August 12, 2022
Taitokerau tauira target missing mates
A Whangarei school principal says the pressure to get truanting tamariki back in the classroom comes from their fellow pupils as much as it is from teachers and the Education Minister.
Pat Newman from Hora Hora School kicked off a region-wide social media campaign spreading the message ‘let’s get back to school – hoake tātou ki te kura’.
Taitokerau tops the stats for absenteeism, and the problem has worsened because of the Covid pandemic.
He says the campaign name and theme came from the students themselves.
“The underlying message was, one, ‘we miss our mates and we want them back here,’ but they were genuinely worried about their mates who weren’t at school with them were missing out on their future, they wanted their mates because they miss them but they are also worried their mates are missing out on their future,” Mr Newman says.
The campaign is a partnership between Northland schools and the Tai Tokerau Ministry of Education office.