Inspire in Education Charitable Trusts Mission
Inspire in Education Charitable Trusts Mission is to remove the commonly used label "at risk" to "at promise" by producing rangatira in the future. Rangatira being, our leaders, future parents, employers, kaiako to their whānau.
What is Inspire Education (IIE) is an innovative educational organisation servicing the needs of Māori learners by creating pathways for young people (aged 10-15) who are in education or disengaged from education by intensive pastoral care.
IIE's mission is to help foster an educational environment that focuses on the importance of the Treaty of Waitangi in education. IIE is passionate about the facilitation of connections between mana whenua and schools. IIE recognises the importance of engaging relationships that will help learners and their whānau thrive.
The NEET rangātahi targeted by IIE are those most at risk of being long-term unemployment and who may need more individualised and ongoing support to connect to training and employment than current programs are able to provide.
Conrad Waitoa (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Porou, Ngāi Tahu), a passionate local educator and businessperson, founded IIE in 2017. Kaumātua Papa Tom Mulligan | Patron Sir Dr Pita Sharples | Directors Aidan Warren & Director Dawn Murton.
The organisation also provides a range of professional learning and development services to assist schools with Māori cultural competence standards and Māori curriculum design.
IIE was founded on many of own personal experiences in education and today’s data that shows Māori boys are often found in starring roles in many school’s achievement targets. Sadly, these are underachieving roles across the board, and at a substantially lower standard in Writing, Reading, Math, and Tech than female classmates, and most certainly in comparison to Pākehā | European students of their same age, and in the same learning environments.
So, a platform was created to build young leaders by servicing the needs of Māori learners now and in the future. Using an innovative educational organisation servicing the needs of Māori learners now and in the future.
Who do we serve: The children and families in our communities by ensuring they have better opportunities, skills and a sense of community pride.
So how: We’ve built innovative, relevant and contemporary programme that engage, interact with, and keep the learner interested in and yearning for further education.
Through Inspire in Education, organisations range of professional learning and development services to assist schools with Māori cultural competence standards and Māori curriculum design.
The key outcomes we are seeking from the Inspire in Education program:
PRIMARY EDUCATION
SECONDARY EDUCATION
The following mentoring program has been developed using the latest evidence-based research and mentoring practice.
What could we do to inspire the young people like the ones in the data?
We propose three strategies.
Number One.
Number two.
Number three.
What is Inspire Education (IIE) is an innovative educational organisation servicing the needs of Māori learners by creating pathways for young people (aged 10-15) who are in education or disengaged from education by intensive pastoral care.
IIE's mission is to help foster an educational environment that focuses on the importance of the Treaty of Waitangi in education. IIE is passionate about the facilitation of connections between mana whenua and schools. IIE recognises the importance of engaging relationships that will help learners and their whānau thrive.
The NEET rangātahi targeted by IIE are those most at risk of being long-term unemployment and who may need more individualised and ongoing support to connect to training and employment than current programs are able to provide.
Conrad Waitoa (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Porou, Ngāi Tahu), a passionate local educator and businessperson, founded IIE in 2017. Kaumātua Papa Tom Mulligan | Patron Sir Dr Pita Sharples | Directors Aidan Warren & Director Dawn Murton.
The organisation also provides a range of professional learning and development services to assist schools with Māori cultural competence standards and Māori curriculum design.
IIE was founded on many of own personal experiences in education and today’s data that shows Māori boys are often found in starring roles in many school’s achievement targets. Sadly, these are underachieving roles across the board, and at a substantially lower standard in Writing, Reading, Math, and Tech than female classmates, and most certainly in comparison to Pākehā | European students of their same age, and in the same learning environments.
So, a platform was created to build young leaders by servicing the needs of Māori learners now and in the future. Using an innovative educational organisation servicing the needs of Māori learners now and in the future.
Who do we serve: The children and families in our communities by ensuring they have better opportunities, skills and a sense of community pride.
So how: We’ve built innovative, relevant and contemporary programme that engage, interact with, and keep the learner interested in and yearning for further education.
Through Inspire in Education, organisations range of professional learning and development services to assist schools with Māori cultural competence standards and Māori curriculum design.
- Support the delivery of Maori language, culture & identity in the classroom among Communities
- Provide schools with evidence-based advice to lift Māori student achievements.
- Assist with wraparound services for students at risk of underachievement.
- Fostering successful partnerships with parents, whānau, hapū, iwi, communities, and businesses
The key outcomes we are seeking from the Inspire in Education program:
- Assisting with communities of learning and facilitating teacher capability in Māori language, culture & identity
- Providing effective research & policy advice so that schools can access the most up to date information on what works for Māori students
- All students (including those who are at risk) achieving their academic potential to lead successful and productive lives as citizens
- Promoting healthy relationships between parents, whānau, hapū, iwi, communities, businesses and schools
PRIMARY EDUCATION
- Help whānau who are looking at primary education for their child, visiting schools and kura. This ensures our whānau know about how they (Schools) work and helps to make the best choice for them and their child.
- Ensuring, guiding whānau to be proactive about following up with their child’s school about their progress.
- Talks, with their child about school and follow up with one regularly.
- Asking school or kura whether they have strategies to support and strengthen the achievement of Māori students. Then we can support their child to achieve educational success by working together with the school or care to share and grow knowledge of what works to support their child.
- Māori students who expect and are expected to succeed by teachers and their whānau are more likely to succeed. We support the school, whānau to ensure all reasonable steps are taken to provide instruction in Māori culture and the Māori language for full-time students whose parents ask for it.
- We set up with whānau and schools, meetings to identity, language and culture needs of Māori students.
SECONDARY EDUCATION
- Along with the school, we help whānau and student to understand how NCEA works and progress towards NCEA credit achievements.
- We ensure that all reasonable steps are taken to provide instruction in Māori culture and the Māori language for full-time students whose parents ask for it.
- We work with whānau and students with regards to their study and career aspirations, and support them to plan their pathway through education so they can reach their goals.
- We keep up to date with the students’ progress to ensure their child is on the right track towards achieving their goals.
- On behalf of the whānau, we meet with their child and their dean/teachers discuss their progress. We encourage, mentor the whānau to get involved in decision-making in their school through parent and whānau groups or consider becoming a member of the school board of trustees.
The following mentoring program has been developed using the latest evidence-based research and mentoring practice.
What could we do to inspire the young people like the ones in the data?
We propose three strategies.
Number One.
- let's get rid of our deficit perspective in education. "These students could, not all, come from a culture of violence, a culture of poverty. These students are at-risk; these students are truant. These students are empty containers for us to fill with knowledge. They have the problems, we have the solutions.
Number two.
- Let's value the stories that young people bring to school. Their stories of overcoming insurmountable odds are so powerful. And I know you know some of these stories. These very same stories and experiences already have Grit, Character, and Resilience in them. Matua Conrad has given up his career in the corporate world to help our young people refine those stories. Helping them to be proud of who they are, because our education system welcomes their families, their cultures, their communities and the skill set they've learned to survive.
Number three.
- The strategy being the most important: Resources. We have to provide adequate resources for young people. Grit alone isn't going to cut it. You can sit there and tell me all you want, "Hey, pick yourself up by the bootstraps." But if we were born without any straps on my boots…. How are supposed to pick oneself up?
- The overall mission is to Inspire In Education to be made redundant in a generation's time.
