A touch of class
Flaxmere tends to make headlines for deprivation and violence – but, at the heart of the Hawke’s Bay suburb, its school is making giant strides to turn its students’ lives around, writes Andre Chumko.
Adam Ioane reckons he would have dropped out if it wasn’t for Flaxmere College’s teen parent unit. The 17-year-old is humble beyond his years and head boy of the Hawke’s Bay school. But when he found out he was going to be a father aged just 14, he made plans to quit school and get into full-time work to support the baby.
Now his daughter Syphira-Paige, 3, is looked after while he’s in class and he’s forging ahead to study mechatronics at the University of Canterbury next year.
‘‘She’s been my motivation; her and my partner,’’ Ioane says.
‘‘I’m working hard so I can get to uni, become successful and get a good job so I can provide them the future they deserve. Without the school, I wouldn’t be the person I am today.’’
Flaxmere College, in the heart of the titular Hastings suburb, didn’t always cater to students’ needs like this. In 2009, it hit a low.
Its students were underperforming. Only a third were achieving NCEA levels 1 and 2, and only eight per cent level 3.
An Education Review Office report from 2010 said literacy and numeracy rates at the school – whose roll is 86 per cent Ma¯ori – were poor, and of significant concern were students’ presence, engagement and achievement.
The quality of teaching was ‘‘variable’’, its curriculum lacked coherence, and students were not well supported to take responsibility for their learning, reviewer Kathleen Atkins wrote.
But fast-forward to today, and the improvement to achievement and attendance rates are almost unfathomable.
Its most recent NCEA achievement levels are all close to 90 per cent, and attendance rates increased from 50 per cent in 2009, to 85 per cent last year .
So how did it manage to do it?
Decades of Ministry of Education work in Ma¯ori education strategy can claim some credit. To date Ma¯ori students still have the lowest rate of achieving all NCEA levels compared to any other ethnic group.
2017 figures show just 36 per cent of Ma¯ori students achieved NCEA level 3 nationally, compared to 46 per cent for Pasifika, 57 for Pa¯keha¯, and 78 for Asian students.
Ma¯ori students also have the lowest attendance rate with 2017 stats showing 50 per cent of Ma¯ori students attend school regularly, compared with 52 per cent of Pasifika students, 67 per cent Pa¯keha¯, and 73 for Asian students.
The Ministry of Education first developed a comprehensive Ma¯ori education strategy in 1999, focusing on participation and achievement.
In part, this was bought about by a 1998 Te Puni Ko¯ kiri (Ministry for Ma¯ori Development) report, which identified Ma¯ori were less likely compared to non-Ma¯ori to remain at secondary school to senior levels, or leave secondary school with a formal qualification.
The strategy’s goals were to raise the quality of mainstream education for Ma¯ori, support growth of kura kaupapa Ma¯ori education, and support greater Ma¯ori involvement in education. It led to new initiatives like iwi education partnerships, Ma¯ori resource teachers and the appointment of Ma¯ori community liaison officers throughout the country.
A revised and updated strategy was published in 2008 and refreshed in 2013. That most-recent iteration has a similar vision: Ma¯ori students enjoying and achieving education success ‘‘as Ma¯ori’’. One key outcome is for all Ma¯ori students to achieve at least NCEA level 2, or an equivalent qualification.
Work is underway to develop the next phase of the strategy.
Massey University professor Dr Meihana Durie, head of the university’s Te Pu¯ tahi-a-Toi school of Ma¯ori knowledge, says while Flaxmere College is an ideal example, more work is needed nationally.
The national picture shows a complex and diverse range of outcomes for Ma¯ori students, he says, and while Flaxmere College is achieving educational success, national statistics showed the ‘‘incremental’’ changes the ministry is making are not working.
It is time to move towards a system for Ma¯ori ‘‘not so dependent on the prescription of curriculum and over-assessment of young people’’, as that was deterring from education which prepared students to be citizens of Te Ao Ma¯ori and the world, he says.
Alternative education models, like Palmerston North’s hapu¯ -based Manukura school, has achieved very good outcomes for Ma¯ori, he says.
Manukura – a designated character school in its third year – has a vision of educational and sporting excellence within a Ma¯ori context. Almost all of its 184 students are Ma¯ori.
Ma¯ori values underpin its curriculum, and programmes are personalised to cater to individual students. Its success is reflected in its 2017 results. All enrolled Ma¯ori students achieved NCEA levels 1-3.
Flaxmere College boasts similar statistics – but the difference is Flaxmere isn’t a designated character school.
Flaxmere – population about 9500 – is divided between four areas – Flaxmere East, KingsleyChatham, Lochain and Woolwich. All but Woolwich are a decile 10 on the most-recent Index of Deprivation making it one of the most deprived areas in the country.
Flaxmere was designed to relieve the housing shortage in Hastings, and was intended to be an uppermiddle class suburb, however it turned into a low-income neighbourhood when land was subdivided into smaller lots.
