Portfolio

Professional Learning and Development Accreditation

The following template has been developed to support you in completing your portfolio. Complete all sections of the template.
You are encouraged to not exceed ten pages or use a font size below 10 for section one.

First name and Kate Brown

Surname

Section One Example(s) of Practice

Example of Example One:
Practice Working with an intermediate school staff to review their curriculum and develop a collaborative model of interdisciplinary
curriculum.
My work with this school began with a consultation with the curriculum coordinator, and the discussion centred around developing a
collaborative interdisciplinary curriculum. The physical environment in the school had been changed to encourage teachers to work
collaboratively. As a result the school requested I support effective teaching practice.
After consultation with senior leadership around the goals and needs of the school, my brief was to support teachers in the achievement of one
of the schools two curriculum goals, devised to target raising student achievement in relation to the National Standards.
The action plan included developing a culture of thinking as the norm across the school, building a collaborative interdisciplinary curriculum and
co-construction of an inquiry process to be implemented across the school. These targets were to be achieved over a three-year period to
ensure a long-term sustainable model of curriculum development and delivery.
I reviewed the existing written curriculum and requested to observe learning in action in the classrooms. I then worked closely alongside the
curriculum coordinator and together we developed an action plan for the curriculum review. The curriculum coordinator shared with me that
several of the staff had been working at the school for many years and although the senior management considered that the curriculum needed
to change to meet the needs of the current students and this century, not all staff were necessarily going to be easy to convince.

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I planned to first work with the learning leaders to support their understanding of the theory behind a collaborative curriculum. Some of the
leaders were fully on board and enthusiastic with the process and others needed more gentle guidance and reassurance that the sections of
the current curriculum that were relevant to the students would be saved and included in the new curriculum.
I led them through a process where we mapped the existing sections of the programme to be kept and used those as the starting point for the
new curriculum map. We then selected concepts that could incorporate the sections of the existing programme they wanted to keep and used
these concepts to drive the new interdisciplinary curriculum.
I then shared this curriculum map with all the staff and after consultation adaptations were made.
To develop the first interdisciplinary unit, I took the staff through a process to write a conceptual understanding that underpinned the unit. The
next step in the process was to find the relevant achievement objectives in the NZC that would support the conceptual understanding and then
select key competencies for focus in the learning and teaching.
I have supplied continuous support, PLD and resources to scaffold teachers through the new cycle of planning, teaching, and assessment. I
have worked with groups of teachers within the school to support them with their planning and implementation; team leaders as a group and
individually, teaching teams, specialist teams, and senior management.
I supplied resources that supported development of inquiry processes for learning. These resources were shared using the schools digital
platform to provide on-going support, collaboration and reference and reflection for teachers.
Teachers used this new approach to planning, teaching and assessment as the context for their Teaching as Inquiry process. I supported
teachers to plan for their inquiries and how to identify the strategies that were effective for student learning and student engagement. We
discussed what kind of results to look for and how they would use these results to create further effective learning opportunities.

Evaluation and What was the outcome for leaders/teachers/students?

Evidence Due to the on-going nature of the PLD staff have felt continuously supported. It was clear to me that two of the team leaders were struggling
with the conceptual nature of the new curriculum and the expectations of student learning through inquiry. Being very conscientious teachers
they found it a struggle not have a complete unit planned out at the start, with the teacher holding all the knowledge and providing all the
resources. I have had individual sessions with each of these leaders. One of them had a real light-bulb moment during our session and
couldnt wait to then work with her team sharing her new learning and confidence. The other leader expressed her feelings of incompetence
with the new approach, but after some gentle scaffolding and support she too felt confident to lead her group, as long as she knew my support
was always going to be close by.

