Leading change at Ōrākei School: The power of community engagement in education

I started at Ōrākei School at the beginning of last year, and was immediately awestruck by the wonderful grounds, enthusiastic students, and engaged community.

The school had a supportive Board of Trustees and a strong strategic vision aligned with my values. I knew I was in for a challenge but had the opportunity to make a positive difference at Ōrākei School.  

We are a future-focused full primary school situated in Auckland Central. Our school ensures that students, teachers, and the community have a strong sense of belonging and form meaningful connections in a diverse educational environment. Our three strategic pillars—Wellbeing (Hauora), Curriculum (Marautanga), and Community (Hapori)—lay the foundations for a coherent, aligned, and outstanding school.  

Read the latest print edition of School News HERE

Our school pōwhiri welcomes new families, emphasising that we don’t just enrol a child, we enrol a family! I work alongside a fantastic group of teachers, learning assistants, administrative team, and leadership team who deeply care about our school, students and community. 

Te Whānau Rumaki Ōrākei-iri-ora 

We celebrate and value our full Māori immersion unit, Te Whānau Rumaki Ōrākei-iri-ora, which is currently rebranding its space and setting high expectations for teaching and learning with a strong focus on a Ngāti Whātua-centric curriculum. Our recent ERO visit highlighted our success: 

“Ōrākei-iri-ora have established strong iwi connections and utilise the narratives of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei to inform teaching and learning. Tamariki confidently express Ngāti Whātua knowledge through the sharing of karakia, waiata, and language expressions.” (ERO feedback, 2024)  

Resilience through change  

In my first year as Tumukai, we launched a new Learning Management System (LMS), a project undertaken as part of my Master’s degree research. I was implementing various change initiatives across the school simultaneously, and had competing priorities at different stages of the project.   

I wanted to implement a LMS to improve staff engagement with data, student agency over their learning, and parent communication in relation to their child’s learning. The research for this project was done in real time, through anecdotal notes, surveys and questionnaires, and interviews with teachers.  

Implementing this new technological tool was successful and provides a sense of coherence and alignment across the school. The administration staff found the new LMS, Hero, to be easy to navigate and prepare data for Ministry of Education compliance. The teachers were able to easily track student progress and visually see students across the school. Parents signed up and had one location to receive all communication shared by the school. 

Like any implementation of a new technological tool there were teething issues that needed to be addressed. Training and professional development was required for the administration team. 

Teaching and Learning  

Our new leadership team and kaiako have joined our school community over the past year, blending experienced and beginning teachers into a cohesive and hardworking team. Committed and knowledgeable learning assistants work across our school. We are currently reviewing and implementing our school AKO model:  

“The concept of ako describes a teaching and learning relationship where the educator also learns from the student, and where educators’ practices are informed by the latest research and are both deliberate and reflective. Ako is grounded in the principle of reciprocity and recognises that the learner and whānau cannot be separated.”  

The implementation of our new LMS assisted us in reviewing our leadership capacity across the school, ensuring we developed individuals to have resilience through a process of change management. The previous leadership team left the school on short notice, taking with them institutional knowledge, the know-how of how the school operates.   

The teaching team found the establishment of goal setting under the new LMS challenging initially, and required clarity on when to sign off student progress and achievement. The Board of Trustees was grateful to receive timely data that was reflective of progress across our English medium classes, however, further work needed to be done in our Rumaki immersion space, as the goals for learning in the Te Reo Māori curriculum were different and not easily understood on the new LMS.   

The aim of the project and the implementation of the LMS was also to establish a more resilient organisation. It allowed our leadership team to become collaborative problem solvers and adaptable in times of change, reflecting on our roles and responsibilities, and incorporating this initiative as part of their Professional Growth Cycle. 

I took personal responsibility to ensure we created a resilient and adaptable leadership approach to implementing the new LMS. We reviewed our process regularly, problem solving collectively and ensuring we remained focused on ensuring that the implementation was successful. This provided us with a shared purpose and an opportunity to celebrate our wins and losses collectively and not as individuals. 

Specialist Programs  

This year, Ōrākei School introduced specialist programs in Physical Education (PE), Art, and Garden to Table to enrich the educational experience of students and support their holistic development. These programs align with the school’s three pillars, which focus on fostering academic excellence, personal growth, and community engagement. 

