Ngā Hononga

Mana Reo | Communication

Within this guide we have interpreted mana reo (communication) to encompass both children’s voices and views about their lives, and how societal perspectives of childhood are reflected in the way we speak about and for children.

The children’s workforce is one aspect of a societal narrative that positions middle childhood in discussions about health or education. Outside of these fields there is very little attention given to the subject of child development in the training of people working or volunteering with this age group. Surprisingly even within the field of education there is little time given to child development as a subject in initial teacher education.

This suggests that children interact with many adults who are assumed to understand developmental milestones, norms and concerning markers appropriate to middle childhood, but who in reality may never have gained this knowledge and are therefore unable to reflect it in the way they work alongside our tamariki.

Pathways to working with children during middle childhood

During the Primary and Intermediate years children engage with a range of roles within our society:

Education

Children in traditional education settings develop relationships with school and teaching staff, such as their classroom teacher, teacher aides, principal, and administrative staff. Where they require additional support, they may also engage with roles such as Learning Support Coordinators, Speech Language Therapists, Literacy Specialists or Occupational Therapists. Students may receive pastoral support from a Whānau Worker, Youth Worker or may engage with a Public Health Nurse, a Social Worker in Schools, a Mana Ake kaimahi, or Counsellor. Children also meet a range of volunteers, such as parents running Breakfasts in Schools, or coaching sports teams

Health

Within health settings children may interact with General Practitioners, nurses, paediatricians, child psychiatrists or psychologists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech language
therapists, dentists, dental assistants, optometrists, chaplains or a variety of other specialist roles.

Community

Within the community children may interact with a variety of roles including librarians, mentors, sports coaches, leaders of children’s programmes, activities, clubs and after-school care, providers of extracurricular education such as music teachers, arts teachers, kaumatua and spiritual leaders such as pastors.

Legal

Within the legal system children may interact with Police Officers, Lawyers for Child, and Psychologists and Therapists.

Teacher

To teach children at Primary or Intermediate schools in New Zealand you require either a Bachelor of Education or one of several graduate or postgraduate teaching qualifications:

• Bachelor of Education (Primary) or Bachelor of Teaching (Primary). These are Level 7, three-year degrees available at most universities and Te Pūkenga (some locations).

As part of this degree, students will typically undertake one Level 1 paper focused on child development.

Those who already hold a Bachelors degree in a field other than teaching, or other relevant experience, may qualify for one of the following graduate and postgraduate level qualifications.
Compulsory courses within these qualifications tend to focus on professional practice and curriculum, as well as developing understanding of Te Ao Māori and inclusive education approaches. There is usually no specific child development paper for these qualifications.

• Graduate Diploma in Teaching (Primary)
• Postgraduate Diploma in Teaching and Learning
• Master of Teaching and Learning

The examples provided above link to a specific tertiary provider, however the same or a similar course may be provided by multiple tertiary institutes.

Teaching staff may then opt to complete further study at postgraduate level to enhance their practice.

There is currently an oversupply of primary school teachers in Aotearoa. The Ministry of Education has predicted a surplus of between 593 and 919 primary school teachers for 2024, a figure that is expected to increase to between 1217 and 1977 in 2026. (Gerritsen, 2023).

The surplus of teachers has been in part due to lower-thanexpected forecast school rolls. The 2022 current rate of retention for primary teachers was 89 percent – a figure that is more or less the historical average. (Gerritsen, 2022)

There were 600 fewer primary teacher training applicants in 2023 than in 2022. (Gerritsen, 2023).

New Zealand’s teacher training system has come under criticism for inadequately preparing teachers for the classroom, with six key flaws identified by the New Zealand Initiative in their 2023 report Who Teaches the Teachers? Graduate teachers were found to have suffered from an overly sociocultural philosophy of teaching and insufficient practical classroom experience, in addition to having insufficient assessment of their classroom readiness and poor curriculum experience. (Johnston & Martin, 2023)

What is perhaps more surprising is that an analysis of courses taught to trainee teachers highlighted the minimal teaching on child development that trainees receive. The NZ Institute found that only 3.8% of course classifications related to human development or other psychological themes. (Johnston & Martin, 2023).

Paediatrician

— Click to find out more

Social Workers

NZCCSS’ Workforce Guide outlines various roles that work alongside children, including social workers, psychologists, supervised contact supervisors, and youth workers.

Children’s Librarians

By Alice Haworth

Not one person graces this earth that isn’t shaped by a story – we are told stories from the minute we are born about ourselves and about the world around us. We use stories to shape and mould our children into humans with the values we deem important.

