Due: 24th March
“He waka eke noa”
We are all in this together.
Module Objectives:
Upon completion of this module, participants will be able to:
- Articulate their personal leadership philosophy and goals.
- Develop a compelling vision for student success that is inclusive and equitable.
- Align their personal goals and vision with the school’s mission and strategic plan.
- Identify and utilise relevant resources to support their leadership development.
Task 1: Defining Your Leadership Philosophy
Reflect on your values. What are the core values that guide your personal and professional life? How do these values influence your approach to leadership?
Consider your beliefs about learning. What are your beliefs about how students learn best? What are your beliefs about the role of the teacher in the learning process?
Define your leadership aspirations. What impact do you want to have as a leader? What are your long-term goals for your leadership journey?
Explore different leadership styles (e.g., transformational, servant, instructional). See below for resources to explore. Which styles resonate most with you? Why?
Briefly journal your reflections and insights from this activity. You might like to prepare to share your thoughts with your learning partner(s), as a way to introduce yourself at a deeper level than you might do ordinarily. You will meet your learning partner at PLG 1 (21st March).
Task 2: Defining Student Success
Explore diverse perspectives on student success. Consider the following questions:
- What does it mean for students to be successful academically? Socially? Emotionally? Culturally?
- How can we ensure all students, regardless of their background or learning needs, experience success?
Develop an inclusive definition of student success that applies to all learners in your school.
Discuss your definition of student success with colleagues and seek their feedback.
Task 3: Aligning with the School’s Mission
Carefully review the school’s mission statement, values, and strategic goals.
Analyse how your personal leadership goals and vision for student success align with the school’s overall direction.
Identify any areas where your personal leadership goals and vision may need to be adjusted to better support the school’s priorities.
Share your reflections on the forum in 150 words or less.
Resource Bank:
Explore the resources most relevant to you and your personal reflections:
- The New Zealand Curriculum – https://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/
- Tātaiako: Cultural Competencies for Teachers– https://teachingcouncil.nz/assets/Files/Code-and-Standards/Tataiako-cultural-competencies-for-teachers-of-Maori-learners.pdf
- Leading Learning: A Professional Standards for Principals and Senior Leaders– https://teachingcouncil.nz/professional-practice/our-code-our-standards/
- Leadership Styles – https://hbr.org/2024/04/6-common-leadership-styles-and-how-to-decide-which-to-use-when
- Transformational Leadership –https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbescoachescouncil/2024/08/13/transformational-leadership-the-how-and-why/
- Servant Leadership – https://positivepsychology.com/servant-leadership/
- Instructional Leadership – https://schoolreviews.education.qld.gov.au/res/Documents/spotlight-paper-instructional-leadership.pdf
- Seven Strong Claims About Successful School Leadership Revisited – https://www.profdavidhopkins.com/assets/docs/Seven%20strong%20claims%20about%20successful%20school%20leadership%20revisited.pdf
Assessment:
- Self-reflection throughout the module.
- Completion of all activities – journaling for Task 1, conversation with colleague for Task 2 and post on forum for Task 3.
- Peer feedback and discussion within the online forum.
22 Responses
Task 3 Reflection: Aligning with Nawton School’s Mission
My personal leadership vision aligns closely with Nawton School’s commitment to providing a safe, inclusive, and culturally rich environment that empowers all aakonga to succeed. I strongly support the school’s focus on Te Ao Maaori and cultural diversity, which reflects my own values of respect, pride, and striving for excellence. My leadership aspiration to foster independent, confident learners through servant and transformational leadership complements the school’s strategic emphasis on responsive teaching, powerful connections, and student voice. However, I recognise a need to further deepen my understanding of structured literacy and inclusive curriculum design to align more fully with Nawton’s focus on equity and holistic learning. As I grow into leadership, I will ensure my actions support the school’s vision by embracing collaboration, relational trust, and culturally sustaining practices that reflect our community and Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
Task 3 (very hard to stick to 150 words by the way!)
Our Kura’s Mission is to have the ākonga at the centre of all that we do. This is supported by our Values: Manaaki (how we show up), Whanaungatanga (how we team), and Tika (how we practise). My personal leadership goals are based around enabling my team of Secondary kaiako to best support their subject and pastoral ākonga. Sometimes this involves encouraging kaimahi to consider cross curricular activities and break out of their Subject Silo attitudes, it might also require me to act as a buffer between the expectations/directives from the Senior Leadership team and the actions, timelines and initiatives my team are running. For some kaiako I use a Coaching style approach to help them unpack what they see as success and progress for their learners – we work with a large cohort of ākonga who have had difficulty engaging with traditional schooling in the past, for a variety of reasons. We have to look at what ākonga success and progress looks like for that ONE ākonga and celebrate every step. I intend to keep the pātai “what does success look like for OUR ākonga” as a regular discussion point in our fortnightly Team hui from Term 2 onwards; I feel that this reminder will serve to keep this kaupapa more visible and encourage more holistic thinking from some of the team as I continue to foster an attitude of “our ākonga” instead of “my ākonga and your ākonga” and keep the idea of “1 size fits 1” current as we support our ākonga with their growth and aspirations.
