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A winner close to the minister’s heart.
An early childhood centre in the Gisborne suburb of Kaiti has won a Prime Minister’s Excellence Award for teaching and learning, ahead of the rest of the country’s primary and secondary schools.
Education Minister Hekia Parata says Te Puna Reo o Puhi Kaiti principal Erana Haerewa and her team proudly set their teaching within the context of Ngati Poroutanga.
"It’s all about having a very strong culture and identity and through that becoming literate and numerate, socially engaged and connected. There is active whanau involvement, lots of focus on whanaungatanga and whakapapa, tikanga, waiata and moteatea all those things we are familiar with but what Erana and her team have done is blended that with really good pedagogy, teaching and learning practices, using the Te Whaariki curriculum," she says.
The supreme winner was Auckland’s McAuley High School. Other category winners were Rotorua Boys’ High School, Rangitoto High School on Auckland’s North Shore and Karanga Mai Young Parents’ College & Early Learning Centre in Rangiora.
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