Development of literacy skills is an essential life skill, giving us the ability to understand and interpret our world. The middle years of childhood are the soil in which our ability to make sense of ourselves in relation to the world around us grows. The development of critical literacy skills in this period has a lasting impact on the trajectory of a young person’s life.

There is clear research to support this. Reading for pleasure is the
single greatest determining factor in wellbeing and success in a young person’s life* (see footnote one below for further research) Reading for pleasure ranks higher than socio-economic status, meaning it doesn’t matter where you come from, or how wealthy your family are or are not, if someone can engage you successfully in reading for pleasure, your chance for academic success, personal wellbeing, and positive life outcome increases exponentially.

This development doesn’t happen by accident – young people require key people around them to help them along. Parents and teachers play a vital role in this process, but often their sharing of stories is shaped by their own likes and dislikes. Very few parents or teachers have the skills, knowledge, and resources to give children unfettered access to reading material that interests them.

Librarians, however, are uniquely placed to help children develop good lifelong literacy practices. Librarians are trained specifically to understand how to help a child navigate the increasingly overwhelming landscape of books and information.

Children’s librarians know their collections well – they read, discuss and research books professionally, and they talk to hundreds of children regularly about what they like to read. Librarians are also professionally trained with skills in information literacy – not just how you find information, but also how you interpret that information. Given our current levels of information access, these skills are essential for our tamariki and rangatahi, and libraries are spaces perfectly positioned to support the development of young people in Aotearoa.

Unfortunately, libraries are systematically underfunded and insufficiently staffed to be able to deliver the level of programs that would allow for full enrichment of literacy and information literacy practices for young people.

Key literacy research in New Zealand fails to even consider the role libraries play in the development of literacy and information literacy for our Tamariki, and this omission is unforgiveable** (see footnote two below for reference).

School libraries can tailor programs and collections specifically to the children in their communities, as well as building essential relationships with children over an extended period of time, in order to help them develop their literacy skills. Unfortunately, school libraries have been on the decline for years in New Zealand after being dropped into the operations budget alongside toilet paper and electricity*** (see footnote three below for reference)

Research is clear that outcomes for ākonga are raised significantly by having a qualified librarian able to support the schools teaching and learning, and yet school libraries, and librarians, are viewed as an optional extra, rather than as pivotal to the teaching and learning of the school **** (see footnote four below for reference)

Our brand-new NZ curriculum finally enshrines reading for pleasure as a key component of academic achievement, but just how schools are expected to achieve this, while not having libraries funded and staffed correctly, remains a question which must be grappled with if we are to serve our young people well.

Public libraries remain the last bastion of free, neutral spaces where no one is expected to pay for access to much needed resources. Public libraries provide books, programmes, free access to digital equipment, holiday programs, puzzles and building equipment – and all for the low price of nothing at all. And yet, even these well-respected community institutions are misunderstood and underestimated, maligned as “just buildings with books in them”.

Libraries are vital to the wellbeing of our young people – they have a direct and measurable impact on wellbeing and literacy outcomes for tamariki. Libraries should no longer be seen as a
luxury, but as an essential, integral institution within which information, access, and the joy of reading is built. Maybe then, as a nation, we can finally move beyond the years of falling literacy
rates, into a space where our tamariki are able to flourish.

Alice Haworth, Senior Librarian, Discover It! Children’s Library, Puke Ariki, New Plymouth.

Footnotes:

1. * You can find an extensive list of all of this research here Reading for pleasure — a door to success | National Library of New Zealand (natlib.govt.nz)
2. ** McNaughton, S. (2020, August 7). The literacy landscape in Aotearoa New Zealand. Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. Retrieved November 4, 2023, from https://www.dpmc.govt.nz/sites/default/files/2022-04/PMCSA-20-15_TheLiteracy Landscape-in-Aotearoa-New-Zealand-Full-report-final.pdf
3. *** Little, P. (2023, August 26). Bring to books. NZ Listener, 22-27
4. **** Emerson, L., Kilpin, K., & White, S., et al. (2018). Under-recognised, underused, and undervalued: School libraries and librarians in New Zealand secondary school curriculum planning and delivery. Curriculum Matters, 14, 48-68. https://doi. org/10.18296/cm.0029

Volunteering

Volunteers work alongside children in a range of settings, from the sports field to the breakfast club. Some may receive child protection training, but it is unlikely that many will receive any kind of training in child development for the age stage of the children they support.

The requirement to safeguard children has led to greater awareness and action aimed at protecting children. However, it has also had a negative impact on rates of volunteering, with both volunteers and organisations reporting the increasing burden of regulatory compliance related to working with children to be a barrier to volunteering (Volunteering NZ, 2020).

