The Brief from the Ministry of Education
The Ministry of Education engaged us to support local Kelston principals to create an education vision with the community.
Kelston is projected to face significant growth and changing demographics over the next 20 years. A new vision for education was needed to address these changing demands. Plus there were immediate challenges for the community, with 3,500 children travelling out West Auckland every day to go to school in another area.
The Ministry’s desired outcome was community commitment to a shared vision and an ongoing collaborative change project.
Our Solution
We facilitated a range of community engagement processes with the community. The cultural diversity of the community required us to think creatively about how to enable all voices to be heard. For instance, we hosted a translation evening where parents could have the survey translated into Samoan, Tongan, Tamil, Pasto, Farsi or Sui Tin Tin.
The engagement included:
450 community survey responses about current perceptions of education, important factors for schooling choice and the key educational outcomes desired for students in the area. We made the survey available online and in paper. It was distributed through the collaborative efforts of the schooling network.
20 interviews with key stakeholders such as iwi, different ethnic group members, industry, tertiary providers and churches.
35 participants at a stakeholder workshop including Principals, Board of Trustee members, early childhood educators, local church leaders, industry and ATEED.
80 people at a community visioning presentation (parents, school staff, church and community representatives) where we presented the core results of the engagement process. We facilitated smaller group discussions around the main themes of seamless pathways, active partnerships, shared resources and building brand.
The Results
The result was a new vision for education in Kelston, with the community focusing on ways to share existing resources, improve partnerships, create clearer educational pathways and build a positive local education story.
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