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National | Education

South Island schools recognised at PM’s Education Awards

Te Puna Wai Ora, Invercargill Middle School took out the Excellence in Teaching and Learning Award as a joint awards winner at the Prime Minister’s Education Excellence Awards ceremony held tonight in Auckland.

The school saw that their existing practice did not empower students to speak and develop the evaluative, critical listening skills they needed to become agents in their own learning.

With those insights, the teaching staff formulated a plan to improve achievement through oral language with  specific goals and expectations.

The impact has been far reaching, with improvements in students’ oral language, confidence, and participation that have also lifted achievement in literacy more broadly.

Te Puna Ora is a joint winner for the Excellence in Teaching and Learning alongside Auckland’s Waitakere College.

In a first for the Prime Minister’s Education Excellence Awards, the Judges awarded a Commendation to Halswell School.

The Christchurch earthquakes of 2011 and 2012 resulted in a new school for the Halswell community, students and teachers.  The school is a modern learning environment and this meant a new way of teaching and learning was needed.

Between 2013 and 2015, teachers engaged in a professional learning programme focused on the pedagogy of the new environment.

The outcomes of this approach include improved engagement and achievement among students, particularly in writing, and greater professional collaboration between teachers.

Alongside deep engagement with students, their community and iwi, this school has achieved richer outcomes for students.