— Click to find out more about creating safe organisations when volunteering with children

Training in Child Development

There are few avenues for training in child development generally, particularly with a focus on middle childhood. The University of Otago previously offered Certificate and Diploma courses at postgraduate level in Children’s Issues and Child-Centred Practice, but these are no longer available. Courses such as AUT’s Postgraduate Certificate in Health Science (Child Health) and courses in Educational Psychology provide training specific to those fields.

Services for children

Conversations with the children’s workforce highlighted issues related to service provision for children in this age stage:

We need greater awareness of what services exist to support children

Those working alongside children noted it is difficult to stay up to date with available services and access criteria. Funding changes, siloed services, and long waitlists mean that this shifting landscape is challenging for both the workforce and parents to navigate. Having services mapped out in detail, or a detailed registry of services that is kept updated, were ideas about how this could be improved.

While schools were highlighted as key connectors to other support services, there was concern about the demand being placed on schools to meet a wide range of children’s needs.

We need support for spectrum of children’s needs, not just the most severe:

Those working alongside children noted that support for this age group can be crisis-driven, requiring a high level of need in order to gain immediate access to services. Children whose needs are mild-moderate may face long waitlists in order to access help or fail to qualify for support. One participant noted that it can feel as though there is an “empty tank” for support where children do not have an official diagnosis (and many of those who do). People we spoke to note an increasing complexity of need and the need for multidisciplinary approaches to support children. Greater focus on preventative services is needed to address this bottom-of-the-cliff approach.

Training and retention of the children’s workforce needs to be prioritised

Workforce shortages contribute to the challenges children experience in accessing services, particularly in regional or rural communities. Those in Taranaki, for example, noted shortages in roles such as educational psychologists, speech language therapists, occupational therapists, and roles in child and adolescent mental health departments, with people staying for a short time or completing training in Taranaki before moving on. This is also demonstrated in the challenges in resourcing GP roles in more regional or remote areas.

Issues include not training enough professionals to meet the need in our communities, and the way workforce shortages contribute to a cycle of burn-out which affects retention of existing staff. In some fields, work may be pushed out to people in less-skilled roles in order to meet demand. Volunteers are also becoming harder to find, adding to the pressure on some community services.

Finding current information or training specific to middle childhood development was also noted as a challenge, with a time-poor workforce having to be very proactive to seek this out.

Skills required to work with children

Working in a role alongside children requires the ability to build a genuine relationship with children, and a diverse range of skills:

Fun:

The ability to have fun and create spaces that are and can be fun matter. Having fun can create a strong sense of safety and will support children to feel secure and to take safe risks.

Creativity:

Working with children requires thinking outside the box to keep them engaged and interested. Being flexible and able to adapt to changing circumstances is essential for maintaining a positive and supportive environment for the child. Creativity can extend to spaces, activities and even the language you use.

Empathy:

Understanding and empathising with children’s emotions helps you connect with them on a deeper level. It also enables you to build connection and be a person who can provide support.

Communication skills:

The ability to communicate effectively with children is crucial. This includes actively listening to their thoughts, feelings and needs. It also means being open to them teaching us how to communicate with them – the shifting meanings they give to language and behaviour, and communicating with them in the ways they find useful.

Respect and kindness:

Healthy relationships are possible when mutual respect and kindness exist. To genuinely work alongside children, we need to be aware of the power adults have over children, and the impact this has on our relationships with them. Meeting them with genuine kindness and respect helps to manage that dynamic.

Cultural competence:

Being culturally competent means having an understanding and respect for various cultural norms and values, and being able to provide support that is safe, appropriate and sensitive to their cultural background.

Health and safety awareness:

Ensuring the safety and wellbeing of children is paramount. This includes understanding legislation, operating within professional ethics frameworks, being aware of potential hazards, implementing safety protocols, and being prepared to respond to emergencies.

Knowledge:

Having a strong understanding of child development enables us to work appropriately alongside tamariki, with awareness of what changes are occurring for them and the type of support they may need as they grow and develop. This knowledge helps us to provide relevant opportunities to support their development and response to the challenges they may face during this stage of childhood. Similarly, an understanding of children’s rights enables us to champion the standard of childhood we as a nation have committed to provide for them, and advocate for children where rights are breached.

At the core of these skills is the need for an ability to build connection with children, in ways that show you value them as people.

Mana Aotūroa | Exploration

Te Whāriki upholds the importance of mana aotūroa (exploration) for children’s development, identifying a key learning outcome as children “making sense of their worlds by generating and refining working theories”*

*Working theories refers to how children form ideas and understanding about how their world works

Relationships contribute to children’s understanding of the world by reflecting how they and the people, places, and things around them are valued. They enable new experiences and are a conduit for the sharing of knowledge and skills.

