Rangiātea: Kakapo College

Project focus: building relationships

The whole school has the warm feeling that it does because there was a real focus on the pastoral side of the school. The form teacher starts with a class in Year 9 and goes through with them to Year 13. It’s about building relationships. (Principal)

Kakapo College is a decile 9 co-educational school in an urban setting. Māori students make up 16 percent of the roll.

The school chose to remain unnamed, so the pseudonym Kakapo College is used here.

The case study

Download the Kakapo College case study (PDF 272 kB)

Key points

Establishing goals and expectations

Charter contains strategic long-term goals for Māori student achievement written in clear language.
Teachers from every learning area meet to discuss progress of each student.

Strategic resourcing

Māori interests are strongly represented on board of trustees.
Targeted resourcing of Māori staff in key roles, such as Māori dean and Māori student support.
Resourcing for strong pastoral care and extracurricular activities.
Resourcing for special initiatives in some subjects.

Curriculum and teaching

Curriculum shaped to meet student need.
Form teachers monitor academic progress of students across all classes.
Students involved in appraisals of classroom teaching.
Māori staff feel valued as Māori within school.
School leadership constantly looking for new ways to use data to inform teaching and learning.

Building educationally powerful connections with whānau

Māori students choose whether to be in whānau class (vertical form class) or mainstream.
Principal seeks advice from kaumātua; for example, on matters of tikanga.
Wide range of approaches used to communicate with whānau.

The exemplar

The Kakapo College exemplar tells how the school built relationships and modified the curriculum in order to engage the interest of Māori boys in English.

Download the Kakapo College exemplar (PDF 532 kB)