Relational Learning Culture

When Samantha arrived as Principal at Greymouth High School in 2021 she found a school that had many positive aspects - it was not a broken school by a long way! However, she knew that restorative practices were a key missing factor, and she quickly found an ally in Rowan, the deputy principal. For both of them, restorative practice was central to their way of being and not only to use to fix something that has gone wrong. However, even though they believed restorative practice to be the cornerstone of a positive school culture, there were other areas that needed to be incorporated to provide a clear direction for staff around our teaching and learning culture.
Throughout 2021 and 2022, as a Senior Leadership Team, we concentrated on getting through the school year and keeping our school open. We also delved into our values as we know that our values determined the emphasis we put on our actions. This began to give Sam a deeper understanding of who we were as a team and where our strengths lay to move forward.

In terms of our school culture we knew that we wanted to work on the following without adding anything new (or very little) to ensure that our kids would find success whatever that looks like to them and their whānau:
• Restorative practice
• Cultural capabilities with Ngāti Waewae (our local hapu)
• Hikairo schema (Angus and Sonja McFarlane)
• Teaching to the North East (Russell Bishop)
• PB4L (for our structures and aligning our language)

Sometime in 2022 Rowan and Sam sat there brainstorming ideas of what to call our overarching framework. We knew we wanted something around relationships and something around learning and came up with Relational Learning Culture.

Finally in 2023, after a number of unforeseen setbacks (COVID, staff shortages, other sickness, strikes) we began the process of introducing Relational Learning Culture as a concept to our staff and board.

Key leadership thoughts

• Having one clear, intertwining and cohesive overarching framework allows people to see where we are going and where they fit in
• Sam had added Teaching/Leading to the Nort East (Bishop) as she recognised its role in NZ educational circles. However, when as a senior leadership team we began to look at it more closely, the team said that we didn’t need it as we already had the Hikairo Schema, and she listened and took it out
• You don’t always get what you want as a leader! You need to think beyond your own beliefs and needs if your staff is really committed and passionate to certain things - make it work
• Be careful of adding too much. We had, as Simon Breakspear says, pruned our annual plan and intentionally decided to embed what we were doing instead of adding lots of new things
• However, having a cohesive, overarching framework allows you to do new things, as they fit into the framework, but you have to make sure that it is at the right time
• Making sure that the right person is in the right role (wherever possible)
• Find your allies and work with them, e.g. the pastoral team that Rowan leads were a group that we knew would easily come on board
• Have key other staff members leading professional learning development, not just SLT, as their voices often resonate more
• Be aware of the wellbeing of your staff. Understanding their limits and what is going to push them over the edge. Have key people whom you can ask to give the temperature at the chalkface
• Timing is everything. Be patient - things may take longer than you want. Taking people on the journey and embedding your school culture is what is important - not just glossing over things and moving on
• Keep the why of what you are doing at the heart of everything. For us it is definitely that every person can find success, whatever that looks like to them and their whānau, in a culturally responsive environment.

Next steps

Firstly, we have worked hard on what Angus McFarlane calls soft care (building positive relationships) within our school, although there is always room for improvement. However, we already knew that our next steps were to work more on hard care (which Angus defines as high expectations of teaching and learning of students and teachers). Sam has been talking about this for at least the second half of 2024 with staff both publicly and privately to get us ready for 2025.

This was reinforced during the NZEALS conference when we listened to the leadership stories from some of the Secondary Schools including Rototuna Senior High School and Long Bay College. We were impressed by their emphasis on improving teaching and learning through developing interpersonal capabilities of their teachers to improve instruction by using classroom observations as the tool. This is something that we are interested in developing alongside our Greymouth High School akoranga plan.

Secondly, we have a large support staff. How do we work with all of them and take them with us? Especially as we don’t have access to their time as much as we do with teachers.

Finally, a great way to consolidate your thinking is by presenting to peers. It makes you really think hard about the why, the journey you have taken, your challenges and successes and the next steps. If you possibly can present with a colleague, working on it with someone else makes you think even more deeply, gives another perspective and probably makes it more interesting for people listening. It does take a fair amount of work, but it is worth it.