Quality Circle Time in Maori Medium - and Jenny's 2024 Visit to New Zealand - Jenny Mosley Education Training and Resources

Well, I am thrilled to say I am back for my 7^th visit to New Zealand. It is one of my two favourite countries in the world (India is the other, and they too have a Teacher Foundation who have qualified trained trainers working across India through the Quality Circle Time model – do look up the Teacher Foundation if ever you have time!!).

I completely know that I am so lucky to still have my health and energy – these are just random gifts and I feel really amazed that I’m still going so strongly!!!

I’m at home now in my warm kitchen with grey clouds and rain outside… and thinking of you all who can so easily access the most fabulous natural beauty ever. When I think of my walks in New Zealand I actually start to breathe more calmly.

Together, over the years, I have never failed to be uplifted by the incredible New Zealand peoples I have met. Kindness, common sense, humour and courage distinguish you as far as I’m concerned.

What I love too is that when I unroll my Golden Model on my Train The Trainer courses – when the key features of it resonate with individuals – New Zealanders embrace these and make it their own with energy, hard work and vision.

So, dear ones I am putting a link here to an inspiring project sent to me a long time ago – but the ripples from it keep spreading outwards. Te Amokura Gaffey was the author and driving force. I wrote to her last week to see if there was any chance for her to come and visit us at the Cosgrove School to come and talk about her work. This may not happen – but we can still warm our hearts reading about what this wonderful team managed to achieve – it always helps when you have a really visionary cluster manager as well.

Click on the title below to see the report. Some parts of the report are copied below this link also to give you a flavour!

QCT in Maori medium

E te Kaha Rawa, nōu te puna waiora o tātou katoa, tēnā koe.

Ki a koutou ngā mate huhua o tēnā iwi o tēnā iwi puta noa i te ao, whai atu rā koutou i ngā takahanga waewae o ō tātou kāwai rangatira ki te okiokinga tuturu o koutou, e moe.

Ka huri atu ki i a tātou ngā mahuetanga e hāpai tonu ana i ngā wawatā o rātou mā, nei rā te mihi aroha ki a tātou katoa.

Ki a koutou te whānau o Te Kura Kaupapa Māori O Te Rito me Te Kura Kaupapa Māori O Manawatū, ki te kore koutou e kauawhiawhi i te kaupapa nei, kāhore te kaupapa e whaitake ana mō a tātou tamariki mokopuna, no reira, kei te mihi.

Tēnei a Te Whiri Kōkō te tuku mihi nei ki a koe Jenny. Ko koe te rangatira e kaha whāngai atu i tō kaupapa ki ngā tamariki me ngā kaiako o te ao.

No reira, tēnā koe Whāea, otira tēnā tātou katoa.

Tēnā koe Jenny,

Te Whiri Kōkō is a group of specialist teachers (Resource Teachers of Learning and Behaviour – RTLB). Our cluster provides support and guidance to teachers working in primary and secondary schools across five districts. In our work catchment area, we also have six Māori iwi (tribes): Ngāti Kahungunu, Rangitāne, Muaupoko, Te Ati Awa, Ngāti Raukawa and Ngāti Toa Rangatira whose input into the curriculum, language and tikanga (protocols) in our Māori medium education settings is highly valued. There are three RTLB who work in our five total immersion Māori language schools. All but one of these is an area school, meaning that their students are in the primary and secondary sectors.

In 2016, I had the privilege of attending one of your four-day workshops titled Training the Trainer Quality Circle Time. It was an amazing four days filled with lots of learning and of course, golden moments!

Since this workshop, the interest in Quality Circle Time has grown considerably in Te Whiri Kōkō. We have provided support for other RTLB through basic training and we support other RTLB who are using Quality Circle Time in their casework. We have implemented the Quality Circle Time programme in classrooms, and we continue to support schools who want to take this on as a whole school approach through facilitation of professional development for teachers and a robust plan of support. This means that we work with teachers in their classes for approximately six weeks.

Since 2016, many of our mainstream schools embraced Quality Circle Time and are now implementing it regularly into their classrooms and schools. In 2018 our Māori schools were starting to show an interest. Māori RTLB staff held two hui (meetings) with teachers who work in total immersion Māori schools. We discussed various items of relevance including a range of programmes. The teachers of one of the schools was very keen to give Quality Circle Time a try. Also, around this time, I was noticing that a lot of my referrals from the three Kura (school) Kaupapa Māori I was working in, were requesting support with teaching students appropriate behaviour, minor conflict resolution and strategies to calm self and to manage emotions. I targeted one of the Kura Kaupapa Māori because they had a lot of behaviour referrals for individual students and classes, compared to my other two kura who had very few. These two situations provided the catalyst we needed to take Quality Circle Time to other Kura Kaupapa Māori.

A lot of our discussions with teachers were about how Quality Circle time aligns with many of the principles of Te Aho Matua which is a Māori philosophy that Kura Kaupapa Māori follow. We identified areas of the programme that sit well in a Māori cultural framework and the areas we needed to adapt to ensure its relevance in a Māori setting. Teachers became enthused when they could see Quality Circle time as not only an effective intervention for meeting the needs of their tamariki (children), but also one that could align to tikanga Māori, (protocols) and Māori values and fit a Māori cultural context as well as their school context.

We wrote a professional development plan for both school staff, considering the unique needs of each school. The plan included one staff meeting session followed by demonstrations in classes and ongoing support for teachers after that.

The most obvious change we made was in the language. We translated a lot of material including the whole school Quality Circle Time model. We changed the name to Huinga Tauawhiawhi for one of our schools as the name reflects a piece of their history, but it is also an appropriate name for Quality Circle Time in other schools. The photos below will expand on some of the changes as well as show you just how well Quality Circle Time is received by our kaiako (teachers) and our tamariki (students). In 2019 RTLB delivered a session on Quality Circle Time at our national Māori RTLB annual hui (meeting).

Quality Circle Time is very much an active component of the RTLB work in our cluster.