Noa’ia ‘emauri, Bula Vinaka, Fakaalofa lahi atu, Fakatalofa atu, Kia orana, Mālō e lelei, Mālō nī,Talofa lava, Tēnā koutou katoa and warm Pacific greetings to you all.

Last week was the celebration of Rotuman language week for the first year in New Zealand, and significantly the first of our 8 Pasific languages to be celebrated in Aotearoa. Two of our students featured in national festivities with Helava and Jared Vilsoni creating a video to highlight their culture and language.

Next Week we celebrate, Samoan language week, which comes at a great time for our community. 

Return to school!!

After 7 long weeks of lockdown we welcomed our students and whanau back to Mana College this week.

The return to school was a really smooth process and it was brilliant to see how excited students were to be back in class and developing a routine. All students, while they will sometimes try to hide it, had a skip in their step, and busting to progress their learning and achievement.

We know some of our families are still feeling a bit anxious about sending their children back to school, which is understandable given everything we have been through these past 2 months. However, the key message is that it’s really important children do return to school, not just for their education but also their health and wellbeing.

Instances of Covid-19 in New Zealand are very low and here in Wellington Region we have 0 cases, with the last case reported on 16 April.

We’re aware of concerns out there that people without symptoms may be able to spread the virus. The Ministry of Health has advised us that there is no instance in New Zealand of someone spreading the virus without ever having symptoms.

Our schools are safe. Even though there is such a low risk of the virus getting in the school gates to start with, we will be keeping up our hygiene practices and other public health measures as an extra precaution for as long as we’re at Alert Level 2.

Construction school

In the spirit of rebuilding the year, our construction school have made massive progress in the house build this week, as you will see in the photos. It’s an absolute pleasure to have Steve Haerewa here at Mana college working with these boys.

This project is the first of many programmes to support vocational programmes, particularly in the post COVID environment. Currently we also have our service academy, land-based academy with Papa Taio, and a number of students at various trades academies at Whitireia and Weltec. Watch this space as we scale up to provide programmes that link students to work, employment and careers over the next year. As you know Mana college students rock, and offer employers hard working, reliable and positive people who are hungry to learn.