Ngā Aukaha | All in for tamariki

In my role I support children and their whānau in the early childhood sector. As a parent of a son with additional needs, I enjoy being an advocate and support person for families who are struggling to help others understand the unique qualities their child possesses, and to pursue their aspirations for their child’s success.

However, there is just not enough investment to provide adequate support to children who need it.

Teachers reach out for specialist learning support from the Ministry of Education but the demand is high and the waitlists are long, despite the best efforts of MoE personnel to provide a support service. In a nutshell, our learning support funding doesn’t come close to meeting the needs of children with moderate and severe needs.

My own son is aged 15 years with Autism Spectrum Disorder, Anxiety Disorder and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. He is not ORS funded. Without funding and support, his teachers and school specialists have been unable to make the necessary adaptations to his learning so that he feels he has a sense of belonging within his school. He spends his day in the office of the Learning Support Manager, playing on his Chromebook and sometimes drawing. He has no school education, no qualifications and no employment prospects. There is no support available to him or our family to design a transition plan that sets him up to function as an adult with a job or ongoing learning opportunities within his community. We are now isolated from support and uncertain of how we can support him to be successful in the real world.

My ask for Ngā Aukaha All in for Tamariki is that all children in Aotearoa have equitable access to quality education that is welcoming, supportive and adequately adapted and funded to meet the individual needs of each child.

Ko tēnei taha o tōku Pāpā.
Ko Haumingi te MaungaKo te Rotoiti-i-kitea- ai-e-Ihenga i Ariki ai Kahu te Moana.
Ko te Whakaruru me te Korokoro o Ngaki ngā Awa.
Ko Te Arawa te Waka.
Ko Ngāti Rongomai te Iwi.
Ko Ngā Pumanawa e waru o Te Arawa te Wharenui.
Ko Te Awa-i-Takapuwhaia te Wharekai.
Ko Te Hiukura te Marae.

Ko Pirongia te Maunga.
Ko Waipaa te Awa.
Ko Tainui te Waka.
Ko Ngāti Mahanga te hapū.
Ko te Papa o Rotu te Wharenui.
Ko Pakuru a Te Rangikataua te Wharekai.
Ko Te Oneparepare te Marae.

I te taha o tōku Māmā.
Ko Kahuwera te Maunga.
Ko Mokau te Awa.
Ko Tainui te Waka.
Ko Ngāti Waiora te Hapū.
Ko Tama Tane te Wharenui.
Ko Te Aroha te Wharekai.
Ko Mokau Kohunui te Marae.

As a teacher I love that I have the ability to provide the necessary tools, education, life skills and values the students need to build the knowledge to carve their pathways in life. I especially love it when a student is unable to grasp a concept but then at some point 'THAT COIN DROPS'. It is all so rewarding because kids try so hard and when I see that excitement overcome them it does the same for me.

I love exposing our kids to speak simple sentences in te reo Māori, mihimihi and waiata. This builds their own kete of knowledge because our kids crave and want it.

Although our understanding of how tamariki learn has developed, we do not have the adequate resources, for example teacher aides or specialists, to provide both the students and teachers with the support we need. We are missing the tools we need to support the child. As teachers, we are trying our best to access all the support that a child should receive, but it never gets easier. It becomes exhausting.

One student at our school needed extra support, but they were declined funding from the Ministry as he did not fit the criteria. This led to ongoing problems and issues for that child. As a result the school had to support that children with their own pūtea. To this day, the school still are.

My mum would say that I always wanted to be a teacher. I guess I just wanted to make a difference for children and as time has gone by I have also wanted to make a difference for those who work closest to the child.

When talking with parents, principal colleagues, teachers and support staff it is the issues in the learning support sector which are constantly raised.

The sector simply does not have enough skilled specialists to work with our children. The chronic lack of mental health support for our young children in primary schools is tragic. Everyday we see examples of need through trauma and yet there is nowhere to turn.

Schools are working relentlessly to try to meet the needs of our young people; to foster a sense of belonging, love, hope and optimism for a better future. When children do not receive the specialist support that they need alongside a warm and nurturing learning environment then it is hard for them to reach their potential. Teachers try to be all things to their children but they are not trained as mental health workers, social workers or psychologists so it is a soul-destroying battle.

