Planning ahead for a brighter future

Education and Whanau Planning in the New Year

Kia ora tatou

Many of you will have tamariki beginning kohanga, early childhood, kura, school or other forms of education and care.

Ngati Kahungunu are working with the Ministry of Education to improve the education opportunities and outcomes for our tamariki and whanau. Part of this strategy is empowering and enabling whanau to take a more effective and active role in the education of their tamariki.

Supporting the achievement of our tamariki:

We all want our kids to be happy, healthy and reach their full potential during their time in the system and it is often hard for this to happen without our support as parents and whanau. We encourage whanau to find out what is happening to improve Maori student achievement by asking if the school has set targets and goals for this to happen. If five or six whanau are asking the teachers, Boards of Trustees and principals about this on a regular basis it will encourage schools to do this as part of their regular planning.

Homework and knowing how your tamariki are doing:
Often we harass our children to complete their homework without really understanding what skills and knowledge they are learning or need to learn. Speak to your teachers to find out how they are assessing your tamariki against the skills and knowledge they have and the skills and knowledge they need. Encourage regular reporting to whanau and wider school community for schools and early childhood centres to celebrate and share their successes.
If you want to know more about getting involved in your child's education contact your local Ministry of Education office or Pouwhakataki (Maori Community liaison officer with the Ministry).

Improving the skills and choices of our Kahungunu Whanau:
Now that the holiday season is behind us, many whanau may be thinking about goals they can set for themselves for the year. If your tamariki are in kura or kohanga you may be wanting to improve your reo skills to tautoko them and the kaupapa. There is a huge range of training options around (full-time, part time, night classes, wananga, even free!). Again your Ministry of
Education office may be able to help put you in touch with the options for your whanau.

Whanau planning:
A lot of whanau and friends have told me how much easier and less stressful putting on Christmas has been for their whanau because they put a little bit of money away each week to pay for kai and other treats that we have over the holidays. So last week my hubby, my three year old, nine year old and I sat down to talk about what we want to do this year.

I want our whanau to learn and speak more reo in our whare and save some money so we can look at buying a house in the next year or two. My husband wants us to improve our kai and fitness. My nine year old wants to buy a boat to go fishing, go to Splash Planet and take a holiday to Australia. My three year old wants to make decorations for our whare and buy purple gum from the dairy.

We all talked about things we needed to do like taking care of school uniforms, meal planning for the week, not having takeaways and treats so often. Unless we win lotto we won't be doing all the things we want in the next year or two, but hopefully we will be closer to making it happen than we are today.

Nga mihi o te tau hou.

Kym Hamilton
Kaiwhakahaere Matauranga
Ngati Kahungunu Iwi Incorporated