He aha te mea nui o te ao? He tangata! He tangata! He tangata!
What is the most important thing in the world? Tis people! Tis people! Tis people!
Nau Mai Haere Mai Ki Te Kura o Okiwi
Aotea - Great Barrier Island
We speak English and Te Reo Maori at our school. Every day someone volunteers to be the kai whakahaere for our whakapuare and other tauira volunteer to be kaiwaiata, kaikarakia, kaihuarere and kaikorero. Even our five year olds can mihi to us and our manuhiri for the day and we all take turns at everything. We usually work as tuakana / teina buddies so that we tautoko and awhi the younger tamariki. We have mahi kainga every night and we share our rataka tuhituhi in the morning.
Around our school we have lots of trees, bushes and lots of birds and wildlife.
Most of the children get to school by bus and some come by car or walk or bike.
We don't just have our four teachers at the school we also have Jo who works in the office, the caretaker, Raymond who cuts the grass and fixes anything that needs repair. We have three teacher aides, who help us with our daily mahi, Noeleen is our school cleaner as well. We also have parents who come to help out and we have manuhiri who come and see our school.
Some of the things we do to help the environment are; plant native trees, pick up rubbish, recycle, collect seed stock, propagate, garden, monitor tuangi and predator control.
To learn about the environment we are kaitiaki of a wetland environment and Okiwi Park. We research and present projects about our activities and we learn about why you only take enough seafood to feed your family. We also go on nature trips to learn about the environment.
We do some really cool things around Aotea. Our annual triathlon, cross-country, visits to Motu Kaikoura, the Coastal Clean Up and art ... these are just some of the things we do every year!!
