Manaiakalani Secondary Connects
Secondary Connects are online events where Manaiakalani teachers, principals and academics come together to discuss effective strategies to turbocharge students’ learning.
If you are interested in learning how these professionals are positioning themselves ahead of the curve and would like to find out more about how Learn, Create, Share pedagogy can influence student engagement and learning outcomes, join us at future Secondary Connects.
Our first Secondary Connect for 2024 is on Tuesday, 20th February 3:30 pm - 4:15 pm Click here to register
Secondary Connect Archives
Differentiated Learning at Hornby High School
We began our first Secondary Connect for 2024 with Alexandra Aitken, the Head of Health at Hornby High School, who shared how her department has observed a significant increase in student engagement and academic performance by implementing a differentiated learning approach.
The Health Department at Hornby High School redesigned their curriculum units to address students' varied learning needs by offering choice and fostering a collaborative learning environment among peers. To watch the recording and view Alex's slides, click here.
Our next presenter, Kerry Boyde-Preece, showcased various learning apps aimed at enhancing engagement and students' digital proficiency in readiness for NCEA.
Manaiakalani Innovative Teachers 2023
Jayne Abernethy from Hornby High School was one of the Manaiakalani Innovative Teachers for 2023. Working with the Manaiakalani Innovation team, Jayne used design thinking process to develop a comprehensive resource, The Secondary Literacy Hub aimed at supporting high school literacy. Click here to view Jayne's presentation and recording.
Matt Goodwin, our Auckland based facilitator, talked about the upcoming Manaiakalani opportunities for 2024, including how you can apply.
Click here to learn more about the Manaiakalani Innovators programme.
Connected Learners Share
For our Secondary Connect in term three this year our presenter was Fiona Grant, the senior Facilitator from the Manaiakalani cluster in Tamaki, Auckland.
Fiona shared with us some ideas on how we can leverage the potential of Share with high school students to improve learning outcomes and engagement.
Connecting with the Manaiakalani Cybersmart and Smart Relationships, Fiona's presentation discussed the positive impact Share can have for students enabling them to connect with an authentic online audience and empower student voice.
Click here to view Fiona's slides and the recording
Manaiakalani Innovative Teachers 2022
At our last Secondary Connect for 2022, we had two exceptional presenters Pip Gorrie-Lawn from Coastal Taranaki School and Anusha Soupen of Papakura High School. Both were Manaiakalani Innovative Teachers in 2022, who worked tirelessly throughout the year on their design inquiry research.
Pip's inquiry focused on how to support disengaged readers in her year 9 and 10 classes with literacy. Using Skim, Scan, Read and Question, Pip designed a methodology that enhanced students' engagement and understanding.
Anusha's presentation focused on how using student-selected themes from contemporary topics like the black lives matters movement and the Dawn Raids aided students' interest and motivation to learn in her combined Yr 11 - 13 Mathematics, Statistics and Commerce class.
To learn more about their inquiry, click here to view the slide deck and video recordings.
Teaching Aids to Support NCEA Literacy
Our first Manaiakalani Secondary Connect for 2023 was held on Wednesday, 8th February.
Developing students' reading skills for secondary school students is a key priority in 2023 with the focus on preparing them for the new literacy assessments which includes the recently released, literacy pedagogy subject guides.
This session highlighted the benefits of ensuring students have a toolbox of reading strategies they can be applied to any text and any genre or subject area. To see the recording and slides click here
Share to Learn:
Empowerment through connections
We had two exceptional educators share with us how they have embedded regular blogging into their classroom practice.
Ruth Hills, Head of PE and Health at Bay of Islands College will share how she has fostered a class culture of whanaungatanga, manaakitanga and aroha that extends into the online environment with students’ publishing their writing through a class blog.
Using a Growth Mindset approach, students are supporting one another to build confidence in expressing their ideas through writing. This is enabling students to feel more prepared for their written NCEA assessments.
Rowena Clemence, Head of Art at Hornby High School has mastered the technique of regular blogging with her students, as an aid to help them verbalise their thoughts, articulate ideas and illustrate their comprehension. Students share their progress online throughout the year and this is proving to be a useful tool to moderate NCEA internals, while providing a running record of their learning.
