Helping us to increase our knowledge of tikanga Māori, te reo and increasing our ability to develop culturally responsive practices.

Chantelle worked closely alongside Jasmine Lambert. The focus of their mahi has been two fold. Firstly, developing and providing professional development to support staff and teaching staff to build confidence in incorporating tikanga Māori into their own practice. Support staff appreciated the opportunity to create a channel for more regular communication of their needs and ideas. They have since asked for: opportunities to learn basic te reo for use in their office or student-facing roles. They would also like to produce documents which are more bilingual (staff newsletter) Additionally, they intiated the recognition of creating space for ākonga Māori to be more visible in our kura. For example a Yr13 ākonga recording the phone greetings using te reo Māori. 

A regular te reo programme (external provider) for all staff was developed and implemented and kaiako were encouraged to get involved in kaupapa Māori across the kura. Manu kōrero heats were held at school and it was awesome to see the enthusiastic participation of many ākonga.

Secondly, using a Tuākana/ Tāina approach, Chantelle aimed to reduce ineffective strategies or deficit thought processes by empowering our whānau Māori to share their own mātauranga and tirohanga Māori (knowledge and worldview).​ Chantelle established a platform (Te Ama) to encourage Māori from the wider kura to share their voice on the student experience and take action where necessary.​ One outcome of this was feedback connecting with the Board of Trustees, encouraging the wider school and their whānau to upskill both staff and students in Kaupapa Māori through actions like hangi and waka ama. 

Next year Chantelle would like to continue to work with other departments in their work towards developing mana ōrite and culturally responsive practice,​ and to develop more resources and professional learning opportunities for all staff with the aim of increasing their use of te reo me ōna tikanga Māori.