Educationally Powerful Connections video kete


Learning Partnerships

  • Key Content

    Students benefit when they are both informed about and empowered to manage their own learning pathways; and when their whānau are engaged partners on that journey. In this video clip we see how Flaxmere College have developed:

    • A student mentoring system within the school so every student has an adult ‘champion’ that they meet with twice a week around their learning, their goals and their aspirations.
    • A close partnership with whānau, where power is shared and whānau culture is respected and valued;
    • Students’ agency to manage their own learning, the mentoring relationship with teachers and the three-way partnership of student-school-home.

    See also:
  • Things to Think About

    Conversation framework for those new to Kia Eke Panuku:

    1. How well-informed are your students about their own learning journey and where their successes lie? How do you know?
    2. Would whānau describe their relationship with your school as a “learning partnership”? Who would and who wouldn’t?
    3. How do you know? What steps has your school taken in developing student agency in leading their own learning?

    Conversation Framework for Kia Eke Panuku schools:

    1. How well can students and whānau access the information needed to make informed and sound decisions about their learning?
    2. What active steps do you take to develop student agency in leading their own learning and in developing their own three-way partnership: student-school-home.?
    3. How comfortable are whānau to come into your school or your class and lead a learning conversation? How do you know?

    Conversation Framework for Kia Eke Panuku Strategic Change Leadership teams:

    1. Evidence-informed inquiry can happen at all levels of the school. How do you empower evidence-informed inquiry at student level? At whānau level? How do you determine how effective this is?
    2. Flaxmere College have set up mentoring relationships based on positive connections between staff and students – not on subject teaching or timetabling. What structures in your school either enhance or inhibit relationship-based decisions on student learning support?
    3. Learning partnerships flourish when power is shared and the principle of ako: reciprocal learning and teaching is in play. How do these principles underpin your schools’ interactions with whanau? How do you know?