What A Year!

What a year! Thank you to all of those that took the time out of their busy pre-Christmas period to spend time with us in our Kapa Haka breakfast. I saw at least a couple of learners on an amazing sugar high. Hopefully they won't crash too hard during their learning time.

The year has felt pretty messy but the support that we have received has been outstanding. The rōpū has grown with our younger learners soaking up all of the learning. Typically, we have lost learners in the senior years but there's been a mini resurgence with both older boys and girls participating. We've got a good crop of learners ready to help in the leadership space.

 

WHĀNAU

Our biggest supporters continue to be our whānau. Our unsung heroes are our parents, caregivers and extended whānau. From ensuring your children are in our programme, getting them to practices every week, ensuring that they practice at home, joining in to have a sing and practice and helping us with performance day activities. Every piece of the puzzle drives success.

 

Bringing your children in on those cold mornings or when they refuse to get up early in the morning. This has made a massive difference to our rōpū. I'm very aware that at times our practices can seem very repetitive and can seem boring to those that pick up on waiata easily. The repetition is important to embed the waiata and actions. It's important that those who know the waiata are role modeling to the rest of the group. It helps bring everyone to the same level. Our young learners are the ones that need the most nurturing so we repeat over and over again. Ensuring that your child can role model when others are learning is vitally important. Thank you for your perseverence.

 

OUR LEARNERS

I have to thank our learners for coming with a positive learning attitude. Lots of smiling faces and energy in the morning. Way more energy than I have. Thanks for showing commitment to this rōpū and representing your kura with pride. Every pōwhiri and performance opportunity the rōpū raise the bar.

 

KURA

Our kura has been incredibly supportive. The kura has shown leadership through investing in Kapa Haka during traditional teaching hours. This shows how much Kapa Haka is valued in this kura. I am appreciative of the support that I continue to receive to drive shared goals. These are goals that the kura has had since inception and I believe we are slowly realising the rewards.

 

Our staff lead from the front! Staff have turned up every day driving practices, role modeling behaviours but more importantly driving the learning within the hubs. The shift in our staff confidence has been the catalyst to success for our rōpū. We have a great group of staff who make a massive difference to normalising Te Reo Māori and waiata in our kura. This years success has been due to that drive from our staff.

 

LEARNER LEADERS

I'm incredibly proud of the leadership shown by our learners. I've seen leadership from our youngest learners as they line up. I've seen leadership from our confident performers. I've seen leadership from those who are not as confident but have a thirst to learn. In general, we have a rōpū of leaders.

 

Special mention to Mina and Cooper who have led well. They have been supported by other like minded learners which has made the role feel valued. To this group of supporting leaders, thank you also. The title of Kapa Haka leaders is one that comes with lots of responsibilities. It is the responsibility to know what you are doing, to seek advice when you don't know, encourage others who need help and role model the expected behaviours. This year I've seen some ownership of that role taken by both of our leaders. Congratulations to both, but thank you to Mina who will be moving on to college next year. She's led this rōpū for ages! It feels like ever since we had leaders which is maybe 5 or 6 years. Go well Mina! I think I can speak on behalf of Chris, Rongomai and Jipsy to say thank you for all that you have done! We know that the future will be bright for you!

 

As we close the school year, please continue to point your children towards our blog. We'll be updating videos as we start to generate some material (through practice). I'll be practicing to keep up with the kids. If you have any questions or want to see some specific material on the blog please either leave a message or catch up with me when you have time. Have an awesome break if you get time with your whānau.

 

Bryan Fox