Relationships with family and peers are central to children’s lives during middle childhood, yet engaging with people from other age groups provides a richness that has the potential to benefit all involved. For children, this sense of mana aotūroa is enriched by interaction with people whose skills and experience are different from their own.

It is common during this stage of development for children to be primarily placed in groups with children their age and sometimes their own gender as well. This happens in the classroom, and in sports and extracurricular activities. Spaces and places where children interact in an intentional way with people of a variety of age stages appear to be the exception not the norm to community life today and must be encouraged if we wish to see mutually beneficial relationships between young and old developed and sustained.

Intergenerational Connection

Connecting with people from different age groups helps to build understanding, reduces isolation, and fosters strong communities. Children benefit from interacting with people from older generations – they identify role models, develop social skills, and learn from the experience and skills held by older people in our communities.

There are few spaces within our communities where children can build intentional relationships with older people. Marae and churches offer an intergenerational space and opportunity to connect with people outside of family and friends. However, some children do not have an association with either of these spaces and as such, public spaces such as parks, pools, sports fields, and libraries become even more important as locations of connection.

Intergenerational Spaces

By Steph Brook

As we seek to find better, healthier and more equitable ways of being community together, the option of being intergenerational is becoming increasingly researched. Our communities face a myriad of challenges, including those formed from the consequences of marginalisation, poverty, loneliness, compromised mental health, educational challenges – and all the “isms” (e.g. racism, ageism, colonialism, genderism, etc). Being intergenerational is a possible antidote.

What does “intergenerational” mean?

To be intergenerational is about intentionally building relationship across ages with the intent of inclusion, mutuality and equity. An older person or the very young may not be able to run around or be ‘productive’ all day long, but they offer other skills, wisdom, curiosity and unconditional love that others may not be able to offer. My father is 83 and while his physical strength and stamina may have changed, in recent years he has offered his wisdom and experience through his intellect to two advocacy organisations that are making a difference to structural injustice in our communities. My little grandsons, the eldest of whom is 6, helped us through the illnesses and death of my mother and father-inlaw by being themselves. I am a youth pastor who has worked in churches most of my career, and part of my role (a largely unspoken one) is to help the various generations build respectful relationships with each other.

How is this different from what we already have?

One could easily imagine that churches are intergenerational – indeed, we often have many generations gathering at the same building on a regular basis. A closer look would serve to belie that image. In the same way that the rest of community has segregated into ages and stages, so has the church. Should a church have young people aged five-12, during the service they head off to children’s church/Sunday school/kids’ ministry or whatever name said church has for education of children. Bigger churches will also have something similar for pre-schoolers and youth. Thus, the variety of ages will only connect for the first and last song and be tolerated over morning tea time. Libraries, public swimming pools, parks, sports and creative outlets all have a similar problem: we are in the same spaces mostly at the same times, but with very little intentional interaction, except sometimes of the fractious kind or the simple imparting of information.

Let’s take a look at the agreed definitions that we are using within the faith communities of various ways of having multiple generations in the same environment.

In the multigenerational dynamic, there is tolerance of the various generations. The interactions are superficial and generally polite. In this environment little is known of each other’s story, ‘othering’ is easy and therefore labels can inform understanding or misunderstanding. Think ‘okay boomer’ or ‘kids these days’.

In the cross-generational environment there is some sharing, listening and learning but those interactions aren’t serving to transform or enrich each other’s lives. There is some benefit, more than the multigenerational environment, but not as beneficial for all as the intergenerational space.

To be intergenerational involves deliberate intention to grow in relationship with all others, from an attitude of mutuality, equality and reciprocity. We allow others to have an impact on us, to be transformed by having people of all ages and stages in our lives and we learn from one another. From the toddler discovering the world for the first time and reminding the 30, 50 and 80 year old of the beauty of the crushed daisy, to the 80 year old reminding the 20 year old there is a lot of life to come and it’s worth getting through this tough patch to discover it, to the 30 year old teaching the 70 year old how to use Zoom and so much more. This level of learning from, and alongside, one another comes through trust, constant exposure and happens where respect and grace are both given and received.

In the intergenerational environment all find belonging and connection, but in order for the intergenerational environment to thrive, it must be intentional, and everyone has their part to play. Fostering this environment is something the church is wrestling with. Some churches are going for it and working hard to go down this unsignposted path.

What are the benefits of an intergenerational society?

