Hannah Jay

In this leadership role, I work within the Kidsfirst Kindergartens Education Team overseeing key initiatives to support tamariki requiring learning support and promote inclusive practices across the association. As a self-managing team, the Education Team work collaboratively; taking full ownership of decision-making and strategic planning to meet our goals, ensuring a highly responsive and efficient approach to inspiring and enabling our kaiako to provide excellence in teaching and learning.

Responsibilites include:

• Demonstrate and build leadership capabilities across the association
• Lead and inspire on-going improvement in the delivery of high quality, inclusive early childhood education within all Kidsfirst Kindergartens
• Establish and manage relationships, both internal and external, that are instrumental in delivering high quality early childhood education
• Identify, develop and design relevant professional learning for kaiako and workshops for whānau; both in-person and online
• Organise conferences and professional learning events
• Oversee child protection training and practices within the association
• Lead SELO (Strengthening Early Learning Opportunities) projects, contracted by the Ministry of Education, for outside services
• Ensure policies, practices and guidelines are in place for kindergartens to operate effectively and safely within regulatory and operational requirements
• Manage the team's budget and ensure resources are allocated effectively
• Spearheading the development of an online Learning Management System (LMS) to enhance learning and development for kaiako, whānau and other professionals
• Complete and present board reports, including detailed data analysis on the delivery of strategic goals and learning outcomes

I was a member of the advisory group for the Ministry of Education's Highest Needs Review. This group's role was to provide strategic guidance to the review team as they sought to understand how the education system was meeting the needs of children and young people with the highest needs, ensuring they are supported to achieve their full potential in an inclusive education system that delivers fair and excellent outcomes.

Responsibilities included:

• Working with the Review Team to share expertise, subject matter knowledge, lived experience and perspectives
• Collaborating with key stakeholders to recommend improvements to the education system for those children with the highest level of need
• Contributing to the design and development of potential new frameworks for inclusion and learning support
• Provide advice and expertise when options and solutions are being developed on the key areas of concerns, issues, and barriers raised by stakeholders
• Test and challenge the Review team's thinking

As Senior Tutor in the Postgraduate Diploma in Specialist Teaching Programme – Early Intervention endorsement I provided effective teaching and tutoring assistance in post-graduate courses, contributed to practicums of students within the programme and contributed to relevant assessment and administrative tasks such as marking.

Responsibilites included:

• Delivering high quality teaching and support to Postgraduate students, both online and in-person
• Supporting Academic staff members to ensure programmes of study are up to date and leading- edge
• Assessing post-graduate student's course work and assessments, providing effective and timely feedback and feedforward
• Supporting post-graduate students to think critically and analytically and provide them with the skills to research and communicate outcomes effectively

Kidsfirst Kindergartens employed Specialist Senior Teachers, on a fixed term basis, to provide professional advice, guidance and development to kaiako and to support continuous improvements across their network of 69 kindergartens and early learning centers. In the role of Education Specialist – Priority Learners I shared my knowledge and experience in early intervention to enhance inclusive practices and improve learning outcomes for all children.

Responsibilites included:

• Collaborating with other Senior Teachers to identify priorities for support and guidance for teaching teams and working in partnership to provide these
• Working alongside kaiako, sharing ideas and building on teachers existing knowledge to enhance inclusive practices and improve learning outcomes for children within their service; including support to adapt the environment and/or pedagogy to meet the needs of individual children
• Responding to requests for support from kaiako; completing initial observations and assessments to identify the strengths and needs of children, whanau and teachers
• Working collaboratively with whanau and kaiako to develop, implement and evaluate specific individual learning plans and behaviour plans
• Liaising with external agencies and supporting referrals as required
• Allocating and monitoring additional learning support funds within the association
• Supporting the ongoing development of speech & language, and gifted & talented programmes within the association; including the introduction of the 'Learning Language and Loving It' program
• Developing and delivering professional learning programmes to kaiako throughout the association

I was a trustee on the Weedons School Board of Trustees holding two portfolios; Curriculum and Māori Cultural Advisor.

In 2017 Conductive Education Canterbury was selected to be part of a local Community of Practice that focused on the implementation of Te Whāriki 2017. I was identified as the Pedagogical Lead for our service and tasked with leading this process within our service.

Conductive Education Canterbury is both a licensed early childhood centre and an accredited early intervention provider for children from birth - 6 years old with developmental delays and disorders.

Supporting a Postgraduate Students studying towards the Postgraduate Diploma of Specialist Teaching (Early Intervention). In the programme, students are assisted to achieve their practicum goals and competencies by a multi-layered interprofessional mentoring team rather than from the more traditional practicum supervisor or associate teacher model. Field Advisors play a key role in this mentoring team and our primary role is to provide endorsement specific advice and support.

In the fixed term position of Education Advisor Family/ Whānau, I established this newly developed role which focused on providing support to families/whānau of children aged 0 to 8 who required intensive learning support, using evidence-based approaches to building parenting capability

Responsibilities included:

• Within this role, I worked as part of the wider Learning Support team, contributing to a holistic approach to enhancing the well-being of children with additional needs and their families
• The provision of parenting support to families/whanau of children aged 0-8 who were receiving a Learning Support service but required a more intensive approach
• Building parent and whanau capability using evidence-based parenting programmes including the delivery of Incredible Years Parenting programmes
• Co-working with other Learning Support practitioners and Kaitakawaenga to provide holistic support for children and families/whanau