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The teachers appreciated using the achievement objectives from NZC to underpin the unit. They liked that they had to select the NZC key
competencies most relevant to the unit and focus on the development of these through direct learning opportunities and assessment.
One of the rewarding impacts of this curriculum collaboration across the school has been teaching teams not only planning and collaborating in
the teaching and learning process for the first time, but the value of the combined contribution of knowledge, skills, understandings and ideas.
Teachers are enjoying the time made available to work as an effective team and design engaging and relevant curriculum for the students.
They commented that they no longer feel like they work in isolation.
I have been able to support teachers by making suggestions of local primary resources people, places and contexts relevant to the student
learning. Teachers have commented how the personal and local connections have increased the student engagement and ownership of their
learning.
Teachers have stated the value of the students developing deeper understandings by viewing contexts through multiple conceptual lenses. For
example, through the conceptual lens of Identity the students developed inquiries into Te Tiriti o Waitangi inquiring into how it shaped New
Zealands identity. The second conceptual lens chosen was Change, and students were able build on their understanding of Te Tiriti o
Waitangi this time inquiring into what in New Zealand changed for the tangatawhenua and the Europeans as a direct result of the treaty and its
implications.
Through supporting the teachers to understand the four levels of student independence in inquiry and the importance of using formative
assessment to know which level students were capable of working within; students are now being set up for success in inquiry.
What happened as a result?
Team leaders unanimously agreed that the new curriculum based around conceptual understandings allowed students more agency as they
had some choice of contexts for learning. They said teachers themselves were excited about having the choice of contexts making the
curriculum culturally responsive with personal and local connections for the students. Allowing students to choose their own contexts within the
unit was developing feelings of agency. As the results of the students inquiries and understandings were shared the concept of Ako amongst
the teachers and the students was being developed.
Students are becoming more self-regulated in their learning. Teachers have observed the value of each student understanding at what level of
independence in inquiry they work best in order to receive their own appropriate level of scaffolding and support through the process.
Teachers have become excited about being able to share their particular passions in the learning process or programme and engage with more
students across the team.
As a result of the new curriculum it became obvious that the written report format had to change. I joined a team with representation from
senior management and learning leaders to develop a new report format. The goal of the new reports was to be a written representation of on-
going student learning, understanding and key competency development in a narrative format. I was then able to work with the teachers to

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develop an assessment schedule with a smorgasbord of assessment strategies to use throughout the unit, resulting in sufficient material to be
able to easily complete the narrative reports.

What would you change if anything and why?

The major change that has been made and has allowed for collaboration, is that all Year 7 and 8 students are working on the same
programme. As each learning team includes Year 7 and Year 8 classes this has been the major catalyst that has allowed teachers to
collaborate across the teams.
What I would like to be able to change is the timetabling for the specialist subject teachers. These teachers are working hard to make
connections with the concepts the curriculum is framed around, but struggle as they have single classes timetabled over a term. The overall
collaboration could be more effective if they were able to use their expertise and work alongside classroom teachers to develop student
understandings, rather than working separately. The senior management team is now considering more effective opportunities for specialist
teachers to be part of the collaboration, and are considering different timetable structures for 2018.
It would have been helpful to have more time working with individual teaching teams to support their planning stages. We have had reflection
time towards the end of the unit but more time in the planning stages with small groups initially would have supported some of the teachers to a
deeper level of understanding around the collaborative curriculum.

Criteria/Indicators Tangata Whenuatanga: Dimension 1: Te Reo me ng tikanga mtauranga; 1, 2, 3.

Dimension 3: Te mana o te kura; 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
Wananga: Dimension 4: Kia matatau ki na kaupapa 10, 11, 12, 13, 14.

