Billie-Jean Potaka Ayton
<h4>Billie-Jean Potaka Ayton (MNZM) is the Tumuaki of Kaiti School in Gisborne. In this column she shares some insights from her experience as a leader. </h4>
<p>I first arrived at <a href="https://www.kaiti.school.nz/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kaiti School</a> 16 years ago, in September of 2009. </p>
<p>I was quite young then, and the education adviser, who was supposed to be supporting me with my role, said to me: “I’m surprised they chose you. Are you going to be able to do this job?”</p>
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<p>At the time, Kaiti School had a ten-year period of roll attrition. I was the fourth principal that year. There were no gardens in the school, and it was, based on my observations, a negative space. Every teacher was doing their own thing. They were all doing a good job, but it wasn’t cohesive and progressive. There were six teachers for 130 students, and only six out of 13 classrooms were being used. </p>
<h4><strong>Kaiti School</strong> </h4>
<p>Today, Kaiti School looks very different from when I first began in 2009. Now, we have 21 classrooms for 47 staff, 20 of whom are teachers, and 415 students. </p>
<p>Our school is predominantly Māori. Eight percent of students are Pasifika, and two percent are other ethnicities. We draw from all iwi in Te Tairāwhiti. Some students whakapapa to other regions, but the majority are Ngāti Porou. </p>
<p>Our kaupapa has a strong te ao Māori focus. We are a bilingual school which offers both Māori medium and English medium pathways. The curriculum has strong ties to Te Taiao, and we believe that our tamariki need to know about who they are and where they come from before learning about other areas of the world. A knowledge of their whakapapa is a key characteristic of a Kaiti learner. We encourage students from Year 1 to recite their pepeha. </p>
<p>Te Taiao is incorporated throughout our curriculum. We knew from the pandemic period that being outside was good for our tamariki. We couldn’t be close to each other inside, so we all went outside, and our curriculum evolved from there. When you walk through the school, you’re going to see students engaged in learning activities outside. We have a mara kai (vegetable garden), and tamariki are involved in planting around the grounds, riding bikes, and singing outside. </p>
<p>We also believe that physical activity for students is a very important component of being a successful learner. To support this, we employ a full-time sports leader who delivers a physical education and cultural program with our students. This supports wellbeing, and we extend this attitude to our staff, who are the most valuable resource we have. The staff hui in term two was wellbeing focussed. We prioritised having fun as a group, being outside and being active as small reminders to look after ourselves along the way. The special thing about this wellbeing initiative was that it was led by kaiako. </p>
<p>Every week there’s something new happening, and yes we are busy. We have these amazing people across our kura, who make sure we sit down and prioritise the academic learning areas daily for their learners. We have been on the structured literacy pathway for about two-and-a-half years now. It’s an effective program which has made a positive difference for our tamariki, and likewise for structured maths, which we began in 2020.</p>
<figure id="attachment_34281" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-34281" style="width: 470px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="wp-image-34281 " src="https://www.schoolnews.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/SN70-EDU-PS-5-1024x768.jpg" alt="" width="470" height="353" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-34281" class="wp-caption-text">Image supplied by Kaiti School</figcaption></figure>
<p>Our daily attendance is very high, usually in the 90 to 93 percent range. If it’s at 88 percent, that’s a bad day, and it’s usually raining hard! We also have a new trend where classes are reaching 100 percent attendance every day. In term two we had one class that had 23 days of 100 percent attendance in a row. That’s significant for us, and it’s positive modelling for other classes. It also demonstrates that tamariki and whānau are motivated to attend and be here. </p>
<p>We have many visitors to the kura, and one of the things they often say is that they feel welcome and inspired, but more importantly, they notice that the students are happy and very respectful. We don’t have many behaviour issues in the kura. The students are well supported, and we try to keep things calm.</p>
<p>When there’s an issue, we take the time to make sure they’re supported to feel okay again. Their whānau are involved and we work alongside other agencies for specialist support if needed. Relationships are key for our learners. We want them to feel safe, be heard, belong, and know that their teacher values them. </p>
<h4><strong>Leadership from many</strong> </h4>
<p>Going from six to 20 teachers, and 130 to over 400 students in ten years is a big change. You’ve got to have lots of leaders to support these changes, which means giving the people you work with opportunities to grow, lead, influence and thrive. </p>
<p>We have a broad leadership structure at Kaiti. There’s myself, two deputy principals and seven senior leaders in the school who lead teams for various areas of responsibility. We have a team leader for support staff as well, who attends all leadership hui.</p>