A long avenue runs its length – Flaxmere Ave – with cul-de-sacs shooting off. There’s not much to the town. Down the street from the school are two churches – a baptist and an anglican – a Work and Income office, a gas station, and a shopping centre including a post office, New World, a liquor store, a bar and a police station.
Flaxmere doesn’t pretend to have the best reputation – O¯ po¯ tiki man Kelly Donner was allegedly murdered outside a pub there in March and there was a nasty attack on a fish and chip shop worker by three people in August – the same month that a gang-related incident saw two people assaulted, five vehicles damaged, and a shot being fired.
Although keeping focus on school and schoolwork is bound to be hard for children who come from struggling communities, a 2016 study Unconscious bias and education, found it was teachers and the school environment that most often determined educational outcomes.
‘‘Teachers say the kids aren’t achieving because of their home life, and issues with poverty and domestic violence . . . but what we know in terms of achievement is that the important relationship is between the teacher and the student,’’ co-author Anton Blank said at the time.
The University of Waikato’s professor Dr Mere Berryman, who specialises in researching culturally responsive learning methods, agrees. Before 2010 there was a ‘‘very negative picture’’ for Flaxmere College’s Ma¯ori students but this was only partly because Flaxmere is not an easy community to engage with, Berryman says.
Berryman’s familiarity with the school is through her project Te Ko¯ tahitanga, which investigates how to improve Ma¯ori student achievement in mainstream secondary schools.
Flaxmere College’s success showed what’s possible when teaching staff have ‘‘absolute belief in Ma¯ori students and their communities’’, she says.
‘‘If you are patient and work with people, not continue to tell wha¯nau what they’ll do for the school; if you take a relationship that’s based on mutual trust and respect and you’re there for the long haul . . . that will take you strategically into the future.’’
In a small room down the hall from the school’s reception, softly spoken principal Louise Anaru says the secret to its success has been cultural responsiveness. ‘‘The foundation of the school is around wha¯naunatanga, or having a wha¯nau environment,’’ she says. ‘‘Our young people needed to feel part of a wha¯nau within a school environment, they need to feel connected, valued by their teachers, and have positive relationships throughout the school.’’
She realised when she arrived in 2010 that improvement was needed. ‘‘You could see from media coverage, ERO reports, NZQA information about the school, there was a real sense of urgency to bring about change.’’ The first step, she says, was asking students what was important in terms of their learning and then being responsive.
The role was Anaru’s first as principal, after moving to Hawke’s Bay from a teaching role at Waitakere College in West Auckland, and having been deputy principal at Taipa Area School in the Far North for five years.
Flaxmere College is starting to show its age. Originally opening in 1978 as Flaxmere Intermediate School, the college was later expanded to include high school years, before formally reopening in 2003.
Now, adjacent to a large grassy sports field, the egg shell-coloured classrooms, some with peeling paint, are set against a library, canteen, gymnasium, health centre and the teen parent unit. The teen parent unit was opened in 2014.
Most of the buildings will come down over the summer, as part of a multi-million dollar refurbishment which will see 22 new ‘‘flexible learning spaces’’ created, and repairs to the hall and gym.
Its pupils are tidier – dressed in the school uniform of a white or black dress shirt; dark trousers, shorts, skirt or Ie Faitaga (men’s lavalava). Jerseys and ties are black with a gold school crest.
Its motto? ‘‘Student success is the only option.’’
As part of its cultural responsiveness, you won’t see teachers grinding out lessons from the front of the room – they’re just as likely to sit with pupils, or be hands-on in group activities.
‘‘We know that we can’t do anything about what’s happening in their home and outside school walls, but once they come into the classroom we can do lots to change them, give them hope, and let them know that they’ve got a future out there,’’ teacher Beth Te Kiri says.
Massey University professor Dr Bobbie Hunter, whose research specialises in maths education for Ma¯ori and Pasifika students, says making students’ culture visible in learning, makes them visible.
She works with teachers to use real-world problems. For example, in patterns and algebra she uses the sasa – the Samoan dance – as a ‘‘growing pattern’’.
‘‘If you gave a child that pattern to work out, the children that know the sasa would get that straight away. But they might not get red block, yellow block, green block.’’
Flaxmere College, she says, is a ‘‘flagship’’.
‘‘What they’re proving is that it’s not about poverty, it’s actually about changing in-school systems to accommodate everybody – the wha¯nau, everybody. I can imagine that in that area, that’s been really hard because the parents would have had bruising experiences.
‘‘And yet – they’ve done it. It is just understanding their world.’’
Our young people needed to feel part of a wha¯nau within a school environment, they need to feel connected, valued by their teachers, and have positive relationships throughout the school. Principal Louise Anaru, right
We know we can’t do anything about what’s happening outside school walls, but once they come into the classroom we can do lots to change them, give them hope, and let them know that they’ve got a future out there. Teacher Beth Te Kiri