Last week was a wonderful celebration of kapahaka ‘Tuahiwi kā Matakura O Ruataniwha’.
It was a forum to showcase all of our ākonga across North Canterbury but also a kaupapa that bought us all together in an inclusive way. We were grateful for the Baptist Church allowing us the facility last minute and this venue worked well for the majority of our Kura especially the parking. ‘Tuahiwi kā Matakura O Ruataniwha’ is our biggest fundraiser and we were very happy with the results. I know that our Matua Tautoko also made a record amount from their sales. A big mihi to all of our whānau who supported us with baking, buying sausage sizzles, purchasing tickets to watch the festival and your contributions to the raffles.What a huge success!

On Monday, ‘Teacher only day’ our kaiako including myself became learners once again through an awesome day starting with Whaea Michelle and learning how to be rockstars in maths. We also had Sports Canterbury come to talk to us about healthy active learning and what we will be covering over the next term. We look forward to working with Issac and Lynne who will be in the playground teaching risky play strategies and working alongside our kaiako with physical education.
In the afternoon we had Matua Wiremu work with our staff with ‘Te Whare Mauri Ora’ our wellbeing model that is sitting at the foundation alongside our Values/ Uara and our graduate profile which we are in the process of reviewing. Working from a ‘whakatau mauri’ perspective and changing our language and thoughts around behaviour.

Tuahine Cheyenne and Tuahine Hotumanawa are away at Atua Matua PD in Takapō and are learning so much new matauranga to bring back and share with all of us. Atua Matua is run by Tapuwae kura and I have been involved in this kaupapa the last 6 years. The frame work was created by Dr Ihi and has been adapted to use in Kura by Wayne Ngata. Atua Matua is about being active whilst learning about whakapapa, pūrākau of the area you are in and so much more. Its place based learning and all relates to our taiao. We have started weaving in Atua Matua into our kura by integrating parts of the framework into our kaupapa planning looking at everything we do through a Te Ao māori lens.

On September 4 we will be very fortunate to host Hōaka Pounamu and Whaea Kaylee in our Kura to tautoko our kaiako with their development of Te Reo Māori for the day, and they will also be working in rotations with our ākonga immersing them in Te Reo Māori.
We will welcome them with a whakatau at 9:30am. I am really looking forward to all the learning that will take place for both our kaiako and ākonga. A big mihi to Whaea Kaylee and Whaea Rāhera.We are all very excited to have Hōaka Pounamu back in our kura.
Have a lovely weekend
Ngā mihi
Whaea Dot
Tumuaki
Te Kura O Tuahiwi