What was our focus :
- 1. Student Outcomes
What we have seen since going live in May 2008 is –
- A huge increase in the confidence of our team. (Parents have commented on this)
- The kids are keen and totally committed – they turn up before school to go on air at 8.30am daily. They willingly plan their programme and develop news reports etc at home.
- The operation of MaranuiFM encompasses virtually the entire curriculum – and all of the Key Competencies sit so comfortably with what we are achieving.
- Because it is ‘real’ – this project definitely provides an authentic learning experience for all involved.
- 2. Enterprising attributes
We could see that, as a vehicle, MaranuiFM had potential to help develop almost EVERY Enterprising Attribute in our students.
Over time we expect that we will provide focus on a range of these – but as a start we chose just three attributes:
- Working with Others in a Team
“In the radio team you really need to work together. I have had to do most of the work in the first term because my partner couldn’t work as a team. In the last two weeks it has been very good because lots of us could work together a lot.” Chris
“It can be fun working with other people and it can be annoying but 99% of the time it is really fun. Working with other people has helped me express my ideas more because we are all thinking together and help each other on the way.” Stella
“It’s fun working in a team because you are hardly ever alone, and you can keep your team alive. You have to do your work right, because if you do your job you will keep your team up and running” Breila
“I have learnt a lot. We have to work together to find out what people like. It’s really fun to work with other people and we always have a fun time and usually work really hard.” Janie-Lee
“I have learnt that working in a team or with others is sometimes easier than it is by yourself. If you don’t share your ideas with the rest of the team then you are working by yourself” Tori
“It helps when someone helps you when you make a mistake.” Logen
“Yeah, well to be honest there has been a few conflicts, but those were in the past and were dealt with. Working in a team is just like a sport – work together and you’ll score a goal.” Daisy
- Planning and Organising
“It can be quite hard sometimes (especially when you’ve got 3 jobs!) because you’ve got to do at least part of your job a week. If you don’t you could get fired. If you have more than 1 job you’ve got to plan it when you can and then tell your buddy or team about it but the thing with me was I always kept forgetting!” Holly
“It’s quite hard work sometimes like if you’re late for your job you have to do it fast. When I was a new reporter my buddy and I had to get the news before 11:30 and sometimes we were a bit slow” Stella
“When you don’t plan and you are in a rush you usually take a bit longer than usual than when you start early or on time. Organising is very important because if you don’t organise a meeting you will never get any work done and that could ruin all of the process for the whole day” Nicholas
“I have learnt that if you plan and organise what you are going to do or say on the radio it is good.” Tori
Planning is really important because it helps you run your show.” Breila
“Planning should not be rushed or it would be a waste of time” Logen
“Before I do my work I plan and organise so I am making things nice and neat and tidy. “ Georgia
“ Well there are those days when you’re just like noooo I’m tired! Then those when Yay! – radio time!” Daisy
- Being Flexible and Dealing with Change
It can be hard when you’re announcing and when you get put with a new buddy and they just won’t listen it you! It can be hard too when I had done a big job like announcing and then I had to change to a smaller job like publicity. I wasn’t used to it at a start but as time moved on I got the hang of it” Holly
“Dealing with change is one of the hardest things I had to learn. When change comes, it sometimes takes while to get used to it. Change is hard to get used to because you have to change the way you were working before.” Nicholas
“It was quite a big difference changing to news reader from a news reporter. It’s so easy to just receive the news than getting it for other people. You have to be flexible too, like sometimes I had to fill in for announcers” Stella
“It’s quite hard when you have people who are meant to be talking or reading on the radio and they don’t come r come at a random time and we have to change the session” Janie-Lee
“You need to be flexible so you don’t make mistakes.” Corey
“You have to be able to deal with changes and I think I am getting the hang of it.” Daisy
- 3. Links with the community
The school already works hard on building and maintaining positive links with the community
- community newsletter
- class visits to local businesses
- choir visits to retirement villages
- seeking sponsorship for school fairs
- school expo
Having said that we were confident that we could grow these links further via the introduction of MaranuiFM. We could see opportunities such as seeking publicity and advertising – but were always conscious of the need for supporters to get something back in return.
(See Advertising, Publicity)
- 4. Effective teacher practice
- Identifying best practice models around key competencies, student engagement, and providing best learning opportunities to take on enterprising skills.
- With the implementation of the New Curriculum pending, we see definitely see enquiry learning having very prominent place in the school as we embrace the future.
- Because our children are developing enterprise skills in this authentic context, it goes hand in hand that staff are accepting of the need to change traditional practice somewhat to embrace these learning opportunities.
- We’ve been very pleased to see the level of staff buy-in to the project to date, and this collaboration will certainly help us to move forward with developing our New Curriculum
- 5. School development – local business links, integrating enterprising attributes across curriculum/strategic plan.
- The benefits to the school are obvious…if the school can further lift its profile in the community, this assures us of ongoing tangible support for the school in future…this helps us with marketing the school – keeping a strong roll – it helps us with engaging support and goodwill for a host of reasons…
- We see our future accordant relationships with the community progressively growing …we just need to capture each and every opportunity that comes our way.
- We need to ensure that our supporters feel truly valued in return.
- We see improved teacher collaboration as being vital for not only the success of MaranuiFM, but for providing a platform for ongoing school development.
- Teachers will learn that Enterprise DOES fit well with our school curriculum
- The development of Key Competencies in our students can take place in an authentic context
- The Board of Trustees are right behind what we are attempting to develop. Our BOT chairperson has already asked to have his own music slot on Saturday mornings.