Kia ora koutou, Leana hola!
RTLB Cluster Vision: To ensure success for all ākonga through collaboration and inclusive education. He waka eke noa
RTLB Cluster Mission: We strengthen and empower kaiako to enhance educational outcomes.
Values: Whanaungatanga, Manaakitanga, Rangatiratanga & Kotahitanga
2023-2025
Strategic Goal 1:
We will increase the bi-cultural competence of our team to recognise and respond to cultural diversity by prioritising Māori identity, language and culture in our practice.
Strategic Goal 2:
We will understand the wide-ranging impact that trauma can have on the culture, development, wellbeing and educational success of young people.
Well, Term 2 has flown past. It’s been a busy term in schools with COVID still hanging about and winter illnesses on the increase. The holidays will be a welcome relief for our teams to rest & recharge. Thank you, once again, for inviting our team into your kura to support your kaiako and mokopuna. We have had some awesome success stories this term and celebrated these alongside your hard working teams!
Overview:
New Team Members
Farewells
RTLB Role Clarity
In Class Support (ICS)
Useful Resources
Requests for Support
ORS Applications
National Satisfaction Survey 2022
Stand-downs
RTLB Professional Learning
Reminders
Compliments & Complaints
New Team Members
We would like to announce our two new appointments. We welcome Lorena McStay and Judith Short who will begin in Term 3. Both Lorena and Judith have had junior school experience and come to us with excellent classroom practice and leadership skills. We also welcome back Vanessa Randall from maternity leave.
RTLB Farewells
We sadly farwelled Irene Cronan, Rachael Webber and Kate Harsent who have moved on to other adventures. We thank them for their contributions to the RTLB world and are excited about the difference they will continue to make in education.
RTLB Role Clarity
In these uncertain and constantly changing times, education is forever evolving, so too does our service. We have made changes over the last few years to keep up with current pedagogies and evidence informed practices. Our team is very keen to attend one of your staff only days in 2023 to introduce themselves and explain our role. This would only take 20 minutes. If you would like this opportunity, please contact your RTLB liaison.
In-Class Support (ICS)
We have not heard the official notification, yet, we understand that there will be another ‘roll over’ of ICS places. The same system as last year, until the Ministry finds a more effective way of distributing the funding. If you have questions please contact Tracy Rohan (tracy.rohan@education.govt.nz / 3787387).
Highlighting Useful Resources
Inclusive Education for Neurodiverse Ākonga-A Guide for Educators (Grow Waitaha)-attached
Social Emotional Learning website
Mental Health-Listening to Families
Website https://www.listeningtofamilies.co.nz/
You Tube Requests for support-Kaiako driven - Reminder
From time to time, we come across kaiako who seem to not be fully aware of what the RTLB Service does or are confused about roles and responsibilities when teaming up with RTLB. It would be highly advantageous if SENCos/LSCs could please ensure the kaiako are absolutely sure they understand how the RTLB Service will support them. Providing them with the RTLB pamphlet (attached) and reassuring them it is a well supported, collaborative and highly reflective process, or a free personal coach in the classroom! We are all wanting to achieve the same goal, the very best outcomes for our mokopuna.
ORS Application Support
When we receive requests for support, sometimes part of this support is to assist the writing of ORS applications. The best people to write these applications are always the people who know the mokopuna well, which typically is the school personnel. RTLB's role can be to support the application process. We can do this in several ways:
RTLB’s thorough knowledge of the ORS guidelines enables them to support schools to decide if a student meets one of the nine ORS eligibility criteria and where appropriate to complete the application process following the clear prompts provided on the application form.
RTLB can support schools by providing assessment data (formative, observational, etc) they may have collected over the course of the learning support provided. Baseline and outcome data from RTLB will add to teachers’ Overall Teacher Judgements (OTJ) and form a holistic picture of a child or young person in their education setting. One off assessments for the sole purpose of providing data for ORS applications are not ecologically valid.
We can sit beside the person in your school who is responsible for writing the application and give advice. We have some tips and tricks to help this process.
We have contacts in the MoE who can read through the draft application and give feedback before submitting it.
We can also release kaiako who may need to contribute to writing the application.
National Satisfaction Survey 2022 thank you!
Once a year, the MoE sends out a National Satisfaction Survey to all schools. Our cluster (60 schools), had a total of 43 responses from 20 schools/kura. This was a response rate of 33% of all our cluster schools.
In our cluster, satisfaction with the quality of service provided by our RTLB team continues to increase significantly as well as the satisfaction in the time it took to access the service. It was overwhelmingly positive. We have unpacked our strengths and our stretch feedback. Thank you very much for taking the time to provide us with feedback on our service, it is very much appreciated. You are welcome to email me for the national results along with our cluster results.
Stand-downs
We are aware from time to time that mokopuna on our caseload experience a stand-down. If possible, please let your RTLB know and we can come to the ‘table’ to support a review of the plan and offer any other suggestions or support.
RTLB Professional Learning & Development:
Whole staff
Incredible Years Training, 6 bespoke sessions from an RTLB perspective
Curriculum refresh: Ngaire Shepherd-Wills, CORE Education
Reminders:
We love these websites!
Mana Ake - leading lights pathway - please ask your liaison for the username and password
Sparklers website a reminder about this awesome resource. They are always updating with new activities!
RTLB Cluster 34- Always a helpful place to check out our team!
Compliments & Complaints
A reminder, if you have any concerns (or compliments) about our RTLB working in your school, please do not discuss this with other RTLB in your school. This places them in a very uncomfortable position. Addressing any issues with the RTLB concerned would be the first step, and then, contacting me if you feel it is not resolved.
Like you and your teams, we are all reflective practitioners and we thrive on giving and receiving feedback, it is just what effective practitioners and leaders do. We are always looking at areas we can improve upon and your feedback is incredibly valuable. In the meantime, our Liaison RTLB is the person you can speak to about any of your school’s/kura needs. You are always welcome to phone or email me at any time.
Leana hola, ngā mihi nui
Michelle Maule
Cluster Manager, Te Paeroa RTLB 34,
clustermanager@rtlb34.school.nz
cellphone: 0272766713