Some of our Year 11 students went next door to read picture books to our tiny neighbours at Avonside Day Care Centre.

 While at first many of our students were nervous about this, as soon as the gate opened, and we were greeted by the huge smiles and laughter of the toddlers, all nerves were forgotten. 

While there wasn’t a lot of time spent reading books, it was beautiful to watch our students interact with young children. There were many grand sandcastles built and our older students loved hearing the endless stories from the little ones. When the bell rang and it was time for us to return to school, both the younger and older students did not want us to leave. This example of tuakana/teina in action is something that we will continue throughout our time at Linwood College at Otākāro. When we followed up with Avonside Day Care Centre the next day to say how much our students had enjoyed their time, the response was mutual. According to the teacher, when the toddlers arrived to daycare the next day, they wanted to know if the ‘school children will be coming to play?' We definitely will be back.