From 2015 to the present Leadership Lab has implemented Grow Waitaha which is a multi-year collaborative project with Ngāi Tahu, Ministry of Education and three other consultancies to explore future focussed pedagogy including student agency, collaborative teaching, flexible learning spaces, cultural narratives, authentic curriculum and diverse partnerships.    www.growwaitaha.co.nz

The Leadership Lab consortium has been engaged by the Ministry of Education to partner with 3 other consultancies and Ngāi Tahu. This engagement involves customised leadership and strategic planning support for 130 schools across Canterbury as part of the Greater Christchurch Education Renewal Programme.

MOE Manager Garry Williams describes Grow Waitaha as a local solution to meet local needs

We are working alongside the extensive building programme across 80% of the education spaces in Greater Christchurch. This unique partnership model involves a collaborative panel (as opposed to competitive panels that are normally procured) where Ngāi Tahu, Core Education, Evaluation Associates, Massey University, the Ministry of Education and Leadership Lab work as one team across the whole of Greater Christchurch – allowing expertise and experience from all six groups to be combined and activated into collaborative teams best suited to each school and cluster across Primary and Secondary education in Greater Christchurch.  www.growwaitaha.co.nz

Grow Waitaha – Co-designed collaboration casestudy

This was commissioned by the Grow Waitaha governance group (Puaka) as a case study of co-designed multi-agency collaboration in a complex public-sector context. Its purpose is to describe the Grow Waitaha programme’s development and implementation; and also to articulate the significant features of the model. It is not the intended purpose of this case study to outline the programme’s current or evolving impacts in detail, as these are not yet fully evidenced.

The aim of the case study is to offer reflections on what has been learned, and recommendations to a wide audience of government agencies, funders, providers, and communities. This case study is also relevant for members of the wider education sector who are seeking to develop collaborative and transformative approaches of building capacity at a system level.  It is not intended to offer a specific model or ‘how to’ guide, but rather to provide reflections and insights for consideration when collaborative forms of governance, funding and facilitation are being considered and developed. This case study both draws on and contributes to a wide range of expertise in the global literature regarding collaborative processes and frameworks

http://shapingeducation.govt.nz/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Grow-Waitaha