Wellington High School

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Blue title page showing a swirling lines pattern (from the Relationships and Sexuality guide) along with Ministry of Education Te Tāhuhu o te Mātauranga logo and ‘Relationships and Sexuality Education A series of effective practice showcases’

Teacher (Natalie) in a classroom talking to the camera

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Natalie: When kids can see that you value what you're teaching and that it's an authentic learning experience and that you can have fun with what you're teaching you've come half the way to being an educator.

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Blue title page showing a swirling lines pattern (from the Relationships and Sexuality guide) along with:

‘Wellington High School’
‘Te Kura Tuarua o Taraika ki Pukeahu’
‘Responsive Teaching and Learning’

Teacher (Natalie) in a classroom talking to the camera

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Natalie: You need to allow kids to figure out what they want to learn, how they want to learn it, what environment they want to learn and it's completely different to traditional teaching. I think of myself as more of a facilitator and a person that guides instead of tells.

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Blue title page showing a swirling lines pattern (from the Relationships and Sexuality guide) along with ‘How can we plan responsive RSE for our ākonga?’

Teacher (Natalie) in a classroom talking to the camera

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Natalie: I think we need to empower our kids with the way that we ask questions and the way that we direct learning. It's as simple as “which option would you like? We've got option one or two - how do we feel? How do we want to roll? Okay cool, let's try that.”

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Teacher (Natalie) talking with three senior secondary students sitting on a couch in a classroom.

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Natalie: Asking how they are, asking what they need, asking how they would like to learn, is totally under-rated and we need to do it more.

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Wellington High student (Gemma) in a classroom talking to the camera

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Gemma: In class discussions Miss would like ask a question and we all get to raise our hand and share our own opinions on it so we get to see a lot of different point of views and opinions from different people and people that come from different like have different perspectives on every little thing so it's very interesting because we get we don't just get out on view and everything we get to share and hear everyone others so we get to open our minds so you actually learn and take a lot from it.

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Blue title page showing a swirling lines pattern (from the Relationships and Sexuality guide) along with ‘Why do we need to create and maintain a safe learning environment for RSE?’

A poster titled ‘Kaupapa’ with hand-written colourful bullet points:

Think before you speak
Disagree with respect
Laugh with not at
Be aware of people’s boundaries
etc

Teacher (Natalie) in a classroom talking to the camera

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Natalie: We think about why we need a safe learning environment, I think it needs to go into all subjects but specifically for health because of the content that we talk about, because of the activities that we run and set up like open kōrero - that's quite vulnerable for some kids to be able to share in front of 30 other kids so I think it's really important that we establish those safe boundaries and guidelines so that communication and learning can happen.

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Student (Gemma) in a classroom talking to the camera

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Gemma: We had some like moments where we just share some really like deep things that would just like get them off our chest and it's the fact that we feel okay to be able to do that and we trust everyone.

Teacher (Natalie) in a classroom talking to the camera

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Natalie: So at the beginning of the year with all of my levels we do a circle. We introduce each other, ourselves with our pronouns and then after that we brainstorm together what type of class we want.

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A poster titled ‘Kaupapa’ with hand-written colourful bullet points:

Think before you speak
Disagree with respect
Laugh with not at
Be aware of people’s boundaries
etc

[Audio]

Natalie: So it's not just me saying this is how we're going to be, it's a collective decision for us to talk about, for us to be able to learn what type of class do we want all together and we brainstorm all that together as a class. We then look at if we want this class, what do we need to do to create that and that becomes our kaupapa.

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Student (Matt) in a classroom talking to the camera

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Matt: One thing that I find interesting is that she's able to effectively make sure every single one of us are cared for in this space especially.

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Blue title page showing a swirling lines pattern (from the Relationships and Sexuality guide) along with ‘Why is flexible, relational teaching important in RSE??’

Teacher (Natalie) in a classroom talking to the camera

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Natalie: I know my kids and what they like and what they don't like so I may ask them "how are you feeling today?

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Student (Matt) outside a classroom dancing to some music with teacher (Natalie) filming it on her phone

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Natalie: and they're like "oh Miss quite tired, could we do some small group work?" "Like cool. how do you feel if I turn this discussion into a small discussion for your group?" "We'd love that, thanks." Or "Miss we're feeling really good. Can we not write today, can we just you know talk" and "It’d be like cool but are you okay if I write stuff on the board so we can take a photo so we don't actually lose what we've got?" "Yes, that's great, let's go." So you really have to be flexible and fluid with the way you deliver things and you learn so much from them as well.

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Student (Gemma) in a classroom talking to the camera

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Gemma: Miss will share everything that we're going to do within the units and standards at school and then we kind of have an idea of what we're going to do so we can share and help structure in what activities and how we learn because everyone learns differently so like some people prefer like I like group discussions quite a bit because as I said before you get to hear lots of different point of views but some people just like little group activities where you get like a worksheet or something to go over and then you just learn through that in like a small group but we have a lot of different ways of learning so we rotate them around so it's not all just the same every week.