Our structured CRT program also allows teachers to have an entire day as a team to review data, plan ahead, acknowledge current research, and visit other schools to explore professional learning initiatives.  

Our Garden to Table program has yielded very positive outcomes providing high levels of engagement and support from students and the community. Supported by the OKE charity, we have new gardens, a fully equipped kitchen, parent volunteers, and a newly appointed garden specialist.  

Student Well-being/Mana Potential  

We place a strong emphasis on student wellbeing, with staff prioritising restorative practices to ensure that every student feels cared for and has a sense of belonging. To further this, we have introduced the Mana Model to our learners and are actively working towards embedding it into our school culture.  

One of the ways we engage students is through art. Our student leadership group is spearheading the creation of a school mural that reflects our local curriculum and community. This project showcases the power of visual art and also serves as a representation of our school’s identity and values.  

School Values  

Our school values are integral to all that we do and are explicitly taught. Each week, we celebrate and unpack a school value, ensuring that every class, team, and student engages in meaningful discussions about what the value sounds like, feels like, and looks like in practice at our school.  

These values are incorporated into daily activities and interactions. For example, during classroom discussions, students share personal experiences that relate to the week’s value, fostering a deeper understanding and connection to the concept. Teachers provide examples and guide students in identifying behaviours and actions that align with the value, creating a common language and understanding across the school.  

At the end of each week, each hub, comprising several classes, meets to celebrate the value and discuss examples of how it was demonstrated throughout the week. These gatherings are a time for students to reflect on their experiences, share successes, and recognise peers who have exemplified the value. This communal reflection reinforces the importance of the values and encourages students to continue practising them in their daily lives.  

Our commitment to these values is also visible in our school environment. Hallways and classrooms display student work and visual reminders of the values, providing constant reinforcement. Special assemblies and events highlight achievements related to the values, celebrating the collective efforts of the school community.  

By consistently integrating our values into all aspects of school life, we create a supportive and positive environment where students can thrive academically, socially, and emotionally. This holistic approach fosters a strong sense of community and equips our students with the skills and dispositions they need to succeed beyond the classroom.  

Rich Learning Opportunities/New Science & Technology Centre (MOTAT)  

Ōrākei School is part of the Te Roopu Pourewa Community of learning / Kāhui Ako, and we engage in a range of exciting learning initiatives. Throughout our Kāhui Ako there is a strong culture of shared professional learning, and development of innovative and collaborative learning. This term, a range of work from our school is being displayed at the Ōrākei Bay Village, showcasing student learning over the course of the term. It is an amazing collaborative learning project that is embraced by our learners.   

Our junior school team leader won a radio competition, giving our junior classes the chance to visit Te Puawānanga – Science and Technology Centre at MOTAT. During the visit, students explored the space and STEM equipment, and we were also interviewed by Breeze FM.  

 The leadership journey  

 On a personal level, this journey has provided invaluable insights. The Masters project particularly instilled in me a deeper understanding of setting clear objectives, substantiating technological choices, and embracing calculated risks to realise success metrics. My purpose was to ensure Ōrākei School possessed a learning management system that:  

• Allows teachers to gather and report student achievement easily, and ensures the system is adaptable.

• Is robust and flexible to ensure organisational resilience is developed and sustained over the long term.

• Empowers leaders to introduce a new learning initiative and develop leadership capacity across the school.

• Is resilient, ensuring continuity into the long term.

• Helps students take agency over their own learning.

• Develop strong community partnerships with our whānau to communicate their child’s learning and progress.

I had to review and reflect on my leadership style through the process, initially thinking I would be a transformational leader, projecting the vision and taking everyone’s needs into consideration. I did do this; however, the implementation process was also being reviewed by the BoT, fellow school leaders, teachers and community. This created pressure on my need to perform, and to meet deadlines. I had to adopt a transactional approach and ensure deadlines and timeframes were met. 

I had to be aware not to micromanage people and stifle their creativity and ideas through the implementation process. I took the approach of recognising this as situational leadership, and adopting a leadership style that was required for the moment or task at hand. This put things in clearer perspective for me personally, as I did not need to be labelled as a particular type of leader.