[Drumming noise]

Gina Lefaoseu , Deputy Principal: In terms of Holy Family, the strength of our school has always been our community. In the last four and a half years, we've probably heard their voice more. We've taken the time out to really collect student-voice and parent-voice. Initially, we interviewed our former students. When they went to college, they didn't feel as equal as their pālagi peers. They said 'we knew the answers but we weren't able to articulate ourselves as well'.

Chris Theobald, Principal: Traditional professional development hasn't worked for our Māori and Pacific learners in New Zealand, so we knew we had to do something different and again go back to our community and trust in the rich resource that they have. So this has seen us bring in many different people from our community.

Parent: One of the main reasons why we're separated is because of digital technology. We don't have time to sit down and have dinner with each other or breakfast with each other and it's tearing us apart.

Theobald: The Family So'otaga came about after looking at what we could do to have a significant impact on our students and the lives of our families.

Teacher: Thank you for coming in for our family meeting.

Theobald: So'otaga is a Samoan word that means ‘connection’. The programme sets up three connections. One is between home and school. Two is between home and the child's learning, so really focused on the parent knowing the next learning steps, the parent knowing how they can help with that learning. And the third connection is between now, students learning now and what they want to achieve when they leave Year 13.

Lefaoseu: Our facilitators that run the So'otaga programme they are our community, they are our families, they've been brought up in Porirua. It immediately gives our parents that 'Oh they get it, they understand it, they're part of our community'.

Faaolataga Leasi, Parent and Board of Trustees Member: We invited Metua, the organiser, to come to our house and see this is their routine at home – this is when they sit down and do the homework, you know. Holy Family School teaching and learning and values and mission is an example of a big approach to tackle the issue of mismatch, mismatch of the teaching culture, the classroom culture and the home culture, from mismatch to being in a match.

Liana Leiataua-Finau, Parent and Board of Trustees Member: The school runs workshops so we have fun family evenings like barbecue or we might have a game. It just gives people time to be able to interact with the other parents and share what they're going through.

Theobald: We have a four-year-old programme every Friday afternoon called ‘Tama Ikiiki’. Tama Ikiiki in Niuean means 'little treasures'. We have some older students who act as ambassadors.

Student: Do you know what this sound is?

Liai Lefale, Year 6 Tama Ikiiki Ambassador: We do a lot of playing and we also have to ask the kids a few questions.

Celina Lokeni, Year 6 Tama Ikiiki Ambassador: What I learned about my buddy, Mota, is that she likes feeding people with the fake food.

Sheila Tagiilima, Parent: My daughter that's now transitioning to school, one of the reasons why she looks forward to come is because her cultural values have been recognised in the curriculum of this school.

[Singing]

Student: Talofa, talofa, talofa lava o lou igoa o Peni

Parent: Hi everyone, Ignatious loves dinosaurs and he's real energetic so if you guys see him round just give him a high-five.

Julio Meli, Parent: The school's pretty much just a family. I definitely feel welcome when I'm here, especially you know, walking through the corridors, teachers always say hello.

Student: I felt queasy when I descended down the elevator.

Theobald: Over the past few years, we've had significant academic achievement increases averaging in 2015 about 45 to 50 percent of our students would be at or above standard, now averaging 65% of our students.

Teacher: Now, because you've used descended then we don't need to use down because what does descend mean?

Student: It's to move downwards.

Theobald: That's all come off the back of listening to our parents, listening to our community and employing teachers who are the right fit for our school and they have that passion to make a difference for our learners.

[Singing]

Meli: He just loves coming to school. He just can't wait to put on his uniform.

[Singing]

Janine Harrington, Principal: Hallswell Residential College is a national school. We're a co-educational school and we work with students who have intellectual or learning disabilities and complex and challenging behaviours. A lot of the students who come to Hallswell College have disengaged from education, so an important part of our job is to assist them to find the spark that education can provide.

When I talk to the students and their whānau, when they first come here about the goals they want to achieve, often for the students it will be around things like making friends or being able to control their anger and the parents talk about social skills as well. The ability to interact with the community.

Junior Fesola’I, IEP Co-ordinator: It's not about let's get you into school and start the school work, you know building that relationship might take a couple months to settle them in and build that trust. It's playing basketball, it's taking them off site for a swim.

Ruby Verran, Student: We've been to a farmyard before, we've been to an SPCA, yesterday we went looking for rocks.

Fesola’I: We get them up in the morning, they make their own bed, they will get themselves ready and then they'll come into our karakia in the morning.

[Karakia]

Fesola’I: Have a good day at school today, awhi each other and enjoy your hangi this afternoon.

Fesola’I: The more that we're consistent with supporting them, the more they understand we're actually here to help and that's where we get the buy in back.

So we regularly talk over the phone or via email with their parents. We have a monthly meeting to look at how the plan has moved forward.

Teacher: We're working towards Zach’s participating as much as possible in the class programme and developing positive relationships with his classmates.

Harrington: Sometimes the parents go to the Ministry site and video link in there or they may have a teleconference and phone in. When we work with the Wraparound Service, we're working with the whānau as well and we're putting the child in the centre. There's psychologists and occupational therapists, physiotherapists.

Teacher: Earlier this term Zach was invited along to Hunter's birthday which I know, Mags, you were really happy about as well weren't you?

Parent: It's his first invitation for a birthday party.

Harrington: So the students can connect with their parents at any time via Skype and telephone calls. We also keep in touch with our Facebook page and website. We do a newsletter, we know that's really important for our parents.

Sarah Verran, Parent: It's taken us a good five months to get Ruby into the school but what I'd like to acknowledge is the thoroughness of everyone here in making sure that they have everything set up for Ruby. When you've got your child on the other end of the country, it's really important to have that you know, to know that you've got that support and that kindness and compassion. You know, I can come down here whenever I want and visit Ruby.

Fesola’I: When families do come and I see that's another awesome thing about here we get them to visit and then we culturally look after them in that way, which is kaupapa Māori and you're really starting off on a good note. There's not many times I've been here that doesn't help in the engagement process.

[Karakia]

Harrington: We see improvements in their life outcomes areas, such as self-control and that can mean things like managing frustration, engaging in safe and appropriate environments, attitudes towards others but also attitudes towards yourself so your self-esteem, your self-efficacy, your belief that you can achieve things and that you can be a learner.

We need to ensure that the goals and the skills that have been achieved while they're here can be transferred to their community. So we work very closely with the whānau, we work with the Intensive Wraparound Service and we work with the school or work-placement that they're returning to.

Fesola’I: People that have come have established relationships either with a teacher aide or with a mentor, so it's making sure that those people are there when they transition back because that person will provide that stability for that young person.

Verran: They're teaching her some amazing things, so what more could you want really? You know, I'm hoping that she finishes her time here and she'll be an amazing young lady with an opportunity of an amazing life ahead of her.

Ruby: Coming to the school no matter what's happened to me, how my personality is, no matter what, I'm still going to get help.

Harrington: I do think that we've made a significant difference to a number of children's lives and to a number of families’ lives. They tell us that but also the research that we're getting now shows that we're achieving with those better life-outcome predictors. Being able to make a difference like that is a privilege.

Michael Hancock, Ohu Whakahaere: Kua roa te wā kua noho mai tēnei o ngā kōhanga reo e noho ki konei ahua 30 tau neke atu rānei 35 pea. Kua tino tau atu ki waenganui i a Ngāti Rangiwewehi me ki, te kōhanga reo me te hononga hoki ki te marae otirā ki ngā whārua o te Awahou.

This kōhanga has been here for a long time, they’ve been here for around 30 years, maybe even over 35 perhaps, it’s really settled in amongst Ngāti Rangiwewehi. The kōhanga reo and relationship with the marae, with the village of Awahou.

Paora Bidois, Kaiako Matua: Matua ra ko ta mātau whakamahi tuku karere, tuku aromatawai, tuku arotake ma runga pai paoho papori, o te whānau kōhanga reo pēnei anō ki te pukamata ki te paka pakiwaitara, i reira ka kite ai ngā matua ngā mahi o te kōhanga reo

As teachers our role is to feed news and assessments, send progress on the ipad, to the family of the kōhanga reo like what we do on facebook, on the stories, the parents can see the work of the kōhanga reo.

Hope Simon, Ohu Whakahaere: You know how when you ask your kids ‘how was kōhanga?’ and you get those one line ‘good’ answers. Being able to engage because I actually know what they have been doing has helped turn a five second conversation into a ten minute conversation, which is good engaging for me and my baby.

[Mother and child chatting in Te Reo]

Marcelle Bidois, Kaiako Matua: E mai tērā kua tino hiahia ngā mātua ki te mōhio he aha ra ngā mahi he aha te take me aua mea.

From there the parents really want to know about the work and why this is that and that is that,

Paora Bidois: Te mea hoki o te pakiwaitara e hono nei ki ngā whainga ki ngā kaupapa matua o te wharango kōhanga reo nō reira he kōhanga reo tēnei kaupapa, tēnei huarahi tuku i ēnei kōrero i ēnei whakamarama ki ngā matua me te whānau.

The thing with the stories is that they relate to the goals of the main topic of the curriculum of the kōhanga reo and so the topic is a kōhanga reo initiative, this way of sharing our ideas and understandings to the parents and family.  

I puta mai te karanga kia tirotiro te kōhanga reo nei ki te tere mai o te ika kapoti, he kaupapa i tino ngakau nui ki a mātau te mea he tino aroha ana matau ki a mātau wai, ki a mātau whenua.

The call came out to see the kōhanga reo here around the growth of catfish, a topic that is really close to our heart, we really care about, our water and our land.

Michael Hancock: E āhei matau te whai wahi ki te tautoko anō hoki ētahi o ngā kaupapa tiaki taiao e tino kaha te iwi ki te whai a ka whai wā hoki wahi anō hoki ki te kōhanga ki te mahi tērā pea ki noho hopu kapoti i te kohi para anō hoki ki te taha o ngā awa, mohio pai, e āhei tonu ngā tamariki te whai i ērā o ngā mahi kaitiaki

We are now able to support events that help with our environment as our iwi strongly believe in that. We also have time at the kōhanga reo to catch catfish, collect rubbish by the rivers as well, so children are able to have that sense of guardianship.

Paora Bidois: A ko te kotahitanga ngā kua kōrero ake ko te mahi ngātahi o te whānau ngā kaimahi te hapori o te Awahou kati te kaupapa whanui o te kōhanga reo.

And the togetherness that we’ve spoken about is working together as a family, the staff, the community of Awahou with the wider purpose of kōhanga reo.

Kerri Anne Hancock, Tiamana, Tarimano Kōhanga Reo: Ae kei te hikaka te whānau i te mahi o a rātau tamariki kei konei.

Yes, the family are excited by the work of their kids here.

Michael Hancock: Koira tētahi o ngā tino hua i puta mai ngā mahi kua mahia, kua tino... aaah, ‘engaged’. Kua tino hono atu ngā whānau ki ngā mahi o te kōhanga reo i o matau nei wawata aua tūmomo mahi kua piki ake te rahi o ngā tangata e tae atu ki ngā hui whānau e tae atu ki ngā tūmomo mahi kohi pūtea anō hoki ki enei mea ko ngā sausage sizzles.

