Kura has high goals for end of the year
Te Kura Kaupapa Maori O Ngati Ruanui welcomed new entrant students and a new year full of goals.
The kura, which has been working over the past two years to be capable of hosting year 9 students and above, is determined that by the end of the year they will be fully able to do that.
Kura principal Mama Kumeroa said the school had been under a satellite, which meant another school looked after them, to help them as they developed towards becoming a wharekura or secondary school.
‘‘We don’t want to create a wharekura and then it bombs, we want to progress to our level,’’ she said.
A wharekura is a full high school that runs to year 13 and offers NCEA and NZQA courses.
In the past students who have finished year 8 at the kura would have been sent to Hawera High School or a boarding school.
In the two years that have passed since the kura started progressing, students in year 9 and 10 have completed NCEA level 1.
They have gained merits and excellents in assessments and also overall endorsements.
This year the school has 11 students, from the roll of 67, who are year 9, 10 and 11 and who are completing the NCEA courses.
The students move from te reo courses to the more advanced NCEA level 1 te reo rangatira in year 11, along with other level 1 papers.
The students currently travel to Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o Tupoho in Wanganui one day a week to do classes but otherwise do the work at the Hawera kura.
Kumeroa said they would soon be able to offer opportunities like any other school, without the travel, but planned to do things differently.
They are going to do the curriculum their own way. ’’We have three worlds that make up our curriculum - spirituality, health and environment - and we link that world into the subject area,’’ the principal said.
‘‘Last year the community was our classroom, the students are only here for an interim, so we take them to the biggest classroom, we take them outside.’’
Kumeroa looks forward to the day the kura can run on its own.
‘‘Being such a small school, we are creating our wharekura to be ours, not like any other school, it’s how we see it,’’ she said.