10 November 2023

Te Kura o Whetūkairangi - Worser Bay School has sat on this site for 126 years. The first school on the Peninsula. It's got something deep in the DNA, I reckon, something running deep underground or the whispers from the pōhutukawas - I wonder how big they were or even if they were 126 years ago.........

I left New Zealand in 1989 and when I came back in the later 90s the whole concept of 'community schools' had ramped up due to the Tomorrow's Schools Policy, introduced the year I left. In a nutshell, Education Boards stepped back and parents stepped up. Although a large scale review of Tomorrow's School's was held more recently.... to date the policy hasn't changed. We continue to rely so heavily on our community to build schools that reflect the needs and makeup of the community. This is why no two schools are the same even though we may follow an umbrella same-same NZ Curriculum.

When I think back to Worser Bay - well before my time - it was always known as a school with a very connected supportive community and a school that was designed to do things that suited an education for the future of the workplace, not for the past or like when I went to primary school in the flared up and Holly Hobbied 70s! I wonder if it had a bit of this flavour 126 years back!

I think it's a massive testament to the 'can do' and 'will try' and 'let's get collaborative and creative' approach our parent community have brought to the Fair. We are a smaller school and continue to have a Fair when many schools no longer can. We teach the children how to approach things with hope and without fear of mistakes. This culture was reflected back by you in the 'What does Success look like for my child' document. 

I think, after so many years, there is definitely a culture, an attitude, a flavour that becomes pervasive in an excellent way. 

Whatever Sunday brings - we know our community did there very best and will have role-modelled our Learner Attributes of 'I am connected', 'I am a goal setter', 'I am a thinker' and 'I am powerful' to the hilt ........ in so many ways.

Bring it on!!