That’s one of the real gains that have come from the work being done, they’re very ‘engaged’ [laughs]. The family has a relationship with the kōhanga reo and our goals and work toward them. We’ve seen an increase in the number of people coming to family hui, coming to fundraising events too, things like sausage sizzles,

Paora Bidois: Tētahi mea e rereke ai a te whānau ko ngā tikanga whakahaere, he ohu whakahaere ta mātau kaua noa ko te komiti, ko ngā tikanga whakahaere a Tarimano e mea nei anei ngā mahi i runga i to kaha anei ngā mahi i runga i to koi ko te mahi ngā tahi a ngā kaimahi me te whānau e tutuki ai ngā wawata me ngā hiahia o tēnei kōhanga reo.

One of the things that’s different about this family is the way we operate, we have an operations group not just a committee, the way we work at Tarimano is this is what you’re good at, here is the work that you’re sharp at, let's work together as staff and as a family so that we can reach the hopes and aspirations of this kōhanga reo.

Michael Hancock: I te mea e āhei ngā kaiako te aro atu ki ngā mahi whakaako nei ehara ko ta mātau ohu whakahaere he mahi ra me piri ki te papatakaro hou nō reira koina pea tētahi o ngā mea tino whai hoki ngā tamariki nei, ka taea rātau ngā mea e rua.

Because the teachers are able to focus on their teaching work, our operations group is working on things like the new playground and so that’s perhaps one of the real focuses for the kids here, they can have the best of both.

Kerri Anne Hancock: Ia marama, ia rua marama e tae atu ētahi o te kōhanga reo ki te hui a marama, hui a rua marama o te maru o Ngāti Rangiwewehi kei roto i ta tātau, to tātau whare tupuna kei roto i tērā hui ka tu te kōhanga reo ki te rīpoata ki te tuku karere ki te iwi.

Every month or two some of us from the kōhanga go to the monthly meeting, bi-monthly for the Maru of Ngāti Rangiwewehi  here in our whare tupuna to report and share news to the iwi.

Joseph Tuhakaraina: Tiamana, Te Maru o Ngāti Rangiwewehi: It’s sort of like a catchup for the rest of the iwi to know what their mokopuna are doing. It’s also a catchup for the iwi to support in any way that they can, where the kōhanga may put on the table that they require, so it goes both ways.

They’re just doing a whole lot of stuff that some of us kaumatua missed out on and to see that come through and them bring that into the whare then we feel comfortable that Rangiwewehi is in a good space.

Simon: Being part of a huge whānau, that’s been us with kōhanga and now it’s blooming and it’s beautiful and everyone wants to come to Tarimano.

[Clapping]

Pettah Harriman, Head Teacher: We were wanting to mirror what a number of our forest kindergartens and beach kindergartens do by establishing a weekly programme where we would go to the marae every week and spend time there, immersed in te ao Māori but also giving back to the community.

Heidi Symon, Parent & Marae Treasurer: So I have a few hats, firstly I'm the treasurer at Apumoana marae. I'm also a community engagement worker within Central Kids, so I work with ten kindergartens in Rotorua. I'm also a mum – my two youngest attended Elstree.

It's invaluable that these are babies before they get to primary school that are experiencing and normalising the marae experience.

Harriman: Our philosophy very much encompasses te ao Māori values, like manākitanga, whānaungatanga, kotahitanga and that partnership with the marae enables us to practice those things all of the time

Harriman: Mihi to te wheke, mihi to Apumoana.

[Haka]

Harriman: It's authentic learning, tikanga, kawa. It's that learning in context. It's developing relationships with kaumatua and kuia who spend time with us, who teach them waiata, lullabies, te oriori.

[Singing]

Angela Pubben, Parent and Teacher Aide: Sometimes we have certain days we'll have stories in the actual marae, where Papa Bob would tell us stories and he'll point out maybe one certain carving and we'll base it around that and me myself am learning a lot.

Symon: There are a number of tamariki that are new to New Zealand, so they've been able to connect and identify with Apumoana in learning a pepeha, so that's given them a grounding and a knowledge that they have always got somewhere to connect to.

Robert Te Aonui, Marae Chairman and Trustee: They're from another hapū iwi, it's up to them to find their pepeha for that. In particular for this ngā kakano o Apumoana our pepeha is because they're belonging to this and they affiliate themselves to our marae.

Harriman: Even for those that are Māori and disconnected to their own iwi, they have a pepeha that they can use forever now. Today the children will be planting strawberries, which should hopefully be ready in the summer-time for them to enjoy.

[Talking about strawberries]

Harriman: They're learning about sustainability and para kore and recycling and composting and looking after our whenua. They are seeing the process of garden to table – we've been involved in three kumara harvests now. So they've seen the process of planting their own kumara, nurturing them and then harvesting them, bringing them back to the kindergarten to share with their whānau to cook with, to bake with.

Te Aonui: Kia ora whānau, we're going to go down to the worm farm now to take some of our kai for the worms.

[Talking about worms]

Harriman: Because we visit every week and most days harvest, we bring kai back to the kindergarten, so cooking and baking has become a regularly weekly of our programme.

Harriman: And this one here is the silverbeet. See these leaves? They're much bigger than these leaves.

Harriman: There's also events and things that happen on the weekends and throughout the year so the whole kindergarten is invited to attend those: kapa haka ahurei, the kumara planting and harvesting, Matariki celebrations

Te Aonui: We had a kumara festival here last year, the first one we had here and we invited all the families to come down, share some of the recipes they may have or share some of the knowledge they have about kumara.

Harriman: I believe this programme has supported community engagement with our whānau, particularly those who had their children not being a part of this programme. They would never attempt to visit the marae and now they come and they're a part of that space and they have their own sense of belonging and they want to participate, they want to be there.

Te Aonui: We had a mum who said they were driving past our marae and her daughter popped her head out of the window and said, 'Oh look there's my marae.'

She wasn't of Māori descent, she wasn't from here but hey, if that is what it means to them, that's great.

Mark Lawrence, Board Member: The leadership starts back in the Board, at the time when the hostel was an idea and they had the foresight to borrow three million dollars.

Now as a result the hostel has grown to the position it is now where we have 140 boys housed in that hostel annually and boys waiting to get in and that doesn't just happen, that happens with strong governance, a supportive board team and Chris's leadership.

Chris Grinter, Principal: The hostel has been a flagship for our school. It fulfilled a dream of the man after whom the hostel is named.

Herby Ngawhika,  Board of Trustees Chair: The name Tai Mitchell's very synonymous with Rotorua in a number of areas: Education, Māori focused, driven goals and sporting arenas.

Teacher: We're chasing merits, we're chasing excellences. But how are you going to get there?

Grinter: One of the principles that I wanted this hostel to be based on was the fact that it was going to be manned and operated by teachers.

[Talking about credits]

Scott Mayhew, Director of Boarding: Last year, I received a New Zealand Boarding Schools Association award for leadership in a hostel. Since I've taken over, the hostel has grown in terms of its role, the academic pass rate has got up to 100 percent.

Student: I've enjoyed science because science is pretty good.

Mayhew: Science is good and science has got a lot of credits that's available to you, so if you're really, really good at a science and you really enjoy science, so that's where you can apply your most energy.

Noreen Botha, Assistant Principal: We use the Te Kotahitanga professional development programme. We're looking at the learning environment, whakapiringatanga. That well-managed learning environment became the well-managed living environment in the hostel with the routines that we put in place with room checks and uniform checks.

House Master: Room check.  Morning, boys.

Students: Morning, sir.

House Master: So how was the Gold Coast?

Students: Fun.

House Master: Any golf over the holidays?

Student: Yeah I had a tournament down in Cambridge.

Botha: It's really important that those relationships that they have with their teachers are relationships of trust and caring and that they realise that their teachers have high expectations for them. So we're looking for evidence of manaakitanga we're looking for evidence of mana motuhake

Mayhew: My family are involved with the kids on a daily basis too so it creates that environment where they know that they are supported.

House Parent: Are any of you boys going to the dance this year?

Student: Yep.

House Parent: Are you going in a big group of boys or are you taking partners?

Student: We're taking partners, but also we'll be with the boys as well though.

Ngakohu Walker, Student: It's a bit of a win-win because we live with them 24/7. So they're kind of like a parent or a father/mother figure and at the same time they're a teacher and we can get closer and also they can teach us a lot of things.

Keeden Wichman, Student: Mr. Mayhew is a father figure man, like I can't put any more ups to him. He's done everything and like other teachers that are around the school, they're always there to help out.

Teacher: Hei mihi ana ki a kotou tane mā. Nā reira ko te mahi e whai muri ake nei he mahi i te reo nē?

Rie Morris, Leader of Learning Te Reo Māori: Te Hokinga is a taonga, a treasure of ours it's a sculpture that's placed right in the centre between north and south blocks of the hostel here. It's fashioned to represent a waka. You have many paddlers because, for us, we believe that it takes more than just a single person for our young man to get to his destination.

Mayhew: I encourage our boys to be the point of difference in the classroom, to be the kid that the teacher loves to teach. So we encourage those boys to be a really, really good self-manager, so their uniform is looking spotless, they're active and participating in each and every class, then around the school the hostel boys can be the leaders within the classroom. Just seeing someone excel, in my eyes that's something great and that's something that I want to be a part of. So as a role model I try and do that for all the boys in the hostel in general. I just try and be the big brother. I try and do my best and I love it when people say that they want to be like that or they want to do something in life, I just encourage them to do it.

[Reading a story]

Grinter: I think we have created a culturally responsive environment where they feel safe, where they feel secure and where they feel comfortable as young Māori men. It's reflected in strong and improving academic results and incredibly high achievement in sport and cultural activities, leadership and citizenship.

[Haka]

Ngawhika: They learn good values, they learn good work ethics and I'm proud to say that we've seen the benefits of those now. Now our boys, when they leave here, they go out into the world and just the things they achieve as a result of their time through here.

[Haka]

Daniel Wilson, Principal: So when I arrived at the school in 2015, it was like the school needed a bit of a reset, to rethink where we were as an organization, what we really wanted our core values to be moving forward and then put a really clear plan of action around that, that everybody was on board with. Nayland College has this great sort of history and tradition behind it, so we actually went right back to that school crest and the one sort of quadrant of the crest that came out really significantly was around the godwit or the kuaka.

Jane Townsend, Deputy Principal: The kuaka is an incredible bird. It flies nonstop for eight days. It's the symbol of our school, so that's what we want for our learners – to be resilient, to persevere.

Wilson: The acronym that fitted really, really well with the kuaka and the flight of the bird was of course SOAR. The next step from that was to be part of a Kāhui Ako and that Community of Learning, I think, has been an absolutely amazing positive move for Nayland College, in that all of our teachers around the region have the opportunity to come into our school and see what we're doing here and connect with what's happening in the classroom.

Gaye Bloomfield, Community of Learning Across Schools Teacher: In our Kāhui Ako, teachers in all of our schools meet together in little teams to do what we call ‘co-construction’. So the idea is that you're talking about what you're doing in your class and then you're thinking about and being coached by other people in that meeting.

[Talking about teaching strategies]

Bloomfield: One of the real plus sides is that Nayland College has been able to get involved with our feeder schools, with the intermediate and the primary schools. So now, not only do we have a reason to meet but we actually understand each other schools a whole lot more and so there's a real seamless transition between the learning that they're having when they're five and six, 11 and 12, to what they get into secondary school.

Wilson: In 2015, we also identified that the school had some connections but not really strong tangible connections with our Māori community. So for example, we run a hui taurima for our Year Nine students.

Townsend: For our hui taurima, we have activities like waka ama, carving, mau rākau, they get to write stories for local primary schools, so all the local stories.

Student: The harakeke, which is flax.

Taylor Brunning, Student: Today where helping with the Year Nine students, teaching them about rongoa Māori in the area that we live in Nayland.

Student: Probably the oldest plant that Māori have used, from when they settled in Aotearoa.

Wilson: The senior Māori students have really taken on that leadership role as something that they value and that's important and that's creating mana for them.

Joseph Meleisea, Student Leader: Being able to know myself better and knowing the area better, that means I get to be able to exchange it with the Year Nines.

Bloomfield: The highlights of the hui taurima is just to see how our students are engaged. So you walk around the different activities and see students just so passionate and engaged and it's the way learning should be.

Bruno Watkins, PE & Health Teacher: I think the school's leadership has been really proactive about making sure that we've got teachers in our school, working with the teachers to help improve their

Practice.

Cushla Laufkotter, Specialist Classroom Teacher: So we have ten trained impact coaches and they go and observe teachers in their classrooms, just through a standard lesson. We're not looking to find a lesson that's being put on for show.

[Teaching about muscles]

Watkins: It's always scary being observed but it's a really good process in that you kind of you get a really big picture of what's going on in the classroom and it's pretty objective in a sense and get you to really theorise on your practice and to really think about what things you can change in your practice to improve the outcomes for your students.

[Analysing his teaching]

Bloomfield: The kinds of results that we're seeing are people being able to become more nimble in their practice and they've got kind of a bag of strategies now that they know will work because they've been coached into that.

Wilson: We had a good problem a few years back and the good problem was that we had a lot more students decide to come back into Year 13. But what that meant was the programmes and courses and subjects that we offered in Year 13 didn't necessarily reflect what the interests were of the students that were coming into that year level.

So Pathway Plus is about connecting our students with the various industries throughout the Nelson and Tasman region. Things such as aquaculture, tourism, forestry, also local manufacturers and spend time actually learning about what that industry involves, what are the various jobs and careers within that industry and making those connections so that they can get a really good idea about what their next steps might be.

We know Pathway Plus is working because 100% of students in that programme earned Level Two, most students in the programme earned Level Three and we know pretty much all of them went on to further jobs or training or study.

Townsend: The increase in student pride, in students feeling like they're cared about by their teachers, that their culture is respected in the school has been huge. It's really had a huge impact.

Wilson: Our attendance rates have improved. Our school role I think, or population of the school has grown as the community has become more connected with what we're doing here at Nayland College.

Mike Anderson, Principal: Waimairi School is the hub of the local Community. It's populated with adults and children and dogs and toddlers and grandmas and granddads, before school and after school every day, and that feeling is a part of who we are. It's the community vibe, it's the meeting place.

What we've done as leaders was we spent a long time working out what was important to underpin everything we do and then we empower the staff members to design whatever powerful learning looks like in their learning space.

So we'd studied a lot about child development, particularly neurological development and we'd got a fairly clear idea of what's happening to kids brains as they move through from pre-school into early school years and we started to feel there was a mismatch between what we knew about how that brain was developing and what we were getting them to do in the first years of schooling.

[Discussing learning techniques]

Lynley Cummack, Leader: I applied for a study award and that's really when I started to look at transition to school and how Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum, could actually be part of what we did. We were able to look at how we could weave Te Whāriki in with the New Zealand curriculum.

Anderson: We needed to give our junior staff a working knowledge of that document and we sent our staff to go and work in local early childhood centres every fortnight for about 18 months. They developed a deep understanding of the children that were coming to them and realised that they didn't need to be prepared for school, school needed to be prepared for them.

It reinforces to the kindy kids that starting school isn't a big thing. We don't ramp up 'you're a school boy or a school girl now'.

Cummack: We don't want children to have to be able to write their name before they come to school. We don't want children to be able to count to a certain number. We just want them with those dispositions, so we look at courage, confidence, responsibility, perseverance, trust.

Tania Stott, Teacher: Back in the day when I did new entrant teaching I would do ‘everyone write in their book every day’ you know, in their writing book, everybody has to do this, everybody has to do that and now it's 'is that child ready, willing and able?’ 'Am I getting anywhere making that child do that?' So that's definitely a shift for me and actually at the end of the year they're exactly how they would be if I'd forced all those years ago but far less tears.

Cummack: As the children choose their own activities or the things that they want to do we can always find some way to talk about it or to listen to what they're saying to make it a learning opportunity, to make it a learning experience for both us and for them. There are also times in the day where they're expected to come to their reading group. The learning at that time for very new children is where to find your reading folder, where it is that we're going to do our reading and as children get more ready and willing then the learning tasks at reading time becomes a reading task, not a management task.

[Learning how to pronounce a word]

Anderson: The children are building their sense of playfulness, they're building their courage so that in a couple years time, when they need to be courageous and press on with that more formal learning and mathematics or reading or writing, they knew how to draw on courage to push through and master something new.

Tina Dower, Teacher: I love it when you can hear the kids verbalising that as well, so sometimes it'll be like 'don't worry you try again' or 'that didn't work, I'll ask a friend' or 'I'll try something new next time'.

Cummack: We've had a number of information evenings for parents where we've actually shown them the research and condensed it down. It doesn't take long to convince parents when they see how happy their kids are.

Emma Watkins, Parent: My second child started here at the beginning of last year. There was a wonderful thing that they did in assembly one day, where they wanted to get one child to go up on the stage and walk on some eggs to show how they wouldn't break under the weight of a small child. He felt safe going up on the stage, he felt like this was his community, he trusted the principal and he walked on some eggs, for goodness sakes, in front of everybody.

Phoebe Cronin, Parent: Every child, a teacher is on their level, they literally get down on that child's level and learn about that child and adapt to teach them how they need to learn and that's really special. They're not teaching a classroom, they're teaching a bunch of individuals.

Anderson: For this particular change with the junior schoolwork, the results that we're seeing are multiple. It's easy to go to the quantitative academic indicators, which are very good and happen further up the school as the children are much older and it's because of the foundational work that's done in the junior-end of the school.

Beyond those great academic results, we've got the social and emotional results, which we see, which are more qualitative. It's the way that children are being at school.

Cronin: If you can learn to learn then you can go out into the world and do anything. This is what children are taught to do here is learn and they love learning.

Student: Can we put dinosaurs on it?

Student: Wow, we did it.

Vicki Hiini, Deputy Principal: Back in 2007, we had an ERO review and Paul was like, 'Oh, we need some Māori parents to come to our whānau meeting for ERO. Can you tell your husband to come?' I was like 'yeah sure'. 

In that meeting, Dean said 'well the problem is that Te Puke is a Māori community and there's no Māori pathway for these children to experience education in a Māori context, so this school needs a full immersion unit'.

Then the current DP at the time came and said 'do you know what your husband's just said to the ERO review team?' But there was so much whānau support for it, it just kind of naturally evolved.

Sophie Anania, Kaiako – Toitoi Manawa: I came on board around that time where we visited immersion settings, bilingual settings, rumaki.

Tatai Takuira-Mita, Pouārahi – Leader of Toitoi Manawa: We came back and consulted with our iwi, our kaumatua, our whānau, our school community. We did lots and lots of background work to set that foundation properly.

Anania: Then we knew it was really important to have kaumatua involvement along the way.

Whaea: Ngā mihi whānau

Tamariki: Ngā mihi whaea

Takuira-Mita: Our principal Paul gave us the mandate to then start Toitoi Manawa. At that stage it was the immersion unit, we had a name that was given to us by the kaumatua. They had a very clear vision around what the kaupapa should be.

Anania: And so they said to us ‘we want them to know about our tūpuna, we want them to know about the kaitiaka, we want them to know about why the rivers are called what they're called and why our maunga's over here and not over there and where the waka landed and who their tūpuna were and where the battle sites are’.

We didn't have that knowledge. So they came into the kura they gave up their time, they invested hugely.

Tua Mahutariki, Kaumātua: And we even take them down the coast, where some of them come from. We take them to their own area so they'll know where they come from.

Takuira-Mita: The stories that we gathered, that the children learnt, that we were able to come back into the classroom and really follow up on all of that valuable, valuable knowledge was just huge and that's how we built our localised curriculum.

Because we were an immersion unit within a kura we called it Marau A Toitoi Manawa, which is highly sought after now. It started by one class, the next year we had two classes. Very soon we had a waiting list of particularly Māori whānau who were just lining up to come into Toitoi Manawa.

We had a huge learning journey those first few years, when we changed from the New Zealand curriculum to Te Marautanga O Aotearoa because the kaiako were trained under New Zealand curriculum and so we had some really quality PLD actually with some top people.

[Class speaking Māori together]

Takuira-Mita: I really admire and respect our tumuaki, our principal. He gives us complete autonomy basically to run this unit, rangatiratanga.

Anania: When it's the time for myself or Tatai to lead in certain aspects across our school and our community, he does that and that's true ako. He's tuākana of our school or the rangatira of our school but steps back because of those settings he knows he's not the expert

Paul Hunt, Tumuaki – Principal: Another aspect that's really important is we saw that if we only focused on Toitoi Manawa, that that would be okay within our school but what about following on from our school to intermediate, high school and further. So we have two across-school teachers and so we're able to have that leadership developing and growing and helping the rest of all the schools in Te Puke, as well as our own school.

Raponi Wilson, Board of Trustee: My experience in Toitoi Manua I realised the benefit of being in a mainstream school, is that it simulates the real world. They're able to retain the culture and practice the culture and share it with the rest of the school just as they would in the real world.

Takuira-Mita: That was a directive from our whānau actually, that they were really wanting their tamariki to learn Te Reo Māori but on the other hand they wanted them to be able to operate confidently in both worlds. So they asked ‘what about the English lessons?’ So that's an example of how we heard whānau voice and put it into practice.

[Student reading from book]

Anania: It's when you're sitting on the floor at a tangi and a nanny of a nanny says to you, 'oh Bub, I haven't heard that waiata tautoko since I was a nine-year-old girl' and so you know for revival of stories and songs those are successes.

Takuira-Mita: Yeah it only takes one light to light up the darkness and we've got plenty of lights here.

Tiria Shaw, Senior Kaiako: Tō mātou waimarie he hangarau i tēnei rā hei hopu i ngā pūkenga me ngā wheako whaiaro o ngā tamariki  ki te kāinga me te kōhanga reo.

Ko tērā tētahi tino rautaki o tēnei kōhanga reo hei hopu ērā āhuatanga.

We are really lucky that today technology can capture the skills and personal experiences of children at home and at kōhanga reo. That’s one of the real strategies of this kōhanga reo, to capture all those things.

Hoana McMillan, Whānau Member: So the assessments in our kōhanga were largely based around the use of learning stories, which is the common form of assessment within mainstream early childhood centres.

Heather Patu, Kaiako: Everything was in filing cabinets and put into the big books, into the scrapbooks and then you know, we'd bring it out for whānau hui. The minute whānau hui's finished, they went back in the filing cabinet, so it wasn't being shared and it wasn't given a life.

McMillan: So that sort of signalled to staff actually this is an area we want to look at in terms of our own practice. We started to have discussions around you know, what does assessment look like? What did assessment look like within traditional Māori communities? What research is there around assessment that we can draw from and help inform the kaiako practice and the way forward.

Ngā Kōrero Tuku Iho has provided that opportunity to be able to contribute to other ways of doing things.

[Kōrero in Te Reo Māori]

McMillan: You know, how did we in traditional Māori society, convey important knowledge? How do we pass that knowledge on and it wasn't through a paper that had written words on it. It was through that richness of kōrero and being able to share that knowledge with others.

Kaiako: Ki te ako i tōna reo rangatira hei whakakī i te wawata a ōna matua.

Casey Haumaha, Whānau Member: We set, as a whānau, goals that we wanted her to achieve and the kōhanga also worked with us with that and kept touching on those key milestones that she made. It always kept her at the centre and that's what is really important, I think and Ngā Kōrero Tuku Iho has really done that.

Arana Waru, Whānau Member : So each child learns their pepeha, they get up, they practice it every day and whilst that child's learning their whakapapa, everybody else around them is also learning as well.

[Child Speaking]

Teacher: Tēnā koe. Paki paki koutou.

McMillan: The thing that stands out the most is around parents being able to identify that learning for themselves, from a very Māori perspective. Whereas traditionally you know,, most often that role is delegated to the teacher and the mātai mokopuna, the aromatawai, the assessments are left to the teacher to be able to identify 'Hey this is the learning that's happening here' and sharing it with the whānau. Whereas here, we have our whānau coming in and they can identify themselves meaningful moments that are happening at home and to be able to share that with kaiako and other whānau here at kōhanga.

Victoria Urlich, Whānau Member: We're all involved in relating it back to Te Whāriki A Te Kōhanga Reo, so we all sort of have our own input on where we think it sits in Te Whāriki.

Urlich: I would connect it back to mana reo, even though he's not speaking, you can see it in his kanohi.

Shaw: Personally success would be seeing a tamaiti, who's gone to kura, confident matatau i te reo mōhio ia ki te tiaki tētahi atu. He tamaiti kaha ki te hikoi i roto i te ao Māori, ngā āhuatanga katoa.

…competent in the language knowing how to look after others. A child who is travelling strongly in the Māori world, in all aspects.

Child: Me taku kuia, me taku koroua.

Urlich: For me and my whānau, success looks like happiness. If my tamariki are happy, then I'm happy and I feel that is success, they will be successful in whatever they are happy doing.

Child: Kua mutu ahau.

[Clapping]

Christina Vaughan, Kaiako & Taiao Tahura Facilitator: At Winton Kindergarten we've been running our Discovering Nature Taiao Tuhura programme for the past six years. It's a programme that has been supported by our Southland Kindergarten Association, across all 23 kindergartens.

So each Tuesday we meet our families at the reserve and our day begins with the children having their morning hui in the shelter, then we make a plan for the day.

[Discussing a plan]

Vaughan: Being negotiators, problem-solvers, compromisers, leaders and followers – all those skills that we want them to have, to carry throughout their life, begin within the kindergarten in this context.

[Talking about buddies and leaders]

Pam Wilson, Kindergartens South: So children have learnt, also alongside the kaiako, in how to be unhurried and how to notice things. So they are very protective of any little creatures and bugs and birds and all sorts of things that they see and they're also very articulate in letting adults know how they should look after them as well.

Vaughan: We have parent helpers that come every week and two teachers and we follow the lead of the children. So for us the narrative that has been building, is something that will often be revisited naturally because the children are interested. ‘Let's go back and find out what happened here’, ‘let's go back to kowhai corner and see if there are any more seeds to collect’, ‘let's go check if there's an egg at the dragon's nest’, ‘let's go share the legend of the Tākitimu waka with the new children in the group’.

[Talking about finding seeds and pods]

[Talking about planting kowhai trees to attract tuis]

[Whistling]

Pauline Smith, Director of Mīharo Trust: This is a waka that was created based on the local pūrākau or legend of the Tākitimu mountains.

Teacher: What is this story about though, the Māori legend of…?

Child: Tākitimu mountains.

Smith: So the children were involved on lots of levels. They had the story fed in and they interacted with the story, so they got a really rich knowledge of what that story meant, particularly for this local area and then their little hands got busy drawing and designing and then they were also involved in the carving of the waka and then coming in and placing it where it's supposed to be, connecting it with the local high schools, so many levels of rich engagement for the Winton Kindergarten children.

Vaughan: Where's our first wave and what did the first wave do, Ella?

Child: Tipped it over.

Vaughan: And what did the second wave do, Blair?

Child: Took the waka onto the shore.

Vaughan: Took the waka onto the shore. The third big wave, can you make that big wave with your arm? Carried the Tākitimu waka... carried the waka onto the Tākitimu mountains. Thank you, Zane. 

Wilson: The Te Whāriki curriculum focuses a lot on… they talk about the children having mana and agency, which means they've got good self esteem and they've got control over what they're learning and doing, of course within the safety boundaries. But they can grow up to make their own choices about what risks to take, for example. So children are absolutely amazing at deciding what's safe and what's not safe and sometimes when the adult comes along and decides that for them, they've taken all the decision-making away.

It's actually to have respect for children's intelligence to the extent where they're able to decide what they want to learn themselves and how they want to learn it and that's something that these kaiako at Winton are very strong in.

Leticia Frew, Parent: Once a week they come to the forest kindy and they go back to kindy after lunchtime and they have the time to calm down and sit down and write in the journals and draw in them, the important things they did that day, where they pick up kowhai seeds or have the fantail around them, so it's quite amazing how much they learn from little things and what they pick from their day.

[Talking about fantails]

Vaughan: We have our ecological reflective journals that each of the children have, where they can share through the art as a learning tool, what they've experienced for the day, any new findings, new discoveries, something that's sparked their interest.

The power of that is the message of the child in nature is being received throughout the community as well as within the four walls of kindergarten. So the art that they produce is something that is shared on our weekly blog with families, it's shared in their diaries with their families when they come to pick them up at the end of the day, along with photos that are taken throughout the day at the reserve.

Judy Brown, Kaiako Matua: So it's a connection between the two spaces, it's appreciating the natural world with the children, so there's the care of the wildlife, there's the care of the site and there is the advocacy that children have when they go out in the community to say ‘this is a place that we all need to take care of’.

Vaughan: Part of the magic that we are seeing unfold at our nature programme is that of the child characteristics really coming to the fore.

Child: I'm making a really big one.

Vaughan: Someone that might be shy and reserved being paired with someone that's outgoing and then the following week saying 'ctually I can do this myself, you don't need to lead me'. It's just so magical to see.

Teacher: It did break in half

Child: Nooooo!

Teacher: Kia ora, Cyprus.

Student: He mahi nui te karakia te mihi me te waiata i roto i te whare

[Waiata]

Chris Grinter, Principal: Our students come to us from the area of Bay of Plenty and the surrounding districts. Today the school is a little over 70% Māori and the hostel is a little over 80% Māori. So becoming culturally responsive and culturally appropriate has been very important.

Teacher: Obviously you can do the mahi.

Noreen Botha, Assistant Principal: We had a variety of staff who were natural practitioners of the effective teaching profile and as we were working through the processes in the classroom and developing really great teachers for Māori boys, it so happened that some of our high implementers in the classroom were really keen to become house masters in the hostel.

Scott Mayhew, Director of Boarding: We're very very lucky that all of our house masters are teachers, so within that with the professional development we do at school, it just flows through into the hostel. I'm living with the kids and also running their academic program.

Mayhew: Week 3 is to see where you're at, okay, so how're you going with your merits and excellences, how you're going with your credits, okay and what support we need to put in front of you in terms of getting you to where you want to be.

Jayden Kingi, Hostel Prefect: Tuakana-teina, getting that connection with the juniors plays a big factor in our brotherhood, gives them that security that they feel safe within the hostel, which allows them to strive in the classroom and on the field.

Mayhew: They do drive each other in terms of the academic progress as well. So if one boy is getting up around merits or excellences, he's able to role model that to other kids.

Mayhew: Anyone from my house group tell me what I yell at you as you're walking out the door?

Student: Go out there and get some credits.

Mayhew: Prep, which is our big focus from Sunday to Thursday night, we study from 6:30 to 8:00 every night and every night the kids have teachers involved with their learning.

Ngakohu Walker, Student: Everybody's focused and we're all there to achieve the same goal, which is to be successful.

Emma Crouch, House Matron/Mathematics: They like to come to you in a prep session for specific help. We've got math teachers and science teachers and economics. If they need any extra support, I run a specific Tuesday afternoon session so separate to prep, where they can come and do extras for excellences.

Crouch: So you have like a list of three things in your sentence.

Student: The sail, the helm, and something else we will say has been completely burnt.

Crouch: We'll keep a really close eye on their credits, keep in touch with home and their individual teachers to see how they're doing in each subject. If there's any areas of concern we chase those up.

Mayhew: I've got a large number of boys and my year nine are in the green zone which is really cool but I've got one boy who was in the red zone.

Nabil Kone, Head Prefect: It's pretty hard to fail when you're in the hostel because the house master will be always on you because they want you to achieve your goals. They will check your grades, if you fail any subjects they will help you out, that's the best part of it.

Mayhew: So we've got some strategies in place with him is that he will be placed onto an academic daily report starting in term three just to help him settle back into classroom structures and routines and things like that.

Paul Conrad, Deputy Principal: Fortnightly reporting is something that was introduced last year, which has replaced the old summative reporting that sort of happened twice a year. It is based on attitude to learning and learning task completion. Parents are getting a live pretty much up-to-date summary of how their students are going.

Teacher: He's got good support at the hostel and he's tracking along nicely.

Conrad: We have our academic review days twice a year. They establish goals around cultural, sporting, academic and citizenship.

Teacher: Chemistry, physics, biology, maths and English – that's what you told me you were going to strive for for subject endorsements.

Conrad: Since the attendance in the hostel academic review day process has been 100%, so has the pass rate.

[Haka]

Mayhew: Our vision is to come through with Te Hokianga when they leave our hostel well-educated, lots of co-curricular involvement and go and lead within their small communities and in their environments at home.

[Haka]

Mike Cooney, Board of Trustees Chairman: I still remember the day, we were over in Ōpoutere in the forest there and we were working with Gina's class, which my son was involved in and we were just doing a bunch of outdoor stuff, teaching them to make bivies and it was really interesting just noticing the level of engagement of those kids and it was in fact Gina who commented on it afterwards as we're walking out and she said, 'Man wouldn't it be awesome if we could have an actual school out in this environment'. The kids were so engaged, so into it.

Gina Kennings, Deputy Principal Kapa Haka Teacher: We started seeing these Māori boys and girls, they just were flourishing in the outdoors. The teamwork was amazing, they could solve problems really, really quickly, they didn't get flustered over things.

Jethro Dyer, Principal: For a long time you'd seen these Māori boys and other students sort of put into that space of 'you're below', 'you're well below' and we're only looking at reading, writing and maths. We were seeing those students in those outdoor contexts, excelling.

We started throwing that idea around: 'Well hey what about an adventure learning program.’

Ryan Thompson, Outdoor Education Teach Kapa Haka Tutor: I was teaching actually in a high school at the time and teaching Te Reo Māori and got a call out of the blue from Mike, the chairman of the Board here, saying 'We want to set up an outdoor ed program, we're not sure how to do it but we think that you're the person to do it.'

Thompson: So for our treasure hunting and our orienteering today, we have a little bit of a new map. They've added some new things on. What does the colour grey mean?

Student: All the buildings.

Thompson: All the buildings. Ka Pai

Thompson: There are so many links back to the curriculum, so when we're learning here how to navigate it's linking into geography, it's linking into mathematics and it's linking into health and P.E.

Thompson: Take your marks, set, go!

[Orienteering]

Thompson: We assess the students against the key competences for the adventure learning and measure what progress they're making.

The school leadership and the Board of Trustees have been really supportive from the get-go and really the reason why it's been successful has been their support and their vision for this programme. The whole teaching team across the school works together to make it happen.

Marlee Jacobs, Student: We're still learning, like we're learning heaps, we're learning the same but it's just in a different way.

Maisie Dyer, Student: We do, like maths and reading and all that, we just do it in a different way, like we don't have desks for ourselves, we can sit where we like and we just enjoy learning.

Kennings: We've developed our own localised curriculum, which has five frames of learning. There's proficiency, which is reading writing and math. There's experiential, adventure. Conceptual, which is inquiry, and then there's kotahitanga, which is about creating a culture of care in our school, so that encompasses our core values, which is whānaungatanga, manaakitanga, poutama and mana.

Laurie and I piloted ‘Imagine Learning’ and it was personalised learning, inquiry learning, we did the showcase for parents.

[Child talking about goals]

Laurie-Anne Webb, Teacher: In terms of the inquiry that we're taking part in at the moment, the aim is to bring native birds back to Õpoutere School. So the children were given the scenario that bird numbers are getting lower and they're really important for our native bush. How are they important? We formed a few questions about why are they important to our ecosystem.

We're still doing all our core subjects through what we're doing in inquiry.

[Talking about native birds]

Webb: It just quite naturally weaves through what we're doing so for the writing they're doing information reports, for the reading, learning how to skim and scan. We've got the science coming through with the ecosystems and the birds' role in that.

Student: We don't want to run around and tramp all over little seedlings that are going to grow into big native trees for the birds.

Webb: The final part of the processes is we are developing that area and planting it, we're going to put a bird hide, we're going to fence it off. So they're doing a really professional job.

[Talking about tree]

Webb: They feel it's like a legacy they'll leave for future students, so they are so passionate and driven with what they're doing, they can see the purpose behind it. Teaching becomes easy when they have that passion.

[Talking about rivers]

Dyer: Also learning about our local history, learning about local iwi, talking to our local kaumātua. Gina composed a song about the local beaches and then the whole Tāne Mahuta, which is a kapa haka group, walked those beaches, it was all day but you know, it's meaningful and they understand what that song is about.

[Singing]

[Talking about navigation]

Thompson: A lot of why we started it was for boys, giving boys a space where they could be successful, where they could build confidence and for that to correlate to success and confidence in the classroom and that has happened but it hasn't happened just for the boys. It has been successful for all students.

[Singing]

Gayle Croft, Centre Owener/Kaiako: Our vision has always been to walk softly on the earth but about three or four years ago we thought quite deeply about what that actually meant and were we actually walking our talk. So we really looked at our vision and we took it out to our community to our hapū, to our whānau and we asked them what they wanted us to be doing with the tamariki and one of the ones that came from there was Te Taiao and we wanted to become Zero Waste, Pare Kore.

Anywhere we could think of that we could reduce waste, then we did that. We've always had cloth nappies, children take a nappy home with them so they can come back to Tiaki in a clean cloth nappy, so we don't have any disposable nappies coming into the centre and it's a part of the everyday life, the washing, the folding, children help with that job and it's just part of like being at home.

Kaya Sparke, Chef: We're aiming for zero waste within the kitchen and that is difficult in many ways because we started with just plastic packaging but it actually goes a bit further than that, you know, there are things that we think are recyclable that aren't. So first to go were things like crackers and biscuits, hummus, things that came in plastic packaging that we could easily make ourselves and then we thought it would be really good to utilise the space that we have. We have a big outdoor space here at Tiaki and we weren't really using it, so we decided we could plant gardens and that has been amazing. We get produce all year round, it saves us lots of money and it's awesome. We can also give back to our whānau because we have, you know, too much spinach, too much tomatoes, yeah it's been really good.

Kate Dekker, Parent: Because Tiaki have beautiful garden beds that they use, my child's been asking if we can plant garden beds at our house, so it's something that is not only affecting our family but other families in the community are starting to look at health and well-being from the food perspective as well, which Tiaki does and they model for our children to make it normalized.

Sparke: A few years ago we decided we would have a vegetarian meal at the Noho marae and after that we had some really awesome feedback about that, the whānau were really keen to know the recipes that we had used and they really loved what we had provided. So that got us thinking again and we decided that if the kids were liking it and we could provide it in a way that was healthy and nutritious, that maybe we should look at moving to a vegan, a plant based menu and so that's how the thinking sort of started.

Croft: When we first found Tiaki the property, we didn't really understand about the importance of its location and it wasn't really until we were here and started going out into the community that we started making more of a connection with the hapū.

Paraone Pirika, Kaumatua: Tiaki is really about providing knowledge because the "TI" in Tiaki is 'tini'. It means the many people, 'aki' is how you encourage that and you can only encourage that if you got a bit of knowledge in what you are doing.

Croft: We wanted to make sure we committed to going one day a week up to the marae, so the children became really comfortable being there. They were able to understand the protocols and understand what happens at a marae.

Dekker: Our daughter comes to the marae every Friday, so she belongs here, she has that sense of belonging and that sense of identity, which I think when students come to school they have that self-worth and they have their sense of identity.

Pirika: One of the greatest things, if you're talking well-being, then it’s respecting that, you know, everybody's different cultural differences. You can only respect that if you've got a good values-base and Tiaki, understanding the fullness of the word ‘Tiaki’ too. Ko te tini me te mana aki.

Croft: We go out for walks and of course children naturally gravitate towards water, to the lake and one day we were there and there was a sign up saying that there was pollution that had gone into the lake so you couldn't swim in it and that really got the children, you know, talking about well, ‘how can this happen?’ You know, ‘what can we do to make this better?’

And over the last seven years, each of those children have spent a day down at the wetlands and they plant Harakeke, they look after the area, they connect with it, they swim in the lake, they can sit on the shoreline and look out to Mokoia Island and think about Hinemoa, our brave ancestor who swam all that way. And so it's a real sense of belonging and a real connection, that these are real-life things that they can connect to.

Dekker: As a parent, I've noticed that my child spends a lot more time in the outdoors. Being in Tiaki, they have this beautiful space and this environment that they take the children out to, like the wetlands and they go on hikois weekly but her connection with Papatūānuku is something that she's starting to articulate and really notice the environment and how she can improve it and how that affects her life.

[Dekker talking with her daughter]

Dekker: And so for them to be prioritising the health and well-being first, means that everything else happens because of it. I mean, I think if you don't have that strong sense of identity and self-worth, the learning is not going to happen.

Croft: This is a journey we've been on and it's been a journey for all of our kaiako, they've all come on board with the kaupapa and taken responsibility for different areas to work on and it's a journey we will continue because we know that Papatūānuku needs our help and we want the children to have as many opportunities as they can to feel like they can make a difference in the world.

[Strumming]

[Waiata]

Chris Grinter, Principal: The hostel, with those boys being with us 24/7, allowed us to have an influence beyond the traditional school hours and classroom hours.

[Singing]

Rie Morris, Leader of Learning Te Reo Māori: For every tane raukura or young man that comes through our whare, it is our job to take them for who they are, what they bring, who their families are and we nurture them and we sculpt them and we look after them and that their wairua and that their mana are upheld, are uplifted and absolutely taken care of.

[Teaching in Te Reo]

Nabil Kone, Head Prefect: For me, even though I'm from Mali in West Africa, when I came here I never felt like missing home too much because I felt belonging in a hostel with the brothers, they are like family to me, the teachers are like my parents.

Scott Mayhew, Director of Boarding: We have a massive support crew for our kids. So we have really, really good house masters who are on duty every single day. We have myself and my family who are involved with the kids on a daily basis too, so it creates that environment where they know that they are supported and they feel a sense of belonging.

Child: Can we kick it?

Student: Sure can, on the last.

Child: Yes!

Mayhew: So the health and well-being for the hostel point-of-view and the school is one big wraparound support that we have for the kids. So for example, if a young man's had a rough day, had a tough day at school, so when they come back to us in the hostel and they walk in our doors at 3 o'clock we know that a such-and-such boy has had a rough day and were able to put some support in around them.

Another thing is that it's great communication, so if a boy has been to see the counselling team, Mr. Hale for example, through that day, he's able to let me know: 'Scotty this what I caught us with this young man about and this is what I'd like you to do in the hostel tonight'. So then it creates that wraparound service for the boys, so they know that everywhere they go they've got someone to talk to, someone who loves them and someone who will support them.

Grinter: A lot of our boys come from very challenging home environments. Over half of the hostel have received Ministry of Education support to come into the boarding environment. We refer to them as our māpihi ponamu group and to support those students specifically, we've been able to put in place a school chaplain and a second guidance counselor.

Tom Hale, Head of Guidance: In this guidance department we meet with them very frequently and just review their goals, to keep them focused on their future and working hard on their school studies, on their sports, on their kapa haka. All those things just help develop that resilience in that young man. If there's a need for further professional intervention then we arrange that. On any given Thursday we have a psychologist we also have a psychiatrist that comes in.

Nurse: It’s not going to hurt but it is going to go tight.

Jacqui Guyton, School Nurse: My role in the school is officially school nurse, but for the hostel boys it's also support person, relationship expert, taxi driver, mum a lot of the time. The health care here is free, I'm here full-time, we have a doctors clinic two days a week and we also have an osteopath that comes into the school. Any of our boys that require treatment outside of school, I transport the boys to those.

Mayhew: The Travellers programme is an awesome programme that we hand-picked some boys that have gone through some tough moments in their lives.

Mayhew: The first twist in my road was that Kylie my wife, she got quite sick and she was heavily pregnant with Noah. Kylie had to go through an emergency C-section and Noah wasn't responding to anything so Noah was going to pass away.

Mayhew: There's tough stuff that happens in their life outside of their control and how they can control their emotions, stay on an even keel, is what we like to talk about and make some really good decisions within those tough moments.

Mayhew: Thankfully the doctors were able to save him and there he is now. Choose a Raukura value and I want you to have a go at drawing your toughest day. Where were your twists in your road, where did you have to show resilience or strength of character or leadership or commitment or take an opportunity?

Hale: The kids draw life maps, looking at their journey in life, where they've come from, where they're headed to and specifically that their future is bright.

Mayhew: We're all heavily involved in sports. We learn strength of character and that through teamwork and understanding about how teamwork prevails in the hostel.

Mayhew: Opportunity for you guys to learn from those guys who have played a high level of touch before, okay, and have done some really, really, really cool stuff, like Mr Darlington.

Coach: Jogging on the spot. Freeze.

Mayhew: We're looking about 30% of our boys get endorsements, so merit or excellence. So for the last five years, every single boy has passed their respective programme and gone on to bigger and better things.

[Talking about the school ball]

Hale: If your student is happy, if they feel good about themselves, their academic progress can be unlimited and that's really an important kaupapa for us.

[Talking about the school ball]

Mayhew: We're creating something very, very, very cool it's very, very powerful to be a part of. Within a classroom you're able to see growth and that with the kids in terms of their learning and in the hostel your able to see growth in terms of their learning, their leadership and their physical and emotional development. It's a very, very cool place to be.

Students singing: Ngā Raukura

Deborah Hohneck, Principal: I came here in 2016 and within the week of my arriving we were dealing with a suicide of an immediate ex-pupil, a student who had been here the year before and that impacted massively on our student population and on our staff.

Jared Fiske, Pastoral Leader: We had a lot of kids presenting you know, with issues of depression, anxiety, suicidal issues you know, real tough kind of stuff.

Hohneck: We managed that situation and then we just kept on having things happening in our community that were impacting on our student body and on our staff.

Robin Baird, Local and School Doctor: And out of those conversations came the idea of having a well-being meeting that starts to really look strategically at how we really govern and look after the well-being of the school. We have a clear system for looking out for kids who might be struggling and a process for how we intervene or provide support.

Staff: It's awesome to have representatives from the Ngaaringa Awhina here today, so thank you and for Jewell from DHB.

Hohneck: We have a public health nurse in the school at times, we talk to our local doctor, we're tapping into every community group we can.

Angela Wallace, Deputy Principal: We have regular meetings now every three weeks, so today when we have our well-being meeting, you'll see this team of people that have now grown together and generally we have at least 12 to 15 people sitting around that table all with a common interest in making the very best you know, impact for our students that are really at need in our school.

We've then identified some key behaviours using the PB4L matrix, which is the minors, the majors and the crisis and working with the team to work out if it's in the minor category, what are the systems in place that we can do to support those students, to support the teachers as well?

Teacher: So what is it you wanted to do when you leave school?

Student: I wanted to be a lawyer.

Teacher: Oh, I didn't know that about you.

Amelia Swindells, Student: Some stuff that happened a couple of years ago and I bottled it up for about four or five years and then it got to that point where I just wanted to let it go and then the school supported me well through it and helped me move on and Trina, she got me a lot of support and got me outside counsellors if I needed it.

Til this day I still get asked how I'm doing and if I need to talk about anything and I think that's pretty cool.

Wallace: The well-being booklet is something that they can either come in the morning, they can come at interval, they can come at lunch, they can come after school and check in with the teacher or the mentor that they've chosen and just to make sure that they are okay and it's just using emojis, they can circle it and say 'this is how I'm feeling today' and they can write down things because sometimes that's the best way for some students to be able to share their emotions and feelings.

The teachers in the school know they're on those well-being booklets, they don't know obviously what's being written in them but that's not their business, but they know that they are being supported and they know who the mentor person is for that student.

Hohneck: It's looking after those ones who are not at the edge of the cliff but really wanting some attention, some care before they get there.

We have two what we call Kaitiaki Hauora, so those are our Deans who specifically look after any of the concerns of Māori students. So we try to make sure that whenever we have any interactions, we have a way of putting a cultural lense on that and they work directly with whānau who sometimes feel a little reserved at working with you know, people with grand titles like deputy principals and principals.

Sera Henare, Kaitiaki Hauora: A lot of our whānau were coming in to kura but were coming in to us instead of maybe the other teachers, so we've just been able to bridge out that they can come in for everybody. So that's how Kaitiaki Hauora started. The wellness is using Māori practices, everything's about hauora and who we are and connection to land and people. We're both not Waikato Tainui so we have to be very, very mindful that we're connecting to mana whenua practices, which I believe that we do. We reach out every single time that we have any hesitation and also our kids are really rich in their culture. They're active on their marae so we try and use them as the experts in that too to lead us, which I think that they do confidently.

Jake Kerr, Kaitiaki Hauora: And the reward is when you see full-circle and you see students here who are progressing and growing at the school because that connection has been made.

[Laughing]

Hohneck: Probably key in all of this is our student council, so we have academic leaders and sports leaders and cultural leaders and arts leaders and we have specifically our well-being leaders.

Samantha Hill, Student Leader – Wellbeing: Basically our job is just to help offer more support in the school and what we think needs to be done.

Samantha Carter, Student Leader – Wellbeing: And really promoting the services that we have at school so like the doctors, the nurses, the counseling and telling the kids that that's there for them and that they can go to at any time.

Hill: Obviously because we're closer to their age, we might be more approachable for them.

Wallace: We've had one student that's been on our wellness register for quite some time and she came and she said 'I think it's time that we can take that student off'. She said 'we have done everything and that student is just blossomed' and it's just wonderful. So that, to me, is success for that work as well.

Nana Polly Kenny, Grandmother of Jurnee: Jurnee's been through a lot of problems, she had lost a good friend of hers but I think now Jurnee's opened up now.

Carole Pedersen, Public Health Nurse: To see in the 12 months the complete turn around with Jurnee back smiling, happy you know, a brilliant thing to see.

Jurnee Kenny, Student: No matter what you go through, you're not alone. You've got support groups and you got your family and friends that can help you. My family and friends and the support group helped me and I became a better person.

Tatai Takuira-Mita, Pouārahi – Leader of Toitoi Manawa: I started looking into immersion education because I believe Māori education is where our Māori children experience success and when they're experiencing success, the positive outcomes are just huge, not just for the tamariki but for their whole whānau.

The people that are involved in Toitoi Manawa are like my family. I don't just see them at school, I have a connection with them outside of school at the marae, at the sports grounds. We have some tamariki here that have been through a lot in their little lives.

Paul Hunt, Tumuaki – Principal: When you're thinking about whether you're in a safe environment, whether you're thinking about that you're cold, or what's it going to be like when you're walking home and you've got no shoes or you're hungry, unfortunately you didn't have breakfast this morning. If you have those on your mind, that's what's going to dominate. So we've tried to cut those barriers down to put around structures, so we provide breakfast for children who'd like to have breakfast.

Vicki Hiini, Deputy Principal: We also have systems where people, if they have spare clothing, we've got a clothing cupboard. We have social workers in schools. We also access Kids Can to support with clothing, food and basic health needs, like for example they'll give us head lice shampoo and combs, toothbrushes and toothpaste.

Hunt: If we're having meetings, we'll provide a van to go and pick people up. We'll provide a creche, we'll provide food so that people are fed.

Hiini: We have a couple of systems for our lunches where we have families at our school that can make an additional lunch and they send it to school with their children.

Student: Here’s an extra lunch.

Receptionist: Aw thank you, Blake.

Hiini: Another example is buses. I was noticing that a lot of these children don't come on the bus, they walk. But when it's wet, they don't come to school at all because it's too wet to come all that distance. We're just about to complete our first year trial of having the town bus funded so that these children can all come to school every day and not have that additional barrier put in front of them of paying $12 a week just to actually access the education.

Hunt: Some people say 'Well that's not very fair, you should be doing it for all the children.' Well, you go into these homes and you see that and it's not a level playing field.

[Talking about autumn leaf on Canadian flag]

Takuira-Mita: To get any significant gains academically, you have to know your kids. The relationships is where we start from and with the kids, with the whānau, with our iwi hapū, our relationship with the rest of the school, with our leadership team and between colleagues. Yea, relationships is key.

Maui Marino, Toitoi Manawa student: The best part about coming to school for me is just being loved by the teachers. They tell us like, we're their children and they just love us like we're their children.

Hunt: That's really important, it's not just physical – there's physical, mental, spiritual well-being, that's really, really important that we look at the whole person.

Parent: Those of us who've come into Fairhaven School without knowing it, we had become a part of the journey.

Hunt: And if we're able to have meaningful relationships and a sharing of power between our whānau and schools, well, then we're going to achieve something that is not only this generation but intergenerational changing.

[Singing]

Rhapsody Dashwood, Toitoi Manawa Student: We've bonded since we've been in here, all of us. We're like a true whānau.

Marino: Sometimes that gets us in trouble. Even if like, people being naughty, we just like, back them up and we're a whānau and we just like each other as a whānau.

Takuira-Mita: My main thing is making sure that they do take their place in te ao Māori, to be confident in wherever they go in this world, that they'll always remember what they learned here.

[Singing]

Tiraroa Hetaraka - Tauira / Student: Ko te tangata e tū nei i tēnei wā nā  tēnei kura, nā  tēnei kura ahau e puāwai ai, i ngā mahinga katoa. E tino waimarie ana tēnei otirā ngā tuakana o te wharekura ki tēnei o ngā kaupapa.

The person standing before you now is from this school. This school nurtured me, in every way.

We’re really lucky, all of us seniors of the college are because of this programme.

Makaiara Berry - Kaiako / Teacher: He taikawa tā mātau tamariki engari he taikaha nā  runga ano i te mōhio ko wai rātau nō hea rātau me te aha e whakapono kaha ana rātau ki tā rātau e mōhio nei ara ko Te Aho Matua tēna.

Ko Te kete Uru Ao tā mātau kaupapa wheako mahi e kī ai te kete o ēnei tamariki ka puta ana rātau ki te ao koinā te tikanga o te ingoa Te Kete Uru Ao.

Our kids are headstrong, but they’re also persistent because they know who they are, where they are from and what they firmly believe in, what they know and that is Te Aho Matua.

Te Kete Uru Ao is our work experience programme to fill the toolbox of these kids for when they step into the world, that’s the practice behind the name te kete uru ao.

Cadence Kaumoana - Contractor: Te Kete Uru Ao evolved from the recognition that NCEA achievement and University Entrance results weren’t enough, and became our vehicle for reframing what Māori achievement is, what Māori engagement is and what Māori transitions are.

Hare Rua - Tumuaki / Principal: Ana ko tēnei kaupapa te ara Te Kete Uru Ao, me ngā kura kei te mahi noa i te NCEA, mahi noa te NCEA ka puta nei ‘ka pai, ka pai ara, ka kite’. Kāore tērā, kāore tērā, kāore e whai oranga mō tātau tamariki te kī atu ‘ka kite’. Kāhore, ‘hoki mai, haramai, e noho ka tuwhera ngā kuaha o te kura, haramai’ nā  kua mutu nā  mōhio ana ngā tamariki ka tiakina rātau.

And so this programme, Te Kete Uru ao, just doing NCEA, the NCEAs come out, ‘that’s good, that’s great, see you later.’ That approach doesn’t mean prosperity for our kids, to say ‘we’ll see you later’. No, ‘so come back, come and sit, the doors are always open here’ and they come back and they know we take care of them.

Berry: Ko a mātau mahi, ko taku mahi he ako i ngā wheako mahi, he tūhono i ngā, i tēnei hapori ki ngā kamupene nui i te hapori i te uru o Tamaki waihoki Aotearoa. He kokohu i ngā tamakiri ki ngā āhuatanga pēnei i te Kiwisaver, renting, buying houses, te hoko waka, te whakamōhio ki a rātau he aha te insurance, he aha te mea, te mea, te mea e rite ai rātau mo te ao ka wehe ana rātau i konei.

Our job, my job, is to provide the work experiences, to connect to this community, to businesses in the community out west Auckland and across NZ. It’s to gently introduce the kids to the ways of the world like Kiwisaver, renting, buying houses, buying cars, teaching them about insurance, what is this and what is that, so that they’re ready for the world when they leave this place.

Rua: Ko te pātai nui me pēhea e whakawhāngai te titiro ki ngā kaupapa ako hia ana ki ngā tamariki kia ngākau nui atu ai ngā tamariki ki ngā akoranga.

The question is how do we give all the perspectives about a topic that are interesting to kids, that students are passionate about.

Hetaraka: Nō reira i tērā tau i whakawhiti atu au ki Ngaru-uru ki West Wave ki reira au mahi i ako mahi wheako ia rā ko au tērā e whakapakari ana nō reira parekareka aua mahi ki au, ka waimarie au i tēnei  tau i te mea ko matua Jan tērā i pohiri mai ki au, i atawhai, i poipoi i tēnei ara i te ao hakinakina

Last year I was at West Wave, working there, gaining experience every day and that was working out well for me and I really enjoyed doing that. So I was lucky enough that this year because of Matua Jahn, he welcomed me, led me, encouraged me, nurtured me on this path towards sports.

Jhan Gavala - Mentor: The kura mentioned Tiraroa to me, what he was interested in doing, also some other options considering as well so I said year, of course, I’ll be happy to mentor him and give him some work experience in the sport and recreation field.

Hetaraka: He rangatira a matua Jahn, me ana mahi ōtira tana ao 20 tau neke atu ia i āna mahi nāna ahau i  ata whakaako ki ngā āhuatanga o tēnei taiao, te ao hakinakina. He pai i te mea he wheako i mua tōku tāinga ki te ao whānui kia heke i tēnei ao.

Matua Jahn is a leader in his work, in his industry too having worked for over 20 years. He taught me about this industry, the sports industry. It was good because I got to experience the industry before stepping out into the world and into that industry.

Anna Berry-Tumuoana - Kaiako / Teacher: Kāo, kāore i te pērā  i tēnei wā kei ia tamaiti tōna ara ake a mātauranga a ara toi tūtanga nō reira he mea nui ki te aro ki ia tamaiti.He rerekē, he ahurei ta ia o ngā tamariki o te kura nei.

It’s not like it was now, every student has their own curriculum, their own pathway to success and so it’s a big thing to focus on every student. It’s different, every student is unique in this school.

Kaumoana: Te Kete Uru Ao has worked for us and it working for us. It’s evolving, it’s organic, we adapt and we change. The beauty of having our entire staff being involved in the development process means when we have to adjust things, it’s not too difficult, we’ve done the hard stuff already, now we tweak, we refine, we adapt and that’s a culture that’s been built here at the kura thanks to the [principal].

Kaya Yates-Sharples - Tauira / Student: Ko ngā āhuatanga kawe i tēnei kura he mea tuku iho i ngā tipuna e nga ngā me mōhio te tangata ki tōna ano mana ki tōna reo kia pai ai tōna kuhu ki te ao ahakoa kawa ahakoa reta kei te mōhio ia ko wai ia nō hea ia.

The way this school operates is a based on the ways of our old people where every person knows their own strengths, their language, so that they can enter the world, their strengths and weaknesses, they know who they are and where they are from.

Rua: Ka whai mātou i te ara e mōhiotia ana e mātau, e mōhio ana mātau, ka eke panuku o mātau tamariki ka mutu tae noa ki ngā whānau o tēnei marae. Nā reira he mahi nui, ehara i te mahi mama ka mutu ko te whakapono te mea nui.

We follow the path that we know. If our kids succeed, then so will the families of this marae. And it’s a lot of work. It’s not easy. At the end of the day it’s about self-belief.

Tiria Shaw, Senior Kaiako: Ehara ōku mātua he tangata kōrero Māori engari i ahau e tipu ana ko tōku kuia me tōku koroua tērā e whāngai ana te reo ki au.

Te nuinga o ngā mātua ki tēnei kōhanga reo kei te timatanga rātou i to rātou huarahi ki te ako i te reo Māori. Nā te mea kua kite rātou kei te maia ngā tamariki ki te tū me te korero. Kei te mōhio hoki ahau kei te whakaako ngā tamariki in ngā mātua.

My parents aren’t Māori speakers but when I was growing up my grandmother and my grandfather were feeding me the language.

Most of our parents at this kōhanga reo are starting their journey to learn Māori language because they see their children’s confidence in standing up and speaking

I also know that the children are teaching the parents.

Tamariki: Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa.

Victoria Urlich, Whānau Member: So the first day that we came to kohanga, I saw one of the pakeke, he stood up and he gave his mihi and he just oozed confidence and I knew that’s what I wanted my boy to be like.

Tamariki: Ko Ihaia Brian Lawrence Urlich.

Urlich: Ngā Korero Tuku Iho is probably the main way that I know what is happening and what my tamariki are learning. So it’s very visible through all of the whakaahua that are on their posters.

Hoana McMillan, Whānau Member: As a mātai mokopuna, or assessment approach if you like, Ngā Korero Tuku Iho, its foundations are also built on whakapapa and that knowing who you are from your beginning, your roots, this is where I come from and it builds out from there in terms of coming to kōhanga reo ‘this also my kaupapa whānau’.

[Speaking about the photos]

Urlich: We talk about it at hui whānau every month . It’s also relating back to our wawata and our tamariki’s interests.

Heather Patu, Kaiako: We’ll always capture those things the tamaiti really enjoys. So it’s not us putting the wawata there because as a kōhanga we already have our wawata to revive the reo, āki them with tikanga, kawa and nurture them to learn where they’re from, learn their waiatas from their wāhi.

[Singing]

Patu: So I take them through that every day and it’s a range of waiata, moteatea and so they learn who wrote the songs and what the waiata is speaking about and where you would sing that waiata. So it’s not just learning the kup but wanting them to have all that knowledge because now I’m still learning so I thought ‘well, what better way, we can all learn together’.

McMillan: Whānau are able to come in and share the meaningful moments that they’ve captured and be able to analyse those moments and the learning that’s occurring in terms of taha wairua, taha hinengaro, taha tinana, and taha whatumanawa.

Urlich: He’s learning how to be a big brother.

Shaw: Ngā kōrero i waenganui i ngā kaimahi, nā te mea ka neke rōpu ngā tamariki, he tika me mōhio ia kaiako ki ngā kōrero o ia tamaiti, tērā te take i hui kaimahi ka whai wā tātau ki te wānanga ki te kōrero ki te tohaina ngā kōrero hou ka puta mai i Ngā Korero Tuku Iho no ia tamaiti.

There are discussions between the staff, because children move through groups and the teachers need to know the narratives around each child. That’s the reason why staff meet, to find time for us to discuss that history and share new stories, and that’s how the history stories are developed about each child.

Shaw: Although assessment is required in kōhanga reo I think when we keep the tamaiti in the centre and the whānau at the forefront of everything we do, rather than a mahi that needs to be ticked off, then the korero that are captured in Ngā Korero Tuku Iho are more authentic and genuine.

[Child talking about the pictures]

Shaw: E maha ngā hua ka puta mai i tēnei mahi. Kua kite au ētahi aku tauira tawhito, kei te whare wānanga i naianei, kei te whai rātou i ētahi tohu tino pai rawa atu, ētahi he takuta inaianei, ētahi atu he kaiako pērā i ahau, ētahi atu mokopuna kei te whawhai mō ngā kaupapa e pā ana ki te tiaki i a Papatūānuku, inā ka kite au i ērā, ērā momo āhuatanga ki roto i ngā mokopuna tawhito, tino harikoa tōku ngākau kei te mōhio hoki ahau kei te noho au ki roto nei, ki roto i te kaupapa o te kōhanga mō tērā take

There are so many benefits from this work. I’ve seen some of my old students, they’re now in University, they’re pursuing some really awesome degrees, some are now doctors, some are teachers like me, some other mokopuna are following environment studies, and when I see those things happening with our old mokopuna, I feel really happy and I know that I’m gonna stay here, stick with the purpose that is kōhanga, for that reason.

Kaiako: Tēnei kohatu. He aha ai? Kāore koe i te mōhio?

[That stone, why that one? You don’t know?]

Tamariki: Kāo

[No]

Urlich: I’m so proud of how far he’s come and how this kohanga has helped to nurture him into the confident little boy he is today.

Tamariki: Tekau ma whitu inaianei.

[Seventeen now]

Kaiako: Tekau ma whitu...

[Seventeen...]

Michael Hancock, Ohu Whakahaere, Tarimano Kōhanga Reo: Te taiao katoa me ki me ngā ahuatanga katoa o Ngāti Rangiwewehi, ki konei anō hoki a. Ka haere atu ki Puhiroa ki tō tātau nei urupā otirā ki te puna o Pekehaua ki reira anō hoki whakahaere me ki ētahi o ngā kaupapa engari ae koina te tino hua me ki, ki aku nei whakaaro mō Tarimano te āheinga ki te ruku hohonu ki roto to rātau Ngāti Rangiwewehitanga me ki

The whole environment, everything about Ngāti Rangiwewehi, it’s already here. Going up to Puhiroa to the cemetery, indeed to the waters of Pekehaua, there is also a lot of activity and projects. But yes, that is the real benefit I think, for Tarimano to be able to dive deep into their Rangiwewehi identity.

Joseph Tuhakaraina, Tiamana, Te Maru o Ngāti Rangiwewehi: It’s not just the reo, it’s their whakapapa, it’s their kawa, their tikanga, and everything is ingrained within the whole take (origins) of Rangiwewehi.

Ko Tiheia te maunga, Ko Tarimano te marae, ko Te Awahou te awa, ko te Rotorua-nui-a-Kahu te moana, ko Ngāti Rangiwewehi te iwi. Ko Tarimano te kōhanga  reo.

[In class: Tiheia is the mountain, Tarimano the marae, Te Awahou is the river,  Rotorua-nui-a-Kahu is the lake, Ngāti Rangiwewehi is the tribe. Tarimano is the kōhanga  reo.]

