16.

I WON THE hearts and minds of some of the teachers.

Others expressed reservations but were willing to give it a
go. The teacher who still hadn’t forgiven me for knocking the
Friday afternoon videos on the head said she would do it if
she had to. The next task was to communicate the intention to
adopt a radical new structure to the parent community.
I wrote a full and detailed outline of the proposal in the
fourth paragraph of an overly long school newsletter. Yes, I
did know most people seldom read beyond paragraph two.
They would look for their child’s name and, sometimes, for a
list of upcoming events.
One couple, one of the few Pākehā to send their child to
the school, and then only because of its convenient location to
their work, made an appointment to see me. I braced myself for
their reaction, but was still surprised by its vehemence. They
were angry and distressed. For them, the proposed changes
meant the school would no longer look like the places they
had been to as children, and this amounted to a heresy. The

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 father lost his cool and shouted. I lost my cool and shouted.
The mother called us ‘boys’ and calmed us down. She didn’t
give us lollies.
We talked for a long time. They spoke of how they expected
more consideration, given that they represented the minority
group I so desperately needed in the school. This made me feel
like shouting again. I wrote them letters of explanation and
finally won some grudging acceptance. But they also made
me see that the struggling immigrant community of Newton
Central was too busy trying to survive to have the luxury of
questioning teachers. We were supposed to know what we
were doing. Had I been teaching in a middle-class suburb, my
attempt to throw out a traditional model of education would
never have floated — it would have been blasted to bits before
it even left the slipway.
In 1990 we launched into it. A lot of time was spent making
up class lists that would give a balance in number, gender,
ethnicity and ability. Families were given the option of
their children all being in the same room or different rooms.
Almost all chose the first option, which was great considering
we called the system ‘family grouping’. For the next six years
this was how we operated. Systems were refined, community
acceptance increased and the school roll began to reflect the
demography of the neighbourhood. In fact, we had a steady
flow of people from outside the area electing to come to us.
By 1996, however, things started to fall apart, largely
because of staff changes. The original group of teachers
who had accepted the idea and worked on its development,
responded to its challenges and enjoyed seeing it working,

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 underwent change. Some left, but, more significantly, the
growth of the roll meant that new teachers joined us. Most
found the day-to-day work in a multi-level classroom too much
of a shock. They had known about it, had much of it explained,
but were bowled over by the reality — the cold shower in the
tropics syndrome. In fairness, I have to acknowledge that it
is much easier to accept something new if you have been part
of its creation than it is to try to fit yourself into someone
else’s creation.
In the years in which family grouping had its heyday there
were, I believe, a number of real advantages for children. Let
me do the good teacher thing and present these advantages as
a list:

1. In broad terms, ideas about chronological age became

less important than ability and attainment levels. If I
asked a teacher who in the room was eight years old,
he or she would answer this less readily than a question
about who was at a particular reading level. We came to
believe that if you had a classroom of children of the
same age, the spread of ability and attainment would be
from X to Y. If you had children aged five to eleven, the
range of ability and attainment would probably still be
X to Y.
2. A child could stay with the same teacher for more than
one year, and in fact some children ended up having their
entire primary school education with the one teacher.
This gave child and teacher the chance to develop a
deep and close knowledge of each other. I told parents

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 they could change to a different teacher whenever they
wanted to, but this option was seldom taken up. People
argue that this deprived children of the strengths that
can come from variety. There is truth in this, but I
believe we are talking about a very close relationship,
akin to the relationship children have with their
parents — a relationship where the values of stability
and consistency far outweigh other considerations. We
called this family grouping because we wanted what
we were developing to have the characteristics of the
best of families, and consistency was high on this list of
characteristics.
3. The beginning of each new year did not bring the
usual kerfuffle as a teacher got to know a new group of
children, established rules and routines, and learned
about levels and needs. This was already known and in
place, as were children’s friendships and their knowledge
of where the reading books and paintbrushes were kept.
I would walk around the school at five past nine on the
morning of the first day of a new year and be overjoyed,
overwhelmed really, by the fact that it was as if we had
not been away for six weeks. Everything slotted back
into place, wheels turned again, and the whole place
just felt busy. It was a delight to be there, and to be
spending time in classrooms with such a wonderful and
courageous group of teachers — time I probably should
have spent in my office, writing it all up for the Review
Office before the sin of simply enjoying the cake came
back to haunt me.

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 4. One of the constant challenges in a conventionally
organised school is balancing numbers. If you have
significantly more children in Standard Two than,
for example, in Standard Three, do you just make the
classes at one level bigger than at the other, or do you
contemplate dreaded composite classes? We were able
to keep numbers evenly balanced  — anyone could go
anywhere.

THERE WERE THREE further significant advantages

that I want to outline more fully later. The first concerns new-
entrant children, the second Māori language education, and
the third involves care of children with special needs. But first
I will tell you the story of one student, a true story that may
illustrate what could sometimes happen in a family-grouped
classroom at Newton Central School.
Wednesday was often a day when the unexpected occurred.
Monday had its beginning-of-the week turmoil and Tuesday was
the day to sort out Monday’s unfinished business. Wednesday
allowed me to look up, have a bit of a think. I always had a sense
of anticipation about what Wednesday might bring.
On this particular Wednesday it brought Frankie. Or, more
accurately, he brought himself. I had never seen him before.
He charged into my office and flung himself into one of
the steel-framed, vinyl-covered chairs that I had arranged
in a small circle for cosy chats with parents  — the new, the
anxious, the pleased and the displeased. These ugly, standard-
issue chairs were low, with sloping backs and wooden arms.

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