Te Reo Maori
Tena koutou katoa.
Ko Matt Breach tõku ingoa. ko au, te kaiako o Te Reo Maori me kapahaka ki te kura o Turanga rere.
Greetings to you all.
My name is Matthew Breach and I am the teacher of Te Reo and Kapahaka at Brooklyn Primary School.
At Brooklyn we are extremely proud of our efforts to integrate the Maori culture and the learning of Te Reo into our school curriculum.
As part of the termly timetable, children can expect to have dedicated Te Reo lessons with myself, where we extend their use of Te Reo in a range of practical contexts.
We focus on pronunciation, new vocabulary, sentence structures and waiata. This learning progresses through the year levels according to ministry guidelines for Te Reo in English medium schools.
In addition to specific lessons from myself, the Brooklyn classroom teachers are also supporting children with Te reo and we as a staff are continually developing our own capabilities in Te reo and tikanga Māori. We have staff currently upskilling through extrernal providers as well as in house professional development in Te Reo with myself.
From a Maori cultural perspective, we are also proud of the extra curricular activities and events at our kura.
Our Brooklyn Matariki celebration has become a highlight of the year, where whanau and school come together to celebrate the Maori new year with waiata, kai and activities.
Kapahaka
Our kapahaka group has been in excess of 180 tamariki for the last 4 years and we meet once a week. We have a great team of teachers that run the sessions and each year we participate in the Te Whānaungātanga Kapa Haka Festival in term 3.
Our kapahaka group leaders and members take the lead in school powhiri throughout the year.
Whanau Pumanawa
Our "Whanau Pumanawa" group is available for our Tamariki Maori and Whanau Maori to meet weekly (Thursday afternoons for the kids) and once a term for parents. Here we enjoy an opportunity to come together to share kai, ideas, language and what the tamariki have been doing to develop their knowledge of Te ao Maori (The Maori world).
Powhiri
Every term at Brooklyn, we provide a Powhiri for new tamariki, whanau and staff. The whole school welcomes our newcomers with haka, waiata, whaikorero, hongi and kai. It has become part of who we are as a school.
As our school song says...
"Turanga rere taku kainga.
He turangawaewae o tatou".
Brooklyn is my home.
A place where we all belong.
No reira, tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa.
Matua Breach