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 Example of Example Two:
Practice Supporting Y7 to Y10 teachers in a College to design a connected curriculum.
Example two This process began with a discussion with the newly appointed principal. My brief from the principal was to support staff to build a four-
year connected curriculum from Y7 to Year 10, beginning in 2016, starting with the Year 7 and 8 students and then building from that into
the Year 9 and 10 area in following years.
This is a low decile school with many students with challenging behaviours. After an initial session with the Year 7 and 8 teachers I
recognised the amount of time staff spent dealing with pastoral care and coming from an education background I knew that working on site
was not going to be effective. In consultation with the team leader I suggested an action plan for staff training that included taking teachers
off site in two groups, she agreed. This allowed the teachers to focus for full days on the pedagogical approach needed to support the new
curriculum. I led them through what a connected curriculum could look like and the philosophy and pedagogy that underpinned it.
Following this I brought all the Year 7 and 8 staff together and we selected eight concepts or big ideas for their students to explore over a
two-year cycle. The priorities with these concepts was that they were relevant to the students and made authentic connections with the
local environment and beyond.
I advised the Y7/8 team leader to create a place in the schools on-line platform to collect existing curriculum and to document and store the
newly developing curriculum. Storing the documentation here would support co-creation and collaboration throughout the process. This
also created somewhere for me to share my resources with all the teachers.
We worked together to design the first unit to be implemented in term four 2016. I could see how much time these teachers spent
supporting positive behaviours in the classroom, so I wanted to try to build the work I was doing with them around establishing a positive
learning culture. As the school is a PB4L school, I supported teachers to find connections in the unit to actively teach the schools values
and give students opportunities to strengthen their skills in these values.
After the Y7/8 homeroom teachers had been working with this first unit I met with the teachers from the specialist departments who worked
with the Year 7/8 students. Teachers of science, the arts and PE and health who worked with the Year 7/8 students valued the
connections and collaboration and came on board viewing their learning area through the concepts the Year 7/8 teachers had selected.
The focus was to have the students making authentic connections across the learning areas.

Evaluation and What was the outcome for leaders/teachers/students?

Evidence As each of the classes in the Year 7/8 area were composite, the teachers were pleased to have a two-year programme. The teachers were
pleased to have a curriculum that was being documented and archived to be used again in two years rather than continuing to re-invent the
wheel each year as had been happening. The outcomes are on-going but currently the teachers are pleased to have a structure that
focusses on students understanding their world and their identity, place and contribution to it.
After I led the teachers through a programme to develop their inquiry pedagogy the teachers equated the four levels of independence in
inquiry to the poutama model of learning they already had in the school. It was helpful to use this format to share this understanding with
the students.

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 The students enjoyed the flexibility of the programme and the choice of contexts through which to develop their conceptual understandings.
The students connected very strongly with the concept of Community when they were encouraged to examine their whanaungatanga,
viewed through the attributes relating to community. This gave each student a strong connection to the curriculum and valued their
whanaungatanga. This also strengthened the students marama and respect for that of others.
Most of the students are working effectively following their own inquiries within the shared conceptual understanding. The students have
responded well to having choice in their inquiries and the flexibility to follow through one inquiry in depth or several smaller inquiries. This
has created opportunities for agency in their learning. The sharing of the results of these inquiries is developing the concept of Ako and
reciprocal teaching and learning.
Teachers found it very effective to have the schools PB4L values documented in the units which resulted in teachers offering learning
opportunities to develop and assess the related skills. They found the focus on these skills took students from a level of being able to tell
you the values, to actually being able to articulate through what skills they were developing the values.
What happened as a result?
The team leader of the Y7/8 area is relieved to be building a shared curriculum that is documented and will be mapped and reflected upon
with notes left for when the units are revisited in two years. The staff reflected that it was beneficial to have an external facilitator not
involved in the past politics or pastoral care and behaviours of the students. It meant that when the staff worked with me they could leave
all the politics and other distractions behind to allow full focus on the job.
Towards the end of 2016 I offered the school a training session in the connected curriculum for interested Year 9 and 10 teachers. Two
heads of department and five teachers working in other departments attended the training and as a result were keen to create a connected
curriculum for their Year 9 and 10 students. Supporting them in their work and enthusiasm is beginning to build a platform from which we
can take this across all Year 9 and 10 teaching and learning.
I worked with these Year 9 and 10 teachers to examine the eight concepts chosen for Year 7 and 8 and build on them with eight more
complex concepts to work with the Year 9 and 10 students over two years. I will share this framework with all Year 7 to 10 staff in term two
of this year, to be reviewed, adapted where necessary and then agreed upon. The goal is a completed connected curriculum from Year 7
to 10 by then end of 2018.
One young enthusiastic teacher who was the only representative from her learning area in the training came to me with a concern as to
how she was to get her whole department on board. I reassured her that her role was to put her new knowledge and pedagogical thinking
into practice and leave me to work with her Head of Department and the rest of her team. She was very relieved, and we have had
discussions on several occasions reflecting on her work and the resulting student engagement and enthusiasm for learning.
I am now working with all the Year 7 to 10 teachers involved to use the reflection and review of their first unit of 2017, to inform the planning
for the next unit.
What would you change, if anything, and why?
Currently the enthusiasm and commitment by the teachers involved is fabulous and needs no change.