The benefits are significant for people of all ages and stages. For children and young people, the research tells us that to grow resilience young people need 4-6 unrelated adults in their lives, modelling how to live well, spending time with them and listening to them as they navigate life. The elderly often become quite lonely as their friends pass on and family, if they have them, are busy or live far away. Although they may not have the physicality of their youth, their minds and their memories have much to impart – and they have time to do this. Those in between who are often busy working full time, raising families, caring for elderly parents and everything in between often model for those little eyes watching, what that looks like. Coaches and teachers, youth leaders and creative arts leaders all often impact the young when they go the extra mile.

In an intergenerational community, over time one becomes known. Young people are known for the things they love, not just the subjects they excel in at school. Older people can be reminded of the joy they found in remote controlled boats and find others to pass their joy onto. What someone does becomes secondary to who someone is. It is in that being known, being seen, being heard that healthy society can thrive.

Our counsellors and psychiatrists have been telling us repeatedly of the need for each other, for being patient with each other, of our need for belonging and connection. We know this stuff, we
know we need each other. But being intergenerational can be hard work. Being intergenerational requires facilitators to support and encourage people to build relationships, to reach across differences to find familiarity. It takes doing things together intentionally and with purpose.

What might an intergenerational society look like?

I remember as I was leading in a church there was an older couple (some 20 years older than me) who were both only children, like me. In one year both of them lost both of their parents, and the husband got prostate cancer. As a community we supported them through this challenging time for them. I didn’t realise I had been observing them and how they coped until some years later, when my own mother died after a long and difficult illness, only two months after my father-in-law had died. When I was encouraged by a dear older friend of mine that this pain would find its place, I was surprised to find myself answering that I knew that, and I reminded her of that couple’s journey. I had paid special attention because we had something so integral to our identities in common.

Imagine if your awesome local youth council worked with the local council on all council decisions, with equal voice. Young people would not only be learning some parts of council functions, but hearing from and understanding the concerns and needs of a wide part of the community, decision-making processes and building intentional relationships across generations. The same could be said for the adults on the local councils too. They would get to know and see responsible young people who care about their community and the issues facing it – they would hear their hearts.

Think of the young Mum struggling with a small baby or juggling the dynamics of a variety of ages of children. Connecting with other parents slightly further on in their parenting journeys could encourage and support the young Mum practically and though storytelling. The older parents benefit through enjoying the little baby and/or chaos of little ones, that are both fun and tiring for short periods of time. Their experiences and memories have meaning and impact.

One of the obstacles to creating intergenerational spaces is that they cannot be project oriented, because relationships take time and consistency. It would be possible to design long-term projects with facilitators that foster safe and healthy intergenerational relationships which continue beyond the ‘project phase’, but only if it was long enough to enable being intentionally intergenerational to become second nature. While intentional intergenerational spaces
benefit everyone, children especially benefit through the wider community of care around them, the many voices and experiences they hear, and the sense of the bigger picture. This can be seen as being similar to a temporary one-on-one mentoring arrangement – except it’s a permanent community for all. And it is within our reach.

Steph Brook, Diocesan Youth Facilitator, Anglican Diocese of Auckland

Resources:

• Allen, H.C., Lawton, C & Seibel, C.L (2023). Intergenerational Christian Formation (2nd ed). IVP Academic.
• Allen, H.C. (Editor) (2018). Intergenerate: Transforming Churches through Intergenerational Ministry. Abilene Christian University Press.
• Descriptions of Multi, Cross & Intergenerational are originally from Intergenerational Christian Formation, but adapted from Intergenerate.
• Seibel, C (2021). Engage All Generations. Abilene Christian University Press
• Youth councils – https://www.myd.govt.nz/young-people/youth-councils-localgovernment.html

Mentoring

Mentoring can provide children with a trusted, supportive relationship outside of the family unit and is particularly used to support children who may be experiencing hardship for a range of reasons.

Mentors act as a positive role model, and offer 1:1 attention, taking an interest in the child and their development. They spend time regularly with their mentee, engaging in activities the child enjoys, such as sports or crafts.

There are a range of organisations providing mentoring support to children:

Big Brothers, Big Sisters

This mentoring programme supports children aged 6-12 years to form positive, supportive relationships and expand their potential.

Family Works Buddy Programme

This mentoring programme is delivered by Presbyterian Support for children up to 12 years of age who need extra support for a variety of reasons.

Pillars

This mentoring programme supports children and young people who have a parent or caregiver in prison.

What might it look like to strengthen Ngā Hononga for children….

• within your mahi?
• within your home or community?

Within the context of the relationships children have with whānau, peers, and the children’s workforce we have identified some key recommendations to better recognise and strengthen the Te Whāriki principles and improve outcomes for children within middle childhood: