Tune in your taringa around our students next year, for they could be putting their newfound Māori language learning into practice.
In a first for New Zealand schools, our cluster will have its own Rumaki Reo facilitator from Term 1, 2019.
Former Whangarei Intermediate School Year 8 teacher Neke Adams has taken on the role to support our teachers in both teaching te reo, and sharing Māori e-learning resources.
The position was created in response to a recent report by Auckland University’s Woolf Fisher Trust that identified a low level of Māori language being used within our cluster.
Currently there are no Māori language resources available through e-learning.
“We want to start something. The ultimate goal is to get every teacher within our cluster collaborating in the Maori e-learning space,” says Neke.
Neke is bilingual and has spoken te reo all her life. However, becoming a teacher of the language has been a personal learning journey, she says.
“Home spoken te reo is different to educational te reo. When it came to my teaching, I had to learn more words to complement that language that I already had.”
Neke’s ultimate wish is for every New Zealand student and teacher to know the basics of te reo so they can converse in simple sentences.