Matariki, Friday June 24. Teacher Only Day, Monday 27 June

This year Aotearoa will celebrate Matariki, which signals the start of the Māori New Year, with a public holiday for the first time in 2022.

It marks the start of a long weekend set to see communities around the country toast this time of renewal and reflection with events both big and small.

For many iwi, the appearance of the Matariki star cluster in the morning sky in mid-winter heralds a new lunar year: a time to get together to look back on the past 12 months, plan for the future, and honour the dead. 

The rising of the Matariki star cluster, also known as Pleiades and the Seven Sisters, was traditionally marked with a ceremony called whāngai i te hau tapu, which involved examining the stars to determine the success (or otherwise) of the coming harvest. Clear, bright stars were a good sign, promising a warm, bountiful season, while hazy ones were a harbinger of cold weather and poor crops.

On Monday 27 June, GEIS will also be having a Teacher only day and school will not be open to students. Teachers will use this additional  time to refresh and deepen their knowledge and practice around the teaching of Literacy and to strengthen their understanding of the use of assessment tools for learning and teaching.