What These Guidelines Contain

The guidelines focus on school governance, consultation, and encouraging parent participation in school activities. They look at how parents' active participation might be developed, what consultation means in practice, what some schools are doing that they have found to be effective, and some of the barriers and challenges that schools meet and how they deal with them.

These guidelines do not set out how, when, and with whom to consult. Those matters need to be decided according to the issues of concern, the make-up of local Māori communities, and the requirements of Māori parents and whānau. The guidelines are intended to encourage the development and maintenance of relationships that go beyond specific, time-bounded consultation exercises. Accordingly, the guidelines provide examples and models for schools to use or to adapt to their own circumstances.

These guidelines also present a self-review framework that will enable your school to assess how well initiatives for involving Māori parents and whānau in the life of the school are working.

The guidelines cover eight aspects of consultation and parental engagement. These are not in order of priority, but they are all crucial areas to address:

• Principles of success
• Governance and the board of trustees
• Māori language and culture in the school
• School activities and interaction with Māori parents
• Truancy and discipline
• Relationships with iwi, hapu, and marae
• Relationships with the community
• Relationships with other schools.

Almost thirty primary, intermediate, and secondary schools, from Bluff to Northland, have contributed their ideas and experiences to these guidelines (see Appendix 2). Many, but not all, are low-decile schools. The proportion of Māori students in these schools ranges from 12 percent to almost 100 percent. Māori parents, board members, and teachers were significantly involved in discussions with schools. In addition, meetings were held with two groups of Māori parents and whānau in the Wairarapa and Lower Hutt.