News & Events

Tena Koutou

Nicki Morrison, Denise Powell and Sarah De Heer would like to extend a huge thank you to those 35-40 members of the Auckland Deaf Community who attended the strategic plan consultation session on Saturday, 14 June at the Auckland Deaf Club. We acknowledge the strong sense of community here and how you want to increase your connection with Deaf education and parents. We received a warm welcome, which was greatly appreciated, and acknowledged that this is the start of many future meetings with the Deaf Community, as requested.

With our key engagement principles of whakawhanaungatanga, allyship, community, transparency and learning, it was heartening to see that the connections have been strengthened through this face-to-face hui. We are committed to continuing to build on these connections. In the spirit of learning, we used this opportunity to listen to all suggestions.
Some of the key themes that came out were (this is not the whole list):

• Wellbeing and identity are great goals – how are these measured and reported on?
• Deaf Space needs to be a focus for our Deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) students and the community – could this be a possible 4th pou/pillar in the strategic framework?
• Have student voice to support future work with the Ministry of Education
• Establish a bigger presence in Wellington
• Ko Taku Reo to listen to the community and work alongside them
• Quality professional learning for Teacher Aides, Educational Interpreters and CESWs
• Relook at zoning rules for schools to increase DHH students in mainstream schools
• Pathways for Deaf leadership
• Parent support and how we can connect them to the Deaf Community
• Focus on the quality of pedagogy in your bilingual provisions
• Establish a governance board with at least 50% Deaf representation for strategy work
• Bring the Ministry of Education to hear from the Deaf Community at these meetings

Some things that can be shared from Ko Taku Reo:

1. Early acquisition of language is an issue that affects DHH children when they work with Ko Taku Reo. This is an issue shared by the Deaf community. The Advisors of Deaf Children (AoDC) work under the Ministry of Education and are the early intervention providers for New Zealand (for all DHH children aged from birth to five). We would like to partner with the Deaf Community to raise awareness of this issue with the Ministry of Education and demonstrate how promoting the early acquisition of NZSL for DHH children would be beneficial for their future education.

1. Each year Ko Taku Reo Deaf Education NZ receives a Resource Notice from the Ministry of Education. This notice outlines the services we are required to provide, the staffing we are given to provide these, and the budget attached to deliver these services. We are required to report outcomes to the Ministry of Education on this notice each year. This notice does not include training new Resource Teachers of Deaf (RTDs), AoDC or who is accepted for ORs funding – this all sits under the Ministry of Education.

1. CESWs (Communication Education Support Workers) are employed by the local school that has a DHH student enrolled with them. Ko Taku Reo supplies top-up funding, enabling schools to employ them, and offers support in the form of Professional Development and assistance through our NZSL tutor team and teachers. They are not staff of Ko Taku Reo Deaf Education NZ.