Week 6 Term 3: Totara House: Epetoma o te reo Māori Kūki 'Airani 2025 (August 11 - August 15)

Te reo Māori Kūki 'Airani 2025

In Week 4 of Term 3 we celebrated Cook Island Language Week. The 2025 theme for Cook Islands Māori Language Week is "Ātui'tui’ia au ki te raurau a tōku matakeinanga" which translates to 'Connect me to the offerings of my people'. This year our Cook Island staff and students organized the very first inter house competition which was the Ura Pau competition. Ura Pau is a traditional Cook Island dance and is characterized by the swaying of the hips and is styled by the Cook Island drums. This was the first time that there has been an Inter House Ura Pau Competition for Cook Island Language Week at our kura and it was really exciting to see staff and students get involved, participate and celebrate te reo Māori Kūki 'Airani. 

Totara House Cook Island Group 2025 - before the performance

Totara House Cook Island Group - after the competition

As with every House event, Totara House were ready and excited to get involved with the Ura Pau competition. We were given four days to pull together students from our house to learn and perform Ura Pau. As with Vaiaso o le Gagana Samoa 2025, I pulled together a group of students from the house to form the Samoan Group to represent our House at the competition. I did the same thing for te reo Māori Kūki 'Airani 2025, even though the turn around period was really short I knew that we had to get a group together. Led by one of House prefects, Mamarei Henry-Ru and supported by our two House Captions (Tupou Peaua and Louvina Palei) the Totara House Cook Island Group was comprised of 13 students from across Year 10, Year 12 and Year 13. There were 9 female performers and 3 male performers. The students performed at the Inter House Ura Pau Competition and placed First Equal with Puriri House. I am really proud of the students who represented Totara House and the kotahitanga that they continue to show every time we come together for our whanau group. Kotahitanga being one of our House values for 2025. The House leaders who led this campaign did an exceptional job in ensuring that the students involved came together, worked together and engaged in the process together. 

Totara House Cook Island Group 2025

Totara House Cook Island Group 2025 

The theme for this year is "Ātui'tui’ia au ki te raurau a tōku matakeinanga" - Although I am not from the Cook Islands I understand the significance of connecting ourselves to the offerings of our people. As a Dean, I feel so connected and I am so grateful to the offerings that the young people in my House continue to share collectively. I am humbled by their willingness to share and serve for our House. I am excited to continue this journey is offering, sharing and serving our House as we journey into this last part of 2025.  

Week 5 Term 3: English Department: Junior and Senior English Program for Term 3 (August 11 - August 15)

In this post I am going to highlight and outline the program that the English Department is going to offer our Junior and Senior English students. 

JUNIOR ENGLISH PROGRAM TERM 3

This term in English, we will be focusing on both written and visual texts. Some of our Junior English classes will delve into novels, while others will explore film. Across these different areas, we will be covering common assessment tasks such as formal writing, creative writing, and speech. 

Fostering strong oral communication skills is paramount, and by focusing on speech as a key assessment, we aim to equip our students with the confidence and ability to articulate their ideas effectively. This emphasis will allow students to develop crucial public speaking techniques, enhance their critical thinking through clear and concise expression, and prepare them for future academic and professional environments where persuasive and coherent verbal delivery is essential.

SENIOR ENGLISH PROGRAM TERM 3

As Week 7 and the Derived Grade Exams approach, our primary focus will be on ensuring all students successfully complete their NCEA internal assessments. We will dedicate class time to finalizing these crucial pieces of work, providing targeted support and opportunities for revision. Simultaneously, we will begin our concentrated preparation for the Derived Grade Exams, equipping students with the necessary skills and knowledge to perform their best in these upcoming assessments.

Our current focus is on effectively introducing our NCEA Level 1 students to the new 91926 standard. We are guiding them through this unit by explicitly teaching various writing types, such as opinion columns, personal account writing, and descriptive writing, with a strong emphasis on student agency and independent text creation. Students will have dedicated time to plan and draft their work, and we will assess them on this new standard during Week 8 and Week 9, where they will independently craft a text based on provided prompts.

Week 4 Term 3: English Department: Goals for Term 3 (August 04 - August 08)

Term 3 is crucial for the English Department, with priorities set for junior and senior English students, curriculum development, and alignment with school goals. The department acknowledges that flexibility is needed as the term progresses, but they will strive to meet their Term 3 objectives. Below are some of the goals that we would like to work towards and focus on in Term 3. 

Students at risk of achieving: 

We want to work with our identified students who are at risk of achieving credits in English. We have identified who the students were for Term 1 and we revisit the list in Term 3. We know that this list would have significantly changed since we have spent time in Term 2 to complete internal assessments.

Designing a unit for NCEA Level 1 English Internal Assessment: 91926: 

As a Department, we are designing a unit for a new NCEA Level 1 English internal assessment (91926). We will be running this assessment in Term 3 starting from Week 2 - Week 9. It has been a good process so far, getting everyone on board with the assessment and deciding what we want to do and how we want to assess it. We are excited to have started this journey with our NCEA facilitator Mr Alex Moffat-Wood.

Finishing Internal Assessments and preparing for Derived Grade Assessment: 

We know that Term 3 is our last full term with our senior students. We are looking to use the time well to ensure that our senior students complete their internal assessments and that they are also prepared for their Derived Grade Exams which will take place in Week 7 Term 3.