The Stories We Weave Conference: Online Workshop Suite Content and Instructions

Online Webinars provided as part of your registration for today!

Information with access to these webinars will be provided to you after the event, and updated on this webpage. Keep hold of your attendee booklets so you can check back for updates. Or, contact the office any time at admin@elp.co.nz if you don’t hear from us. Ngā mihi.

It’s time to ignite a revolution in how we document learning. Let’s move beyond the ordinary and use Learning Stories to create truly profound, transformative experiences for children, whānau and kaiako. By revisiting Learning Stories, teachers offer rich invitations and provocations that make learning visible, strengthen learner identity, and deepen relationships. Portfolios become far more than personal records, they are living curriculum documents that build a vibrant community of learners in every early childhood setting.

This webinar follows the dispositions and working theories of an agentic learning child as these attributes are shared with the child and their whānau through her Learning Stories.

In this webinar, I’ll share how we’ve created a genuine culture of welcome in our kindergarten, where belonging, wellbeing and shared leadership shape everyday practice. We’ll reflect on who the children and families are that you work with, and who you are as individuals and as a teaching team – and explore how, by really knowing and supporting one another, we can all truly fly.

This webinar is an invitation to dive deeply into a child’s portfolio and discover just how powerful it can be. Together we’ll explore how learning stories, thoughtfully crafted by kaiako, ignite and strengthen learner identity, make children’s capabilities visible, and vividly capture the richness and progress of their learning journey.

Join me on an international journey, from classrooms to communities, to see how Learning Stories are used in unexpected ways. From university students to personal storytelling, we’ll explore how this reflective practice deepens relationships, cultivates inquiry, and honors diversity while crossing boundaries and opening new spaces for learning.

What you observe stems from what you know and how you view the world. As we address our bias we see others with a prism of perspectives. During this session, we will address our bias and how that relates to what we observe. Discussions will flow as we watch clips of children and educators in settings that will cause us to reflect on what we are seeing and the learning that is occurring and how we feel about it. Those thoughts will then translate into how we put that into a learning story.

What happens when the powerful practice of Learning Stories travels from Aotearoa New Zealand to China? How does a philosophy centered on the image of the child, play, and documenting learning resonate across a different cultural landscape?
This presentation tells the story of this transformative journey. I will share how Learning Stories and the foundational principles of New Zealand ECE have not only inspired individual teachers but have also begun to influence kindergarten practices and national guidelines in China. This is a story that goes beyond the words on a page; it is about a shift in mindset—impacting the beliefs and practices of hundreds of thousands of educators and, ultimately, the lives of children and their families.
This journey was made possible by the groundbreaking work of key New Zealand pioneers. I pay special tribute to Wendy Lee and the Educational Leadership Project (ELP) team, whose expertise since 2013 has been instrumental. I also extend my deepest gratitude to Betty Armstrong and the China-New Zealand Education Trust for their foundational support, which since 1991 has built the vital bridge for Sino-New Zealand ECE exchange.

Learning Stories did not emerge in isolation-they were born from histories of resistance to standardisation, colonisation, and deficit thinking in early childhood education. I trace the histories that inspired the Learning Story approach, exploring connections to liberatory pedagogies, Reggio Emilia, and global movements for educational freedom. Let’s consider what these intertwined histories teach us about power and justice in our work as early childhood educators and how these lessons can guide us forward.

Learning Stories are a testament to observing what brings joy to children. This enables us to create wonder in our curriculum and our daily practice. This is true not only for children, but educators as well. Our strengths are our own learning story; to foster joy and wonder, we need to recognize these elements in ourselves.

A walk through a child’s experience with nature and the reflection process, join Trish and Nicoletta as they share their experiences with Frog Hollow Children’s Centres located in Vancouver BC, Canada

Learning Stories offered me a language and structure to honor children as capable, competent, and full of becoming. Over time, that same framework revealed another layer, an invitation to see the adults in our communities through that same generous, appreciative lens.
In 2017, I began writing Learning Stories for teachers, making teaching visible, celebrating identity, and nurturing cultures of gratitude and reflection. I found that Learning Stories can strengthen teams, deepen belonging, and support professional growth not through evaluation, but through noticing, story, and relational appreciation.
Since then, this way of seeing has continued to unfold through my work in leadership, coaching, and design. Today, I hold Learning Stories as a way of being- a pedagogy of community, a practice of honoring growth, and a way of seeing each other with curiosity and care. In this reflection, I will share my journey of extending the Learning Story framework to adults and environments, and how story can help both children and educators bloom.
A story pedagogy is not only for childhood. It is for communities, and for those who gather around children, learning to see themselves anew.

How do Learning Stories create a school and community culture that affirms children’s agency, particular that of children with disabilities? In this workshop, Helen will reflect on using learning stories to invite educators and families to honor young children’s emergent selves.