Kōkirihia for

Board Members

what we’re all about

Kōkirihia is a rōpū of passionate people and organisations that have come together to ensure that all tamariki and rangatahi living in Aotearoa have access to a fair, just and culturally enriching education – one with high expectations of every single learner and their ability to reach their potential and thrive.

Kōkirihia Team Photo

What is streaming?

Streaming

Noun /ˈstriːmɪŋ/

The term we use in Aotearoa New Zealand to cover harmful fixed-ability grouping, banding, and the inflexible use of prerequisites in education – all practices whereby students are sorted into different classes or placed into in-class ability-based groups for sustained periods of time based on teacher perceptions of ability and assessment data.

Why should we end streaming?

We all want to believe that here in Aotearoa New Zealand we live in a fair and equitable society where our students have access to an education system in which they will thrive and have the opportunities to reach their full potential.

This means ensuring that:

  • every student at the school can reach their highest possible standard in educational achievement
  • the school is a physically and emotionally safe place for all students and staff
  • the school is inclusive of students of differing needs
  • the school gives effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi

These are the primary objectives as determined by the Education and Training Act 2020. (Te Whakarōputanga Kaitiaki Kura o Aotearoa – New Zealand School Boards Association)

As a board member you can:

  1. Familiarise yourself with the content included on this website and/or our blueprint: Kōkirihia – the plan for removing streaming from our schools
  2. Speak with your principal to find out if your school uses streaming practices
  3. Read the case studies of schools who have moved away from streaming to understand the alternative approaches
  4. Seek support from Kaitiaki Kura o Aotearoa – New Zealand School Boards Association to understand more about your role as a board member
Teacher and student work together at a desk

What can you do?

You can:

alternatives to streaming:

High Expectation Teaching (HET)

High Expectation Teaching (HET) is an Aotearoa New Zealand pedagogy offering a viable alternative to the current ways of grouping, and an empirically proven means of lifting achievement.

Developed following the early work of Christine Rubie-Davies that showed students with high expectation teachers made more than two years’ academic growth in one year, compared with students in other classes who made little progress over one year.

learn more

Developing Mathematical Inquiry Communities (DMIC)

Developing Mathematical Inquiry Communities (DMIC) is a research-based professional development and pedagogical change initiative.

Funded by the Ministry of Education (MoE) DMIC has evolved in response to the persistent inequities for Māori and Pacific students with those schools with large Pacific communities prioritised for inclusion in the professional learning development (PLD).

learn more

Reciprocal Teaching (RT3t)

Reciprocal Teaching was developed in the 1980s as a collaborative way of teaching and learning four metacognitive strategies that are essentials for reading for meaning, critical thinking and problem-solving, and understanding different points of view.

The four thinking strategies are: questioning, clarifying, summarising and predicting.In Aotearoa New Zealand, many teachers and students know it as RT3T, which has been developed and led by Dr Julia Westera. It is being utilised for all schooling levels and across the curriculum.

learn more

Poipoia Kia Mōhio - An Iwi-led Approach

Whanganui Iwi – taking the local community on the journey.

Led by Ngā Tai o te Awa Trust, Poipoia kia Mōhio has community, whānau, hapū and iwi as its starting point. Putting this into practice meant holding community wānanga to explore the whakapapa of streaming in their rohe to explore who it benefits, to hear the stories from both young and old, and to ask what it might look and feel like if things were done differently. Their approach is one that ‘pitches the collectivism of te ao Māori against the individualism of our western education system.

learn more

case studies

Learn more about Kōkirihia from bold school leaders who have led change within their schools.

view all

more resources:

Take Action.

Join the movement and become a Kōkirihia champion.