Activity 3: Contemporary trend in New Zealand or internationally

When considering the trend that I feel has a major impact of my practice is the changing nature of families.  Several aspects of the OECD Trends Shaping Report section Family Matters (2016)  resonated with potential impacts on the practices within our school.   I agree with the OECD Trend Shaping Report (2016) that family structures are changing and it’s our job as schools to ensure that all learners feel comfortable about their family and have equalibitle access to the curriculum.  

Learners come to school with a kete of knowledge, understandings and skills and all whanau have different experiences and expectations that influence their child and their learning and therefore our school.    At my school we have noticed an increase in solo parent families and mixed families.  This is supported by the Census 2013 data says that the number of  the increased number of children in one parent households with  most parents in families of one parent with dependent children were women, at 84.2 percent.  From this data  35.5 percent of one parent families are in full time employment and the number of one parent families has increased from the 2006 census from 8.0 percent to 13.5 percent.   According to Carroll (2016), West Coast had the highest suicide rate in New Zealand 30.6 per 100,000.  To support this, at my school, we have noticed that children have lower resilience when faced with problems and often give up or self sabotage rather than being seen as a failure.   The OECD report (2016) suggest that to support learners health and wellbeing, schools needs to encouraging healthy habits and providing access to support services such as counsellors.  In addition, schools need to support learners to promote tolerance and critical thinking skills so children understand and respect people that are different from them.   With the nature of families changing the  OECD Report (2106) suggests the increased need to school to promote non-traditional families and diverse families in classrooms.   

The New Zealand Curriculum (2007)  vision is the children are confident, connected, actively involved  lifelong  learners.  Therefore it’s our responsibility to support learners to have a positive self-identify and be tolerant of others who are different.  Also, schools need to provide environments where children have the opportunities to become competent individuals that will be active citizens in our global  society.  When reflecting on how our school supports children, we are lucky enough to have a Social Worker in Schools for targeted students. However this is not the case on all schools.  Also, through Health Promoting Schools, teachers have had professional learning on mindfulness to support learners with relaxation and positive self talk.    Furthermore, we provide real leadership opportunities for our learners so they have a sense of belonging.    Also, we have used Jo Boaler’s ideas and growth mindset professional learning for staff.  Nonetheless, using contexts and content that supports the changing society that we live in can be difficult to source such as reading material.   

When considering to how equip learners for the future, embedding  the  vision, principles, values and key competencies of the New Zealand Curriculum effectively, I believe is the key.  Unfortunately the focus on MOE is National Standards and inadvertently this can become a school’s focus, too .  Therefore, us as leaders, need to ensure the focus  is on the areas of the curriculum that will make the biggest difference in our children’s lives.  

CARROLL, J. (2016, November 4). West Coast has highest suicide rate in New Zealand | Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved from http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/85557893/West-Coast-has-highest-suicide-rate-in-New-Zealand

Ministry of Education. (2007). The New Zealand curriculum.

OECD. (2016) Trends Shaping Education 2016, OECD Publishing, Paris. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/trends_edu-2016-en (this publication can be read online by following its DOI’s hyperlink)

Zealand, S. N. (2013). Census QuickStats about families and households. URL: http://people. stats. govt. nz/Census/2013-census/profile-and-summary-reports/qstats-families-households. aspx (accessed 8 March 2016).