On Tuesday St Bede’s College was privileged to host two Catholic Kāhui Ako events centered around Literacy.

The first event was a meeting of the newly formed Kāhui Raki Hub Literacy Professional Learning Rōpū, which comprised 19 kaiako and senior leaders from our five Catholic primary and secondary schools . The hui opened following Māori tikanga with a welcome, Kāhui Raki karakia, waiata and mihimihi by those attending. Following the opening formalities of the hui, we broke for karakia and kai, allowing our teachers to connect further with colleagues.

One of the aims for this first hui was to build whanaungatanga within the group. The process of sharing our pepeha enabled teachers to explain how they connect with the land and with people close to them. Through sharing this and other interesting facts about themselves, it enabled other colleagues to make connections.

The second aim was to explore some of the issues and trends in literacy across our schools. Following kai, teachers were split into smaller groups to explore and discuss some of the key aspects of literacy. The kōrero that took place gave teachers the opportunity to share some of the great practice they are undertaking in their classrooms and schools, as well as share any ideas they have about strengthening literacy across our hub.

It was ka rawe! (awesome!) to see both primary and secondary sectors collaborating and hearing the different perspectives of literacy education across our hub.

The next step is collating the feedback from our teachers and narrowing our mahi towards areas that might strengthen the coherence of literacy education from new entrant to senior secondary.

Thanks must go to the schools and teachers who gave up their time to attend the hui. The richness of discussion came from shared experiences and the knowledge that our kaiako hold. This reinforced the whakatauki chosen for the hui -

Nāu te rourou, nāku te rourou, ka ora ai te iwi

With your food basket and my food basket the people will thrive 

Storytelling of Maori creation stories

The second event that followed the Kāhui Raki Hui was a seminar on telling authentic local Māori creation stories. Josh Halkett, Clara Mapley, Dallas Wichman and Chrystie Woods from the Eastern/Central Kāhui Ako hub were the key presenters and the event was open to the entire Kāhui Ako and local schools. They explained the method of storytelling, the relationship between local curriculum and local Māori stories and presented a range of rauemi (resources) that have been developed to support the storytelling. Both Josh and Clara have had a term off studying through full immersion to develop their understanding of te reo Māori and tikanga, as well as this storytelling resource.

This presentation is just one part of the Eastern hub's strategic plan around cultural responsiveness. The same presentation was delivered at Villa Maria a week earlier.

Thanks go to Dallas (Lead Principal), Josh, and Clara from St Anne’s Catholic Primary School and Chrystie from Villa Maria. Both Josh and Chrystie are also Across School Leaders for the Eastern/Central Kāhui Ako hub.

Below is a photo of David Litten, Science teacher at St Bede’s College who started the storytelling presentation outside the Performing Arts Centre with a water rocket and balloon explosion!

Ngā mihi nui

Chris Hubble and Matt Malone

Across School Leaders, Kāhui Raki Hub