Anne-Louise
Robertson

Accredited Facilitator (English-medium)

Anne Robertson FS

Qualifications

Post Graduate Certificate of Education, Modern Languages and Outdoor Education – University of Leeds
Bachelor of Arts (Hons), European Languages and Institutions – Leeds Metropolitan University

Professional profile

36 years of teaching and leading change in multiple education contexts in the UK and Aotearoa New Zealand has afforded Anne a rich understanding of the needs of kaiako and ākonga that she brings to her mahi.

Anne strongly believes that learning is most effective when it is relevant to the learner and situated in context. She has developed future-focused, blended learning programmes for languages which enable learners to create their own pathways for learning. She has also developed a school-wide outdoor programme that provides a school-long journey for learners that builds on the connections the school has with tangata whenua. It enabled learners to understand the connections between their activities in the rohe and their responsibilities as kaitiaki of the whenua.

Anne led a team which developed a professional learning programme to shift thinking and support teachers as they coped with the change that digital technologies and future focused, learner-centred curricula has brought to teaching and learning practice. Anne uses her learning from this context, and from her research as a Tātai Aho Rau Core Education eFellow in 2014, to co-construct professional learning programmes with stakeholders that are grounded in current research, responsive to the needs of kaiako, and support engagement and culture change.

Anne is an innovative and creative facilitator who works alongside school leadership teams across the sector supporting them with a range of issues related to local curriculum design, cultural capability, and digital technology to lead professional learning that aligns theory with practice.

She enables leaders and teachers to make strategic decisions about developing a curriculum that places students at the centre of their learning and is responsive to the needs and culture of the school community.

Anne’s starting point is always to build relationships through whanaungatanga and manaakitanga and find out what the needs of the schools and the kaiako are. She facilitates in a way that supports people to gain a wider perspective of the issues that impact the current situation in their school and classrooms. She encourages kaiako and leaders to widen the scope of the issues affecting them, identify what is most important for their context and find solutions to improve outcomes for whole school communities.

Anne supports the idea that the inquiry process can turn a good idea into effective teaching practice that leads to enhanced student outcomes. Leaders as teachers and teachers as learners gain ownership and agency to develop their ideas through the inquiry process.

Expertise

Cultural capability

Anne successfully supports learning communities to:

  • question the status quo and re-imagine what learning in a culturally responsive environment can look like
  • examine the beliefs they take for granted and how those beliefs impact on successful outcomes for all their learners.
  • grow their awareness and understanding of te Tiriti o Waitangi and their role, as citizens and kaiako of Aotearoa, to give mana to genuine partnerships.
Local curriculum

Anne successfully supports leaders and kaiako to design learning that is:

  • authentic and connected to the stories of the rohe
  • inclusive and leads to successful outcomes for all taiohi
  • relevant to ākonga and their interests by recognising and valuing the heritage, identities, languages, and cultures of all learners
  • a genuine opportunity for ākonga to make choices and develop independence.
Change leadership

Anne successfully supports learning communities to:

  • redevelop their school vision, values and personalised curriculum
  • explore current policies and use research to support the redesign of school documents
  • evaluate pedagogy and practices to ensure they reflect future-focused education and responsive practices
  • support leadership of change within the school community.
Design and management of programmes for teacher professional learning

Anne successfully supports learning communities to:

  • redesign professional learning models to build teacher capacity and engagement
  • support staff through change.
Digital fluency

Successfully support learning communities to:

  • self-review e-learning practices and capabilities to identify and target areas for improvement
  • increase student engagement and achievement through the use of digital technologies.
Future-focused education

Successfully support learning communities to:

  • evaluate current practices and identify future-focused goals
  • develop curricula that include future-focused pedagogies, effectively use modern learning environments, and
  • reflect biculturalism and agreed vision and values
  • integrate digital technologies to support effective pedagogy in the classroom.
Languages
  • Near-native French; fluent Spanish; some German; developing te reo Māori.

Conference presentations, seminars and workshops

  • 2019: ulearn - Connected Educator Team
  • 2018: uLearn - Learner Agency Culture of Change, Connected Educator, Ngā pūrākau matihiko| Digital Storytelling
  • 2017: Nethui - National Digital Literacy Forum
  • 2017: uLearn - Multi-modal, multi-sensory digital story-telling , Maximise the use of mobile digital technologies for EOTC, Connected Educator Team
  • 2017 GAFE Summit: Developing Digital Citizenship and Effective Research Skills
  • 2016: uLearn16 - Digital Fluencies in Practice, Supporting Staff through Change, Developing Digital Citizenship and Effective Research Skills to enhance learning
  • 2015: ulearn15 - Meeting the Challenge of Modern Learning Environments in a Traditional Setting

Awards, fellowships and scholarships

2014: CORE Education Dr Vince Ham eFellowship "Brave Resilient Learners: Teacher Professional Learning in a Brave New World"

Personal statement

As a migrant and a linguist I feel a strong need to know more about the identity and culture of Aotearoa New Zealand, and to learn and understand the socio-cultural beliefs and practices of the people. Language holds so much of history and ways of being that it provides a window into and a connection with the people of the land. Learning te reo Māori has enabled me to see the world through an alternative lens. I bring this perspective as well as a tauiwi perspective to my mahi with schools and support kaiako to think critically about how they can design learning that is engaging, exciting and leads to success for all their learners.

I have a strong regard for social justice and believe that learning should be available for everyone and in ways that make sense for them, and I endeavour to weave this through the mahi that I undertake in every context.

My focus is on giving people options to see the potential in what they already know and then how they can develop the skills, approaches, and attitudes they already have to educate children using the new paradigms of technology-enhanced learning within the existing school structures. I have a wide range of experience of schools and classrooms within varied contexts in both NZ and UK having taught in secondary schools and Adult Education. I draw on my own stories and those of others to support the transference of knowledge into leaders’ own practice.

My work in physical and outdoor education along with 20 years as a volunteer cave and mountain rescuer, has validated my conviction that positive relationships and teamwork are vitally important in success, something I apply in all areas of my mahi.