'Manurewa' brings together the Maori words 'manu', bird or kite, and 'rewa', floating or soaring. Pictures of early Maori kites invariably depict some bird form, from which we gather birds were studied and their shapes incorporated in the kites which floated or soared like birds. Hence "Manurewa" - soaring bird.
Manurewa Central School was first established at the Methodist Church in Woodside in 1855. In 1875 a five acre site at the corner of Hill Road and Great South Road was bought from the Martin brothers for £ 50. Residents of Manurewa offered to fence, drain, plough and sow the new school site free of charge if materials (£ 10) were supplied by the Board.
Kia ora koutou,
We are very excited to announce that our building project began, as planned, on Tuesday 2 June.
At dawn, local kaumātua held a blessing ceremony to commemorate the first day of construction on our school field. Later that day, fencing was erected and an excavator began the job of preparing an access road. The field will be the temporary home for 15 classrooms, over the next 18 months, whilst our oldest classrooms are demolished and the new build is completed.
Demolition work is well underway and the land is being cleared to begin construction of the first two 'pods'. Our resilience as a school community was challenged once again when we had to temporarily close the school for a day due to lack of water. Thank you for your patience and support during this time. I would like to take this opportunity to reassure you that the build is not impacting on the learning programmes offered to the children - in fact quite the opposite. We are continually reviewing our systems and processes to ensure minimal disruption, and always with health and safety prioritised.
There are so many unique learning opportunities unfolding as the build progresses. The children have fondly named the excavator, Diggersaurus! We are beginning to collect photographs of construction, but also examples of children's work inspired by the build. You can find these by following the tabs above. Do take the opportunity to discuss this resource with your children. Also ask them about the different opportunities they have for creative play at break-times. We have always prided ourselves on offering extensive playground equipment to keep the children meaningfully occupied at morning tea and lunch. Despite the changes to our play space, we continue to think of ways to engage our learners. They are using the gutter boards and tyres as construction material. This imaginative play will continue to be resourced as additional to our current stock of skateboards, bikes, balls and ropes etc
We look forward to working in partnership with you to ensure our children continue to have access to the very best educational facilities and resources.
Regards
Manurewa Central School