Y7–8 Leadership Portfolio
Five sections, one per lesson. Finish each section in the lesson it belongs to.
This portfolio is yours
You write it, you keep it. Nobody has to read any section aloud. Your kaiako will look at it to see what you are thinking about, not to mark it right or wrong.
You choose what to share. Some sections ask about your family, where you come from, or things you find hard. You can answer those fully, answer them in a general way, or write "I would rather not say". All three are complete answers.
If you want to talk about anything you write here, tell your kaiako. You do not have to explain why.
Name:
Whānau class / kaiako:
1. My Tuakana Charter | Lesson 1
A tuakana is the older or more experienced one in a pair. A teina is the younger or newer one. Being a tuakana is not being the boss — it is being the one who makes it easier for someone else.
Think of someone who was a tuakana to you. What did they actually do?
Not how they made you feel — what they did. "Sat with me at lunch on the first day." "Showed me where the toilets were without making it a big deal."
My three-point charter: what I will do as a tuakana this term.
Each one has to be something a person watching you could see you doing. "Be kind" is not one. "Say hello to the Year 7s in my sports team by name" is.
One mentorship initiative I could run.
Something small and real. Wet-lunch story reading, teaching a playground game, setting up the sports gear, a buddy system for the new kids.
| What is it? | |
|---|---|
| Who is it for? | |
| When and where? | |
| What do I need, and who do I have to ask? | |
| How would I know it worked? |
2. My Identity Tree | Lesson 2
A tree has roots it came from, a trunk that holds it up, and branches growing somewhere. Map yourself the same way. Write or draw — either is fine.
Roots — where and who I come from.
Places, people, languages, food, anything that was there before you chose it. Answer this as fully or as generally as you want to.
Trunk — what I stand for.
Three or four things you would not drop even if it cost you something.
Branches — where I am heading.
Not a career. Things you want to get good at, places you want to go, people you want to be like.
Draw your tree.
One thing that has pushed on my trunk this year.
Something that made it harder to be who you are. You do not have to name anyone.
3. Digital Decisions | Lesson 3
Run each situation through the THINK filter — is it True, Helpful, Inspiring, Necessary, Kind? Then decide what you would actually do. Not what you are supposed to say.
Situation A. A group chat you are in starts rating people in your year out of ten. You have not said anything yet. Three people have.
What I would do:
What would make that hard:
Situation B. Someone posts a video of a fight at school. It already has 40 views from people you know. Someone asks you to send it on.
What I would do:
What would make that hard:
Situation C. A Year 7 you sort of know is being left out of everything online. Nobody is being obviously mean. They are just never included.
What I would do:
What would make that hard:
My upstander plan — one thing I will actually do, and one adult I would go to.
Reporting is not telling tales. Netsafe and a trusted kaiako both count.
4. Waka Roles & Source Check | Lesson 4
A waka only moves if everyone knows their job. Claim a role for your inquiry group, then test the sources you are planning to use.
Kaihautū — caller
Keeps the group on the question and on time.
Kaiwhakatere — navigator
Decides where to look next.
Kaitiaki — checker
Tests whether a source holds up.
Kaikōrero — speaker
Reports what the group found.
My role, and why I picked it:
The role I would find hardest, and why:
Source credibility audit — test four sources before you use any of them.
"Who made it, and what did they want?" catches more bad sources than any other question. A source can be honest and still be wrong for your question.
| Source (where you found it) | Who made it? | What did they want? | Use it? Why / why not? |
|---|---|---|---|
The one source I decided NOT to use, and what gave it away:
5. My Transition Goals | Lesson 5
Three terms from now you will be somewhere different. This section is where you decide what you want to be true by then, and check honestly how the term went.
One goal, written so you would know if you met it.
"Get better at maths" cannot be checked. "Finish every maths homework for a whole term" can. Pick something you control.
By when:
The week it will most likely fall over, and what I will do that week:
Peer leadership audit — look back at your Section 1 charter.
| My charter said I would… | Did I? | Evidence — an actual time it happened |
|---|---|---|
Two stars and a wish, for myself.
Two things you did well this term, and one thing you want to be different next term.
Did I run my mentorship initiative from Section 1?
If it did not happen, say what stopped it. That is a real answer and a useful one.
He Kōrero mā te Kaiako | Teacher note
This portfolio is the assessment spine of the Y7–8 Starter Pack. Each lesson completes one section, and Lesson 5 returns to Section 1 so students audit their own charter against what they actually did — that loop is the point of the unit, not an extra.
- Print once, use five times. Students keep the same booklet across the week or two.
- Section 2 asks about whakapapa and home. A general answer or a decline is a complete answer, and the wording on the page says so. Do not require students to read Section 2 aloud, and do not display it without asking each student.
- Section 3 uses three real situations rather than a rule to memorise. The second question — "what would make that hard" — is where the honest conversation is. Expect students to say the right thing is difficult, and take that seriously rather than correcting it.
- Section 5 will expose unmet goals from Section 1. That is working as intended. A student who writes "I did not do it because I forgot every week" has learnt more than one who writes a tidy success.
Curriculum note: Section 2 works with the Phase 3 Health Education statement that "during puberty, body image and peer acceptance can be shaped by social comparisons, media influences, and changing self-awareness, not just physical changes alone". The unit's full curriculum anchoring sits on the Y7–8 Starter Pack overview.