Our core aim is for our Māori students to enjoy educational success as Māori, (Ka Hikitia, 2009).
At V.A.S, this means recognition:
of the potential of every Māori student
that ‘being Māori is an advantage
that all Māori learners are inherently capable (Ka Hikitia, 2009)
The unique position of the Māori culture
The school will:
Endeavour to employ a teacher or kaiawhina to teach kapahaka, te Reo and nga tikanga.
To consult with our Māori community on targets for raising the achievement level of our Māori students and to report to them on these targets annually.
Ensure each year that our classroom programmes continue to develop an understanding of the Treaty of Waitangi.
Report as part of our annual reporting process to the Board on the achievement of our Māori students in literacy and numeracy.
Continue to build and maintain our resources to support our programmes and recognise the uniqueness of the Māori culture.
What reasonable steps will the school take to incorporate tikanga Māorii (Māori culture and protocol) into the school’s curriculum?
Endeavour to employ a kaiawhina to work within each syndicate on nga Māori
What steps will be taken to discover the views and concerns of the school’s Māorii communities?
Māori consultation policy.
By the collation of any relevant data from our school questionnaires.
From personal contact with our Māori tutors (kaiawhina).
By personal approach to the Board of Trustees and Principal.
Te Reo Māori
Te reo Māori is indigenous to Aotearoa New Zealand. It is a taonga recognised under the Treaty of Waitangi, a primary source of our nation’s self-knowledge and identity, and an official language.
By understanding and using te reo Māori, New Zealanders become more aware of the role played by the indigenous language and culture in defining and asserting our point of difference in the wider world.
By learning te reo and becoming increasingly familiar with tikanga, Māori students strengthen their identities, while non-Māori journey towards shared cultural understandings.
All who learn te reo Māori help to secure its future as a living, dynamic, and rich language. As they learn, they come to appreciate that diversity is a key to unity.Te reo Māori underpins Māori cultural development and supports Māori social and economic development in Aotearoa New Zealand and internationally.
Understanding te reo Māori stretches learners cognitively, enabling them to think in different ways and preparing them for leadership.
By learning te reo Māori, our goal is for Victoria Avenue School students to:
participate with understanding and confidence in situations where te reo and tikanga Māori predominate and to integrate language and cultural understandings into their lives;
strengthen Aotearoa New Zealand’s identity in the world;
broaden their entrepreneurial and employment options to include work in an ever increasing range of social, legal, educational, business, and professional settings.
(The New Zealand Curriculum, P.14)
Te whakatō i ngā uara me ngā waiaro - Exploring shared values
At Victoria Avenue School we have our own Values that have been co- constructed with our community:
Victoria Avenue School Values
Consideration & Cooperation – Manaakitanga me te mahi tahi
Kindness = Atawhaitanga
Love of learning = Aroha i te akoranga
Our Best Always = Nā mātou pai rawa ake, ake.
Responsibility = Nā mātou te tika
Honesty = Te Tika
Respect = Whakanuia
Manners = Ngā āhua pai.
These are the values that we believe our students need to develop if they are to achieve the curriculum vision of becoming confident, connected, actively involved, lifelong learners.
Teaching and Learning Te Reo Māori at Victoria Avenue School
At Victoria Avenue School we recognise that when teachers are planning their reo Māori programmes, they need to focus on the students and take account of their diverse requirements.
Students who are learning te reo Māori may have:
a strong background in te reo Māori, where the language is the normal means of communication with whānau and other members of the Māori community;
whānau members or caregivers who use te reo Māori to communicate;
some prior experience with te reo Māori, although they do not come from homeswhere te reo Māori is spoken;
little experience of te reo Māori;
moved from a Māori-medium setting (for example, kura kaupapa Māori or wharekura) into an English-medium setting. (Such students are likely to be working at a higher level of profi ciency in using te reo Māori than their peers.)
