Kia ora e te iwi,

This week I have been very fortunate to have travelled to Queensland, Australia with a group of Principals to look at Primary schools and see first hand how another education system is run. In Australia, education is run by the state government, not the central government like what we have in New Zealand. There is a National Curriculum as well as a state curriculum.

In Queensland, state primary schools are also implementing two revised curriculums for English and Mathematics this year, as are we in New Zealand. Highlights of my visit include classroom observations & seeing first hand the explicit teaching of structured literacy which had similarities to how we teach structured literacy at Arataki School. A difference in the system that I observed, is the high level of standardised testing of students from a young age.

The school visits made me appreciate the opportunities we provide in our New Zealand classroom programmes for our students to question and think critically. We combine this with a structured approach to teaching literacy and numeracy.

Arataki Friends of School

Thank you to our group of parents who are part of Arataki Friends of School for your continued fundraising efforts and support of our kura. The fundraising focus for 2026 is enhancing our school playground and outdoor environment. Friends of School applied for a grant on our behalf, and we have successfully been awarded $10,000.00 from Air New Zealand for a native garden project. The area of the school which we will develop is the front garden on the Kaimanawa Street entrance into our kura.

Friday 6th June - Crazy Hair mufti day and ice blocks for sale.

Our Friends of School parents are busily organising and planning for our upcoming Matariki Breakfast on Friday 13th June. We are looking forward to celebrating Matariki with our whānau and friends with a free breakfast from 8:00am in the school hall, followed by the classrooms open for your tamariki to share their learning with you. Please see the separate flier for further details.

Cross Country

Our Tuakana cross country was held last Friday 23rd May at the beach. We were fortunate to have an amazing sunny day for our race. It was fantastic to see so many whānau come to watch, cheer and support our tamariki as they raced along the sand. We had a number of tamariki who represented Arataki School at the Mount Maunganui Cluster Cross Country on Wednesday in wet and windy conditions. Congratulations to the following students who will now run in the Western Bay of Plenty Cross Country. Theo Borren, Breanna Wright, Keira Andrew, Julian Graham & Daniel Eardley.

Have an amazing long weekend, we look forward to seeing all tamariki back at kura on Tuesday. Reminder, we will be having a Pōhiri for our cohort entry students starting school on Tuesday morning at 9:00am under the sunshade.

Ngā mihi nui,

Vicki Hiini

Tumuaki / Principal