Te reo Maori – Report 2016

Te reo Maori – Report 2016

It was another busy year for Kaupapa Maori at St Thomas of Canterbury College. We continued with our combined cluster consisting of Riccarton High school, Riccarton Primary school and we welcomed O.L.V and a couple of early learning centres. This initiative is all about lifting Maori achievement and providing strategies to help Maori achieve success as Maori. 

We farewelled Bishop Barry at Te Rangimarie with our Catholic community in support. We continued to support Maori student hui that bring our students together to celebrate their similarities and their differences and also look at ways to better aid their ability to learn and reach their goals. We celebrated with our other Catholic schools at the cultural evening which is always a great night. This is a great opportunity to see all the cultures combined to celebrate their identity.

We continued our support of the Young Enterprise scheme in relation to the Youth Custody Index. This involved Te Aotahi Rice-Edwards and Te Rakitaunuku being spokesmen for an index that has gained much support from the community for its ground breaking work in providing information on young people in incarceration.

We welcomed Andrew Little to our school with a rousing haka powhiri from our young men. This Mr Little said was the best welcome he has been a part of during his tenure as an MP. We were proud to accompany our Oceania brothers on to Nga hau e wha marae and the boys performed with pride and were a credit to the school and I know the brothers really enjoyed them being part of the day.

We continued on our successful ways at the Nga Manu Korero regional competition which was held at Cashmere High School. We took one of our biggest groups of 38 students and we walked away with Kalani Halliday receiving 6th place overall in Senior Maori, Te Rakitaunuku Tau went one better than last year receiving 2nd place overall in Senior English, and Tanirau Inia stepped up late in the piece to represent in the Junior Maori section and Kole Harmer received a 4th place in his first competition. We were very proud of our boys and their effort and their commitment to practice and represent us with pride.

We continued our Science program with the University of Canterbury alongside Dr Maree Hemingsen. This was an amazing opportunity for our students to work along professors at the University in a Science initiative. The students thoroughly enjoyed learning new skills and having the chance to work and use the equipment available in the labs. 

We finished the year strongly with a revamp of our annual Noho Marae trip in Kaikoura. This was a fantastic trip led by Mr Thoms and the boys took part in a rigorous program of mau rakau and haka training. They were an exceptional group and this was a very enjoyable way for the boys to learn in a more traditional environment.

We have only been able to do all of this because of the boys and their parents and the wonderful whanau that we have here at St Thomas and the support they give us. We thank you for all the hours you put in and we look forward to another successful year in 2017.

Keri Campbell