Pakirehua at Sylvia Park School

Our why and what matters

Pakirehua is at the heart of all that we are and all that we do at Sylvia Park School. It is the key vehicle that allows us and our students to bring to life our National curriculum via an authentic and localised context, ensuring that they see themselves, their whānau and their lived experiences in the core of the learning that takes place every day at school. They are front and centre of the mahi that matters the most! 

Pakirehua is always an evolution.  Its evolution is always in response to contemporary research, developments in education and importantly it is always in response to feedback from students, staff and whanau. It is dynamic in its form and it's evolving shape and that is part of its magic! 

Pakirehua is culturally responsive. It requires learning design that brings a student's knowledge and lived experience to the heart of it. It demands that the big understandings related to all of the learning areas are connected to students in an explicit and meaningful way. It places Mātauranga Māori at the heart of every question. We ensure that Maori knowledge and understandings are 'normal and expected' through every inquiry that is undertaken. We ensure that Māori knowledge and understanding is not just related to past or cultural context but in contemporary and future focused spaces as well. The voice of mana whenua, whānau Maori are at the heart of this design. 

Pakirehua poses the big, wondrous, audacious questions that both adults and students seek to answer over the course of a term. They are questions that demand deep, rigorous responses. This requires that our literacy and numeracy programmes are designed to support the investigations that students are carrying out. This ensures that literacy and numeracy most often have an authentic and meaningful purpose for students as they genuinely seek answers and information pertaining to their big questions! 

Pakirehua provides the context for our students to know that they are powerful in the world. Their responses, through their creations to the big questions that are posed to them, show them that they, individually and collectively, are change makers. They have a body of evidence to justify, illustrate and influence others as they take action to make the world a better place.