Face of the Future

Face of the Future

Our kaupapa at Mangonui School is ‘Kind and Caring’. Each student is constantly reminded that they are Kaitiaki of Themselves, Others and Papatuanuku. It is a broad kaupapa that can be connected to all aspects of their life at Mangonui School.  Our students are community members of our school whanau and all play a part in making it a healthy and happy one.  

In classrooms students are expected to take ownership of their learning. Our senior students are planning lessons, taking lessons and then evaluating them. We are teaching our students that they are the agents of their learning.  In the new entrant classroom our children are expected to make decisions about their learning. Rather than been smothered with ‘help’ they are taught to take ownership. They are kaitiaki of their learning. We all need to have high expectations of our young people and their ability to manage themselves.  There is an awesome poster of a child that says:

When you:

Cut it for me

Write it for me

Open it for me

Draw it for me

Find it for me

All I learn is:

That you can do it better than me!

One of the big things we are hearing is that schools need to concentrate on moulding people who care about others. Some say that many of our young people are selfish and self-centred. However every generation gets accused of being selfish.  I think the big difference with this generation of students is that they are going to face some of the biggest challenges. The world is becoming full of huge sinister problems (refugees, water quality, greed) which at some point will need to be solved. This generation is going to need to work together, respect, listen, care and accept to be able to help each other. This may seem light years away from the school yard but that is their reality and a good reason why we have schools. We need to be growing a generation that sincerely know how to be ‘Kaitiaki of Others’.

Ko Ranginui ki runga, Ko Papatuanuku ki raro, ko nga tangata ki waenganui, Tihei Mauri Ora!  Ranginui Above, Papatuanuku below, the people in between, behold there is life. I love this whakatauki. Without kindness towards the sky and earth there will be no people in between.  Teaching our students to see the earth, sea and sky as equals is essential learning for our children. Next year we have a new focus on visiting the places in our pepeha to develop a connection with it. That we start our students at a young age to develop a relationship with the earth, river and sea. The intention is that our children will see that if we respect the sky, river, sea and land we are a healthy community, a Kind and Caring one – Kaitiaki of Papatuanuku!

Our students are the Face of the Future so our learning curriculum in our schools also needs to be futuristic. We need to be bold enough and intelligent enough to think ahead of 1+1=2.