Stonefields School

Opening sequence (background music): title of the strategy, Connected Ako: Digital and Data for Learning, appears with graphical images of a puna (spring). Transition to moving icons of punas that represent the 6 areas of mahi in the strategy.  Opening sequence (background music): title of the strategy, Connected Ako: Digital and Data for Learning, appears with graphical images of a puna (spring). Transition to moving icons of punas that represent the 6 areas of mahi in the strategy.  

Transition to footage of the story. Speaker presenting with imagery represented on screen.

[Sarah Martin, Principal, Stonefields School] “So if we just talk about data and the importance in our place, without it we don’t truly know how we’re going.”

“Conceptually we think about our, we call it the TLA – teaching, learning and assessment cycle and whether that is day to day as a teacher or it's looking at strategic planning across the school, we are really reflecting on the information, the insights, and the data we have to say, ‘so now what’. It’s almost like an eco-system if you think about the technology that enables us to gather the data and information we’ve got. We’ve got SchoolTalk as one of those key feeds, we’ve got out SMS Edge being another feed and then as Bob’s touched on some of the prototype tools, we’ve built in school, that are also feeding insights around some of the areas we deeply and highly value, characteristics, and capabilities. Like their ability to collaborate, be able to act in their own learning etc., so we’ve need to build those tools ourselves.”

[Bob Miller, Deputy principal, Stonefields School] “We’ve built a few tools that help us to crunch some of the usual data. There is a lot of tools out there for things like measuring PATS and asTTles but in terms of some of the things we value, we value wellbeing and agency. Those analysis tools just don’t exist, so we have built them.”

Sarah Martin, “At this point in time, this is where we’ve landed in articulating success statements if you like, all around the things that we value. Originally it wasn’t aligned to our vision, and we did a full cycle and of course what we value is our vision and that these statements all align. An example is, that all learners and staff understand the importance of and actively maintain and improve their Haora. So, one of the feeds in there is the Haora tool which is a self-perception tool that was co-constructed with our Māori Whānau. So, you can see the yellow boxes if you like there, school, prototype, and inputs. There you can see where we’ve got Edge our SMS storing some of the data and SchoolTalk also. That’s important that’s feeding into a big analytics dashboard if you like, then we can communicate that picture to our communities. A critical framework is we asked, you said, we heard, so now that - is the critical piece. So, we’ve been wanting to do this for some time, and it talks about the importance of continuous improvement and that we are very data informed as a school. The first tab there gives you a little bit of the analytics about us and who we are, how many learners we have, and this is the pieces yet to be visualised. We make statements that values the picture that we just shared with you, that we want our kids to turn up and we can see here that our kids for ‘like schools’, exceeds ‘like school attendance’. So, we’re not hiding anything.”

Bob Miller – “So, we encourage our teachers at the end of the year or the last thing we’ll do is gather all the information we know about those learners that we gathered throughout the year, and then that essentially goes forward with those learners. Like what you may have done in a paper portfolio in the past, we’ll do it in digital form, but it is something that becomes organic and grows and it can be shared overtime as well.”

Sarah Martin - “Part of this journey is getting a richer picture of what we value. We needed a data policy and I guess underlying the critical phrase in that data policy, is that data can never ever do any harm and that the data is not our data, we are the guardians of that data and any data we collect is gifted back to those who have given that data. I was shared a teacher enquiry at the end of last week and there I can see some PAT math's results and I can see the engagement slider tool being used and how learners’ engagement has increased, the level of challenge has increased overtime through this person’s enquiry. I’ve also seen elements of the agency tool being dialed up to see there a couple of places the teacher wanted to increase their ability to use tools as an example and to be able to collaborate. And here you are getting this deep insight into a person’s enquiry that is absolutely data informed. We believe parent engagement is fundamental to a child’s success in learning and its what’s learnt last year from those teachers engaging with that parent that matters the year after, and the year after that. Particularly for whānau that we haven't’ historically been successful at engaging and so that year upon year information travelling is important. 

I think because we’ve got this historic data, we’re starting to be able to do and make correlations and get insights that we just haven’t been able to have before. I can stand there with my hand on my heart and be evidenced and data-informed about where we are as a school. The extent to which we have or haven’t served our community and learners and where we are headed too next.”
Closing sequence (background music) with graphical image of the puna.  

Onscreen title appears: Connected Ako: living, learning, and working in the digital world. Final screen shows logos of the education agencies. Top line showing agencies leading this work which will develop workplans based on the strategy: Ministry of Education (MoE), New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) and Tertiary Education Commission (TEC). Bottom line showing the broader education agencies who have contributed to the strategy and will use it to inform and guide their own plans and decisions: Education New Zealand (ENZ), Education Payroll Limited, Education Review Office (ERO), Network for Learning (N4L), Teaching Council, Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu (Te Kura) and Research Education Advanced Network New Zealand (REANNZ).