A Letter To Our Education System

Dear Education System

I am writing to you after many previous attempts at communication.  My first communication with you was 29 years ago and followed on from my mother's communications of 65 years ago.  You failed to reply to either of us then and little has changed since.  My daughter tried to communicate with you a few years ago, her voice went unheard, so she has since ceased further attempts at meaningful correspondence.

My letter seeks to bring your attention to those within your walls that you seem to have missed.  I would hate to assume here that you just don't care enough about these souls, but after many years dealing with you in different roles I have to say, although harsh, this could very well be true.

My letter is a plea on behalf of all those you leave behind, push out, or simply choose not to see.  It could be that you just need to look through different lenses because I am sorry to say, you are missing out on so much.

I would like to say the cause of this is blind ignorance, but unfortunately it would seem it is now just deliberate.  You set your standards so rigidly that anyone that falls outside of this finds themselves on the outer, for the purposes of this letter I choose to call these souls the fringe dwellers.

Your rigidness chooses to only value what I would like to call the 'middle dwellers' which while inside your walls as a student, I chose not to be.  Because of this you chose not to see me, to recognise my talents, to see worth in developing my abilities, to see the leadership abilities that actually lay dormant at the time, you chose not to have a relationship with me, I had no value to you.  Sadly this led me to not value myself.   It must feel strange to have me now working within; yet as far outside of the constraints of your system as I possible can. 

Middle dwellers (or safe sitters as I have also termed them) yes let's address that.  It is a strange term, but one used here in this letter to define those souls that do conform.  They work to the criteria, they are biddable, they smile broadly at you each day exchanging pleasantries, they do little thinking of their own, but that is ok they don't really need to.  Unfortunately dear system, you don't value thinking.  These middle dwellers enjoy you, you are set up just for them.  In fact you hold them up as leaders, recognise them with badges, lavish them with praise...all in an attempt to build more of these middle dwellers.

But what about the fringe dwellers?  The ones that don't fit.  The ones you don't really want...in fact you'd rather they just were not there, what about them?

These fringe dwellers have so much to offer that you are choosing not to see.  They have talents they hide from you, strengths to harness that you never take the time to foster, they think deeply rather than answering quickly; their responses often drowned out by the middle dwellers.  You refuse to see them, to genuinely know them, so they shut off from you.  The fringe dwellers are often your best thinkers, the funny ones, the imaginative ones, the creative ones, yet your boundless praise does not fall on them. 

They don't receive your badges, your awards, they are not recognised.  Instead they have to fit in order to stay.  To do this, they form what I like to call a 'student shell.'  You only see this shell and you are therefore arrogant enough to think they are happy within your walls, when in all honesty they have just given up trying to communicate with you.  They use this shell to fit, to attempt to please you, to pose as a middle dweller for the short time that they have left within your walls.  Sadly many fail to discard this shell when they leave you, they think this is who they need to be.  They leave behind their true selves, thinking what they were was wrong.  It is hard to dwell on the fringes, so hard, many choose not to do so any longer.  In an essence the sacrifice their true self in order to fit.

The talents they could have offered the world are lost because of a system that chooses not to see them.  You my dear system are responsible for that.

There are many good people that work within your walls, fringe dwellers themselves...embrace those people, raise them up, so that they can actively be part of the change.  Because you see, not all is lost, there is still time to change.  It is my hope that you will let the fringe dwellers change you, that you will see yourself through a different lens and realise that it is time to change, that fringe dwellers become the norm and middle dwellers are freed from their people pleasing constraints.  That all souls are allowed to develop as individuals who use their skills to complement a team.  Individuals who have so much to offer our world.

It is possible.

It is my hope that in 20 years I am not writing to you on behalf of my grandchildren, or if I am, I am writing instead to commend you on your bravery in changing.  Change is hard, but change brings with it huge rewards that you must now embrace.



Yours forever in hope


A Proud Fringe Dweller

More on Backward Planning

So this post follows on from my last one on ditching the timetable.  If you have read that blog, you will know that I am not a timetable fan and I am not a fan of pre-teacher planning, other than what could be called the 'bones' of what we want to achieve.

If you have read through this blog, you will know we are a 'competency' or 'dispositions' based school.  This means we believe that we a doing our best by children for their future if we are working on developing dispositions, rather than creating consumers of knowledge.

I also believe this type of planning and the following of interests and urges is possible across all year levels.

This way of working places the children as the curriculum and makes their voice the most important planning tool in the classroom.

I did want to do a bit of an update, because I often get asked about how I make this all work.

Firstly, I don't want people to think there is nothing sitting there planning wise...indeed there are a number of frameworks that I use to guide where I am working with children.

Of course our school curriculum delivery model, mentioned in my last post, sits behind all of this.

My brain framework here

Our school dispositions (learner profile)

Literacy Framework - getting started

Writing jigsaw

Number sense that sits behind agency

The Ingredients of my classroom (created at the beginning of each year)


These frameworks/plans, sit behind everything that happens in our classroom.  They form my way of working and help me to set priorities.  The most important thing to remember is this...whatever happens needs to happen within the context of developmentally appropriate practice.  Therefore most of the specific goal based learning happens individually with children as they are ready and not before.

From this, I have a blank journal.  Each week I set priorities for what I want to achieve that week.  Maybe we need to focus on a specific disposition as this has come through as a clear next step area when observing play.  Perhaps I want to aim to have 2 class storytelling sessions...do a couple of mojo big ideas, a couple of whole group phonic sessions.  Perhaps there are a couple of kindness songs I want to focus on.  You get the idea.  Basically these get handwritten in a list, which then get ticked off as they are done.  We have no timetable, so they happen where it feels 'right' to do so.