Within each of these groups of students, there is diversity. At all levels, students of te reo Māori are likely to show the full range of individual differences found in any group of learners. Some will have an aptitude for language, and some will have special educational needs. Some will be highly motivated to learn te reo Māori, while some may be more reserved
(Te Aho Arataki Marau mō te Ako i Te Reo Māori/Curriculum Guidelines for Teaching and Learning Te Reo Māori, 2009).
The Levels of Teaching and Learning te reo Māori
The levels described in these curriculum guidelines do not coincide with traditional year levels or with students’ years of schooling. The age at which students begin learning te reo Māori will be one factor in determining what level or levels a class might work within during the course of one year. For example, many students in a year 6 class might work towards level 1 objectives only. Students with prior experience in Māori-medium classrooms
will be more proficient in te reo Māori and can be expected to be working at a higher level than their classmates (Te Aho Arataki Marau mō te Ako i Te Reo Māori/Curriculum Guidelines for Teaching and Learning Te Reo Māori, 2009).
Assessment of te reo Māori
As The New Zealand Curriculum explains, the primary purpose of assessment is to help teachers and students discover what they need to learn and do in order to improve the students’ learning. To achieve this purpose, assessment must be focused on understanding and improving the teaching and learning. The concept “assessment for learning” is based on extensive research showing that formative assessment practices, which involve students in their own learning and assessment, have a powerful effect onmotivation and achievement.
Assessment for learning is a continuing process that measures students’ achievement against learning outcomes derived from the achievement objectives of the curriculum (like the ones in these curriculum guidelines). Effective teachers share the intended learning outcomes with their students and work with them to develop success criteria that they return to throughout the related learning. When students clearly understand what they are expected to learn and what the learning will look like, they can help to monitor their own progress and take advantage of feedback.
A lot of assessment is informal. Teachers use their observations to inform their feedback to students about how their learning is going and what they should do next. However, teachers of te reo Māori also need to plan some more formal assessment opportunities that will enable them to assess all the relevant aspects of the students’ communicative ability, which may include the appropriateness of the Māori language used, its complexity, or the students’ fluency and/or accuracy.
The emphasis on:
whakarongo (listening),
pānui (reading),
mātakitaki (viewing),
kōrero (speaking),
tuhituhi (writing),
whakaatu (presenting)
For example, programmes designed for younger students may focus more on oral language in the early stages, and assessment at these stages will reflect this focus.Teachers need to build into their reo Māori programmes time and processes foranalysing and interpreting assessment information and considering its implications.Students also need planned opportunities to reflect on what assessment information tells them about their progress and what it might mean for their next learning steps.
Te Reo Māori Curriculum Achievement Objectives (2009)
Level 1
Students should be able to:
greet, farewell, and acknowledge people and respond to greetings and acknowledgments;
introduce themselves and others and respond to introductions;
communicate about number, using days of the week, months, and dates;
communicate about personal information, such as name, parents’ and grandparents’names, iwi, hapū, mountain, and river, or home town and place of family origin;
communicate about location;
understand and use simple politeness conventions (for example, ways of acknowledging people, expressing regret, and complimenting people);
use and respond to simple classroom language (including asking for the word to express something in te reo Māori).
Level 2
Students should be able to:
communicate about relationships between people;
communicate about possessions;
communicate about likes and dislikes, giving reasons where appropriate;
communicate about time, weather, and seasons;
communicate about physical characteristics, personality, and feelings
Level 3
Students should be able to:
communicate, including comparing and contrasting, about habits, routines, and customs;
communicate about events and where they take place;
give and follow directions;
communicate, including comparing and contrasting, about how people travel;
communicate about immediate past activities
Please note, for the detailed lists of possible learning and assessment activities for each level can be viewed in
Te Aho Arataki Marau mō te Ako i Te Reo Māori – Kura Auraki/ Curriculum Guidelines for Teaching and Learning Te Reo Māori in English-medium Schools: Years 1–13 (2009)
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