Upper Hutt School
recognised for being top recruiters

Upper Hutt School was awarded the heitiki lamp for being the top recruiting organisation for Te Wā Tuku Reo Māori 2020.

“Māori Language Moment was a big deal for our school as it was the first time we had taught our school haka on a large scale. Prior to this it was only taught to our senior students. It was fantastic to see seniors practising tuakana-teina with our juniors in order to teach kupu and actions. The pride that our seniors felt when seeing their junior buddies performing the haka was heart-warming. To be able to perform as a whole school under our oak tree, which is a significant part of our school, was amazing. To be able to share this experience with our whānau and community, was even better. We had parents talking about how their children practised with enthusiasm at home and took every opportunity to perform in front of family,” says kaikako Shanice.

This year, Upper Hutt School has joined a number of schools in the Kura Ahurea programme, which assists schools in building a progression of knowledge surrounding sentence structures, tikanga and Māori creation stories. This programme has enabled teachers a starting point to build their knowledge alongside students, and from this, tamariki are beginning to form and understand simple sentences.

“It has been a great opportunity to kōrero and collaborate with other kaiako and schools that are on the same learning journey,” says Shanice.

Over the past two years, Upper Hutt School students have also been increasing their knowledge of phrases through the creation of weekly kīwaha videos, which are then shared with whānau as a way of celebrating and reinforcing the use of reo at home.