Holding True to the Treaty

He Reo Ora

How well does our teaching reflect the Treaty of Waitangi foundational principle of the New Zealand Curriculum? If we really want to uphold this principle at our school we need to get serious about it and try to move beyond superficial levels of Māori language. St Anne’s has made it a priority to embed this principle into our everyday teaching in a meaningful way. As a large part of this, all students have a lot of opportunities to learn Māori language.

At St Anne’s we have a thorough Māori language element in our school curriculum, outlining a bilingual vision which benefits all learners. Students in senior classes have multiple te reo lessons a week. Levels of Māori language learning increase as students progress in age. These goals also increase in amount of Māori language taught each year. We also offer an extension Māori language group with an expert teacher once a week where students are spoken to primarily in te reo and learn advanced grammar. Māori language is also embedded in students’ home learning. All students take home Māori language readers as well as english reading home learning. Our school’s home learning challenges, ‘Ora Ake’, replace traditional homework tasks and incorporate elements of te ao Māori to promote hauora.

It can be very daunting as a non-Māori speaker to teach a large amount of Māori language so it has been a long process of upskilling staff to gain confidence. We continually improve our staff’s understanding to ensure students are getting better quality Māori language. We have clear targets outlined in our school curriculum, with PD and resources there to support us to meet these targets. Our weekly staff meetings are Māori language lessons. Our principal has supported us to have similar teaching points, so there is consistency across the school. We have tested out a lot of resources and narrowed it down to what works for us. Each step we have taken has been built off the last in a slow and steady progression.

Our aim is to keep gradually improving the Māori language of students and staff until it is natural and widespread part of how people communicate at St Anne’s.

Further reading and resources:

• New Zealand Curriculum Update: Issue 16 January 2012
• Curriculum Guidelines
• Tōku Reo
• Māori Made Easy
• Te Kete Kōrero Book series

Josh Halkett is a within school teacher from St Anne's School in Woolston