This week we had a Kōtare visit us here at UHPS - Thea shared her recount below

This year we have adopted permanent names for each of our teams at school. These team names were chosen to represent native birds in our community and some of the characteristics of these birds. We have the Pīwakawaka team, the Kōtare team and the Tuī team.

On Monday, some of room 9 had to go to room 3 because Miss Littlewood was unwell. As Room 3 was getting ready to go outside to PE, we saw on the ground a kōtare. Miss Douglas was guarding the bird so no one could get too close and scare it. The class went off and did their first lap around the field, when we got back Miss Douglas had picked the bird up and was placing it in the tree. We did a few more laps and when we came back he was still sitting in the tree. Miss Douglas took a photo of the bird sitting in the tree. We went and got Mrs Heck the school caretaker who picked the bird up and took it out onto the field. She held him I her hands for a few minutes, before he flew away off into the sky. It was really great to see a kōtare as it is our group name!