Ahuatanga Whaiaro is a living document that we are focusing on embedding within our school culture.

The aim of the Āhuatanga Whaiaro is "to enrich learning opportunities by ensuring coherence and continuity of learning for ākonga, both over the years and across settings within our Puketeraki Kāhui Ako".

At Swannanoa School, we are looking for creative and fun ways to embed Āhuatanga Whaiaro and help our teachers to become familiar with this document. This semester we have been focusing on BEING: Cultural connectedness, Belonging, Wellbeing.

At Swannanoa School, we live by Ō tātou taonga. A Swannanoa Learner shows lifelong learning through fully embracing our school values. Our school values are Whakawhanaungatanga (Community), Ako (Success), Kotahitanga (Kindness), Kaitiakitanga (Respect) and Tikanga (Integrity). At Swannanoa School, we encourage all learners to be actively involved in our community, to always be the best they can be through following our five taonga (treasures). These values are interwoven throughout all of the dispositions within the Āhuatanga Whaiaro and apply to both ākonga and kaiako.

We found inspiration in our students' work where they unpacked our school values using whakatauki and created a visual diagram to represent our school values. So during our staff PD, we have unpacked the 'being' aspect of Āhuatanga Whaiaro and have created a visual display to represent Belonging, Cultural Connectedness and well-being. Each week, in teams, found a whakatauki that represented one of these focuses. We then created a patch square to present each one for our year group. Check them out below.