Student success
My Kura has a “1 size fits 1” approach for ākonga. For me, a successful learner has agency of their learning journey; it is meaningful to them and provides foundation and scaffolding to work towards future aspirations. As mentioned in some other posts – this might not always look like attaining X amount of NCEA credits! We have a group of Principles which define the main areas we work to support ākonga with – both in the subject spaces and pastoral space. The Principles are called Ngā Mātapono, and are (in no particular order): Kotahitanga (Care & Resilience), Whaitake (Curiosity & Contribution), Whakamana (Agency & Optimism), Māramatonutanga (Sense making, creative thinking, Innovation) and Whakawhanaungatanga (collaboration & connection).
TASK 3: Our school’s mission and values provide a quality education in a caring, bicultural environment, with the values of Poutama, Whakawhanaungatanga, Manaakitanga, and Kaitiakitanga aligning with what I value the most as a leader and educator.
To honor, educate and celebrate the individual as a whole – Te Whare Tapa Whā – is integral to ensuring our students are able to achieve their best outcomes possible. Our society is not monocultural and therefore our schools must reflect this. Sharing with our students what it means to be who they are (individually and as a group) and to value this. To celebrate what it means to be Māori in Aotearoa with all of our students is vital in ensuring we can all connect and grow together.
I feel that one important aspect I need to work on as a leader is understanding Te Ao Māori more fully. As a pakeha woman I have a specific lens in which I view the world and in order for me to be able to honour Te Tiriti and our students it is important to be able to really understand what it means to be, and to achieve as Māori. Not just what I ‘think’ this means. This is my challenge – to let go of assumptions and encompass a more holistic viewpoint, all the while encouraging the growth of empathetic, creative and adaptable future leaders.
TASK 2: Hmmm student success and what that looks like. This is an interesting one.
Of course student success looks so different from student to student.
For some students success is getting scholarships and entry into their desired programmes in top universities. It may be leaving school with the knowledge and skills necessary to carve out their way through life, it may be learning to accept themselves and understanding what they have to offer others in society. Success is relative to the individual at whatever stage of life they are in at any given time.
I think for our students to feel proud of themselves and their achievements is the most important thing. For them to feel confident about themselves and their abilities so that they can set goals and know how to go about achieving them.
Also for our students to have the creative ability to adapt and change to whatever circumstances they find themselves in – to not be so rigid in their goals/ideas that they give up at the first hurdle. Of course having their full NCEA qualifications is a goal but realistically it is not something all of our students will be able to attain and that is ok. Having confident, creative and empathetic individuals moving out into society is so much more important and that is something that I hold firmly in my “WHY”.
After discussions with some of my colleagues around this I have come up with the following:
It is our role as educators to ensure our students have the opportunities to achieve academically, socially, emotionally and culturally. What this looks like and means is individual to each student and group.
Offering various opportunities in creative ways is something we need to do within our schools. From one day wanangas, outdoor education, AE programmes, group “hot spot” teaching, etc. To get to know our students and whanau, understand how they learn, where they come from and what is important to them is vital. Giving our students and whanau a voice and honoring the fact that we are a team when it comes to growing our students abilities. Respecting and upholding values and beliefs of our communities rather than forcing something else on them. Our school’s values should be a reflection of this if they are truely to benefit our students.
Am I right in understanding we post Task 3 of Module 2 on here?
Can I ask where we put tasks 1 and 2?
(I am a little confused sorry)
Hi Linda,
Yes post here,
Regards Robert
I believe the schools VISION (A leading learning environment, maximising people’s potential), MOTO (Tu Tangata – Stand Tall) and WHAKATUAKI (HE TINA KI RUNGA, HE TĀMORE KI RARO. – IN ORDER TO FLOURISH ABOVE, ONE MUST BE FIRMLY ROOTED BELOW) match my leadership goals as I strive to be an effective, compassionate and supportive leader. My leadership philosophy aligns with the vision by putting the people first. Building the connection, relationship and fostering respectful, culturally responsive relationships in our class and school wide spaces. This way we can maximise their potential and celebrate their success.
I believe we all learn in different ways and Our school Whakatuaki touches on this with the need for a child to feel safe, welcomed, a part of our environment to then flourish into the life long learners the NZC asks us to strive for. I believe we should be proud of out Tamariki and their success NO matter how small it might seem to us it could be a HUGE success to them and their whanau, this aligns with our school MOTO – TU Tangata – Stand Tall. Be proud of what you have achieved, Be proud of who you are!
