Celebrate and communicate Māori success!

One thing I have learned throughout my years in education is open and regular communication with your Māori community is a must if you want to establish a positive and meaningful relationship with them.

I strongly encourage schools to take up this wero but many ask for examples of this in action - so here is one we are trying at the moment.

As part of our commitment to increased and improved communication with our Māori community, this year at Cobham Intermediate, we have created 'Pānui Ako', a term report sent out to all of our parents via the school newsletter and our Facebook page and emailed directly to all Māori whānau. We also send copies to all school whanaunga e.g. Burnside Primary, our MoE Senior Advisor, BoT, our local hapū-Ngāi Tūāhuriri, our cluster co-ordinator and other members of our wider school community.

Pānui Ako is designed and written by members of our whānau advisory group, which is made up of several staff, Māori students and some of their parents.

We hope you enjoy learning more about Cobham and our amazing tamariki -koia kei a rātou!

Chinese Language Week - celebrating our cultural diversity!

wǒ xuéxí pǔtōnghuà

I somehow got thrown in front of a camera to share a little bit about what Cobham Intermediate is doing to celebrate Chinese Language Week, but more importantly, to acknowledge and celebrate our Chinese students and families.  

Cultural responsiveness is one of our school focus areas for professional development and so far this year, this has been strongly aligned to working with our Māori and Pasifika communities, but with a 21% Asian student population at Cobham, how we welcome, support and celebrate the asian cultures and what they bring to Aotearoa is extremely important to me as an educator, to all of our students and of course to our wider school community.

I don't think I will be getting a call from Hollywood anytime soon though ;)