During the second half of last year we approached Matauraki Mahaanui to work with us on a school naming document that related more specifically to the West Melton area.

We are very grateful and appreciative of the mahi and outcomes working together with Mātauraki Mahaanui Mana Whenua facilitators in consultation with our local Taumutu Runanga resulting in our own specific document that will be weaved throughout our learning and environments.

At a recent staff meeting, and at the Board of Trustees meeting on Monday, we were presented with our specific document after final approval from Taumutu Runanga.

We are delighted with the minimal suggested name changes that we will be finalising over the next few weeks after further discussions.

We will announce these new names in the final newsletter this term and will work with our tamariki on how we can display and share our school specific document with our community, with the wider community, on our website and also with signage around the school environment.

Having a school specific cultural narrative:

• Assists in providing options for informing the naming and design of the schools and associated environments.

• Recognises the relationship of the mana whenua (Te Taumutu) while providing relevant information on the historical relationship to the area and

• Are informed by Ngāi Tahu historians, environmental scientists, manuscripts, archival material.

Outcomes include:

• An increased sense of ownership/belonging to the place

  • ‘Names are relevant and real’

  • ‘Names come to life’

  • ‘We are connected to our place’

  • ‘We understand the flora and fauna of our area’

• Growth of cultural understanding and competency

• Developing culturally located curriculum

• Environment reflective of Māori language and culture

The process and suggested considerations included:

• guidance on appropriate building names

  • Kōwhai and Toetoe are very important to the kura

• Due to a number of building name changes over the last few years, we were interested in keeping names very similar to what we already have and to keep them simple for the community to embrace

• We wanted to have storying very relevant to our area as there is quite a distance between West Melton and our Kāhui in Rolleston

• We wanted one cohesive story to bring everything together