Mangaweka School kaiawhina (teacher aide) Ashley Steedman has “fallen in love with the job”.
She works in a noisy, bustling class at the small rural school 15 minutes from Taihape, near the rushing Rangitīkei River.
The school roll only has enough pupils to fill one classroom – 30 children ranging from Years 0-8.
Steedman has been at the school for more than a year and a half.
Mangaweka School requires one part-time and one full-time teacher aide to support 11 of the 30 students, who require extra help for learning or behavioural needs.
Steedman, who spoke to the Whanganui Chronicle as part of NZME’s On The Up campaign showcasing stories of success, inspiration and possibilities, looks after seven students on a full-time basis, including her daughter.
Her 12-year-old daughter, Amohia Wallace, has auditory processing issues that require her to wear a special hearing device connected to the teacher.
For Amohia, it can be difficult to grasp instructions and having her mum as her teacher aide allows her to seek out further explanation or repetition.
“Sometimes when you’re talking to her, she misses key sounds. I knew as a mum something wasn’t quite right, but it wasn’t until we came to this school that we noticed it clearly,” Steedman said.
“She’s really well behaved with me, though. She’s a beautiful girl.”
Steedman said her job was to understand the story of each young person she worked with.
Sometimes she will remove students who are overstimulated from the classroom environment for short breaks.
This could involve one-to-one sessions doing activities, such as going to the vegetable patch to count carrots as a maths exercise or jumping on the trampoline to relieve stress energy, then allowing them to re-enter the classroom.
These small moments allow for the repetition of important class work or breaks for students to self-regulate and control their behaviour.
Principal Memory Lyon said the school wouldn’t be able to run as well without its teacher aides.
“Kaiawhina – the te reo Māori word for teacher aide – means to support and nurture, which is quite beautiful from a te ao Māori perspective,” Lyon said.
Lyon said that based on feedback from other principals and Resource Teachers: Learning and Behaviour Service (RTLBs), it was increasingly common for schools to have high numbers of students needing extra classroom support.
Anecdotally, Lyon had seen more children presenting with global developmental delay (GDD), ADHD and autism spectrum disorder in her time as a principal.
She said a growing awareness of certain conditions may have led to more children being correctly diagnosed, but there were also other sociocultural factors impacting learning development.
More screen time meant infants experienced less conversation, which could prevent the strengthening of vital neurological pathways for development.
Lyon said children’s development was ”a big, complex question" and, in her view, increased screen time had negatively affected children’s ability to concentrate, negotiate with others, listen and follow simple instructions.
“There’s plenty of whānau living below the poverty line or in hardship, and that makes a huge difference,” she added.
Lyon believed teacher aides were often undervalued in the education system, and getting them the right training could be difficult for schools at times.
“They don’t have the same training as teachers, so they’re learning on the job,” she said.
“They’re expected to work with our most vulnerable, and so it’s important that people have understanding and patience as to what it is that they’re doing every day.”
The close connections they had with families at the small school made this easier, Lyon said.
“Getting to know them and where they come from is important ... I love seeing their progress from where they were when we started to where they are now.
“When they notice they’ve improved, they’re so happy with themselves. It’s such a cool feeling to see them achieve their own little goals.”
Lyon said Steedman’s experience with her daughter meant she came from a genuine place of aroha, gentleness and respect when working with other students.
Meanwhile, Steedman is also studying part-time for a New Zealand Diploma in Psychology (Level 5) at Open Polytechnic NZ.
Her work and study have helped her to better understand how her daughter’s brain functions differently from her own mind.
“It’s being able to step back a little as her mum and see that she learns differently,” she said.
Steedman said working with the students at Mangaweka School was a privilege.
Eva de Jong is a reporter for the Whanganui Chronicle covering health stories and general news. She began as a reporter in 2023.
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