A child aged 6 came to us from two other schools with severe and challenging behavioural needs. Although all evidence pointed to him having Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) he was unable to access formal assessment due to the high cost of this and the inability of Oranga Tamariki to fund this. At first he was mainstreamed into the school. After a year the decision was made to put him into our bilingual Samoan unit. Through a strong transition and genuine partnership between the school and the parents of the child gains began to be made. The work that the school did in supporting the parents in their interactions with outside agencies helped to build trust. Through the support of the school wrapping around this child and his family, little by little change was seen in the child’s behaviour, their joy in being at school was evident and a love for learning began. This child left our school at the end of last year ready to begin his journey at Intermediate school.

That we talk about learning support as separate from the whole of education is a problem in itself. Perhaps the question we need to ask is, to what extent do you think that the right to education and social inclusion of disabled children is being met? To which my answer would have to be, very poorly.

We have two children with autism, one of whom gets targeted support through the Ongoing Resources Scheme (ORS), while the other is not considered ‘disabled enough’. Exclusion is still the norm, as is the rationing of supports. Our thinking is deficit-based, antiquated and will not lead to solutions.

We were fortunate that our local primary school recognised and met their individual needs, irrespective of how the Ministry of Education ‘rated’ or labelled them. It looked to how the school environment and the teaching could be altered so that it caters for everybody. Although we know it can be done, this should be norm, not the exception.

I feel tired and exasperated. I want our education system to be one in which all children can learn and grow together with their peers. All schools should have the funding to ensure they can serve the needs of their local children.

Ki te taha o tōku māmā
Ko Ngāti Kurī te iwi
Ko Kohuroa te maunga
Ko Rehua me Whitirea ngā moana
Ko Te Hiku o te Ika te Kaitiaki o te wāhi o Te Rerenga Wairua
Nō Ngāti Kurī ahau

Ki te taha o tōku pāpā
Ko Te Tao U te hapū
Ko Mahuhu-ki- te-rangi te waka
Ko Tauwhare te maunga
Ko Waipatukahu me Te Awaroa ngā awa
Ko Te Onepū o Rangatira, ko Kaipara, me Te Waitematā ngā moana
Ko Whiti te Rā o Rēweti, Ko Ngā Tai i Tūria ki te Marowhara, me Marowhara ngā marae
Ko Tuperiri te tupuna
Ko Uruamo te whānau
Ko Te Keti o Te Onepū o Rangatira te kāinga tūturu

I have been a learning support co-ordinator for Rotorua East Kahui Ako since early this year. Prior to this role I was a teacher for 29 years however, I felt it was time to step down and hand over to the next teaching generation.

My favourite part of being an educator is teaching and immersing in Kaupapa Māori in a Rumaki environment and conversing with tamariki and their whānau i te reo Māori.

I had an experience in my childhood that made me want to become a teacher. I knew from that point that I wanted better opportunities in education for tamariki who were going through a lot in their own homes and were not getting the most out of school.

Today, there is more support in our schools for our tamariki but it's not necessarily the right support. Our tamariki are coming to kura with a lot more emotional damage and behavioural issues that our kaiako are dealing with on a daily basis.

My role as a Learning Support Co-ordinator is about helping those tamariki and their kaiako get the right support they need in Rumaki and auraki. With the right support, you notice a change in behaviour and their learning when their needs are met.

I’ve experienced a lot with students who have embraced learning over time. One child I had taught in Rumaki had no reo and couldn't settle in an auraki environment. He found school to be a challenge. But with Kaiarahi support and a change towards a normal classroom program, l implemented more hands on for him with 1 to 1 support, got him and his whānau involved in noho marae and made an effort to record his stories. With daily consistency, he had a willingness to korero Māori, interacted with others and was present each day at kura.

The 1989 Education Act’s Section 8 was a huge milestone for disabled children and families in that disabled children could finally go to school with their peers. But a major barrier to implementing that right was the neo-liberal tool of rationing which came in with the 1996 policy of Special Education 2000. Someone randomly decided that only a tiny proportion of children required targeted funding for extra learning needs. The ideal of realising potential had long disappeared.

32 years after the 1989 Education Act, barriers are still preventing many disabled children realise their educational potential.

So much of parents’ lives appear to be taken up with meetings at school to ensure their child is included. Many neurodiverse children (who for example have autism or ADHD) are only allowed to attend in certain circumstances or parents are rung and asked to take children home. If schools had adequate support they would be able to deal with these situations. Instead you get standdowns and suspensions of young children for things related to their condition such as anxiety, or meltdowns from sensory overload. This is bad for the children as they take on the assumption that they are at fault.