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 For this curriculum development process to move forward more time needs to be given to the teachers to work collaboratively, share
successes and challenges and through reflective practices continue to develop and refine the process, as other teachers come on board.
It is a challenge to get the time with all the teachers involved together.

Criteria/Indicators Tangata Whenuatanga: Dimension 1: Te Reo me ng tikanga mtauranga; 1, 2, 3.

Dimension 3: Te mana o te kura; 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
Wananga: Dimension 4: Kia matatau ki na kaupapa 10, 11, 12, 13, 14.

Example of Example Three:

Practice Working with staff in a full primary to develop a school-wide inquiry curriculum
Through discussion with the senior management it was made clear that they required an external provider who could support and motivate
the teachers to develop a shared school-wide inquiry curriculum. They also wanted a curriculum with practices that built on the concept of
Ako and reciprocal teaching and learning. They wished to break the barriers where teachers were still holding the knowledge and planning
all the learning with no co-construction with the students.
This is a school that has experienced great growth in role numbers over the last four years and when I began working with them (2016) new
learning spaces were under construction providing two areas containing five classes each.
This created urgency to build a curriculum that allowed for collaborative practice for the teachers and the students to be in place with the
opening of the new learning spaces in February 2017. I discussed with senior management the fact that the curriculum will not all be in
place in Feb 2017, but we will have made a start by then. They agreed that it was to be a long-term process of redesigning and retraining
pedagogical practices.
The senior management provided two teacher-only days towards the end of 2016 to get the process started, and then blocked several
meetings from 3pm to 7pm during the 2017 school year, with a review after those meetings to see where the process had led to and how
much more time and support was required.
The first teacher staff PLD day was interrupted by the Kaikoura earthquake the evening before and we were all a little shaken and sleep
deprived. Despite this, progress was made in the design of the curriculum and the initial curriculum map was created. During this session
I observed that one of the team leaders had been very negative in her input and had disengaged from the collaborative process. I was
able to talk with her while others were engaged and she opened up and admitted she was very shaken the evening before and it had
brought back some unpleasant memories. I suggested she take some time out, which she was grateful for and her team continued to work
and brought her up to speed on her return. A challenging time for all involved.

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 Each team developed a scaffold for their own inquiry unit, using the NZC achievement objectives as guidelines for their levels with focus on
an agreed conceptual understanding for the school year. We focussed on the Te Taumutu Runanga values adopted by the school and
viewed the planning with opportunities for teaching and learning of these values. Teachers were led to accept that the unit could not be
planned to completion as there had to be room for co-construction with the students and also choice of contexts that may arise, interest, or
be relevant for the students. Student agency in the learning was a new approach for some of the staff but most understood the importance
of it and its ability to empower the learner.
Early in 2017 I led training in the inquiry approach to learning and the teachers agreed to an inquiry process that could scaffold the teaching
and learning. I shared resources to support the process and each team developed an inquiry goal to work towards in the first term with the
students. Each team developed their own inquiry unit, using the NZC achievement objectives as guidelines for their levels with focus on an
agreed conceptual understanding for the school year.

Evaluation and What was the outcome for leaders/teachers/students?

