these intrinsically driven networks means that all participants learn alongside one another within and across communities.

Constant collaboration within the network communities promotes a united sense of ownership and responsibility for the change priorities. Culturally responsive, continually evolving mutual relationships build trust which strengthens and propels the network further forward. Connections between networks nationally and globally ensure the capability for powerful change is strengthened in ways that aren’t possible individually.

Just as self-organising living systems maintain a state of dynamic balance, authentic agency from all participants based on evaluative reflections, continuously realign and reinforce the purpose and direction of the learning and change networks. Such is their nature inasmuch as they emulate self-organising living systems that have the capacity to respond continuously to change (Wheatley 2011).

Individual to connected

Local to global

What deep learning and change ripples can we make together?

References

Annan, B. (2014) Learning and Change Networks Milestone 4 (final) Auckland UniServices The University of Auckland

Annan, B. Carpenter, R. (2014) OECD Innovative Learning Environments Project New Zealand Monitoring Note 2; Learning and Change Networks (LCN)

Dweck,C. (2006). Mindset:The new psychology of success. New York: Ballantine Books

Fullan,M. (2011). Change Leader: Learning to Do What Matters Most. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass

Wheatley,M.(2006). Leadership and the new science. San Francisco: Berret-Koehler

Widhalm,B (2011) Educators as Architects of Living Systems: Designing Vibrant Learning Experiences beyond sustainability and systems thinking. Retrieved July , 2014, from http://www.jsedimensions.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Widhalm2011.pdf (as part of Masters in Educational Leadership studies)