As mentioned at the start of the term this Term's inquiry learning topic has been 'Te tino rangatiratanga me te kāwanatanga'.

This has been a focus on the 'Social Sciences' learning area of the curriculum.

Students have been looking at a range of 'understandings'. Mostly this inquiry looked firstly at our values and beliefs and how these influence our decision making and the various roles in society.

Our Seniors headed off to Wellington this morning to visit Parliament and take what they have learned into a real political context.

The Junior team has been looking at the different roles that help us in society.  

In recent weeks we have had a number of visits from local political party candidates, police and fire officers.  Teachers have been impressed with the depth of the questions that students have asked our visitors which is reflective of the learning that they have done over the term.

I had the pleasure of listening to the speeches of Room 9 students.  I was impressed firstly with the fact that students got up to speak in front of their peers, as well as the way in which the students had developed their speeches and in particular the content of their speeches around the topic 'Should we able to vote at 16 years old?'  Very thought provoking I can assure you!  We look forward to seeing who will represent us at the Lions' Speech Competition next term on Wednesday 11th October for Years 5-8.

We were fortunate enough for some of our staff and students to attend Kī-o-Rahi wānanga.  Picture above are our students who were lucky enough to attend this wānanga.  Next term we will defend our Kī-o-Rahi title at the local tournament against other kura in the rohe.  We will also take a team to participate in a tournament in Whānganui.

Kaiako from schools across the region recently came together over two enriching days to connect and learn about the game of Kī-o-Rahi. The intention for the wānanga was to provide an opportunity for kaiako to deepen their understanding of Kī-o-Rahi by unpacking the pūrakau, history, kupu and values associated with the game.

Justin Gush from Sport Whanganui led both wānanga in collaboration with Steven Karehana from Ngā Wairiki Ngāti Apa and Paeroke Maihi and Adrian Campbell from Ngā Tai o Te Awa.

It was fantastic to hear kaiako reflecting on the day, the knowledge they gained as well as hearing many kaiako noticing that they felt their own wairua lift through the workshop. We can't wait to see the Kī-o-Rahi kaupapa in action across our region. (As quoted from HAL newsletter)

In Week 8 we started the 2nd stage of our tennis coaching with Dana from Tennis Whānganui.  This will continue into Term 4 with a lunchtime competition that will be run by our Waka Leaders for students.

This week we had a visit from our Duffy Role Model young scientist Courtney Davies. Yesterday students should have come home with their Duffy Books which will be perfect for the holidays.