Award is ‘huge mana’

BY JESSIE COLQUHOUN

A group effort on te reo is paying dividends for a cluster of Mangere schools and organisations.

Known as the Mangere Maori Cluster, the group includes representatives from Nga Iwi Primary School, Sir Keith Park School, Sir Douglas Bader Intermediate, Counties Manukau Sport and Te Wananga o Aotearoa.

It meets regularly, working, networking and collaborating to promote te reo.

In July it held a hapori – community – day where whanau could enrol in te reo courses and register with their iwi and hapu to enjoy kapa haka and choir performances from the students.

Nga Iwi Primary and Sir Keith Park School also worked to weave the teaching of Maori culture and te reo in the classroom.

Their efforts were recognised at the recent Maori Language Week awards where the two schools were named joint winners in the schools category.

"This is huge mana for all our schools," says Lysandra Stuart, Sir Keith Park School’s assistant principal.

Nga Iwi Primary School associate principal George Ihimaera says the cluster’s initiatives aren’t "tokentistic" and are about more than just Maori Language Week.

Nga Iwi’s term two topic was I Love You Aotearoa and all the students’ learning took on the theme.

Students made Maori artwork for a display in the community, kapa haka groups performed at the airport to welcome travellers and the school held a karaoke show with Maori songs.

Sir Keith Park School is a special needs school and Ms Stuart says embracing Maori culture allowed the students to be just like "other kids".

"We want to challenge people’s perception of what special needs kids can do," she says.

Only two of the school’s teachers are Maori so staff were taken to a marae and taught about the culture. The marae trip was all about "giving it a go" and developing teachers’ confidence to teach te reo, Ms Stuart says.

And both schools relied on the help from another member of the cluster, Counties Manukau Sport, to get Maori more active more often.

Counties Manukau Sport’s Jamie George says there’s been a resurgence of traditional Maori games in the community.

"Our aim is bringing Maori and sports together in the community," she says.

Nga Iwi Primary won the same award in 2007 and was a finalist last year. Sir Keith Park School entered the awards for the first time this year and is the first special needs school to win. Counties Manukau Sport were also entered in this year’s awards but didn’t place.

The cluster hopes to continue into next year and possibly get other schools involved, Ms Stuart says.

- © Fairfax NZ News