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Teacher (Natalie) in a classroom talking to the camera

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Natalie: Relationships underpin our whole curriculum. I think it's so valuable. We need to be looking at things around pornography, we need to be looking at things around intimacy. We need to be looking at what a healthy relationship is, an unhealthy relationship is, what to do if you think you're in an unhealthy relationship. We need to be looking at healthy decision-making, weighing up the pros and the cons so that they can make good decisions for themselves.

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Student (Matt) in a classroom talking to the camera

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Matt: These are things that may hit us very hard in the real world if we aren't equipped to deal with these or even talk about these problems properly.

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Student (Gemma) in a classroom talking to the camera

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Gemma: We can like get like a situation and we can get some like solutions for it so we get to like help the situation and we bring in like social justice and everything so it's honestly like we figure out like how we can fix these on our own whether it's a societal issue, or an interpersonal issue, or whether it's just like a personal issue.

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Natalie’s classroom with tables and chairs in a square shape around the room with two couches in the middle.

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Natalie: The way that I've set my class up is I don't have small clumps or desks. I feel that being able to have open kōrero with people - you don't want people's backs to you because that really de-validates what you're sharing. So I've chosen to have a big square around the outside of my classroom, I've got couches in the middle where kids can sit. I can sit in any spot in this class and see if anyone's off task, I can see if anyone is looking upset, or if anyone needs extra support so I can actually go over really incognito and discuss and sort that out without having to make a big drama.

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Teacher (Natalie) sorting through two class sets of A4 copy books in crates in her classroom.

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Natalie: I don't use computers in my class and I know that people are now you know schools are bring your own device but for me they're barriers. That screen prevents conversation, that screen prevents people having eye contact, having memorable, meaningful discussions about personal stuff. We do this often - we need to have fun doing it. And it's good we talk about lots of sensitive things and I think it's so valuable to be able to have that moment where there's laughing - not at but with - even at yourself.

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Blue title page showing a swirling lines pattern (from the Relationships and Sexuality guide) along with ‘Why does RSE need to reflect ākonga cultures and identities?’

Student (Matt) in a classroom talking to the camera

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Matt: Well personally for me my culture has been reflected and given an opportunity to flourish within the class by having opportunities to talk about my personal experiences like as a half Samoan walking around in a very white dominated school and it's given me an opportunity to educate those around me who may not be aware of what we deal with as a demographic.

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Teacher (Natalie) in a classroom talking to the camera

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Natalie: We need to be inclusive of different cultural values. We need to be respectful of our students' values, and we need to kind of look at both sex and sexuality in a holistic approach so that the kids can understand that sexuality isn't just your identity or your orientation it's who you are and what you need.

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Student (Katie) in a classroom talking to the camera

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Katie: It's very important for a health teacher to be open about everything and really understanding because you come into this class and we talk about so many things like racism and homophobia and sexual identity and if there's a teacher that's not open-minded and like respects their own opinion you're not going to really want to be here.

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Teacher (Natalie) in a classroom talking to the camera

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Natalie: I identify as a cis white female so I need to be careful of how I teach gender identity coming from my perspective because in some ways it's not my story to share. But we still need to be responsible for teaching those things. There are amazing things online where you can get people's stories who identify with what they've experienced and use that for teaching resources so we're not standing up the front saying "I think a trans person would feel like this" - we don't know, but we need to get the stories of our trans community or any part of our community to educate.

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Blue title page showing a swirling lines pattern (from the Relationships and Sexuality guide) along with ‘What learning outcomes arise from quality RSE?’

The students are shown as individuals in a classroom talking to the camera

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Katie: I didn't think about things that I think about a lot now and it is just like with the whole relationships part of it, like about how to be like a good ally and how to be there for people.

Gemma: Whether it's just like learning about assertive talking or whether it's just like the actual whole sexuality unit and then there's like the relationships and everything you get a lot from it and it all connects and you can take it all in very well.

Matt: I've learned how to stand up for myself as a person in a way that's respectful to other parties involved but isn't presenting an opportunity for me to be stepped on.

Katie: Health teaches you skills that I will use for the rest of my life like assertive communication like with so many people. I've learned how to have those conversations and you just learn so much about like sexual identity and things I never knew and never thought about I have learned in this class.

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Teacher (Natalie) in a classroom talking to the camera

The three students featured in the video are shown walking together in the school

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Natalie: When the kids come in and say "Miss I used this today" or "I actually use the things that we learn" that validates what I'm doing and it's amazing. I had one young person come in and say "Miss I was having struggles with my Dad and I used my assertive skills and I actually feel a bit closer to him now." We can touch the lives of our kids with what we teach and give them amazing skills that they can then go and create amazing paths and journeys for themselves. Like we're enabling our students to be fully functioning, supportive, socially-just humans.

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Closing blue title page with Ministry of Education Te Tāhuhu o te Mātauranga logo, www.education.govt.nz, and New Zealand Government logo.