New Zealand Adventures: Russell Transformed

One of my goals in coming to New Zealand was to spend some time, if possible, talking education with educators or at least visiting a school in session. That turned out to be a bit tricky since this is summer and summer vacation includes most of the month of January. This week I was able to visit a school, albeit for just a brief time.

Here's what one website said about New Zealand's world leadership in teaching literacy:

In the past two decades, New Zealand has achieved international renown for the high quality of its literacy education. Despite increased immigration and the numbers of families living in poverty, as well as relatively low teacher salaries, New Zealand has one the highest literacy rates in the industrialized world (see the summary of New Zealand’s results from the Programme for International Student Assessment [PISA], 2000). Its reputation as a nation of readers has intrigued researchers and classroom-based educators alike.

Curiosity about how New Zealand has accomplished its success led a group of 50 U.S. educators, including the first, second, and fourth authors of this article, to visit the country during the summer of 2000 to observe firsthand the literacy practices used in primary classrooms. Our purpose was to learn as much as we could about New Zealand’s unique educational system.

We were fortunate to meet a number of key players in literacy education as we toured around New Zealand. We began our journey by visiting the Auckland College of Education, where we met with professionals from the Centre for Literacy and Languages, Enterprise Development, and Research. Here we learned about teacher education in New Zealand, the New Zealand Curriculum Framework, the structure and governance of public schools, school funding, and the school calendar.

While in Auckland, we were delighted to have a meeting with Dame Marie Clay, the founder of the very successful Reading Recovery program. Dame Marie was very generous with her time, and told us everything we wanted to know about Reading Recovery. We also met with regional representatives from the Books in Homes program, which promotes family literacy. To complement what we had learned, we met with officials at the New Zealand Education Review Office, who explained the evaluation process all educational institutions that receive government funding must undergo.
Now we felt equipped and ready to visit classrooms and learn even more.

What follows is a summary of what we saw and heard about literacy education in New Zealand. Check out this website to hear what one group of educators saw and experienced on their trip here to visit schools. Schools here have a unique approach to making sure that children learn to read. Terms like "guided reading" and "reading recovery" originated here in New Zealand and have been copied in other parts of the world, including the U.S.

So I wasn't sure what I would ask or what I would want to see if I visited a school. I thought that meeting with the principal, asking for a brief tour of the school and perhaps checking out technology might give me some kind of feel for what is happening here.

My first real opportunity came at Paihia. However, I got to the school too late in the afternoon to catch the principal. The secretary invited me to return the next day after morning tea when the principal would have some time. We elected to go across the Bay to see Russell the next morning. It was a good experience.

To get to Russell from Paihia you board the passenger ferry after paying your $7 fee. It's about a 10 minute trip across blue waters to the dock. Russell is pretty laid back and quite different from the 1800's when it was called the "hellhole of the Pacific." Back then it was a hangout for gamblers, murderers, thieves, philanderers and crooks of all descriptions. Lawlessness was the norm. When the Treaty was signed, Russell was designated as the capital city of New Zealand but that only lasted for several months. Russell was too wild to be capital of the new country. Eventually, Auckland won that honor.

Christ Church and Cemetery

Russell was the trading post established by Europeans to trade guns, ammunition, and liquor for lumber and other goods controlled by the Maori. When the Maori saw that they were being swindled unfairly, they took out their wrath on Russell, burning the town to the ground. Only Christ Church and one other building remained standing. We saw holes in the siding of the church left by Maori musket balls in one of the confrontations.

Russell eventually rebuilt and tamed its image, catering to travelers, tourists and vacationers. Some of the community buildings opened along with vacation homes, cafes, and small businesses. Today, the mood is very laid back. Several historical sites retell some of the history. There are a couple of museums and Christ Church remains as the oldest functioning church in New Zealand. Much can be learned just by visiting the church cemetery.

Entering the Russell Street School

We wandered the streets and saw the church before deciding to see the school next door to Christ Church. The school is one main building, some modular classrooms and a meeting building on a three acre campus. It is named Russell Street School. There is a green play field, some play structures, and other trappings which tell you this is a school. We came at recess time and one of the first things I noticed was children running around the campus barefoot. I wondered if that was the norm for inside wear as well.

I was greeted warmly by the secretary and invited to come down the hall to meet the faculty, who were having tea in the faculty room. Again, I was welcomed and met the principal, David xxxxxx. We exchanged pleasantries, compared experiences, and he jokingly referred to the school secretary as the person who ran the school. I agreed, based on some of my experiences.

I asked some quick questions about New Zealand schools and the literacy leadership they have earned over the years. They all seemed to pretty much take it for granted and didn't really offer much in the way of specifics. I suppose that could have come from more in-depth discussions. I was invited to walk the halls, look at classrooms and stay around if I wished.

The school custodian escorted us around the building and we saw rather typical classrooms, good art work, lots of backpacks, and the Reading Recovery Room. There was also a library, although the custodian said it didn't get much use. They were thinking of remodeling the building to make it more accessible. They teach cooking and some classes are apparently done in Maori. I spotted one eMac computer in the library. I also noticed that each classroom had a wood burning stove. The custodian's job is to light a fire, secure firewood and make sure stoves warm up classrooms on cool mornings. Wow, what a job that must be!

It was a rewarding, reassuring and interesting visit. Not much depth, but enough to give a feel for what goes on here. The custodian's words and the school's website, reinforced one of the tenets observed at Russell Street School and applicable everywhere, "If children can't read, they can't learn."