Unleashing our People Powers

This year we have been embedding a revamped School Wide Values System. It's foundation lies with...

The Four Practices of The FISH! Philosophy

Be There

Be emotionally present for people. It’s a powerful message of respect that improves communication and strengthens relationships.

Play

Tap into your natural way of being creative, enthusiastic and having fun. Play is the spirit that drives the curious mind, as in “Let’s play with that idea!” You can bring this mindset to everything you do.

Make Their Day

Find simple ways to serve or delight people in a meaningful, memorable way. It’s about contributing to someone else’s life—not because you want something, but because that’s the person you want to be.

Choose Your Attitude

Take responsibility for how you respond to what life throws at you. Your choice affects others. Ask yourself: “Is my attitude helping my team or my customers? Is it helping me to be the person I want to be?

We have endeavoured to integrate the People Powers into the everyday language of the classroom. We are constantly making reference to them, whether it be as part of setting task/expectations/responsibilities; during the lesson, praising students in showing their people powers through their learning or as a gentle reminder of the need to show them, when getting akonga back on task.
Our KiwiCan Instructor has made reference to our People Powers in other schools. She has commented on how our akonga are so fabulous at being able to identify our People Powers, but also give examples of what that might look like… from the 5 year olds to the 11 year olds. This is in contrast to other schools that she works in, where many children struggle to remember all of the school values, let alone what they represent.
It has been identified that while our students are very good with declarative knowledge of the People Powers, they need to further develop their functional knowledge, as they don’t often put it into practice in everyday school life. This is a common theme with the learners and something that we are finding a hurdle throughout all aspects of learning, whether it be core curriculum or the playground. This is the next challenge. How do we best transition our learners from being able to merely articulate what the People Powers are and give examples, towards it being functional knowledge that is visibly embedded into their everyday interactions throughout the school.