Paora Bidois, Kaiako Matua, Tarimano Kōhanga Reo: Ko tō mātau, here i to matau Rangiwewehitanga ki roto i ngā kaupapa ako pēna anō ki te  wahanga kua taha ake nei ko tō mātau kaupapa ko ngahuru ki te Awahou e motuhake ai tēnei kaupapa ki a mātau na te tāpiri i ngā kopu o muri ki te Awahou e taea ai ngā kōhanga  katoa te kaupapa ngahuru

For us, we weave our Rangiwewehi identity into the learning objectives for example the topic we have just done, autumn at Awahou. We made this topic unique to us because we used traditional words from Awahou village, as any kōhanga can study autumn as a topic.

Tuhakaraina: All their waiata and their korero is all about what’s out and around them, then they get out and they walk those places.

Marcelle Bidois, Kaiako Matua, Tarimano Kōhanga Reo: Kei roto i aua mahi hoki ka whakamana anō i wa tātau whenua ake i roto i ngā haerenga ka rongo ka tae a tinana hoki ngā tamariki ki ngā wahi whakahirahira o te Awahou ana ko te wahi e tau ai te hinaki kapoti ko te ingoa taua wahi ko Waimihia. Kei te ako kei te rongo kei te tae a tinana ngā tamariki ki o rātau whenua ake.

Within that work also, we empower our land through the trips where we feel it. We physically take the kids to the important places around Awahou and the place where the catfish net is set up and that place is called Waimihia. We’re learning, we’re feeling, we’re physically taking the kids to their own lands.

[Chatting beside the water]

Michael Hancock: Tētahi o ngā mea ahua 3 tau i mua mohio pai mātau e maha  ngā whānaunga e noho mai ki roto i te Awahou engari i haere anō rātau ngā tamariki ki wahi ke, ki ngā puna reo engari ae na te aha, na te kaha anō hoki o ngā mahi i ngā tau kua hipa atu kua hoki mai rātau, koina tētahi o ngā tino taonga ngā tino hua kua kite e mātau ki te ohu whakahaere.

One of the things, maybe 3 years ago, we knew there were lots of relatives living in the area but they were taking their kids elsewhere, to puna reo. But yes, because of the hard work that’s been done over the past few years, they have come back. That’s one of the real gifts, the real benefit that we’ve seen from the admin group.

Tuhakaraina: We have huis three times a year for the whole iwi and each time they would come with a report and such, advising us or explaining to us where they’re going, what they’re doing, their numbers.

Michael Hancock: Koina tētahi o ngā mea tino motuhake nei ki a Ngāti Rangiwewehi ko te maru nō reira ma te haere atu ki ngā hui o te maru e āhei mātau te tohaina nei o mātau na kōrero ki te iwi e whakarongo atu anō hoki ki ngā kōrero kua ta te iwi e tohaina ki waenganui i a mātau katoa.

One of the powerful characteristics of Rangiwewehi is the tribal authority and so by going to the meetings of the authority we are able to share our stories to the tribe, we listen to the discussions about the iwi that are being shared amongst us all.

Anaru Bidois, Kaumatua, Ngāti Rangiwewehi: Ko te akoranga ki ahau nei ko te tino akoranga ki te kanohi kitea i te marae i te mahia marae, i te mōhio ngā tamariki nōku te marae, nōku te mana o te marae.

The key learnings for me, the real learnings is that people see our marae with their own eyes, work on the marae, the kids know this is my marae, the respect of the marae belongs also to me.

Hope Simon, Ohu Whakahaere, Tarimano Kōhanga Reo: I just always knew that my babies would go to Tarimano. Just being Māori and wanting my babies to learn and speak Māori and to have whakaaro Māori [way of thinking]. Hearing [the song] and being able to stand up and sing it with them, I knew going to Tarimano would give the boys that at home.

Recently we had a tangi [funeral] and my big boy, just him sitting there and just like respectful, not a haututu [mischief-maker] like kids can be and just paid attention and you could see him singing and it was beautiful to watch him.

Tuhakaraina: They’re the ones that are getting up and tautoko [support] our waiata [singing] so they’re showing us the vision and the strength of where  Rangiwewehi is going to be in the future and where Rangiwewehi is on its way now.

Michael Hancock: Kia whai kura anō ana kia kaha anō hoki engari mai te kōhanga  reo tae noa atu ki te koroheketanga ki au nei he tino tuarā, he timatanga pai te Tarimano kōhanga reo hei tuarā mo te iwi hei whai atu i ērā o ngā tumomo ahuatanga, ma te iwi anō hoki hei awhi hei poipoi.

If we had our own school, it would strengthen us also. To go from kōhanga reo right through to graduation to me would be like the backbone and Tarimano kōhanga reo is a good starting point to be the backbone for the tribe, so they can pursue all those things and for the tribe to encourage them.

Kerri Anne Hancock,Tiamana, Tarimano Kōhanga Reo: Kei te poho kererū tātau katoa e te iwi i ēnei tamariki kei konei ko ngā hua ki te kite i o rātau tū ki te waiata ki te haka ki te taki karakia ki te taki whakapapa, he rawe, he rawe

We’re really proud of these kids. The benefits are here to see them stand, sing, haka, to recite prayers, to recite genealogy, it’s awesome, the benefits are awesome.

Ms Keita Ngata, Resource Teacher of Māori & Team Leader: Mai rā nō tēnā mea te haka me te kapahaka, ngā waiata, ngā karakia, mai ra nō ēnā ahuatanga Māori  e haere ana i roto i ngā kura, engari etahi wā ko ērā noiho te hotaka Māori  e haere ana i roto i ngā kura. Hoki mai ki te reo a waha. Tae i te wā mo te tuhi - aue!

From back when we had haka and haka groups, songs, prayers, for a long time those Māori elements have been in schools, but sometimes that’s the only Māori  programme that is running in the schools. Bring it back to spoken language. When it was time for writing - not good!

Taki Ākina, ko tēnei kaupapa me ki he kaupapa, he rautaki wawaotanga i runga i te āwangawanga mo to tatou reo - aue - kei te rongo matou i ngā hē e puta mai ana.

Taki Ākina is a project, an idea, a training strategy, that came about from a concern for the state of our language, oh dear, we could hear the mistakes.

Tamaiti: Kei te haere au ma runga pahi.

Ngata: Kāore anō tāua kaiako e mōhio ana me pehea te whakatika. I tēnā me huri ki ngā kaiako whakatika mai ano i a rātou reo tērā pea ka waimarie ano ngā tamariki ki te korero Māori i runga i te tika. Ka whānau mai te kaupapa nei.

The teachers didn’t know how to correct it. From there our attention turned to the teachers, fixing up their language, then perhaps the children would be lucky enough to speak Māori correctly. And so the idea was born.

Mrs Melissa Mackey-Huriwai, Teacher: I tuku mai a Koka Keita te pātai mehemea tino pirangi au te ako i tēnei kaupapa hou, ara te Taki Ākina. Tuatahi i tango noiho a Koka Keita i tētahi paku rōpu nāna i whakangūngū i aua tamariki ko au noiho hei mataki e haere hoki ki ngā akoranga ki te taha o te toenga o ngā kaiako nāna mātau i whakaako.

Nanny Keita asked if I wanted to teach this new programme, Taki Ākina. First Nanny Keita took a small group and she trained with those kids and I watched. I also went along to the classes alongside the other teachers and she taught us.

Ngata: You must have a structured reo a waha [spoken language] programme in your classroom. Tekau miniti noa iho. [Even if it’s ten minutes.]

Mackey-Huriwai: ‘Mā wai e whāngai te heihei?’ Kāore anō, kua mutu. ‘Ma ngā e whāngai.’ Mā koutou.

Mackey-Huriwai: ‘Who will look after the horse?’ Ah, I’m not finished. ‘We will look after the horse.’ Your turn.

Ngata: Ko ngā pikitia kei reira. Ko te reo o te rerenga korero, koina te rerenga korero hei ako, ko te kemu Kakama, me whakahikohiko tonu koe i te ahua me te wairua o te tamaiti.

The pictures are there. The language structures, those are the sentences to teach. The game Kakama [Be Quick]. You have to engage the kids, the whole being of the child.

Mr Wiremu Paenga, Resource Teacher of Maori: I te wā i timata au te mahi o te kaitakawaenga reo Māori karangahia Koka Keita tētahi hui  mo te kaupapa nei. Pēneii te wairua o te kuri, i kuhu atu au i tēnei kaupapa. Tēnei hui te hui tuatahi mōku mo Taki Ākina kua oti kē te rangahau kua oti kē te whakatauira kua oti kē te nuinga o ngā mahi.

He māma he ngāwari ki te ako i te reo ki te whakaako i te reo ka whai wahi ka whai wā ano hoki  ngā reo a iwi, ngā reo a hapu ki roto i tēnei kaupapa Taki Ākina.

When I started this work as a Kaitakawaenga reo Māori, I got the call from Nanny Keita to come to a meeting for this project. Like an eager puppy, I jumped at the opportunity. When I went to this meeting, the first meeting for Taki Ākina, the research was already done, most of the models were in place, most of the work was done.

It’s easy to teach Māori language and it allows for different tribal and sub-tribal dialects in this project Taki Ākina.

Kaiako: Ka pai, Hazel. Tēnei?

Tamaiti: Piki ake, um, heke ake, oh, heke iho?

Kaiako: Kāore. Piki ake! Ka pai.

Ngata: Maumahara tonu ki ngā he hoki o ngā kaiako. I whakaaro penei rātou, tika aku nei korero, hoki mai au i te whare wananga o whea o whea o whea, engari i rongo mātou i ngā hapa i puta mai ana i o rātou waha, nā me pēhea te āwhina i a ratou te whakatika mai i o rātou reo.

Remember it’s about correcting the teachers. They used to think they were right, they came out of a university, this one or that one, but we heard the mistakes in the language coming from their mouths, so it’s about how do we help them to correct their language.

Ngata: Tōku me te ōku, Ok.

Mackey-Huriwai: So tāku, āku, i te tuatahi.

[Discussion of possessive words, singular, plural]

Mackey-Huriwai: Te kātoa o rātau kua whakaako e au kua eke ki ngā taumata ae taumata tiketike mo ēnei mahi reo a waha a kua ki te hoki te painga i roto i o rātau mahi pānui tuhituhi hoki. Kua tino maia ta rātau tū ki te korero ki mua ngā tangata ahakoa kei hea

All of them who I have taught have reached the level and above for spoken language. I’ve also seen the benefits in their work, their reading and writing also. They’re really confident speakers in front of other people, no matter where they are.

Kotiro: Nō reira, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, huri noa, tēnā tātou kātoa.

[Girl finishing her welcome speech]

Mackey-Huriwai: Nō reira he kitenga pai tēra mo mātau ngā kaiako mo te whānau hoki.

So that’s really awesome to see for us as teachers and the family too.

Ngata: Kia kaha. Kia kaha ki te korero Māori.

Be strong, keep going with speaking Māori.