Embedded Files
The beginning of our school year was a very sad time for us all as we mourned the sudden and tragic loss of a very much loved member of our department, Samara Mackie-Smith. Samara’s kindness and caring is remembered very fondly by her colleagues and the ākonga with whom she worked.
We welcomed two new teachers to our team this year. Rachael Hobbs joined us in 10RHO, and Katrina Lilly joined us in the role of Teacher in Charge of Aukaha. During 2024 we continued to have wonderful support from our enthusiastic team of Learning Assistants. We had Learning Assistants working throughout the school and supporting many students in a variety of programmes and spaces, and during out-of-school activities. With increasing enrolments for 2025, our Board of Trustees recently announced that our Aukaha roll would close for 2025 as we have reached our ‘ceiling’ of 16 students.
As we come to the end of 2024 we are saddened for Te Aratai but very excited for Kath Gunn who is moving to a new teaching role at Pareawa/Banks Ave School. Kath has brought us so much during her time with us and we are going to miss her. We wish her all the very best.
Year 7 Out In The Community
Here’s a couple of photos of some of our 7ALP students doing an interview with Harry, the senior lifeguard at QEII, for their health and physical education learning goals.
Aukaha SPEC Showcase
On 8 August, we had the pleasure of hosting whānau from our SPEC programme. It was inspiring to see our students, led by Torryn, presenting their work with such confidence and enthusiasm. Torryn guided the audience through a PowerPoint presentation, highlighting the mahi of our SPEC students. The event was well attended by parents, siblings, and extended family members, who were delighted to see the art pieces and books created by their children. Our Board Chair also attended and engaged with parents, who expressed their appreciation of the programme.
John working on his bike tyre in 9KGU
Suleeqo's earring business
Jacqs leading a Matariki Lesson in Aukaha
Jacqs showing the Matariki display created by her lesson
Aukaha
Being new to Te Aratai and Aukaha, building whanaungatanga with the students over the year was one of my favourite parts of the job. Over that time we shared stories, laughter and learning. I watched the students blossom in confidence as they practise rangatiratanga in Aukaha and around the school. My heartfelt gratitude goes out to the many kaiārahi and learning assistants throughout the kura who welcome our students into their classrooms and advocate for their tūrangawaewae. The students consistently demonstrate manaakitanga towards each other and it is such a joy to see the way they step up to help out a friend. Some of the projects the students worked on to support their academic and life goals were: cooking with Julie every Wednesday, movement and dance with JOLT on Tuesdays, sewing and textile crafts with Ms Bugler and Kimberlee, sport on Wednesdays with Mr Lowe and Thursday sport with Paula from Osport, music, art, crafts, dance, drama, writing scripts and making movies, learning about worms… The list could go on. The students have some amazing people surrounding them in Aukaha who have been a part of their learning journey for a while. Tracey, Kath and James and learning assistants Victoria, Debbie, Carlene and Karen have all put their heart and soul into the students and space.
9KGU
9KGU had a very busy year of learning. We came together as a new class where most of the students were new to Te Aratai. Throughout the year we got to know each other and spent lots of time getting to know what it is like being at high school. We had a focus on literacy and numeracy with time to explore other interests such as teaching how to change a flat bike tyre, incubating special breed chickens and learning how our favourite foods are made. It was particularly awesome to see the students in 9KGU care for and include each other in activities. We all have challenges we need to overcome but we also have strengths and interesting talents to share with others - chess champions, puzzle perfectionists, fresh air enthusiasts, tinkering experts, imagination specialists, and we all have a pretty good sense of humour!
I could not give the students the support they need without the truly amazing assistance of our wonderful learning assistants. Early in the year we had super Nat supporting 9KGU and then the very patient and dedicated Aroha, who lives up to her name!
How lucky am I to have been able to work in such an interesting and diverse kura. I shall truly miss being at Te Aratai and I wish everyone the best for 2025.
ALP/ALL/ALN
We had the SPEC (South Pacific Education Certificate) programmes running throughout Year 7-12 this year. The classes ran under various names including ALP or Alternative Learning Pathway, ALL - Accelerated Literacy Learning and the numeracy class of ALN - Accelerated Learning Numeracy. In 2025, we are changing the name of these classes to PATHWAY or PATH for short. We had our highest number of students completing module work in these classes this year with 40 modules being completed throughout this year.
A big thank you to Rachael Hobbs, James Lowe, Victoria Francis and Kimberlee Kirkpatrick who have done a fabulous job of supporting our ākonga throughout 2024.
O Sports
This sports programme started in 2023 and has been successfully running for almost two years now. We aim to provide adaptive sports to students within our department with a “have a go” approach to learning and playing everything SPORT. We started the year off with Softball at Cowles stadium term 1, football at Hagley Park term 2, basketball at Pioneer stadium term 3, cricket and garden bowls at Bishopdale term 4. The students also had a couple of weeks trying out other sports and recreational activities such as table tennis and swimming at QE2.
The 2024 Sports Awards was a fantastic way to celebrate these athletes and their skills. Many awards were given out including our Aaradhya Dahl Cup which went to Mason Boots 9KGU this year.
It was an absolute pleasure to see these young athletes grow and develop, and push their skills and their limits. I see a few of our students as future paralympians! I look forward to continuing to grow this programme and see where it takes us in 2025 and beyond.
10RHO Visits A Private Plane
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