This year our goals are diving into strengthening our kete of knowledge in…
– Our writing programme to up skill our Kaiako and provide a better, enriched programme for our tamariki. I like this as not only are we support the children’s learning BUT adding to the staff kete of writing knowledge. This is something I am personally supporting and interested in as writing, spelling rules are somewhere I have always struggled so I am constantly reminding the children that I am learning aside them showing them that learning comes at all stages of life.
Strengthen the integration and frequency of Te Reo! Again this has been a learning goal of mine throughout my teaching career. Coming into teaching I had very little knowledge of Te Reo. I now am using it daily within the classroom instruction, incentives, displays and deliberate acts of teaching. Being able to acknowledge and unpack the importance of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
As a new leader I am proud to be supporting my schools values and goals for the year. I strongly believe in providing a positive, safe space for everyone including teachers to collaborate and support each other in their journey. I hope to be able to lead in a way that empowers others to achieve success and inspire a successful team that collaborate and achieve greatness for ourselves, students and the community.
I hope that as I develop leadership skills, and my leadership philosophy throughout the year I can define these values and morals to be authentic and sustainable.
I wholeheartedly agree with your leadership philosophy of putting the people first. Without doing this is our leadership even effective? We can not develop trust and respect within our team if we are not putting their needs at the forefront.
I feel that your school vision is powerful and strong, it resonates with me. Thanks for sharing
I think my personal values of growing a sense of culture and working as a team is crucial to creating these goals and our schools vision as we cannot complete these as individual silos. As this does not allow the school as a whole to flourish and therefore working alongside each other and supporting one another will allow for our weaknesses to grow into strengths. Also with all staff working towards a common goal shows our akonga that we are all on the same waka and here to grow the same goal. This fosters a positive school culture. Teamwork and unity naturally works in with Te Ao Maori values such as rangatiratanga and kotahitanga – taking our students and whanau through this journey of improvement and building as well as reaching for the same goals allows all to prosper.
My personal goals within leadership and as myself as a teacher 100% support this, although do so in a people focused manner. I am and have always been focused on creating success academically for all students and thrive on creating high standards for everyone based on where each of these are at. I also have a huge passion for creating unity and developing a positive culture in our school. I believe I am someone who ‘hustles’ on the ground to support these goals and find small initiatives to create these to become stronger. I do wish my school had a more specific goal as to how as a school we would strive for these specifically to create a bit more drive and accountability in all staff not just meeting these goals but exceeding them. However, I do see this as a means to improve my own leadership (sideways, upwards and downwards) where I can motivate other staff through collaboration through teams, whanau involvement and developing effective student voice.
I absolutely agree with your comment around silos. See this so much in the traditional secondary school I am in. Very much an issue when trying to work cross curricular and break down some of these silo walls. Have attempted to do this but sustaining is hard work. Within subject seems to work well from a PE perspective. I also really like the fact you have a drive to create a positive culture for all, a great challenge to set yourself.
I feel the break down of these ‘silos’ within our schools is happening, but there is still such a long way to go.
The education system is in need of a huge shake up to be better suited to supporting our students for the modern world and I really feel this starts with leadership – hence the journey we are all on.
Kia ora Rebecca
Yes I really identify with the Silos issue – something I admire in our Primary & Middle school teams is how well they work collaboratively and across the curriculum! Bit of a tricky situation in our Kura as we have subject rōpū across the entire motu and not based in 1 region or tari. So our Secondary school cross-curricular activities are quite ad hoc and really rely on the skills, drive and vision of passionate subject kaiako in each tari and region; this tends to fall to each pastoral team to manage within the team and is greatly affected by the range (or not) of subject kaiako we have in each pastoral team.
My School’s commitment to student agency and excellence resonates strongly with my leadership philosophy. My values of kindness and reliability align with fostering a supportive, high-trust environment where both students and teachers can thrive. My leadership aspirations involve enhancing teaching practices through mentoring to drive schoolwide improvement. This supports my school’s strategic focus on empowering learners. I see opportunities to further align by strengthening collaboration across teams, ensuring consistency in best practices, and fostering a culture where staff feel continuously supported in their professional growth.
Rather than shifting my core approach, I see this as an opportunity to refine my leadership to better serve the school’s evolving needs. By focusing on both teacher development and student outcomes, I can contribute meaningfully to my school’s vision while staying true to my leadership style and long-term goals.
Vision statement: A leading learning environment, maximising people’s potential.
The key word here is people, meaning all people. To be frank, much of my educational ethos and leadership philosophy, I have Hukanui to thank for. It is their leaders, students, values and people that have made me the leader and teacher I am.
To further align, I think more work needs to be done to become more culturally responsive. I am very aware of the need to honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and to lead and teach in a way that adheres to the principles and the guidelines within that. The school is currently placing development in this area as a priority and focus; one that I am in support of, as it is a personal area that I need growth in too.