Then each day, I record what happens, so that by the end of the day, we in effect have a messy timetable for that day (but after it has happened.) This gives me the chance to reflect on the day and prioritize anything for the next.    As we work in a team, this works well for us, because we all know what is going on.

I also have a page in the journal where I am recording interests/urges that are seen.  This basically gets turned into a mindmap (handwritten.)  I have created an easy to read on here as an example for you.

Week 1 - 3 mindmap

Recording these interests allows me to see opportunities for further discovery or provocation and also encourages me to learn more about what the children are interested in so I can extend their thinking, as they also extend mine.

We also keep a record of 'inquiry' type discussions in a class learning journal.  Basically the learning is captured and shared in a variety of ways...including on seesaw either for individuals in a narrative, small groups, or whole class.

An example of a class summary of learning.  This goes out at the end of a term to give parents an idea of what we have covered in the term.

This  video below describes our learning journal...which we are always refining and improving.

This video may also be of interest

This process works for us, it is not easy, it is hard work, but totally rewarding.  I love teaching and learning in a classroom that has self-directed play at its very core.  Each year we get better and better, but this is a journey, every evolving and ever improving.  Just as it should be.

Curriculum - Finding What Is Important

We are in a time of much needed change.  For some years now, schools have been charged with and given permission to design their own local curriculum.  Sadly many have not taken up this opportunity and as a result there is a continued set of prescribed topics and themes  pervading our classrooms.

Of anything, coverage and the need to meet the 'requirements' of the curriculum, seems to be the biggest hurdle put up in the way of true transformative practice in our schools.

It seems to be ingrained into us, that the achievement objectives and learning areas outlined in the curriculum need to be delivered to the 'consumers' in our classrooms.  I'd like to put it out there here and now, this is not the case and in fact is the enemy of real learning.  It is possible to 'power share' learning without being constrained to narrow criteria.

Firstly I'd like to say that the back end of the curriculum is a carry over from the past.  A past that required us to prepare children with a set of skills that would benefit them in the workforce.  While there is some value in us understanding this area of the curriculum, there is no benefit at all to us spoon feeding this learning to children.  Add to this that it is basically impossible to know what knowledge will be important in five, let alone ten or twenty years, it would be arrogant to think that by following a 'curriculum' we are doing the best by our children.  Once again, this is my opinion.

In your day to day life, when do you ever box learning like this?  Do you think about what you do in curriculum areas, or do you carry out your daily tasks, using the knowledge you have, searching for the knowledge you don't have and developing integrated understandings and new connections?

I would propose that this is exactly how learning does happen and it is up to us to create classrooms that are all about connections and mutual sharing in this way.

However in saying all of this, there are areas we can be focusing on, absolutely knowing these will be valuable to children for their future.  These come in the form of dispositions that fall nicely out of the key competencies.   It is these aspects, these competencies and specific disposition that we as educators need to be focusing our energy upon.

I of course, believe this can be done by establishing a curriculum with play and student agency (genuine student voice of every child) at its core.  I speak here not from copious research, but by practical experience.  As we have moved to a curriculum that genuinely believes that the child is the curriculum, we have seen coverage and progress like never before...not only that, coverage of areas of learning that are the direct result of child interest and in turn, connection, after connection being made allowing for individual progress that is just right for that child.  When I backward plan now, I am always blown away by just how much we manage to achieve in a few weeks, not to mention a term, or even a year.   In this respect it is the work of John Holt that speaks so strongly to my teacher heart...

John Holt spent copious amounts of time observing and noticing; his work is easy to read and understand, and is not data-driven. He even says himself  “What I am saying about education rests on the belief that, though there is much evidence to support it, I cannot prove, and that may never be proved. Call it faith. The faith is that man is by nature a learning animal. Birds fly, fish swim; man thinks and learns. Therefore, we do not need to “motivate” children into learning, by wheedling, bribing or bullying. We do not need to keep picking away at their minds to make sure they are learning. What we do need to do, and all we need to do, is bring as much of the world as we can into the school and the classroom; give children as much help and guidance as they need and ask for; listen respectfully when they feel like talking; and then get out of the way. We can trust them to do the rest.”

I have come to see this approach to curriculum as teaching and learning through play.  But more than that, it is teaching and learning through a child-led curriculum.    I refer to teaching and learning in a reciprocal way, I sometimes teach, they sometimes teach, we are always learning...each and every one of us.

This type of curriculum is possible school-wide.  It is as simple as letting interests and urges guide what is going on and being prepared to know enough to 'guide' and 'discover' alongside.  Teacher and children exploring and discovering together.  Putting wellbeing and relationships forefront.

We absolutely all need to be moving away from a curriculum that poses children as consumers of knowledge.  We do them no favours by presenting learning in this way.  Creating a child-led curriculum empowers everyone, it fosters talents, provides for needs, promotes equity and excellence, it gives us the scope to individualise what we are doing and most of all, it focuses on learning that is important, authentic and ever evolving.  We are not redundant in this mode, but we do stop being the fountain of all knowledge and are given the permission to go on this journey with them...like a pick a path book, the ending is never defined when we start the journey and may not be the same for everyone.  

Below is a bit of a 'preview' (still in draft, so excuse any typos) of where our heads are at curriculum design wise.  We have been  a 'pillars' school for many many years now.  You will notice these four pillars in the middle green circle.  These pillars works so wonderfully for us and the dispositions, competencies and 'learning' falls so well out of them.  This framework is also heavily inspired by Te Whariki.  It is not finished and as always, for us, it a work in progress...never finished and always evolving according to the needs of our children and our community.  It is also supported by other frameworks that we feel are important.