My son started school in 1991. He went to a school where families and children were welcomed unconditionally, all children were included in all activities, including school camps and swimming sports. They all belonged there. More confident kids acted as role models for younger less able ones. The principal (who could also calmy defuse situations of anger, anxiety and fear) employed brilliant teacher aides and support staff who worked across the whole school as part of the team. It can be done.

There is still much stigmatising and whakamā around disability. I would love to see everyone in the education system address systemic and individual ableism. Our prejudices and fears about disability are holding disabled children back from realising their potential and enjoying school. Listen to the children, they know.

We are lucky in Aotearoa to have some well-informed thinking and policies underpinning our learning support provision. What we are not so fortunate in, is having access to appropriate resourcing to support these.

My sons are both autistic and they both required speech language therapy in their early childhood years. They were no longer able to access this on entering primary school. Their needs had not gone away, or been met, merely the criteria for accessing support had risen.

I cannot fathom how an inclusive education system excludes some children from accessing what they need because their needs may fall outside current criteria for service. I cannot fathom why some disabilities attract support where others do not.

The consultation model most commonly used in learning support, whereby teachers are upskilled by specialists to provide for learners with specific and complex needs, while in theory is a great idea, in practice is highly demanding on teachers. Many teachers have multiple learners, oftentimes requiring quite different supports. For them to deliver these with integrity whilst also being able to maintain rich authentic personalised learning programmes for classes of culturally and linguistically diverse learners, can become logistically impossible!

Neither of my boys are on track to leave high school with any NCEA qualifications. Learning support has not been flexible or responsive enough along the way to be able to provide their schools with anything other than well-meaning advice.

When children’s needs are not being met either in or outside the classroom, these children can become deeply disengaged, unhappy and very often disruptive to their own and other’s wellbeing and learning. This in turn can have a devastating impact on their future trajectory for learning and life. We need to be able to give all children what they need to be able to develop, learn and become happy and well-connected citizens.

The thing I love most about being a teacher aide is the privilege of being able to form relationships with tamariki mokopuna that mean they can feel a sense of belonging at school.

Like many of us, I fell into teacher aiding and then fell in love with it. The first student I worked with was an amazingly complex character, and their quirkiness was so appealing to me, though it presented as 'antisocial' to others. I guess I recognised a fellow rebel spirit, and from then on have loved showing our school community the strengths our students have.

The impact that the lack of learning support has on students is heartbreaking. Schools are having to make 'putting out fires' decisions daily, which means the support is for those in immediate crisis, rather than a coordinated approach that best supports all learners. The competition for funding is deplorable. We know that many more tamariki need ORS (Ongoing Resource Scheme) funding than is available. Children are missing out every day and this will only impact more on them, and wider society, as they get older. As a student said to me recently "When I have my buddy helper in my class, I can do my learning, when they go to another class, I can't.”

In recent years, we have experienced eight month waits for Ministry of Education educational psychologists to respond to referrals for children with a range of challenging behaviours and diagnoses.

When learning support goes well, it goes really well. When the learning support system is funded to let all educators work their magic we can make real changes for tamariki. We can make a safe space for them, a haven of predictability, where relationships are strong and trustworthy. We can help them feel like they count, like they belong, like they are important and have gifts to offer the world.

I worry so much for the tamariki who need learning support and professional help. There is a lack of professional support for tamariki and learning support are only really able to help the most severe or serious cases. As a teacher I can do many things but I don’t have the skills or clinical strategies to truly make a meaningful difference for them as much as I try my very best.

I find it very difficult to advise parents that there may be a need for their tamaiti to see a learning support professional such as a speech language therapist to overcome difficulties. We submit referrals, always knowing that there is a long waitlist and that unless it is really serious they will be given next to no help or support, with the advice that it will get better when they get to school.

I feel angry and deeply distressed that tamariki are not receiving the services they are entitled to. Many whānau do their best to help their tamariki but they are also struggling. And there are teachers all over this motu desperately trying to make learning happen for everyone including those who have needs and disabilities beyond their skills, abilities, and professional knowledge. This is just all sorts of wrong.

My vision for learning support is a system that meets the needs of all to ensure each child in Aotearoa receives world class education to become the very best they can be.