From Friday’s course, one thing continues to ring in my head: trust is your currency. To maximize people’s potential, you need trust and credibility. While I have known this, believe it, and continue to live and lead by this, it was a fantastic experience and reminder of the importance of thousands of incremental pieces of trust and relationship building that need to be constant, authentic and genuine.
I am totally with you on the ‘trust is your currency’ message. That is a huge take away I got from our day together also. Not just trust with our colleagues but with our students, whanau and community also. I have spent the major part of my career focusing on trust with my students and did not realise the importance of this with colleagues also when it comes to leadership – but it makes so much sense. I look back at past leaders I have worked with and the ones that did not totally have my trust were the ones I struggled with. I have always strived for transparency in what I do and the I need to be able to relate these back to my ‘Why”.
It all links in so much doesn’t it.
Friday was a huge “A-ha” day for me
Me too Linda! I realised that I need to be intentional in my team hui in stating how much I value the range of skills that our kaiako bring to the table and how I know that they are all doing their best work here. It’s very easy to get discouraged in our kura when so many of our ākonga are reluctant learners and have had negative educational experiences in the past – we do a lot of breaking down barriers and building trust with our ākonga and Whānau, which can be quite tricky in a Distance Education setting.
My leadership philosophy aligns with the school values by fostering a sense of belonging, trust, and displaying manaakitanga.
My leadership goals and skills focus on building a positive and safe environment for learners and staff where they can feel confident to take risks and make mistakes to then learn from. Everyone should feel valued and supported to be successful.
I prioritise collaboration and sharing opinions and ideas. Working together to share resources, ideas and experiences is beneficial to both staff and students, building our own kete of resources that will support and guide students towards success.
Displaying and encouraging others to show manaakitanga is imperative to the success of the school, team and students. Showing genuine care for others, respect and upholding a collective responsibility to share our skills and strengths with others aligns with our school’s mission.
The vision of my school is to provide an “inspiring, holistic learning experience, so students leave school with choices, confidence and a sense or purpose.” This aligns with our across school PC4L core values Reach your potential, Engage with purpose, Act with integrity, Care for people and places, and Have the courage to succeed. REACH.
I feel that my goals for leadership which focus around creating safe environments for our staff and students where they can be confident and take on challenges that are going to allow both staff and students to strive for their own future goals. Be that academic or industry. This does link well to our schools vision and opportunities they wish to supply students and staff.
My leadership goals for students are very holistic where I want to see all students succeed in their chosen areas and pathways, academic or not and this be celebrated. My personal feeling is that my leadership style would need to broaden slightly to align to a more high level academic achievement focus to align more with where it feels like my school wants to head.
This leadership mindset could also be influenced by my long period as a dean, where we are dealing with all areas and backgrounds of student. This period has seen a big shift from a more academic focus to where students are seeing other pathways as more fruitful for them.
Love this and I feel like your leadership style doesn’t need to broaden at all! I feel as though everything you are focused on creates the culture and environment to foster academic success if anything it is just the final layer or ‘priority’ as we discussed 🙂
Also totally agree with how Deaning influence’s your perspective to be a lot more holistic.
Your comment “…allow both staff and students to strive for their own future goals. Be that academic or industry…” rings true with me – emphasis on OWN future goals.
I see leadership as taking in the individual and nurturing that within what we do as leaders. Being in group or one by one contexts.
This is probably the hardest thing to do as a leader because we do work with such large/varied groups. But I know in my own experience that when a leader sees me as an individual and I feel they have my best interests in mind when they are leading then I feel the trust is there and I am invested in what we are doing as a group (if that makes sense).
I aim for this in both my classes with my students and in my teaching teams as a leader. To have the relationships with who I am working with so I can nurture their goals in the process of building our department/school to benefit everyone.
Man – leadership sure is complex huh?
My leadership philosophy aligns with the school’s mission by fostering trust, empathy and accountability to empower students, staff and whānau. I aim to lead with integrity and high expectations, ensuring that learning is personalized, inclusive and culturally responsive.
Utilizing eTAP and Spotlight tools, I support targeted learning, ensuring students maximize their potential. Through collaborative relationships with whānau and the community, I strengthen student agency and wellbeing.
I prioritize teacher efficacy, supporting professional growth and implementing evidence-based strategies like The Writing Revolution. Creating a safe, inclusive environment is essential, where students feel valued and supported.
By empowering others, promoting continuous improvement and leading with conviction, my aim is to inspire a team that is innovative, reflective and committed to a shared vision of success.
Over Arching Goal – Te Ao Māori, Te Reo, and Tikanga-a-iwi, integrating them into the curriculum to honor our Treaty partnership.
Would love to touch base or hear you share more about how you foster a collaborative relationship with whanau and your community – something I am constantly working on but currently working through barriers that have been created from the schools past.