A new Te Reo Initiative for Māpua School

Nga mihi nui nga whānau me nga hoa o te Kura o Māpua

Greetings to families and friends of Māpua School.

Ko Philippa Jackson toku ingoa. For those of you who I have not met yet, I am the Team Leader of the Middle Syndicate and I share the Deputy Principal role with Jess Anderson.

I would like to use this space to share a bit more about a whole school te reo me ona tikanga approach we are attempting which we have called ‘He Waka Eke Noa.’

He Waka Eke Noa is a whakatauki. A whakatauki is a saying, a gentle reminder spoken to each other about every day life. They can be inspiring and a metaphor for wise thinking. He Waka Eke Noa translates to ‘we are all in this waka together’ – meaning that we are all learning alongside each other, supporting each other and working together for a common goal. In this case, our school is working towards a common goal for learning and sharing local stories with a presentation to be given during Matariki at the end of Term 2.

All the students at Māpua belong to a House Group. Each house group has a colour and is named after a NZ native bird. Torea – Black, Piwakawaka – Yellow, Tui – Purple, Kotare – Green, Pukeko – Blue.

Once a week, we will assemble as a House Group to learn more about a local story (fact or fiction) as well as to learn basic tikanga. One such practice is that we start a session with a non-religious karakia and support this with a waiata to ‘push’ out the words from our karakia. Each house will learn their own chosen waiata and karakia. We will also attempt to treat the room that we enter into as our meeting house and shoes should be removed for this. The practicality of this with juniors is that we may let them wear their shoes because they may not ever find them among a huge group of shoes at the door! One explanation for removing shoes is that the dust from the marae ātea (courtyard), which is the domain of Tūmatauenga, the god of war, should not be brought into the wharenui, the domain of Rongo, the god of peace. ... Respect is shown for the tipuna (ancestor) by removing shoes.

Hopefully, your child will be able to share with you some of the new learnings their house group is undertaking. This is a great opportunity to mix and learn with other students and staff across the school and to expand our relationships throughout.

Nāku noa, nā

Philippa (Whaea)