TOITÜ TE AKO
Journey of discovery Nä Susan Pepperell Nä Sarah Brook ngä whakaahua
Tai Wánanga ki Ruakura, the country’s newest secondary education centre, provides its tauira with a golden opportunity. And they are responding with total commitment.
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t 9 a.m. in Aotearoa New Zealand’s newest learning centre, the tauira are finishing their breakfast in a sparkling new cafeteria. The day ahead is packed with activity, but already they have exercised for an hour, showered and filled in their training diary. As soon as they have stacked the dishes and completed a couple of chores, they will be at their morning briefing and straight into class. At Tai Wänanga ki Ruakura, the smell of fresh paint lingers in the corridors and there are still some finishing touches to come, but classes carry on uninterrupted. Sixty taiohi are now enrolled at the learning centre, a joint venture between Te Wänanga o Aotearoa and the Ministry of Education based in the former Meat Research Institute of New Zealand building at Hamilton’s Ruakura Research Centre.
Tauira taohi, Estefan Jamieson-Te Huia (left) and Zoey De Thierry at Tai Wänanga ki Ruakura
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KA MÍHARO HÓTOKE Winter 2012 TOITÜ TE AKO
The learning centre is modelled on the successful Tai Wänanga – TÜ TOA venture in Palmerston North where the key focus is on using sport to promote learning and leadership. The tikanga Mäori-based learning philosophy of TÜ TOA is paying dividends, with tauira achieving outstanding academic and sporting success.
Tai Wänanga ki Ruakura, which will eventually cater for about 120 pupils, is using its location to advantage – focusing on discovery, technology and innovation. With Crown research institutes on its doorstep and Waikato University as its neighbour, the learning centre has attracted tauira with a passion for science and leadership. Among the newbies are 13-year-olds Maioha Panapa and Soren Joyce. Maioha’s family moved to Hamilton from Gisborne over the summer to give her the opportunity of being a tauira at Tai Wänanga ki Ruakura. “It’s a better life for us. It’s amazing,” says Maioha. “It’s so different to my last school. Here, they push us to achieve our goals. I’m never going to step down from an opportunity. I’ll go for everything.” She may be missing her old friends, who she says were shocked at her packed timetable, and admits she tries not to think of her old life, but she is convinced this is the right place for her. “This is just what you’ve got to do.” Her favourite subjects are English and writing, and, steeped in kapa haka, Maioha has her eye on a career in the performing arts.