Yesterday we had a meeting with other teachers from the establishing CoL. Aside from the talk on what the community of learning is for, and the positions available it was interesting to talk to the primary teachers.
There is a great disconnect between Primary and Secondary, which I suppose is the purpose of the CoL, to lesson that divided, but some things we encountered were quite surprising. The number of primary teachers that couldn't say hello in 3 languages was an initial clue, but I found the attitudes of some quite insular. There was an emphasis from them on linking all learning to the child's life, a laudible goal to make it relevant, but contrary to the purpose of education which I see as broadening the mind. So many of our students rarely if ever leave Northland. If we as teachers do not expose them to the wider world their worldview will be quite narrow and parochial to the detriment of society.
The other concern is the goal of the CoL. As students arrive in secondary school there is a glaring underperformance in the cohort. A full third of students are coming in with literacy below par, half of those very low at L2. Yet the goals of the CoL do not include literacy. It feels like the elephant in the room is being ignored. In addition the goals are very primary oriented and feel like are not managable in the secondary system. Knowing every student and their Whanau is all well and good in the primary setting with 25 kids who you are with all day. It is quite a different proposition for secondary where we have 130 kids for 4-5 hours a week. The primary teachers were quite taken aback when we reminded them of that. For that reason alone greater communication within the CoL might be useful.
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