Rowena Clemence
Head of Art /E-Learning leader/Year 12 DeanTurbocharge learning for high school students by developing Create opportunities
In term two, the Manaiakalani programme focuses on how Create activities can engage students with their learning which leads to a deepening of their understanding and knowledge.
Hornby High School is a college that prides itself on being A Centre For Creative Excellence. The principal Robin Sutton, encourages his team to foster creativity in every learning opportunity to enhance students' academic experience.
At this Secondary Connect event, Robin Sutton shared with us his thoughts and ideas on leadership qualities that help to motivate creativity and innovation.
His presentation was followed by the school's Head of Technology, Uai Liu who showcased innovative learning with projects like Grow Waitaha, Taro Project - 4C Makerspace and Designer in the Classroom.
Robin Sutton
Principal
Lockdown Learning
What can we learn from Lockdown learning? Principal, Edith Painting-Davis from Bay of Islands College, shared with us some of the challenges and triumphs the school experienced during their time of distance learning. Student insights were shared, and new systems were developed to help streamline teachers' workflow and engage students.
Tim Shawcross from Westland High School shared some highly effective literacy strategies from his own teaching practice. Tim, a teacher of Music and photography explained how he improved students' achievement outcomes in theory and analysis based NCEA music standards
Dr Tim Shawcross
Teacher of Music and PhotographyEngage with Create
The intention for term two's Secondary Connect for 2021 was to discover how our schools engage students with creativity. We heard from Karen Ferguson at Tamaki College, Stephen Aitken at Ōtaki College and Marc Milford, the literacy specialist at Tamaki College. We also heard from the Manaiakalani research manager, Georgie Hamilton, about this year's classroom observation tool and the alignment to the new literacy standards.
Georgie Hamilton
Manaiakalani Research Manager 
Karen Ferguson
Design/Visual Communication
Stephen Aitken
HOD Digital TechnologiesDigital Media Teacher
Reading Strategies at High School
At this Secondary Connect, we were fortunate to have Associate Professor Aaron Wilson, Dr Yannie Van Hees and two high school teachers present. Anne Sinclair followed on with a vibrant discussion that left educators feeling inspired and motivated for developing reading strategies within their classes.
Recordings and slides from our presenters are available below with the full unedited recording available here.
Jayne Abernethy
Teacher of Science,
MIT Scholar 2023
Learn, Create, Share in Social Sciences
There is some amazing work being done in the Social Science departments across the country. In this Secondary Connect, we heard from Amy Honey and Lauren Taylor from Mairehau High School and the extensive work they have accomplished over the past three years. Dot Apelu from Tamaki College shared how she developed relationships with students and whanau during lockdown and provides with an overview of the online tool Miro. Angela Seyb from Greymouth High School talked about the enhanced engagements with her students using digital storytelling and interactive mapping with the online app ARCGIS.
Dot Apelu
Head of Social Sciences
Angela Seyb
HOD Mathematics 2020 HOD Social Science 2017-1019
Blogging at high school
Teachers at Hornby High School in Christchurch are turbo-charging students' learning through regular blogging. Supporting students to share their learning on their blogs, forms the basis of student's evidence for their achievement standards.
Click on the presentation links to view the rewindable learning resources including presenters slides and videos.
Ian Rees
Engineering/Manufacturing/ Maths 
English and Literacy
With this month's focus on English and Literacy at secondary school, our presenters offer a deep perspective on developing student's literacy. Scott Aitken reflects on his findings from his recent Masters study. Willie Yuile shares some tips and tricks around rewindable learning and Dr Aaron Wilson explains how various strategies can be used to increase students' critical thinking through T-Shaped literacy .
Willie Yuile
Head of English 
PE and Health
In the first of our Secondary Connects we hear from three high school teachers who are utilising digital technologies to help students produce evidence for their achievement standards. Ruth Hills discusses her view on students' blogging through a culturally responsive lens. Jason Borland shows how student's videos can improve student's evaluation and Kata O'Donnell shares some great brainstorming and rewindable learning ideas.
