Taupo Intermediate School has a decile rating of 6. Our ethnicity makeup includes Pākehā 55%, Māori 35%, Pacific 2%, Other European 3%, Asian 2%, South East Asian 2% and Other 1%. Being the only intermediate school in Taupo we have a large cohort of students from contributing schools from urban and rural regions. Our major contributors include Tauhara Primary, Waipahihi Primary, Taupo Primary and Wairakei Primary with students coming from a range of other schools. This, I believe, has a strong effect on our decile rating as we have such a diverse range of students from different cultural backgrounds. Our school has a willingness to give to those from these diverse backgrounds by providing food, health care through a Nurse, counselling through REAL, financial support for camps and trips along with positive role models and relationships with the teachers that teach them on a day to day basis.
The professional environment in our school has gone through a series of changes in staffing this year. This has changed the climate and culture within our professional environment. As stated in my previous blog we have embarked on a digital learning - in our third year of implementing a one-to-one laptop programme in our school. This required staff to up skill on their digital knowledge and be effective learners themselves.
Although many of the staff believe this showed collaboration of our staff, after reading the article by Stoll (1998), Hargreaves (1994) has outlined teaching cultures we have within our school. Hargreaves (1994) talks about Contrived Collegiality - this is where teachers’ have collaborative working relationships, however, these are compulsory imposed with fixed times for collaboration such as planning meetings. On reflection, our school has a compulsory staff meeting followed by a team meeting generally going over what has been discussed at the meeting. It also may cover administration type tasks. Time for staff to use these meetings for resourceful engagement in meaningful professional development would be beneficial. The other culture which has become more prevalent this year is Balkanisation - this is where "teachers are neither isolated nor work as a whole school. Smaller collaborative groups form, for example within secondary school departments, between infant and junior teachers, and class teachers and resource support teachers." Due to the business of our staff, we tend to communicate with those within our teams and others who teach the way we do rather than working effectively and consistently as a staff. Although, this may seem to limit the amount of work done, in my opinion, creates more work especially for those who take on leadership positions in that group environment. It also creates a less diversity in our teaching. Although, these areas outlined here are areas we are working on improving and I believe we have made positive steps to better the culture within our school.
I enjoyed reading the 'Norms of Improving Schools' (Stoll & Fink, 1996) as I think these are ten easy steps schools can take to improve the culture currently in place in the school. This would also require strong leadership that can drive these norms and a staff that can all work together to a common goal. The steps we as a school need to work on are - collegiality, risk-taking, support, mutual respect, openness and celebration and humour.
There is a need for positive areas of growth in all schools. As Stoll (1998) states "Real improvement cannot come from anywhere other than within schools themselves, and “within” is a complex web of values and beliefs, norms, social and power relationships and emotions."
References
Hargreaves, A. (1994). Changing teachers, changing times: Teachers’ work and culture in the postmodern age. London: Cassell
Stoll, L., & Fink, D. (1996). Changing our schools: Linking school effectiveness and school improvement. Buckingham: Open University Press
Stoll. (1998). School Culture. School Improvement Network’s Bulletin 9. Institute of Education, University of London. Retrieved from http://www.educationalleaders.govt.nz/Culture/Understanding-school-cultures/School-Culture
Hi Jess. I also enjoyed the Stoll article. There is such a lot in it that makes sense. I'm proud to say that I think our school is really good at implementing the 10 cultural norms that Stoll and Fink state influence school improvement; We are always striving for continuous improvement through collaborative goal setting; we take calculated risks, and we support each other in those journeys;we are collegial, but I don't think it's contrived, we genuinely like working with each other. While these norms are driven by senior management, we all do our part willingly, usually because we can see the benefit for kids.
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