Student Work

A number of our children were selected to go down to the Dunedin public library and to a writer's workshop. I don't know what they did so I will leave it to them to tell you below:

On the 2nd of November some Kaikorai students including Arlette Delaborde, Belle Hartley, Ruby Goodchild, Tila Te Whare, Eleanor Deans, Oliver Devereaux, Samuel Crump, Elizabeth Derden, Emily Fotherington,, Sienna Brits, and a few more went to the the library on the 4th floor for a writer's workshop with some other schools.

It was a really good experience and we learnt about new things such as dawn raids. The dawn raids are when the police come and break into pacific islanders houses and arrest them for being overstayers. The reason this is bad is that the population shows that really there were more European overstayers than Pacific. The author of the book Dawn Raid was there, Pauline Smith. It was interesting when she read us some of her book. She told us about the dawn raids and we did some activities on them. I liked the activity where we got a scene from the book and in groups, we had to act it out. We also made posters that protested to stop the dawn raids. We learnt about the Polynesian Panthers, a protesting group trying to stop the dawn raids.

It was an experience of a lifetime with drama, history, art and fun! I would really like to go back to something like that again. Also, thank you to all the kind parents that helped make this happen.

By Belle Hartley.

One bright summer morning on the 2nd of November, a collection of Senior students were selected to go to a writing workshop for girls and boys who really enjoy writing. Then the lucky students departed from the school in different cars. It's thanks to the generous parents who put their time aside and moved their child’s needs in front of them. So we want to thank all parents who were very kind. When we arrived at the library, we went into a large room where desks were laid out. At every seat, there was a bundle of goodies for each child, including bookmarks, notices about the annual 'book week', book vouchers and more. Then a lady walked to the front of the room and introduced herself. Her name was Pauline Smith, and she was the author of the published book “Dawn Raid”. The book “Dawn Raid” is part of the “ My New Zealand Story” series. Many of us didn’t know what Dawn Raids were, so she talked us through it and explained how bad they were.

Next, in a clear, loud voice, she read us a bit of her book when the Dawn Raid happened. We all made posters like the Polynesian Panthers because we all agreed it was wrong of the government to make the police officers do the Dawn Raids. Dawn Raids were a dark time in history, but if there is going to be light times in history, there has to be dark. Then that was the end of a very fun, awesome, exciting and eventful morning for those lucky children from schools all over Dunedin.

Thank you again, parents and teachers, for making that happen.

By Arlette Delaborde