Tena koutou katoa. Nei ra te mihi maioha ki a koutou katoa. We have a number of exciting events planned for our tamariki this term including the Aupaki Cultural Festival and Aupaki Rocks. These events give our students an opportunity to come together to share musical and cultural performances with each other. This is particularly important for our kapa haka groups, many of whom will be taking part in the Christchurch School Cultural Festival.

Board hui

On 31 July Board of Trustees members from across Aupaki Kāhui Ako came together for a Culturally Responsive Practice Hui hosted by Linwood College. The hui was facilitated by Andre Konia, Brett Lee and Kerepeti Paraone of Te Hapū o Ngāti Wheke on behalf of the Rāpaki Education Committee. This was a great opportunity for our Board members to get together and engage in discussion around what culturally responsive practice could look like at all levels of our kura. Our intention is to continue to explore this in the future and developing a sustaining and reciprocal relationship with iwi to improve outcomes for all our tamariki and whānau.

Enrichment Programme at Linwood College

The third block of Enrichment Learning will be offered by Linwood College in the field of History. History is a rich subject, which encourages students to explore the how of our modern society, ‘how did we get here?’ Four students from each of the Aupaki Year 7/8 groups have been invited to engage in this learning.

As Ethan Smith, history teacher at LC, shares, “History is traditionally seen as a heavy reading and writing subject, but I prefer to look at it as a sophisticated form of storytelling.” The students will be paying particular attention to the local Māori and Colonial history in the Christchurch and Banks Peninsula area. They will explore in particular Ngai Tahu and the raids by Te Rauparaha during the early 1800s and early Colonial life in Christchurch. Mr Smith continues, “We will then be considering the significance of key historical sites, and how they should be regarded today. During our sessions students will be given the chance to engage with historical sources and work on their analytical skills.”

Aupaki Staff Meeting

In Week 4 of the term, Tuesday 14 August, we met as an Aupaki staff at Lyttelton School. After really positive feedback from our previous whole staff meeting, where teachers got together in their year groups to share practice, we would like to further build on this to strengthen relationships across the staff and to engage in discussion around writing and moderation practices across our schools. We also hope that representatives from our early childhood centres can attend this, to add another perspective.

Ngā mihi nui

Stuart Cameron

Aupaki Lead Principal