Tumuaki Leadership Advisory

Overview

The Tumuaki Leadership Advisory is a year‑long leadership partnership designed to support principals to lead with confidence, cultural integrity, and strategic clarity in complex school environments.

This package provides ongoing, relational, and practical leadership advisory support grounded in kaupapa Māori, culturally sustaining practice, and real experience of principalship. It is not generic coaching or one‑off PLD — it is a sustained partnership focused on embedding culturally sustaining practice into the everyday leadership, systems, and culture of the kura.

This package is suited to:

  • Principals / Tumuaki

  • New or experienced principals

  • Principals leading change or transition

  • Principals working in kaupapa Māori, bilingual, or culturally diverse settings

  • Principals navigating staffing, behaviour, attendance, or system complexity

We work with:

  • Primary schools

  • Secondary schools

  • Area Schools

  • Kura Kaupapa Māori

  • Rūmaki / bilingual settings

  • Mainstream kura

Who This Package Is For

This package supports principals to:

  • Lead with a culture‑forward lens

  • Embed culturally sustaining practice across the kura

  • Strengthen leadership decision‑making in complex contexts

  • Align leadership actions with kaupapa, vision, and community aspirations

  • Reduce isolation in the principal role

  • Build leadership practice that is sustainable, coherent, and grounded

Purpose of This Package

  • Leadership Focus: Culturally Sustaining Practice

    • All work within this package is grounded in a clear focus on:

    • Embedding culturally sustaining practice at a leadership level

    • Supporting principals to make decisions that reflect identity, culture, and community

    • Ensuring kaupapa is visible in leadership behaviours, expectations, and systems — not just in words

    • This focus runs across all advisory sessions, planning, and reflection.

    • One‑to‑One Leadership Advisory Sessions

    • Frequency: Fortnightly or monthly (agreed at the start)

    • Format: Online or in‑person (where possible)

    • Duration: 60–90 minutes per session

    • These sessions provide a confidential, high‑trust space to work through:

      • Leadership challenges and dilemmas

      • Strategic decisions

      • Staff culture and capability issues

      • Behaviour and pastoral leadership considerations

      • Community and whānau engagement

      • Ministry, Board, and system pressures

    • Sessions are shaped by what is real and current for the principal — not a fixed agenda.

  • Strategic Planning & Leadership Decision‑Making Support

    • Ongoing advisory support to assist principals with:

      • Strategic planning and direction‑setting

      • Translating vision and kaupapa into practical action

      • Leading change in complex environments

      • Navigating competing priorities with clarity

    • This includes sense‑checking decisions and offering strategic guidance aligned to kaupapa and best practice.

  • Community & Whānau Relationship Support

    • Support for principals navigating:

      • Complex whānau or community relationships

      • Culturally responsive engagement

      • Leadership communication with whānau and community groups

    • This support is grounded in relational practice and cultural integrity.

  • Termly Leadership Reflection & Progress Mapping

    • Each term includes:

      • A structured reflection on leadership focus areas

      • Review of progress against the Professional Learning Cycle

      • Identification of next priorities

    • This ensures momentum and accountability across the year.

What This Package Includes

  • Professional Learning Cycle

    • Each principal engages in a Professional Learning Cycle, designed at the beginning of the partnership.

    • Options include:

      • Individual leadership learning plan (for the principal)

      • Group leadership learning plan (where relevant, e.g. with another leader or leadership cohort)

    • The learning cycle includes:

      • Identifying leadership strengths and focus areas

      • Setting priority leadership goals for the year

      • Monitoring progress termly

      • Adjusting focus as context changes

    • This ensures the work is intentional, responsive, and purposeful.

  • Critical Friend Support

    • Within this package, Te Ara Ki Hawaiki acts as a critical friend to the principal by:

      • Providing honest, respectful challenge

      • Offering alternative perspectives

      • Supporting reflective leadership practice

      • Holding kaupapa and intent at the centre of decision‑making

      • This is supportive and constructive, not evaluative

  • Staffing, Systems & Operations Advisory

    • Principals receive advisory support in relation to:

      • Staffing structures and leadership roles

      • Operational systems and workflows

      • Delegation and role clarity

      • Sustainable leadership practices

    • This ensures leadership practice is supported by systems that enable, rather than undermine, kaupapa and wellbeing.

  • Culturally Located Curriculum Support

    • Advisory support to help principals:

      • Strengthen culturally located curriculum design

      • Align leadership decisions with teaching and learning practice

      • Ensure culturally sustaining pedagogy is supported at a systems and leadership level

    • This is not classroom coaching, but leadership‑level curriculum support.

  • Annual Summary Report

    • At the conclusion of the 12‑month partnership, principals receive an annual summary report outlining:

      • What we have worked on together

      • Key leadership focus areas

      • Progress and growth observed

      • Suggested next steps

    • This report can be shared with the Board if the principal chooses.

  • Optional Add‑Ons (By Agreement)

    • Board communication support

    • Board workshops or facilitated sessions

    • These are scoped and priced separately if required.

Why the Tumuaki Leadership Advisory Is Value for Money

This Is Not a PLD Programme — It Is a Leadership Partnership

Most professional learning in schools is purchased as:

  • one‑off workshops

  • external facilitators delivering generic content

  • short‑term interventions with limited follow‑through

By contrast, the Tumuaki Leadership Advisory provides:

  • 12 months of sustained, personalised leadership support

  • Ongoing access to a highly experienced former principal

  • Strategic guidance that adapts as school contexts change

  • Support that strengthens the leader, not just a programme

This means the impact is cumulative, contextual, and long‑lasting, rather than episodic.

In Summary

The Tumuaki Leadership Advisory is:

  • Not a PLD cost — it’s a leadership investment

  • Not an add‑on — it strengthens everything else the school does

  • Not generic — it is tailored, relational, and kaupapa‑aligned

For the level of access, expertise, and sustained impact provided, this opportunity is a sound financial investment into the development of the Principal.

Cost Breakdown

  • This package includes:

    • Weekly one‑to‑one leadership advisory sessions

    • Strategic planning and decision‑making support

    • Termly reflection and progress mapping

    • Systems, staffing, and culture advisory

    • An annual leadership report for the Board

    • Ongoing access to a trusted critical friend

This package delivers consistent access to leadership expertise for the cost of less than one external day per month.

High‑Value Outcomes for Schools and Boards

Schools investing in this package typically gain:

  • A more confident, supported principal

  • Clearer strategic direction and leadership focus

  • Stronger alignment between kaupapa and daily practice

  • Reduced leadership isolation and burnout risk

  • Better‑quality Board conversations and reporting

  • Sustainable leadership practice that outlasts the contract

From a Board perspective, this is an investment in:

  • leadership stability

  • school culture

  • long‑term improvement

  • risk reduction

What This Investment Replaces (and Improves)

Schools often already spend similar amounts — or more — on:

  • External PLD that doesn’t align with kaupapa

  • Behaviour consultants who focus on symptoms, not systems

  • Short‑term initiatives that don’t embed change

  • Leadership stress costs (burnout, turnover, sick leave)

This package reduces the need for multiple fragmented supports by:

  • Strengthening the principal’s leadership capability

  • Improving decision‑making before problems escalate

  • Supporting culturally sustaining practice at a systems level

  • Increasing leadership coherence across the kura

In short: it prevents costly problems rather than reacting to them.

The Expertise You Are Accessing Matters

This package is delivered by someone who:

  • Has led a kaupapa Māori school through real transformation

  • Understands Ministry, Board, staffing, behaviour, and community pressures

  • Brings lived experience — not theory alone

  • Works in culturally complex spaces with integrity and credibility