Tools for improving schoolwide practice

Online tools to support Communities of Learning | Kāhui Ako, school leaders, and teachers improve their practice and collaborate.

e-Learning planning framework

Designed for English medium and kura kaupapapa Māori.

• e-Learning Planning Framework (eLPF)
• Māori-medium eLPF – Te Rangitukutuku

What the tool does

• Supports schools and teachers with regular self-review and planning to develop e-learning capability and practice.
• Provided as an online tool or a downloadable PDF.

Everyone's In: An inclusive planning tool

What the tool does

The planning tool:

• helps teachers develop a classroom curriculum that works for all students, from the outset
• provides a sample of inclusive strategies to get teachers thinking about what they do already and what could be done differently
• helps teachers create a customised plan of inclusive strategies for teaching and learning
• saves plans for future use.

Leading Local Curriculum Guide series

There are three guides:

• Local curriculum
• Assessment for learning
• Information sharing and building partnerships

What the tool does

Supports schools to:

• strengthen their local curriculum through assessment review and design decisions
• use tools to assess progress
• strengthen the partnerships with parents and whānau.

Local Curriculum Design Tool

The Design Toolkit is made up of eight tools that support both Māori and English medium education settings.

What the tool does

• Supports Kāhui Ako, schools and kura to collaboratively design a quality, local curriculum for their learners. The tools combine to help communities to build a shared local curriculum, focused on supporting children and young people across the education pathway. 

Positive Behaviour for Learning (PB4L) & PB4L School-wide (PB4L-SW)

What the tool does

• PB4L provides schools with a process for teaching social and behavioural skills to support learning, engagement and retention at school. 
• PB4L can be applied in individual schools and across Communities of Learning.

Progress and consistency tool (PaCT)

What the tool does

• PaCT supports consistent judgments of student progress and achievement in reading, writing and mathematics in Years 1–10.
• PaCT assists Communities of Learning | Kāhui Ako share consistent data on learner progress.

The Learning Progressions Frameworks are a key part of PaCT.

Teaching and school practices survey tool

Developed by NZCER.

What the tool does

• The survey tool provides a Community of Learning | Kāhui Ako, school, or kura, with information and insight about teaching practices, school processes and leadership capability that can be used for inquiry, review and planning.
• The survey takes 15–20 minutes for a teacher and 10–15 minutes for a principal to complete.

Te Waharoa Ararau (TWA)

This tool is available to all kura and Māori medium settings who use Ngā Whanaketanga Rumaki Māori – Pāngarau and Te Reo Matatini with their year 1–8 students.

What the tool does

• TWA collates and reports overall teacher judgments in one place so that teachers and kura can build a picture of how student achievement is progressing in relation to te reo matatini (literacy) and pāngarau (numeracy).
• Kura can collect and report individual student achievement information in relation to Ngā Whanaketanga Rumaki Māori.

The learning progression frameworks

What the tool does

• The frameworks show the significant steps that learners take as they develop in reading, writing and mathematics from Years 1–10.
• The frameworks clarify the expected knowledge and skills that students need to develop in Years 9 and 10, to support success in NCEA and beyond.
• Communities of Learning can download the Learning Progression app from the Apple and Google Play stores or access the framework online.

Wellbeing@School website  – Strengthening inclusive practices

The Inclusive Practices Tools are funded by the Ministry of Education and were developed by NZCER. There are two toolkits to choose from.

• Wellbeing@school self-review toolkit
• Inclusive practices self-review toolkit

Both of these toolkits can be used by schools to confidentially store data, access data reports, find suggestions for next steps and actions, and track changes over time.

What the tool does 

The toolkits support primary, intermediate, and secondary schools to engage in a review process and build inclusive practices for all learners by:

• improving social wellbeing and relationships for all
• creating a safer climate that deters aggressive and bullying behaviour
• thinking critically about, and improving the way your school includes all students, and in particular, those who need extra support.