Simon Cossey Professional Blog

  "Only recently I witnessed a PE teacher saving the life of a child in a swimming pool, a teaching assistant talking down a child with violent intent and a teacher conselling a child whose father had just ben incarcerated. Performance manage that." - Paul Dix p 1.  The above quote is one of my favourites from the best education book I've read (probably).   It speaks in real and personal ways about many of the things that I'm passionate about as a teacher:  Relationships - Culture - Teamwork  Visible Consistency, Visible Kindness  Chapter 1 is all about consistency and how hard this is to achieve. Keeping teachers on the same page takes a lot of commitment, an "all in" vision, a written agreement and some awkward follow up conversations. However, consistency is kindness because it gives kids security. Even a simple routine - how to enter the classroom - can have many different expectations. The author suggests a keystone habit of 'meet and greet' at ...

Staff Meeting: Unteaching Racism  This topic stirs my heart and triggers a lot of thoughts. It particularly touches my hinengaro and wairua. Here is what I'm feeling and thinking right now...  The New Narrative....  We have the opportunity to enter into a new story of celebrating, cherishing and valuing students' culture and Te Tiriti o te Waitangi in our kura. The high percentage of Māori students who go through kurakaupapa and go on to achieve NCEA qualifications is a wonderful doorway into a new story for our Maori students. These are the stories I long to hear. These are the stories that I long to be part of: - stories of students experiencing cultural safety and success in kura - stories of students teaching their teachers their culture - stories of students empowered to lead revitalisation of their culture within their kura - stories of students proud and empowered to invite their whānau to their kura  - stories of students expressing their culture in mean...

Leadership Training 2:  This week I was in contact with our House Leaders again to organise Leadership Meets. I was really interested to see if the leaders had taking on the self-discipline challenges we had set together.  Leadership Self-Challenges L, I and K came into our Monday Leadership Meet.  L and I's challenge was listening to their own self talk and encouraging themselves.  Both said that they had become more aware of their self talk and could give examples of times they encouraged themselves. Next, they are both going to try noticing how people in their family are feeling and encouraging others. KT said he had achieved his challenge of making his bed every day. He was going to continue to work on the 'no talking back, only saying ok,' challenge over the coming week.  In our Tuesday Leadership Meet, involving K, J, J, I and A, everyone had taken on the challenge of making their bed every morning and not talking back to adults, instead saying ok when ask...

Leadership Training in Lockdown Background:  I get the privilege of working with 10 school leaders each week to organise hui waiata (music assemblies) and sports for our school. One of the best parts of this role has been seeing how the Year 6 students have thrived with this responsibility.  I thought I would have to wait until we were back at school under Level 2 before I could work with these leaders again. However, a family member (who is an experienced leader) suggested I could work with these leaders during lockdown to practise leadership skills. He gave me some tips and a helpful structure to frame the conversations.  When I had received the OK from the teachers in Totara Studio, I started getting in touch with our leaders via email, Google Meet and phone calls.   I decided to organise Google Meet 'workshops' in small groups based on who I could get in contact with. So far I have been able to organise three of these 'workshops' including 9 out of 10 leader...