<p>We keep tabs and monitor the work of our leaders to ensure we are focused and moving forward, however these leaders make decisions for their own areas of responsibility, which builds leadership confidence.</p>
<p>Beyond this group there are many other leaders who have responsibilities for Taiao, Kapa haka, Sports Academies programs and Special Education. </p>
<p>Most people don’t know they’re natural leaders, and being asked to lead can be scary. From my experience and how I was brought up, you don’t put your hand up to be the leader, someone else tells you it&#8217;s your turn, and leadership occurs. Leaders are grown, they are developed and nurtured over time. That is our model here too. We might tell someone they will be a team leader next term. They might say they don’t know what to do, or that they haven’t got the skills. We tell them: yes, you do have the skills, you are ready. It’s our job as leaders to grow others around us, to realise their potential.</p>
<figure id="attachment_34282" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-34282" style="width: 515px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="wp-image-34282 " src="https://www.schoolnews.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/SN70-EDU-PS-6-1024x862.jpg" alt="" width="515" height="434" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-34282" class="wp-caption-text">Image supplied by Kaiti School</figcaption></figure>
<p>Prior to Kaiti School, I had worked in both high and low decile schools across Auckland, which gave me a very broad range of experience as an educator. That experience, in combination with lessons I learned from my parents and my grandparents, prepared me for the journey here. </p>
<p>My grandparents were hard workers, and my grandmother, Hinetara Potaka, was a leader in education in her own right in the early childhood sector. They taught me about the importance of hard work. To lead you need to be a worker, and you have to be willing and able to do everyone else’s job, including your own. </p>
<p>Another key to Kaiti School’s success is our environment. If you have a tidy, orderly, attractive environment that’s full of gardens, and native gardens at that, learning happens. All our classrooms are spotless. I’ve never asked the school whānau to be that way, they do it because they care about their space.</p>
<p>Property is a very important part of the board’s role—these are the spaces our students learn in. Given our roll growth, we’ve had constant cycles of property improvements every year. At first, the Ministry wouldn’t give us any more space. But no doesn’t mean no to us, it meant we had to find another way to make them say yes. Our spaces are attractive, inviting and warm. If something breaks down, we fix it right away. The environment contributes to and supports learning. </p>
<h4><strong>A genuine collaboration with whānau</strong> </h4>
<p>We have amazing whānau here, and we have been with the Horouta Whānau Ora program in Te Tairāwhiti for 15 years. We have a kaiārahi (navigator) who works with families to set goals, and work towards making them a reality over the course of 12 months. Those goals might be around finances, housing, relationships, whānau wellbeing, Te Ao Māori or education.</p>
<p>The program invites our community into the kura. Not only does it improve community engagement, we see the benefits for children who consistently show up to school ready for learning, which leads to awesome outcomes. The program encourages whānau to break barriers, to take supported risks and step beyond their safe spaces. This change impacts their children, building their courage to go all the way in their education and sporting pursuits. At our school, we see our whānau involved as coaches of sports teams, and when we have whānau hui, there are 200 whānau who show up, not ten.</p>
<figure id="attachment_34283" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-34283" style="width: 486px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="wp-image-34283 " src="https://www.schoolnews.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/SN70-EDU-PS-2-1024x768.jpg" alt="" width="486" height="365" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-34283" class="wp-caption-text">Image supplied by Kaiti School</figcaption></figure>
<p>At whānau hui, we gather ideas from our community on absolutely everything, from our curriculum to our property, our uniform and our sports programs. The board looks for themes in the whānau voice and from here they set up initiatives.</p>
<p>Some changes we’ve instigated because of whānau feedback include having a uniform, increasing the level of reo in our classrooms, and becoming a full primary which caters to Years 7 and 8 in our Māori Immersion pathway. The board resisted the idea of going to Year 8 for many years because we didn’t have the room. But we saw that whānau felt strongly about this. and so the board made the decision to recall classrooms that were being used by the RTLB service. Now, most of our students will stay on for Year 7 and 8. </p>
<p>Leadership from many, building a positive learning environment, and listening to whānau voice are some of the contributors to the Kaiti School of today, which sees high attendance, and student success at Kaiti and beyond. </p>
<p>Of course, the final ingredient is a strong work ethic: we’ve got to be prepared to work hard together and invest energy in what we value&#8230;then results will come. </p>

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