Evidence The school already had curriculum teams in place and one of those teams was an Inquiry team. I have worked closely with these staff
members to up skill them to be advocates for inquiry during planning times and also carry the knowledge for the team. Most recently I
have set them up with a non-threatening way to observe inquiry-learning and reflect with the teacher to support development of inquiry
pedagogy skills, student advocacy and ako.
What happened as a result?
The teachers found the process of developing systems to create effective learning in the new physical spaces took a lot of time and
collaboration and as a result we delayed some of the curriculum work planned for this school year. The important issue for me was to
monitor teachers stress levels and to ensure they were not being overloaded with expectations.
This example of practice is still a work in progress. I communicate closely with the Learning Leader in the school, guide her in her
approach with teacher expectations, and we still have several sessions to complete this year.
What would you change, if anything, and why?
In a perfect world with time at our discretion I would have started this process earlier with the staff. The pressure of working in a new
setting, having to collaborate on many levels and taking on a new curriculum in content and pedagogical approach has been very
challenging for some of the teachers. If the school had an open budget I would offer to work with students and allow the teachers to
observe inquiry in action I may be able to do that later in the year.

Criteria/Indicators Tangata Whenuatanga: Dimension 1: Te Reo me ng tikanga mtauranga; 1, 2, 3.

Dimension 3: Te mana o te kura; 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
Wananga: Dimension 4: Kia matatau ki na kaupapa 10, 11, 12, 13, 14.

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Section One Specialisation
Section Two - Backward Mapping (Self Check)
Use the following checklist to identify the criteria/indicator(s) you have provided evidence for in your examples in order to identify where additional
information is needed. It is intended that the accreditation panel will use this when evaluating and cross-checking your application.

Tangata Whenuatanga
Dimension 1: Te Reo me ng tikanga mtauranga Dimension 3: Te mana o te kura
(Cultural competency and locatedness) (The integrity, uniqueness, specialness of the kura, school or CoL)

1. Demonstrate 2. Demonstrates 3. Demonstrates 4. Demonstrates 5. Establishes 6. Challenges 7. Challenges 8. Models the 9. Demonstrates
s an ability to an an a and and and qualities of mindfulness
understanding commitment maintains supports supports relational of context
work understanding
to the bi-
effectively of the of cultural effective leaders leaders trust - (school,
cultural
within the importance of competencies partnership in professional and and interpersonal teachers,
bicultural validating the (as described Aotearoa relationships teachers to teachers to respect, students and
context of education in Ttaiako: New Zealand focused on recognise work personal wider school
Aotearoa settings Cultural the learning the needs towards regard for community),
New Zealand, language, Competencies and well- of diverse achieving others, existing
showing identity and for Teachers being of (all) shared competence knowledge
respect for culture; and of Mori students, students goals, in role, and
and relevant an ability to Learners teachers targets and personal improvement
use of te reo deliver PLD 2011) and and leaders priorities integrity efforts;
Mori consistent how these recognising
with the look in need to
language practice, to acknowledge
expressed by know, and build
and/or the respect, and from existing
needs of the work with knowledges,
setting Mori learners beliefs and
and their actions
whnau and
iwi

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 Wnanga
Dimension 4: Kia matatau ki na kaupapa
(Facilitator practice, knowledge and skills)
10. Understands how contextual and 11. In own practice, models 12. Demonstrates how to 13. Demonstrates deep 14. Demonstrates
situational factors influence the learning critical inquiry/evaluative integrate pedagogy and knowledge of curriculum commitment to own
processes and responses of teachers and thinking, data analytics and technologies to build design and an ability to ongoing professional
leaders problem posing and solving digital fluency that support educators to learning and development
to deepen understanding of accelerates educational deliver an integrated of professional practice
effective practices, change and curriculum and develop
challenge practices and improvement learning and teaching
support change leadership programmes using a
comprehensive
knowledge of curriculum,
assessment and reporting
requirements that
appropriately stretch all
students

Section Two - Criteria/indicator(s) not already covered

Use the template below to list any criteria/indicator(s) not already covered and provide a brief statement about the kind of quality practices that you use
in your work.

Criteria/indicator not yet covered Statement

e.g. Understands how contextual and situational
factors influence the learning processes and
responses of teachers and leaders

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