Kia ora e te whānau whānui o te kura o Te Rā. To the wide school whānau of Te Rā, may you all be well.

Ko te Arikinui Kīngi Tūheitia ki te rangi, ko te Arikinui Kuini Nga wai hono i te po ki te whenua.  First, we acknowledge the sad recent passing of King Tūheitia Pōtatau Te Wherowhero VII.   

Second, we join our voices to celebrate the coronation of his daughter Nga wai hono i te po. 

Third, Kia Kaha te Reo Māori!   

May the Māori language be strong!

It was on the 14th September 1972 that the Māori Language Petition was delivered to parliament with over 33,000 signatures asking for te reo Māori to be taught to all children in our schools.  Te Wiki o te reo Māori (Māori Language Week) is next week, and we encourage our whole wider school whānau to renew our efforts to use te reo Māori in our daily routines.  We have encouraged all the tamariki to use te reo Māori with us and each other in various greetings and farewells, which we will post on the office foyer window this week.  These are also included here in this newsletter.  We have also encouraged all our tamariki and staff to use te reo when saying a colour, and to learn new colours in te reo.  A list of these is also included below.  For those who want to extend on these, check out other initiatives at https://www.reomaori.co.nz/resources

Finally, in addition to Te Wiki o te reo Māori, we also want to acknowledge the movement that has been solidly growing over the past ten years that was initiated by Māori language advocate Paraone Gloyne.  This is a challenge to use te reo Māori as much as we can during the month of Mahuru (roughly aligning with September).  You can learn more about Mahuru Māori and the quite achievable activities we all can do according to our level of competency by visiting:  https://www.mahurumaori.com/ .  As we remind the children, it will take a national effort to return te reo Māori to a truly safe state here in its own homeland, and each of us can contribute in our own way by using these moments to refreshen our efforts.  Kia kaha te reo Māori!